Season 22, Episode 15: Rise of A Ranger

"Rise of a Ranger"

Episode 15

Air Date: October 15th, 2015

Now, I can seriously enjoy and admire this kind of episode as well as the lesson it teaches because it's one that feels waaayyy more natural and progressive for the story than last episode's very shoehorned message about not teasing.  It also brings back a character already introduced to the show before and builds on his character from what he learned about the rangers after discovering their identities. Prince Phillip III makes for an interesting character as the writers examine what it means to not only bond with an energem but what truly makes a ranger a hero. :)  After his people have found the graphite energem (Couldn't it just be the Gray energem??? O_O), Phillip is overjoyed that now he can be a ranger but of course, the energem must choose who it bonds with and the Prince isn't exactly the selfless kind of guy we remember.  I love how he heads back to Amber Beach and asks Koda of all the rangers how he bonded to his energem given the lesson Koda taught him when he saved his life.  Unfortunately, Phillipe doesn't take Koda's advice to the heart but instead tries to win his worthiness by donating to the homeless, the disabled, even children to try to win the energem's power but....too no evade.  :( 

Meanwhile, Sledge has given Fury yet another chance to fight the rangers and get their energems, which leads to him coming up with a plan to use the Prince's robot, which he brought with him back to Amber Beach, for Wrench to reprogram him into the ultimate weapon.  There's also a sub-plot with Chase's little sister, Chloe, coming by for a visit but Chase unable to spend much time with her because of his ranger duties.  Unfortunately, things get even worse for the two when Chloe decides to follow Chase to give him a present but ends up in the middle of the fight between the rangers and Fury's forces.  Luckily, Prince Phillip has his moment of clarity and jumps into the fight to save Chloe's life.  It's a simple yet touching moment that finally earns him the power of the Graphite energem (Seriously, just Gray! :P) as he joins the other rangers to morph for the first time.  I like how there is great use of Sentai footage and new scenes with the rangers battling Fury and the rest while the new Graphite Ranger fights his newly evil robot.  We also get introduced to the Graphite Ranger's new zord, the Packy Zord....which has a ball and chain weapon as a tail which it can just place on top of it's head when it's done fighting.  .....Ummmm.....ok!!!

For some reason, despite Fury failing again, Sledge gives him yet another try (Must have been good day! Maybe some fun with Poisandra before Fury got back to the ship!? O_o lol) All and All, Rise of a Ranger is a simple but pretty awesome tale of what it means to be a ranger and seeing an already established character become a new member of the team is always nice to see when written well overall like this episode.  I also really appreciate how with already 6 rangers in Amber Beach, Phillip can return as the Graphite Ranger as he was continue his duties as a prince in Zandar.  It gives a valid reason for him not to stick around and the show getting overcrowded with rangers.  Considering there will be 10 rangers by the end of the two seasons, it's nice to see some come and go while the main team continues the fight against Sledge as well as finding the last 4 energems.  

Final Morph: A+