Season 22, Episode 3: A Fool's Hour

"A Fool's Hour"

Episode 3

Air Date: February 27th, 2015

Not slowing down at all after the two part premiere, A Fool's Hour shows that even after 65 million years, Sledge maybe old as hell but is still able to formulate a great plan against the rangers.  I love how the status quo is so well established at the beginning of the episode with the rangers getting into a routine of their new lives with Riley practicing his sword skills and Tyler, once again, all excitable about working at the museum restaurant as a cover.  Did I mention adorable this guy is!??? Awwww! lol We also learn soon what Koda's deal is as he found his energem 100,000 years ago....meaning he's a caveman! Which I think is really cool and inventive for a character on the team.  Definitely something new and refreshing, not to mention Yoshi Sudarso is doing a great job of making Koda very likeable and believable as cave dweller out of time.  Kendall also mentions that once an energems bonds to someone, they stop aging! GASP! Now you KNOW these teens are gonna have trouble letting go of these powers at series end for sure! As Koda shows the rangers his nest, Tyler sees a drawing of Fury as one of Koda's petroglyphs and makes the connection to his father's journal that Fury was after his father.  Soon the rangers are called to check out a disturbance by Kendall when alien life forms have entered the atmosphere and we get our first confrontation between the villains and the rangers themselves.

While Tyler is clearly distracted by Fury's presence there, Keeper arrives by teleporting to throw shots at Sledge before....teleporting away to leave the rangers to fight him off.  Ummmmm, kind of a d!ck move there Obi Phone Home but these rangers gotta learn the hard way about the fight their up against so....!??!?? O_o lol After seemingly destroyed by Sledge's first couple of blasts, the rangers reveal themselves morphed and ready for battle....only to get their a$$es seriously handed to them by Sledge and his forces.  Ummmmm, what the hell!??? O_O  Anyway, Sledge maybe powerful but clearly out of practice after 65 million years so he informs the rangers either they give him the energems in an hour or he'll just destroy their planet as villain ultimatum goes on this show. As the rangers try to form a plan on how to stop Sledge before he makes good on his word, Tyler rather follow Fury but clearly the other rangers like Shelby are worried Tyler is just focused on following Fury for his father's whereabouts instead of the safety of the world.  It leads to Chase and Tyler momentarily not seeing eye to eye before Tyler heads off to follow Fury. As Tyler follows him tho, Fury can sense a human nearby as Tyler hides but before Fury can discover him, Sledge arrives with Wrench to reveal that his ultimatum was a lie and he has one of his monsters, Scrapper, following the rangers to their base so he can get the energems and destroy it.  Hearing this, Tyler immediately tries to warn the other rangers, but when his communicator doesn't work, he quickly tries to catch up with the others to warn them. Seriously, teleporting NEEDS to be incorporated back into this show again and it will, but takes until this most recent season unfortunately. lol

Anyway, as the rangers get back into their base, Tyler arrives right after but is too late as Scrapper taunts him before heading back to tell Sledge.  Luckily, Tyler is an experienced bada$$ as he chases after Scrapper in his car and simply rams his space pod before he can take off; knocking him out of it.  HA!!! As Tyler tries to deal with Scrapper and a squad of Vivix, Wrench soon joins the fight and makes it a bit harder for him as he is now overwhelmed by Sledge's forces.  Meanwhile, Kendall introduces Dino Steel to the rangers via their Dino Chargers which is a powerful new weapon/armor mode they can use in battle.  As Kendall and the rangers soon discover Tyler is in trouble, the rangers quickly head over to help him as Tyler reveals what Sledge's plan was all along.  After Tyler and Chase make peace about their disagreement, the rangers morph and we get a full team morph sequence, which once again, isn't bad but it's just gun shooting turns into dino mouths biting the rangers until ranger suits so....lol We get a nice ground fight, especially with the new Dino Steel on display as each ranger showcases their individual weapon like Shelby's Tricera Drill and Koda's Stego Shield.  After the rangers seemingly defeat Scrapper, we get our new monster growing method this season with Sledge telling one of his Vivix to use the magna-beam to make Scrapper grow.  

We finally get our first full megazord debut and fight as both Shelby and Koda summon their Tricera and Stego zords to combine with Tyler's T-Rex zord to form the Dino Charge Megazord TriStego Formation.  Mmmmm, gotta say, the zords this season are......ummm....questionable! Looking more like toys themselves than actual giant robots that can be sold as toys to and combine.  Just really bizarre and cartoonish designs for the dino theme this time! O_o  Anyway, we also get our first glimpse of the zord's cockpit which goes back to the standing console design of Samurai's cockpit and much of the rest of the seasons following this one.  The rangers destroy Scrapper and "Monster Extinct" is finally a post battle catch phrase that works again!  I have to say, the show is firing on all cylinders with a purpose and personality not seen since the final days of RPM.  Even the last joke with Koda, while disgusting feels natural and even charming as the cast are really gelling together already. :)

Final Morph: A