Season 16, Episode 2: Welcome to the Jungle, Part 2

"Welcome to the Jungle, Part 2"
Episode 2
Air Date: February 18, 2008

Well, Part 2 doesn't slow down at all.  Also, "Welcome to the Jungle!!!/We've got fun and games!!!" Now that I got that out of my system! Yeah, Linkara used it but it's such an obvious joke, how can you NOT use it tho??! O_o  Anyway, Casey got over his...morphing problem and finally morphs into the Jungle Fury Red Ranger.  He's just destroying foot soldiers out of thin air and saving Fran in a matter of seconds before getting her to safety and taking on the Mantis monster. So I guess while Casey is busy kicking a$$, I'll force me to finally talk about the Jungle Fury suit??? Ummmmm, god this is gonna be hard.  The suits are.....crap for me, I'm sorry. They were such a huge departure from the suits of the past and I may even hate them more than the Overdrive suits.  It's not the helmets or even the gloves, the fact that the guys look like they're wearing leotards while Lily is wearing a leotard with a dress over it.  I get an extreme sports theme from them instead of the kung fu/animal spirit theme of the show.  Once again, blame the Sentai aka Gekiranger unfortunately.  Maybe it made waaaayyy more sense there??? Sometimes I feel us US viewers just don't get some of the Sentai translations with some of the aesthetics sometimes.  Anyway, Casey has managed to defeat and not destroy the Mantis monster; which leads him to grow 50 feet as these monsters tend to do in this universe from time to time. ;)  But unfortunately, these rangers have no zords yet and flee for their lives.  But don't worry, Master Mao's spirit comes out of no where to kick all forms of a$$, like kicking it all the way into the forest! Yikes! O_o

While the three teens are confused and demorph, Master Mao tells them that only his physical form on this Earth is gone but his spirit remains.  Sooooo you still could have trained them you know if that was the case?  Sure you can't touch anything because you're a ghost.....oh wait....didn't you just kick that giant monster's ass!!!? O_o  Master My A$$!!! -_-  Anyway, he tells them they can access the power to go big but need to learn it from their Master.  Of course, as soon as the three teens come back to ask RJ to teach them, he brushes it off in a humorous brotastic manner! LOVE him! Instead, he will train them on weaponry.  Lily is awesome with her staff automatically as well as Theo with his fighting stick thingys. But Casey can't seem to master the nun chucks which makes sense since he's just a cob and the other two were advanced students.  Theo the uptight know-it-all is mad that they can't advance because Casey is a cub but RJ tells them that the whole team forms a balance and must all be up to speed or the team will fall...as he proceeds to badass kick a leg on a three legged stool Theo is sitting. Meanwhile, Camille is telling Da Shi about their defeat again and Da Shi....ohhh enough with the inconspicuous shots of Da Shi we all know it's Jarrod....GASP!!! Hard to pull off a twist like this when the opening credits spoil it you know??? How dumb did Disney think the kids were here??? The hell? O_o While Lily gives Theo a nice pep talk about training Casey since he use to be a cub himself, Camille tracks down the Mantis infused foot soldier as he tells her he plans to flood the city by destroying the damn over Ocean Bluff.  Meanwhile, Theo begins to teach Casey how to use the nun chucks and while he struggles at first for a bit, Theo is able to train him well and Casey is able to even channel his animal spirit into a powerful attack.  I really love the banter and camaraderie between these characters so far and dare I say the dialogue is good as well as the characters being...likable so far......  Dear God!!! O_O  I know....moving on!!!

Before the mantis monster floods the city, Camille gives him extra power to make him stronger while the rangers get word from RJ about the monster once again attacking the city.  As the three enter the city, they see the enormous waves of water running through the city...which leads them to perform a ridiculously over the top stunt by kung fu fighting up a building to safety.  Eewwww it's Season 16, why even bother! Anyway, the rangers run into Camille and more Rinshi to keep the rangers busy while the monster destroys the flooded city.  The rangers soon morph with their sunglasses again (which are a cool alternative to the usual wrist strap morphers) but the morphing sequence is a bit too chaotic for my liking, sorry. :(  Anyway, the three make quick work of the foot soldiers, using their chosen weapons as official weapons for them in battle.  But when it's time to defeat the mantis monster, RJ tells them their ready and the rangers use their animal spirits to create their individual zords that form into the Jungle Pride Megazord.  And I got to say, this is the first megazord in a while to not only look cool but have some genuine personality to it.  It's also cool seeing a different form of zord summoning from the rangers this season again, since the zords are corporeal forms of their animals spirits they can combine....but the cockpit where they use their kung fu to control the moves of the megazord is a bit much tho.  Also, there's the annoying introduction of Flint....a big ole fly Camille ate that can apparently fly out of her and do commentary during zord fights. It's cute and all, but it gets old FAST!!! Hopefully, this doesn't stay around too long.  So the rangers win the day and RJ manages to even get Fran to work for her....or rather, she forces him to hire her since she has no life and is there all the time already. I gotta say, this was a pretty strong two parter.  I really enjoyed each parts but the second half really solidified how good or potentially good the series could be.  The main three and RJ are very entertaining and likable, the villains are generic so far of course but interesting enough and the dialogue isn't head splitting or stupid! Kudos! :)

Final Morph: A-