Season 15, Episode 7: At All Cost

"At All Cost"
Episode 7
Air Date: April 2nd, 2007

.......an....actual...decent episode??? O_O  Am I feeling ok??? Should I watch it again to make sure??? O_o  I mean, honestly, I have literally no complaints besides the fact we get a Mystic Force reference while nice, continues to make me scratch my damn head when a ranger says something like "That doesn't exist"!  How can these people keep denying the exist of something out of fantasy when they are multicolored suited heroes who looking for jewel from a powerful magical crown while defending it from multiple factions of evil alien warriors; which one has an amulet that has a alien inside it that summons monsters and makes them grow! At this point it be absolutely unbelievable if these things didn't exist at this point.  Not to mention, last time we left Briarwood, humans and magical creatures from the forest were co-existing and partying like crazy....so need that not make it to the outside world or something??? Just so bizarre how this universe works but then again people can breath in space so who are we to make sense out of these things.  I gotta admit, an episode focusing on Ronnie left me feeling anxious in an absolutely awful way considering she has really stuck out in a good way with her and Will make want to throw my remote at by TV during "The Underwater World".  But like I said, the episode is surprisingly decent, even pretty good??? :)  Mostly because Ronnie overcoming her need to win through her aggressive competitiveness is handled ever so lightly instead of that forced way the writers make these character lessons often times.

I think what really helps is neither Ronnie's moral dilemma and the main plot with the Dragon Scale are handled nicely without one overwhelming the other by how poorly they are written.  Not to mention, we got another nice moment between Spencer and one of the rangers when he teaches Ronnie the true point behind competing.  It's a brief moment but its simplicity in how it's handled as well as Spencer being a cheeky joy onscreen.  Also, there are nice moments like Will rushing Ronnie's apologizing to Mack during a fight as well as Ronnie's moment of clarity not being heavy handed and more realistic.  Great! :)  As for the villain plot, it was just very straight forward and entertaining with Moltor making one of his minions into a powerful new monster, Volkan and needing the Dragon Scale to make him even stronger to destroy the rangers.  But this is power rangers and we can't get the good without the overtly silly as the ranger receive yet another zord in the form of the Cement Driver! Yes, yet another construction vehicle turned into an overgrown fighting machine and I can't even laugh at this anymore, especially when the rangers form the DriveMax Megazord Mixer Formation.....do I blame the Sentai? Do I blame the writers?  Sigh....

As the episode also introduces the Drill Blaster as well as the Defender Vest, that the rangers can use individually as it's powerful to instantly destroy a monster as the vest protects them from massive force from it.  Nice! :)  Anyway, the episode ends with Hartford revealing to Spencer a clue to the next jewel in a textbook with a picture of the Hou-ou bird in it.  All and All, "At All Cost" could have been yet another grating nightmare but I was thoroughly entertained by the standard, if not familiar plot of the rangers having to defend a power source from the villains while Ronnie's character development was seamless, even in the long run its tiny progression at best. :)

Final Morph: B