Season 16, Episode 5: Can't Win Them All

 
"Can't Win Them All"
Episode 5
Air Date: March 10th, 2008

Well, it's about time we got to Theo in terms of his overzealous confidence and inability to she past his own greatness!!! Tho they could have eased back a little with the Theo worship and making him look so damn perfect. But luckily, this episode doesn't end up making me cringe like say "A Father's Footsteps" where Alyssa is a glorified perfectionist without any real plot development that builds on her character and makes her you know...somewhat real??? O_o  Because Theo is shown to be imperfect despite being thought of before and it's all based on his confidence being blown thanks to a monster of the week.  But of course, it's not just any monster as the second of the Five Fingers of Poison is given the opportunity by Dai Shi to destroy the rangers.  This time it's Gakko, the Gecko based warrior who can stick to walls like Spider-man.  When begins attacking the city, the rangers immediately confront him and fight but once he takes the fight to the side of the building, it proves extremely difficult of the rangers.  Casey tries first but gets immediately knocked down like a couple feet to the ground (Ouch! O_O) followed by Theo, who thinks he is a master of his skill but Gakko quickly slaps him aside and he falls to the ground miserably as well.  After he retreats do to the rangers pitiful defeat, Theo begins beating himself up some fierce and even plans on giving up after Casey and Lily to convince him otherwise at work.  Jesus, Theo's been watching too much Operation Overdrive!!! O_O Snap out of it man!!! -_-

Back at Dai Shi's palace, when Stingerella mocks Gakko for not finishing off the rangers, Dai Shi comes in to threaten him to finish them off and not so subtly humiliates Camille as well just because it's just so mean and funny.  Poor gurl, she's being so faithful and he treats like an abused wife, YIKES!!! O_o Maybe not so funny! Anyway, our main man mentor of the season catches sight of Theo's party and RJ gives him a hard time about not working, which he says he can't! Ummmmm, dude, I thought you were quitting just being a ranger, now you want to quit your job too?! Jesus Christ, Theo!!! -_- Of course, RJ gets wind of his confidence issue and decides to take on a little retreat while Casey and Lily have to deal with Gakko, Camille and a squad of Rin Shi when Dai Shi's forces attack the city again.  Of course, when Casey tries to contact RJ and Theo, RJ blows them off as Theo is in a middle of some creative training made by making him climb up a tree and walk on some rope.  When RJ decides to add some juggling balls, Theo officially says he can't....leading RJ to be the barer of some insightful wisdom.  Theo doesn't realize it at first but soon begins to understand his confidence issue is what is stopping him from just being him again.  I really enjoy it and while it's a pretty simple message, the idea of how to handle failure is definitely something that has been very important and instrumental in the overarching them of Power Rangers itself.  So I'm all for this continued message of learning to succeed based on how we lose instead of winning all the time.  And with that, Theo is back to his badassery and is able to outfight Gakko even on the side of a building with ease.

After embarrassing the poor warrior, he grows and the rangers call on their animal spirits to form the Jungle Pride Megazord....Flint commentary and all....ehhwwww!!! -_-  Luckily, the battle isn't so long that we need to hear his insufferable banter for too long as they use the spin attack finisher to destroy Gakko for good.  The episode ends with everyone at the pizza shop glad that Theo has his confidence back, even tho RJ scares them for a second by saying he only needs Theo to work for him.  Overall, "Can't Win Them All" once again shows that even in its simplicity so far, Jungle Fury can be thoroughly enjoyable with its character developments and individual character arcs. Nice! :)

Final Morph: B-