Season 23, Episode 6: Forged Under Fire

"Forged Under Fire"

Episode 6

Air Date: March 5th, 2016

Meh! I suppose this is a decent step up from last episode even tho the new dynamic between Tyler and his father is still proving to be so underwhelming.  Not to mention, by the end of the episode, the two are already separating again....meaning all this build up to them being reunited after 10 years and us following Tyler's personal arc for over a season now, nothing really changes or comes out of the resolution of this.  Suddenly, Mr. Navaro is going to be traveling and using his geology skills to try to find the silver energem because of him and Keeper talking??? O_o Would have been nice to hear that conversation as well since once again, it's starting to feel like Keeper is such a no show on his own show.  I mean the guy is the Keeper of the energems but he forces Kendall and the other rangers to do all the work in terms of finding the energems...weird.  o_o  Anyway, Singe comes up with yet another plan against the rangers but unlike last episode's terribly head scratching scheme with making Tyler think he's a T-Rex (Cause seriously! O_O), this one actually makes sense, using something called "Zotak rings" that will neutralize the rangers' energems in battle aka make them easy enough for them to take.  Soon Singe gets to work by neutralizing Tyler when is in his T-Rex Supercharge mode while the rangers fight off Hunter (A monster that was introduced last episode and was saved last minute by Singe from Heckyl). 

Luckily, Tyler is able to break his hold as the all 6 rangers regroup and follow the two into a factory.  As they fight, Singe unleashes his Zotak Rings on the rangers as they demorph and their energems are neutralized. Now being easy pickings, Singe and Hunter prepare to destroy when James Navarro and Prince Phillipe come to their aid to help them escape.  Now with 6 rangers powered down by Singe, Kendall explains that their energems have been neutralized by Singe and tries to reverse the effect with Tyler's energem.  It works but now a crack has happened, which means if it continues to get bigger, his powers might be compromised and morphing could essentially kill him.  They only way to fix the crack before it gets any bigger is to dump it into a pit of lava that Tyler and Kendall find has enough heat and pressure to fix it.  One words if the energems are so powerful how it can be cracked like that but it's good for plot suspense.  While Kendall and Prince Phillip handle Singe and an army of Vivix, Tyler and his father travel deep inside a cave to a lava pit to dip his energem into it.  Unfortunately, it isn't hot enough and the crack only gets bigger.  Tyler realizes the heat and pressure must not be enough and needs to borrow deeper into the Earth to fix it aka the core of the Earth.  Ummmmm damn! O_O  Of course, Tyler's father is against it, but Tyler reassures him this is more important than their relationship blah, blah, blah! Shame Tyler wasn't thinking about what's more important last episode but whatever, at least he's willing to do what's right here.

As Tyler morphs and uses the Dino Armor X to dig deeper in the ground, the crevice collapses behind him as James watches his son go deeper.  As Kendall and Prince Phillip need James' help despite Tyler's well being, he eventually joins them in their fight against Singe and the Vivix as Tyler struggle to dip his energem into the center of the Earth as the heat is even too much for his weakened state.  As the fight grows tougher and more hopeless, the neutralized rangers decide to head out and help despite having no powers which is a moment that is ALWAYS awesome to see. YAY! :)  As the rangers run into Hunter and fight him off unmorphed, Tyler manages to return from the depths of the Earth with his energem fixed! Now he can access the T-Rex Supercharge's different weapon modes from each ranger.  Basically, he gets the wrecking ball, drill, hammer, etc. that the rangers' weapons and zords have by summoning two of them at a time.  With it he's able to easily destroy a wave of Vivix as well as destroy Singe's Zotak Rings, which reverses the neutralizing their energems and allows them to morph...pretty much destroying Hunter in their wake. As Sledge's forces retreat, Singe and Fury have a quick clashing of their weapons before Heckyl breaks it up and traps them in a cell to "work out their issues".  LOL Still loving Heckyl.  So like I said, the episode ends with James taking off.....and honestly, I think it's for the best and means the writers have no idea how to integrate Tyler's dad into the show post-arc resolution. But still a step up from last episode tho. :(

Final Morph: C