Power Rangers Dino Fury - Ancient History - Episode Review

 Episode Summary:

Gold Ranger arrives at Dinohenge and touches the ancient animal he is based on. The Rangers are practicing inside while Ollie makes a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich. Gold Ranger teleports in and de0morphs to reveal an alien-like Zayto. Aiyon is his name, Solon hugs him. Aiyon greats the new Rangers. He grabs Ollie's food. Zayto says he thought the team was lost. Aiyon tells him he launched the final attack. We get a flashback to the ancient team. He abandoned the Megazord. He was in a pod and slept in the bottom of the ocean. Green Morphin Master woke him up, mentioning Lord Zedd. Aiyon wants to be leader, saying Zayto is not a great leader. He flashbacks again, to them being Knights of Rafkon. News came that they were going to use an army of Sporix Beasts to defeat evil. The Beasts were supposed to fight with them. Aiyon believes Zayto could have stopped it but he did not. Aiyon warned him the Sporix were dangerous. Zayto said he trust the military. The leaders released the Sporix. Aiyon tried to stop it, saying it was a mistake, and fought against Zayto. Sporix were released and they devastated the planet. He says they were no longer friends. Amelia and Izzy are upset.

Solon tells them of an attack. Zato says he owes them answers but they have to stop the beast. The five teleport away along with Aiton. Mucus blasts at them and the six morph. Zayto says he has it and she blasts at him. The blasts hit fish oil. He slips on the oil and falls. He is tied by the spear-like weapons that Mucus threw. The others fall by slipping. Aiyon surfs on wood. Javi and Izzy copies him. They have Mucus where they want her. The other villains arrive, saying the Gold Ranger Zord is underwater, and they teleport away. At the base, Solon helps Zayto. Izzy praises Aiyon. Aiyon says he is not fit to be a leader and he leaves. Zayto and Solon talk, she says owning up to mistakes is difficult. He trusted his superiors. One mark of a good leader is to know where to step aside, only he can make the decision. Void Knight uses Sporix to create Wreckmate, a new general in his base. Wreckmate speaks like a pirate. Void wants the Mosa Zord destroyed. Mucus says she is the second in command and say they have to make a quick stop first. 

The Rangers without Zayto in the Buzz Blast find the Mosa Zord but no location. Solon tells them of trouble at the plaza. The villains are getting supplies for the beach. Mucus wants ice cream but Wreckmate doesn't. He obliges when she makes her scopes. Aiyon blasts it. Mucus keeps throwing ice cream at him. He explodes Mucus. Zayto arrives, saying to help. Aiyonand the others morph. They do the role call. They fight the Hengemen. Zayto and Aiyon don their Battle Armors. They defeat it and it becomes big. They call the Megazord and all six are in the cockpit. They go in the water and the seawater starts shutting down systems. Wreckmate attacks them underwater. Aiton asks how do they win and then asks Zayto. Zayto says to abandon the zords. Wreckmate attacks the Zords. They are knocked down The Rangers teleport out. Aiyon feels bad. Zayto says he had to do it. Aiyon says being a leader is hard because you get judged. He says he got it now. Zayto and AIyon say Friends forever. Aiyon's belt buckle glows. Wreckmate is about to defeat the Megazord when the Mosa Zord arrives. it jumps out of the water. Aiyon calls for Battle Mode. Zayto and Aiyon enter the Megazord and destroy Wreckmate. In the base, the Rangers praise the Mosa Zords. Zayto and Aiyon wrap things up and makeup. Aiyon says Zayto should be the leader and both spar. Ollie says Aiyon's Ranger energy must have sparked. Solon says it must have to do with them being friends. 

Episode Review: 

Aiyon is supposed to be hundreds of years old and from a time even longer than let's say Koda or Ivan from Dino Charge. He speaks like a modern African-American and says "Let's roll," also dresses pretty modern. Zayto had some adjusting to do in the first few episodes--granted not as much as Koda and Ivan--but Aiyon had zero of that. I mean, Power Rangers are not usually known for accuracy. Anyway, Aiyon is the first African-American Sixth Ranger and it is the first show to have two Black-American Rangers on the team. Technically they are aliens. Fans have said they wish Aiyon and Zayto's conflict was more drawn out and not solved in just one episode. Producers have said it wouldn't be 'ranger behavior.' Some fans have argued that Tommy, Eric, and other Rangers have acted similarly. I would have accepted at least two episodes of Aiyon being on his own. Heck, Jayden of Samurai was not leader for a handful of episodes. Zayto could've stayed off the team for a while and have an arc. Oh well, doesn't matter. 

