Episode Summary:
Izzy is running, Javi and her are with their cousin Lily, her trainer. Lily shows them her 1500m track at Special Olympics, people with intellectual disabilities. Lily has an intellectual disability. The other Rangers arrive and make introductions. She leaves them because she has to meet a friend. Zayto says Solon to see them. All five go to the base with Solon, who has found Izzy's zord. She wants to create a device to find a zord. Jane and J-Borg make a play for kids to call the Rangers' hotline with the Sporix. A real Sporix climbs on Jane and a little girl calls the hotline. J-Borg takes the Sporix off. The Sporix becomes a beast Brineblast and Doomtower and Mucus arrive. The kids and Jane leave. The Rangers arrive. The Rangers morph.
Izzy falls after hitting the monster. She uses the Elasto Key. Zayto uses Hyper Boost. They go after the monster. He gets on his knees. Doomtower knocks them into a fountain. Javi fights Doomtower. He uses SHield Block and blocks the attack. Doomtower and Brineblast leave. The Rangers continue fighting Hengemen. Izzy leaves to meet Lily. The other Rangers teleport to find supplies for the Zord detecting device. Izzy arrives at the track. Izzy gets on Lily's case for shopping and being late. She says there is nothing more important than winning the race. Lily gives her smoothie and says there are more important things than winning like helping people. Izzy leaves.
At Area 62, Void Knight has a map where the scientists of Area 62 found a UFO and he believes it is a zord. The rangers meet up for the race. Javi spots Lilly but she doesn't go up to Lily. Izzy says nothing. girl Mona in a wheelchair comes to say she was shopping yesterday with Lily. She broke her leg. Lily has been helping her. Izzy realizes her mistake. Javi and their dad Carlos think Izzy has IBS or gas. Izzy says it's not the case.
Izyz runs the race. Brineblast grows giant next to Jane and J-Borg, they scream. It splashes water. J-Borg and Jane hide in a trash bin that races down the street. A police officer gives them a ticket. Izzy is told about the attack but continues her race. The other Rangers go to the attack. A girl trips and falls. She hurts her ankle. Izzy decides to help her instead of winning. The monster roars. Solon deploys the zords. The Rangers enter the cockpit. They fight the monster. A man arrives and helps the girl. Izzy is last. She is about to continue but hears Boomtower. She sees Mucus digging for the zord with a bomb. Izzy confronts them. She morphs and her key glows. The villains leave. Izzy tells the others she found the zords but tells them the bad news.
Brineblast continues beating up the Megazord. Izzy tells them to guide Brineblast to the mountain. They run and he runs after them. They arrive to the mountain and the blasts free the zord. The Tiger Claw Zord escapes and slashes at the monster. Zayto calls him an old friend. The Zords combine. Izzy enters and they create Claw Formation for the Dino Fury Megazord. Het boosts activated and Brineblast is out of power. They do the final attack Tiger Mega Slash and destroy Brineblast. Boomtower takes the Sporix energy and leaves. The Rangers feel bad but at least they have the zord. Izzy is bummed she didn't finish the race. She goes to the race and finishes it. Lily and Mona wait for her. They cheer her even though she is last. She apologizes to Lily. Lily gives her medal. They hug. Carlos, her dad, is proud of her.
Episode Review:
I commend the producers to have a character with an intellectual disability. In the 28 years of Power Rangers, there have only been a few characters of the day with a disability and coincidentally, they all are women. The first was Melissa in "A Different Drum" who was deaf, the second was Penny who was blind in the Power Rangers Zeo episode "Trust in Me," and now Lily who has an intellectual disability and played by real-life Special Olympics athlete Sarah Dalton. She did a great job. The only scene that is cringy is where Izzy tells Lily how she is disappointed in her. I don't know if 'realistic' is the word I'll go for but it is definitely different for a protagonist to berate a character with an intellectual disability. But it is positive to show a person with intellectual disability as a human with flaws, or a person without a disability to treat them as a regular person and not have their disability be a part of the storyline. Also, for an episode that introduces a zord (which could have been paint by numbers) be a bit deeper and have something unspoken in Power Rangers which is having characters with disaibility being treated like everyone else.
No comments:
Post a Comment