Season 7, Episode 10: The Sunflower Search

"The Sunflower Search"
Episode 10
Air Date: April 10th, 1999

Well, we have finally hit the ground running with not only some serious storytelling, an emotionally heartbreaking backstory for the Magna Defender.  So far he's been this mysterious character who has come out of no where who seems to have bad attitude and a need for revenge but here, we finally get to understand why he is the way he is and man, it his history with Scorpius devastating.  Apparently 3,000 years ago, when Scorpius attacked his home world, he had his son, Zika, captured and ordered him to drop his weapon as well as telling his Torozord, to back off.  But in the middle of surrendering, his son tried to attack Scorpius and he killed him!!! WOW!!! O_O Never thought we'd see a child death on this show before and it's really depressing, especially as the Magna Defender crawls to the body of his dead son. Jesus!!! :(  The writers finally have given us a story we can sink our teeth into despite how poorly written and contrived this whole Lights of Orion arc has been. Unfortunately, speaking of that...

As amazing as this new development is with the Magna Defender, it's once again juxtaposed to the complete randomness of the search for the Lights of Orion.  This time, the villains spy on Maya and Kendrix on Terra Venture and for some reason, based on their completely random conversation about sunflowers get the idea that the lights are in one of the sunflower statues on Terra Venture......WOW!!! -_- Anyway, they seen Fish Face after the lights to destroy each statue as the rangers try to stop him.  The Magna Defender is once again the highlight of these episodes as his compelling story propels the plot forward despite the stupidity and lack of logic in this whole Lights of Orion arc.  Not to mention, the guy doesn't care about hurting innocent people as he blasts away at Fish Face; injuring a group of civilians on Terra Venture.  This is really refreshing as we've never really seen a character lack this who is driven by vengeance to the point of hurting innocent people to do so and that's just fascinating. The Magna Defender is the only reason to continue watching this arc as he continues to develop into the most interesting character on this show really! No offense to the rangers of course! ;) lol I especially love the moment when the Fish Face captured a young girl and told the rangers to drop their weapons.  In a moment that brought him back to that day he lost his son, I loved how he just charged forward not caring about the girl's life because it.  It's intense and a well done moment.

Soon the episode begins to wrap up in a zord battle as the rangers call the Galactabeasts and form the Galaxy Megazord but unlike the usual zord fights so far this season, this one is a bit longer than usual as it's not so easy to beat Fish Face managing to stop the rangers' from finishing him off with the Megazord finisher.  The Galay Megazord finally gives into its damage and the zords revert back to Galactabeasts who are clearly hurt from the fight as the rangers also fall to the ground.  Soon the rangers are aided by the arrival of the Torozord who arrived at the colony earlier.  The sequence of its arrival is awesome as well as when the Magna Defender grows into his Defender Mode.  It's a great zord fight that ends with the Magna Defender joining with the Torozord to create the Defender Torozord to destroy Fish Face once and for all.  I really like how the episode ends with the rangers confronting the Magna Defender once again and him finally telling them why he so vengeful against Scorpius.  All and All, this was pretty superb episode that develops the Magna Defender into a refreshingly morally complex character with valid reasons for his aggressive behavior.  Don't get me wrong, the Lights of Orion plot is still weak as hell, but this type of  sad storytelling and gripping character work is brilliant none the less for the show.

Final Morph: A-