Power Rangers Dino Fury - Storm Surge - Episode Review

 Episode Summary:

Javi gets on Ollie's case for disappointing him for help at work. Ollie is more concerned about technology. The other Rangers mention his new phone and smartwatch. Jane gets Javi a case on a strange storm. Ollie says his mom is all over it. Zayto says the Nexus Prism went into the bay. Javi asks if he could interview Ollie's mom but he says she is busy but he can do it. Javi tells him to be on time and he leaves. Ollie meets with his mom with her scanner gear. Ollie tells her to get a new laptop. She says laptops aren't cheap and hers will do fine. She tells him to be patient. Mucus and Slyther are watching them, they want to steal the info Ollie's mom collects. Ollie sees people running away. Ollie goes to the source--a Sporix becoming a monster. He calls the others. He confronts it and morphs. 

He fights it. The others arrive and Red dons the Blazing Fury Armor. Mucus and Slyther watch. The monster cancels the fire with water. He knocks the five down. The monster leaves, the villains go after it. Ollie goes to check on his mom. She is fine. The Rangers decide to leave. At BuzzBlast, Jane has Mr. Wiz (Slyther) with a bubblegum challenge. Ollie and Javi are ready to be in an interview. Slyther offers a laptop which Ollie wants. Ollie uses logic and math. Javi tells not to count gumballs until after the interview. Ollie and Javi sit and Javi begins the questioning but Ollie seems more preoccupied with the gumballs. Ollie wants a pen. Javi reminds him to continue the interview. Javi asks another question and Ollie says 2046 and "Mr. Wiz" says he is the winner. Javi tells him to hold on a second. Ollie thanks him. Javi says they are not done. Jane stops the video. She talks to Mr. Wiz and not Javi. Javi tells Ollie he screw up the story. Ollie says Jane is happy and with the laptop--quicker answers about the storm. Slyther/Mr. Wiz smiles. 

Ollie hooks up the new computer but Javi and Ollie's mom are not so sure. Ollie's mom asks how he won it and Javi says it was a whole thing. The sub drone pulls something to the surface. It looks like the computer has been hacked and the sub drone is being controlled. Javi says the laptop is very convenient. Ollie calls the others. Back at the base, they ask about what is happening. ollie asks Solon to scan for signals. Solon says there is a shortwave signal. Slyther is steering the subdrone. Ollie and the Rangers arrive. Slyther makes them realize he was Mr. Wiz and teleports away. Tidemare (Monster of the Day) fights the Rangers after they morph. The rangers use their keys. Tidemare disappears and reappears with an attack. Dr. Akana can't control her equipment and finds Slyther and Mucu with the subdrone device. The subdrone drags the glowing device. Mucus gets the device. It glows. Someone comes out of it. The two teleport. Dr. Akana says it is incredible. 

Javi uses Hyper Strike but the splash shield knocks them down. Gold Ranger comes into the rescue. Zayto says "Could it be?" Gold Ranger fights Tidemare. Hengemen arrive and Gold fights them. Gold does his Mosa Slash and uses his Electro Key in his blaster. He cocks the weapon and dons armor--Electro Battle Armor and does the Electro Fury Blast. He destroys the Splash Shield. He creates the Gold Fury Blade Blaster by combining his weapons. He defeats Tidemare.  The Rangers de-morph. They ask wh he is. Gold says hi to Zayto. He teleports away. They ask him who he is. Zayto is lost for words. Zayto gets the SPorix from Izzy and teleports away as well. The Rangers are surprised. Ollie calls his mom. They go talk to her. She explains the Gold Ranger came out of the container--which looks like the base one. She says all the power in the pod must have created the storm. Ollie and Javi talk.

Ollie says Slyther played him and he let Javi out. He says he has to focus more on the things that matter and offers him his new headphones. Javi thanks him. Ollie asks if he still needs a BuzzBlast story. Later, Jane is trying to get 3 contestants to blow big bubbles. It throws gumball in the air which J-Borg swallows. J-Borg makes a big bubble. It is too big that everyone backs away. It explodes all over Jane and J-Borg. Javi wants to pitch a story. 

Review:
Nice episode, I like the bond between Javi and Ollie. 

