Season 13, Episode 3: Confronted

"Confronted"
Episode 3
Air Date: February 12th, 2005

Well, it's nice we are already getting character centered episodes and the first one being about Jack is actually very well handled.  Jack, of course, being the most reluctant member of the B Squad just can't seem to get a handle on the whole "leadership" aspect of his new Red Ranger calling....especially after messing up a mission early on in the episode because he just forgot he was the leader...WOW! LOL  Of course, the next day, Jack continues to treat his ranger duties like an afterthought but after one of the most hilarious exchanges between Jack and Boom about being the Pink Ranger (seriously, these two need their own spin-off and it;s just been THREE episodes!), Boom makes Jack surprisingly aware of Jack's duties as the leader of the team; not to mention being given many privileges such as ordering the team around.  Jack immediately wastes no time in using his position to get Z and Syd to needlessly settle their differences and clean up their room together while also forcing his 4 teammates to do the hardest course in the academy just so he can spend some down time reading comic books and having other cadets do his laundry for him.  Commander Kreuger quickly finds out what Jack is up too and I like how he handles this situation once again.  Instead of taking his morpher away and kicking him off the team himself, he asks whether the team feels he is capable of being a great leader.  Obviously, all of them, including Z, think he's not and because their unanimous decision as a team, Krueger THEN asks Jack to give his morpher back despite his anger and frustration.

What I love about the execution of this character arc episode is that it makes absolute sense for Jack considering he's been a charismatic yet very overconfident street thief for most of his life alongside Z.  Why wouldn't he take advantage of being leader of the B Squad when it comes with such amazing perks, especially considering he's been living with sooooo little his whole life.  The whole cast does a great job with the script, especially Brandon Jay McLaren as Jack who learns quick about what it means to be a true leader and not just taking advantage of such responsibilities.  It's just nice to see by the conclusion of the episode that Jack learned a lesson that wasn't shoehorned in that overt Power Rangers way where everyone is all buddy buddy and friends by the end of the episode.  What I liked is that while Bridge, Syd and Z agree that Jack should be given another chance, we never get to hear Skye's answer as he watches Jack go through the mud course all by himself with this serious look of apprehension on his face.  This is clearly setting up the rivalry between both rangers season long and I got to say, it's already being handled with a nice subtle to it. So once again, nice job writers so far! :)

As for the episode's dilemma at hand, it's your typical monster of the week fare but this time Grumm has seemingly captured the A Squad; leaving New Tech City (the rangers' home city) defenseless against monster attacks.  That being said, Krueger has the B Squad officially take A Squad's place while they are off trying to stop Grumm's invasion of Earth as we get our very first megazord fight with the B Squad at the helm  of the Delta Runners.  I gotta say, I love the Delta Squad Megazord as well as the Delta Runner themselves as it's good to see more animatronic zords instead of the all CGI looking zords we've been getting since Wild Force.  Of course, when the megazord is formed and take action, the CGI takes over to show it in motion but it's still an awesome first battle for the SPD rangers despite the megazord taking cover behind buildings...ummm...seriously dude!!! There are people in those buildings!!! O_O Also, this episode introduces us to more servants of Emperor Grumm like Broodwing, who supplies him with the items to build his robotic machines to battle the rangers' zords and Mora, a small New Zealand accented child who can draw new monsters for Grumm to fight off the rangers.  Hmmmmm....interesting.....o_o All and All, "Confronted" is another very solid episode that develops Jack nicely as well as pushing the season's story forward in great way. Kudos writers! :)

Final Morph: A-