Season 18, Episode 8: There Go the Brides

 

"There Go the Brides"

Episode 8

Air Date: March 13th, 2011

Ummmmm....I need a moment....because I honestly don't know where the hell this episode came from as it is not only the best episode of the series but possibly one of the best episodes of franchise??? Seriously, is this "Samurai"??? Did the writers for the show take a break for a week and leave writing in the hands of people who know how to write a kids show but make it still accessible to older audiences like Disney films??? So Jill Donnellan and Jonathan Rosenthal just translated Yasuko Kobayashi's script from Skinkenger....and yet...the dialogue felt more straight forward and polished....unlike the usual awful lines delivered by the rangers are a regular basis.  Hell, even Emily sounded more like a teenager than a 6 year old in a teenager's body.  The humor was actually funny??? O_O The bits between Kevin and Mike really made me chuckle; feeling natural and dare I say the acting was above average (For this cast, I'm not getting THAT carried away guys! :P) Also, it really helped the episode started in the middle of the story instead of some silly intro with a bad joke forced on the poor audience of innocent children.  Nope, immediately things are taken very seriously and the rangers are on a mission to save brides from randomly being kidnapped by Nighlok over the city.  The fake wedding to lure the Nighlok into a trap was clever, tho I instantly realized why not stakeout various weddings instead of randomly setting up one when the enemy may not fall for it and just go to another wedding....which they in fact do as Mugger storm a wedding and take the bride away.

But once again, the script took a left turn with Mentor Ji even being useful for once and collecting a lists of all the weddings in town...to which Jayden gets brilliant idea of having everyone cancel their wedding except one; where they'll be waiting to get the Nighlok and find out where they are hiding the 5 other brides.  WOW!!! O_O Not only that, but Mia and Jayden take the bride and groom's place while the other rangers hide the real groom and bride from harm.  The plan works brilliantly as the Muggers take her to Dayu, who is collecting brides to not only cause enough crying from them to rise the Sanzu River from coming into our world....but their tears are also helping her make a wedding dress of her own that has some serious ties to her backstory.  I got to admit, Dayu has been reserved to a background general of Xandred's but she makes for one hell of a villain her first outing against the rangers.  Not only does she quickly find out that fake bride is Mia and a ranger, but she manages to have captured to real bride and forces her to lure the other rangers into a trap or she'll put the brides in even more danger.  Honestly, I was actually worried for the rangers when the trap worked and they were caught right in the middle of that explosion of the warehouse.  But I honestly didn't see this twist coming....at all!!! Turns out those were fake rangers created by their Samurizers; clearly just allusions as not only was Mia captured but the bride they kidnapped after was Emily in disguise......*Round of applause*.  Even the acting isn't played to over the top, childish proportions and the rangers come off like badasses for once, especially Emily after she slices her way out of that cake dungeon and delivers a one liner after Dayu realizes she's been tricked.  If that wasn't awesome enough, the Sentai footage is used incredibly well here, not just the fight scenes but the sequence of each ranger confronting Dayu all around here with their individual morphing call. Mia's line about "Dearly beloved, we gathered here today" before the rangers deliver their team moto......ummmm seriously, what is THIS!!! O_o

Dayu even shows herself to be a force to be reckoned with in battle as she beats the hell out of Mia and Kevin, before slicing them with her sword that comes out of her guitar....or harmonium she calls it. Then the rest of the team comes to help after defeating their set of Muggers with their own badass entrances and it looks like they will destroy Dayu with the Beetle Cannon....but fear not, our mysterious red skulled monster comes out of no where to save her.  As the rangers question who he is, Dayu quickly refers to him as Deker as they clearly have a past together before taking her away and calling on a group of giant sized Muggers to finish off the rangers.  After a very exciting zord battle and forgive me, it's Beetle Blaster Megazord, the episode actually ends on a very solid quota with some reflective insight Mia has about Dayu making that dress and what that might mean for her past as well as Jayden fearing Deker declaration of challenging him in battle only.  Seriously....WOW!!! Yeah, Spike and Bulk are in this episode but honestly, I hardly noticed because I was so into the episode's heavy plot. There might not have been some strong character development but the story was well written throughout with some seriously unforeseen twists and the rangers acting too competent all of sudden.  The stage has been set with Deker's official introduction as well as Dayu's dark past that will be further explored down the line in the series.  I don't know what to say.  Really awesome from start to finish! Why couldn't the show continue with this type of quality??? What an amazing fluke! :P

Final Morph: A