Power Rangers Dino Fury - Old Foes - Episode Review

 

Episode Summary:

Someone in a cape clunks within the evil base and tries to take soemthing. Void Knight calls them a thief. Lord Zedd reveals himself from the cape. He lifts Void Knight in the air. The others cower. He calls a monster his master. Mucus wonders why Reaghoul is nice. Reaghoul reincarted Lord Zedd and put a complanance collar. Reaghoul revives old monsters. Void Knight will give him one Sporix if he captures the Rangers. Lord Zedd cackles. At the news place, they are celebrating Halloween. Ollie makes fun of Amelia's vampire costume. Javi is going as his dad in a dance. Zayto says they dont have Halloween in his planet. Amelia says clowns are scary (I agree). Izzy is afraid of Zombies. Zayto wants to go as a box. Ollie claims not being afraid of anything. Izzy thinks they can scare him.

Amelia will make a haunted trail for Ollie to scre him. Back at Dinohenge, the other four finish the Haunted Trail. Ollie is not scared. Zayto says he gives them five minutes. A monster arrives and the Rangers morph. Zedd arrives and puts sleepy cuffs on them. They fall and sleep. Reaghoul tells them to search for Ollie. Ollie walks through the decorations. A skeleton drops down and doesn't scare him. Two monsters find him. Ollie contacts his friends with no answer. He morphs. He avoids their attacks. He remembers one of the monster's howling attacks. He remembers when they created a treat for him to make him stop howling. Ollie asks Solon for a No Howl Drop. She arrives and drops it in the monster, taking out his hiowl. Solon hides behind the tree. Ollie fights the two monsters and destroys them. They return to life, thanks to Reaghoul. Ollie talks about physics and takes out the Spin Key.

Ollie finds the Rangers and Solon. He recognizes Lord Zedd. Solon says he is too strong. Ollie calls him out. Ollie makes fun of him following Reaghoul. Solon and Ollie teleport away. Lord Zedd wants to destroy the others, Reaghoul stops him The two monsters return. At the base, Solon has an idea about Zedd-watching the legendary database Mick gave them. They watch video of Lord Zedd. Solon shows them how he turned the Rangers back to children, his zord Serpentera, and stealing Green Ranger's energy to create the Dark Rangers. Ollie says he is tough and terryfying and asks how they defeated him. Solon says it was scaraficing Zordon to get rid of Zedd. They watch Andros destroy the tube and Rita and Zedd becoming human and good. Ollie says there is no way to recreate what Zordon did. Solon and Ollie mention the Compliance Collar. Ollie finds it in the database. They watch a video of Beast Morphers with the Compliance Collars.

Mucus teleports where the Rangers and Monsters are. Ollie arrives. Lord Zedd says to bow before his Master. Ollie makes the Dino Dagger and destroys the Compliance Collar. Lord Zedd is happy to be free and goes after Reaghoul. Reaghoul and Mucus teleport away. Zedd fights the two monsters and Ollie frees the Rangers. Zayto says to help alongside the Beasts. The Rangers join the fight and fights Zedd. The Rangers slice and dice Zedd. Zedd says they are lucky he doesn't have his staff. He teleports away. The two monsters grow. The Rangers call the Megazord and destroy both. Afterwards, Reaghoul is put away in a cell with sleepy cuffs. Back at the base, Solon sees the Rangers in their Halloween costumes---Ollie (Astronaut), Amelia (Vampire), Izzy (Lepruchan), Javi (Zombie Park Ranger), and Zayto (Earth Knight). Ollie admits he was scared Lord Zedd, his biggest fear is losing his friends. They teleport away.

Review:
Other than not using the original voice actors (their excuse is Lord Zedd's original voice actor Robert Axelrod passed away recently and the original videos don't have individual tracks to replace music), having Lord Zedd in this episode or Dino Charge timeline seems out of left field. Other than the Morphin Masters and dinosaurs, Dino Charge doesn't have much connection to MMPR. The Villains are not even similar--Void Knight has a lady love in a coma and he is more active than Zedd. Mucus, the comic relief villain gets out more than Babboo and Squatt ever did during Zedd's tenure without Rita. I did like how the episode kept the clips to a minimum and was more of the old seasons than Dino Fury itself. I also liked the not so subtle rainbow reference with Izzy. 

