Season 13, Episode 4: Walls

"Walls"
Episode 4
Air Date: February 19th, 2005

Like the episode before it, focusing on an individual ranger, "Walls" is centered around our reluctant Blue Ranger aka Skye and by reluctant, of course I mean his objection to being second in command while Jack is the Red Ranger.  We see that clearly in the opening scene while the other rangers are busy training but mostly playing "light ball" (Jesus, future games are WEIRD! O_O) that Skye is more focused on taking things more seriously, especially when there are more effective ways of training. We get a bit of more backstory on Skye this episode as we see that his father was a former Red Ranger....wearing the Time Force Red Ranger uniform??? O_o Hmmmmm....could Wes has been Skye's dad!!!?? A very plausible but never truly a confirmed canon in the show that fans have been speculating for years.  but we see this is clearly the driving force for him already feeling he deserves the Red Ranger spot on the team and should be giving out orders instead of demanding them.  We see that as Jack and Skye begin their season long animosity.  Sure Jack isn't the best guy to play by the rules but we already see after last episode that he is following protocol more and is trying to do what's best for the team to protect the world against Emperor Grumm.

Speaking of Grumm, his plan this episode features him scoring a minor victory over the team thanks to Skye's arrogance and stubbornness when the rangers are tasked to protect a goldmine of diamonds as Mora has given him the idea to turn them into an alternate power source aka Hellarium crystals that will help them greatly in Grumm's takeover of Earth.  Of course, Skye leads he and Syd on a quest to rejoin the rangers while they should have stayed to stop a group of Krybots from stealing them.  Even after defeating the monster of the week in Ringbah by capturing him after their extensive final battle with him, Skye gets in trouble for letting the team down and making Grumm one step closer in his ultimate goal.

Honestly, while the monster plot was course for the usual for this show, I really liked getting more insight into Skye and why is the overzealous Red Ranger qualified man he seems to be.  It's not just his sense of duty and striving to be a leader but wanting to continue his father's legacy as well as disappointing him in the process.  But what Skye has failed to realize is that it's a position he must earn, NOT gain by default because of his father's role as a Red Ranger.  Chris Violette is already doing a phenomenal job with the character and I love seeing more of his dynamic with his other teammates like Syde surprisingly putting a smile on his face while they guard the diamonds.  All and All, "Walls" makes sense for Skye for both his civilian power and personality.  He puts walls up to stop people from getting in and getting to know him because he is so serious and driven by a position he isn't ready for out of simply entitlement by association and it's truly a great place to officially start his character arc this season.  Nice work! :)

Final Morph: B