Season 24, Episode 10: The Ranger Ribbon

"The Ranger Ribbon"

Episode 10

Air Date: August 19th, 2017

Hmmmm, outside of a being a Preston centered episode and ultimately leading to an unforeseen, shocking ending in terms of Brody's own personal story arc, "The Ranger Ribbon" feels like tedious sentimentality with too many conveniences, especially one in particular that I find the most grating is Morty and Victor being Preston's dad personal body guards.....Ummmmm since when would someone of Mr. Tien's stature and high class professionalism hire two moronic teenagers in high school are bumbling fools that isn't that exactly that hard for them to conceal!??? -_-  I mean, they make utter fools of themselves constantly and makes things worse yet they got such an important position as bodyguards for a business man like Mr. Tien!? I don't even care if they're interns, it's still completely implausible for them to get that far! Ummmm didn't Victor get caught lying about saving civilians a few episodes ago by the damn Mayor of the city!!?? They have to be the most annoying comedic duo EVER!!! And that saying a lot about how unnecessary they feel to the plot besides the show feeling it literally needs to stop everything interesting and makes sense for such horrific hijinks that even an episode of Tom and Jerry would be envious of!!! -_-

Anyway, I guess the shock of Preston's dad being the human villain of the rangers' dilemma this week definitely made things more interesting as we got more in-depth detail about Preston's home life.  Apparently his mom died (LOTS of single parent/dead parents in this show, JESUS!), which became the reason Preston's father became so distant and cold; not to mention so buried in his work he forgot the meaningful things in life and orders Preston around constantly.  Clearly there a bit of verbal abuse there but also this heavy obligation to not let his father down which was nicely conveyed by Peter Sudarso.  Tho I find the resolution of the ribbon tree stand off a bit too convenient like I said and coincidental that his father and mother's ribbon that they made for Preston when he was born would just fly off the tree to land on his father at the last moment it could be a plot point that turned the tide of the conflict at hand.  Seemed a bit too saccharine and kinda jarring, when Preston could have just taken the moment to get the ribbon from the tree and remind his father of the ribbon.  Would have been waaayyy more natural and made sense but whatever, Power Rangers plot convenience has been one of the irritating standards of this show at times, especially during the early years. Everything just works out like magic except the only magic in the episode was Preston chasing then spraying Victor and Monty with a fire hose. LOL

In terms of the villain plot, it's kind of disposable, especially when they are rehashing an old monster....or rather the brother of Ripperat, Trapsaw being pathetic and failing at every attempt to try to trap the rangers.  Hard to take the monster of the day seriously when he can't even harm the rangers in anyway shape or form.  And I'm all for comedic monsters of the week as long as they are funny while still being a match for the rangers.  Jesus, even Mad Mike nearly destroyed the rangers via a colossal cooker that baked them into a giant pizza!!! No excuses Trapsaw! :P  But the episode suddenly takes a mysterious turn when someone seems to be watching the rangers post-megazord battle and at first, I thought it was Preston's father witnessing him being a ranger by accident....but it turns out mystery bro is actually...well an actual bro, Brody's brother to be exact! WOW, say that ten times fast!!! O_O Yes, Aidan, Brody's long lost brother finally confronts Brody and finds him as Brody is filled with so much raw emotion that I really liked William Shewfelt's acting during the last shot of the episode.  This was definitely an unexpected turn of events and made the episode definitely more enjoyable in the long run.  Just makes you look forward to what's next for Brody and his family reunion while also appreciating some natural grow and more backstory on Preston. :)

 

Final Morph: B-