Power Rangers Dino Fury - The Matchmaker - Episode Review

 Episode Summary:

Izzy trains the Rangers and others on a hill. Javi thought Izzy and Fern were rivals, but they are getting along. Javi noticed Izzy is wearing perfume, new hair-do, and her behavior and thinks he has a crush on Adrian. Amelia mentions Izzy has been in a good mood lately. Javi tells Adrian that Izzy has a crush on him and wants to set them on a date. Adrian says he never thought of Izzy like this. A young man overhears this and disappears, transforming into Slyther. Slyther asks for Fogshell from Void Knight. Later, Adrian and Fern are the only ones left. Zayto sends them to get the hotline when Fogshell makes fog around them. Slyther kidnaps Adrian. The Rangers morph and fog confuses them--has them hit each other. Zayto dons Blazing Fury armor and takes down the Hengemen. Mucus and Fogshell run away. Amelia, Ollie, and Zayto teleport away. Javi offers to take Izzy to lunch, but Izzy and Fern are to do lunch. Javi attaches himself to the lunch and he calls Adrian. Slyther transforms into Adrian and answers Javi--who makes him 'surprise drop' by at the lunch. Fake Adrian wants to kidnap Izzy.

At the taco lunch place, Izzy, Fern, and Javi are together when Adrian appears. Javi invites him to sit down. He has Fern go with him. He convinces Fern to leave, saying Izzy likes Adrian, which disappoints her. She thought Javi was interested in her, so she clarifies she is not into boys. Fern leaves. Javi makes up bad excuses for Fern leaving and also him leaving. Once Javi leaves, !Fake Adrian confesses his love for Izzy and recites a poem on a long scroll. Izzy is uncomfortable. People around them start laughing and Izzy is embarrassed. Izzy and Adrian leave. Adrian transforms into Slyther and tries kidnapping her. She kicks him and teleports away. Back at the base, Izzy tells the other Rangers. Javi admits Slyther probably overheard him trying to set up Adrian and Izzy together. Izzy is visibly upset. Zayto wonders about Adrian. Javi calls Adrian and finds Slyther. Slyther wants to trade for all the Sporix alone. Izzy says Javi had no right to meddle. Solon says to make a plan. Ollie thinks of making fake Sporix Chest with the double key.

Izzy is mad but doesn't want Javi to go alone. They make a plan to go in disguises. Mucus, Adrian, the monster, and Slyther arrive. Javi teleports in with the Sporix chest. Mucus leaves with the chest. Slyther says he will give Javi Adrian back if he gives him his DIno Key. The Rangers fight Fogshell in their disguises. The old lady turns out to be Zayto. Izzy frees Adrian and Adrian runs off. The four morph. Zayto calls his zord to fight Fogshell. The others call their zords. Fogshell brings more spell, Slyther puts a spell on it and teleports away. The Zords hit themselves. The Dimetro Blazing Zord arrives. Zayto makes them combine into T-Rex Blazing Megazord. All five Rangers enter and destroy the fog. They call the Mega Fury Saber and destroy Fogshell. Izzy gets the Sporix from Slyther. Slyther teleports back to the base and makes a big show for Void Knight. He is at first happy to get the Sporix Chest. But then they find out it is a fake. Void Knight scares Mucus and Slyther. Slyther turns into slime and Slyther slips into it. Void Knight takes off his mask and apologizes to his comatose love, saying he won't stop. Outside at the park, Javi apologizes to Izzy. He then apologizes to Adrian, saying that he swore she had a crush on someone. Adrian makes him look at Izzy and Fern. Izzy and Fern hold hands and go off to lunch. Amelia is visibly happy for the couple and cheers them on. Javi finally gets it and wishes her a good time. 

Episode Review:
I never thought this day would come. As a gay man, I never thought we would get an openly gay Ranger on Power Rangers. In a previous post, I went over "shipping" and "queer coding." Even though the word 'gay' is not utter, it is pretty obvious as the whole episode is about Izzy being 'in love' or 'having a crush.' Javi, of course, only trying to help and trying to pair Izzy off with someone. Unfortunately for him, he just sticks with his heteronormative norms (pun intended). But it is innocent. Javi is excused for his thinking, as the show assumes the viewers (or children) only know about heterosexual relationships. Once the Rangers discover Izzy is interested in Fern, they are almost blaise about. Zayto just says "Oh." Probably on Zayto's planet, same-sex relationships are the norm. Apparently, wherever the villains come from, they do not know about same-sex relationships as they didn't figure Izzy was into Fern either. Even though Javi probably knew about gay people and he supposedly knows his step-sister well, it never occurred to him she would be into Fern. Anyway, innocence is excusable. it was a good episode, I am not saying it was bad. This stuff happens in real life. I hear that the crew pushed this to happen and there was some pushback (maybe the network, not sure). I am happy it got made in the end.