Season 21, Episode 6: Spirit of the Tiger

"Spirit of the Tiger"

Episode 6

Air Date: March 22nd, 2014

I guess it's nice to get some relief and decent writing from the show for once! But it's only because one of the former actors of the franchise (Jason Smith who played Casey in Jungle Fury! :) had a hand in crafting the script for this episode....and it shows! Holy crap it's great to see Casey again and Jason hasn't missed a beat since be away from the character for 6 years at that point.  You see all that progression, wisdom and maturity that Casey gained from that season and the journey he had to take to become a Pai Zhuq master.  I like how he trains Emma and Jake on how to become more efficient fighters without their weapons by taping into their animal spirits, which cleverly turns out to be their individual Megaforce animal with their color aka the Phoenix and Snake respectively. :)  I also loved the mystery behind Casey and how he looms over the rangers until they discover he was a former ranger, which actually is a hilarious scene as he knows they are being called away to save the world.  Honestly, THIS is how most, if not ALL the episodes this season SHOULD have been.  A ranger from the past coming in each episode or every other episode to train and inform the writers about their personal battles in their mission as rangers by helping the Super Megaforce (........I have no more vomit left! -_-) rangers improve to save the world from the armada's invasion.  But.....whatever! Who wants something that fans wanted and would make sense for the kids to witness when we can have random never before seen powers that should NOT be there and aren't even explained!!! -_-

Unfortunately, this is still Super MegaForce (I swear the writers should have been tortured with that name to say it 10 times fast to show them how insufferable that name is!!!) , so writer Samuel McLean manages to bring up some more cringeworthy dialogue and extremely idiotic character moments as after their first fight with the monster of the week, Pacha Chamack, Troy is all randomly pissed and mad at the team because they let go of their weapons.....!??!!? Wait what!??? I can't even be made at this because it has to be the dumbest character motivation I have EVER seen on this show, which is saying SO MUCH considering the bad the show has given the fandom over the first 20 years of the franchise.  Troy's solution to this, telling Noah and Gia the next time they won't let go of their weapons.  "A ranger must NEVER let go of their weapon!" .......Ok....and suddenly by episode end, Jake and Emma convince Troy that fighting without weapons can be just as powerful and efficient as fighting with your weapons, not to mention shouldn't have gotten mad and listened to his team!????  How has by brain survived this sack of utter deficient storytelling!???  OMG!!! Since when have the rangers.....you know what never mind!???  Trying to make sense out of ANYTHING from this show is like waiting for sand to turn to glass during a cold gust of wind!!! -_-

The rangers end up using their animal spirits aka the Jungle Fury powers to beat the monster, who is once again some blow hard, all talk, no show warrior who tells the villains how bad he is but gets defeated in the first battle so easily.  WOW! And Levira just gives him a power up for NOT succeeding and to fight the rangers again! After he said how fearsome he is as a.....moving on! *Shakes laptop* Oh and of course, thanks to Casey's presence the rangers are unable to unlock the animal spirits of the Jungle Fury rangers to help them destroy the monster during a megazord fight.....because......who needs a legitimate threat when we can just throw new powerups, zords, weapons, etc at rangers because character development is for losers! Funny how no one is mentioning Robo Knight anymore! Not even Gosei or Tensou mention finding him or wonder where he could be when they created him! A powerful and important ally,  but who cares about that right!???  Oh how I actually miss Robo Knight! He was only character last season that evolved and was developed on since his debut.  Yes, the robot 6th ranger that no one remembers anymore was the most fleshed out character so far on this show.  Apparently, you CAN write this stuff and it can make it on the air! I did start by saying this episode was decent right??? O_O Yeah, Casey was awesome and actually helps some rangers progress naturally even if the rest of the episode was typical SM garbage truck!

Final Morph: C+