Season 23, Episode 13: Recipe for Disaster

"Recipe for Disaster"

Episode 13

Air Date: September 24th, 2016

WOW! O_o  I'm actually pleasantly surprised by this episode.  Recipe for Disaster seemed like it would be yet another filler but it turns out to be way more story heavy than I realized.  In fact, the story with Chase trying to perfect his New Zealand dish, pavlova, for a food critic so the restaurant doesn't get shut down was reduced to a minor sub-plot while the main plot of the episode had to due with a group of new villains arriving as Singe returns to Earth (In his flaming disco ball I might add! :P) with his boss, Lord Arcanon and another general, Doomwing.  I absolutely LOVE the stand off between Heckyl and his forces as they confront the new faction of enemies.  Turns out Lord Arcanon was the one who gave Sledge to assignment for all the bounties he acquired 65 million years ago, including Heckyl himself.  And it turns out Arcanon is no push over as Singe warned Heckyl before as when they both trade blasts with each other, Heckyl is easily overpowered by Arcanon.  Not to be outdone by a new villain, Snide soon takes over and orders for Fortress to be grown.  And I really enjoy Fortress as this unstoppable monster/megazord that is able to counter every move of the rangers' megazord.  It makes for a pretty brilliant plan by Wrench and seeing Snide pilot it was entertaining, especially when he has to face off against the new faction of villains....with the rangers' megazords??!! O_o Yeah, so it appears that Lord Arcanon has got his hands on the rangers' zord data....or rather Doomwing....hmmmmm....

I really do love the urgency of the situation which is so well done with the rangers seeing their zords being activated and used to fight Heckyl's monster.  Not to mention, it's always unreal to see the villains controlling a megazord, don't think we've seen that in a while....??? O_o Anyway, the action is great as Snide manages to use Fortress to beat Lord Arcanon and his forces as the monster megazord is just too much for the rangers' zords, especially when it has memorized every move.  When Doomwing suggests to use the Titano Zord, Lord Arcanon gives up on his plan of taking the rangers' zords in favor of another while the rangers arrive to see they have copied their dino charger technology. As Snide prepares to destroy the Dino Charge Megazord and Ptera Charge Megazords, the rangers immediately morph and pilot both megazords.  But even with both megazords back in control of the rangers, Fortress is still too powerful and knows every move make by countering.  Luckily, Kendall has been working on a new megazord formation and quickly tries to finish it as the rangers then summon the Titano Zord to form the Titano Charge Megazord.  As the rangers struggle against Fortress, Kendall soon arrives and joins the rangers in the cockpit as she has brought a new charger so the rangers can form the Dino Charge Ultrazord.

Not gonna lie, the Ultrazord is clunky as hell but it's definitely the best looking megazord after the Titano Charge Megazord by far.  As Heckyl soon takes over to control Fortess, the rangers use their new megazord formation to destroy Fortress once and for all.  As Heckyl tries to stand after his defeat, Lord Arcanon return to capture Heckyl as Singe and Doomwing take him away after Arcanon toys with him a bit.  With Heckyl now back in solitary Lord Arcanon takes over his forces and seemingly continues with his next plan as he seems to have the Dark Energem!  We also get some quick backstory on the Dark Energem as after it was created from the remnants of the 10 energems, it was storied deep in the Planet, Sentai 6 (Uhhhh huh! ;) until a powerful evil came to the planet to take it and destroyed the planet as well.  Wow! Epic! As for the sub-plot with food critic, it wasn't bad at all, even if Chase losing his energem makes me groan since the rangers taking them with them in public STILL makes no sense! -_-  They are making themselves so vulnerable with the villains after them and last time I checked, they are still bonded to them and only need the dino chargers to morph, summon their zords, etc. O_o  Anyway, I love how it was resolved with Chase saving her life and her giving him advice to master his pavlova recipe.  I wish more episodes intergrated the main plot and sob-plots like this as it really works; building on the overarching story immensely while also telling a civilian story that is just as important as what's happening with the rangers' enemies and their core mission. Really a standout for me this season as Dino Supercharge ain't as bad as its reputation has been since it finished airing so far. :)

Final Morph: A+