Season 24, Episode 11: Poisonous Plots

"Poisonous Plots"

Episode 11

Air Date:  August 26th, 2017

If I had decide what was my biggest complain about Ninja Steel was at the moment, is that tonally, it's jarring as all hell!!! O_O  You have the literal dire situation of a ranger being poisoned by a monster juxtaposed to Victor being completely encased in chocolate and possibly getting eaten by a bunch of children like something out of wacky Saturday morning cartoon that's ANIMATED and OVER THE TOP as all hell. O_O I seriously feel like the story has to stop and I mean it, stops just so Victor and Monty can due something stupid and incredibly unbelievable just for the comedy segment of the episode.  We didn't NEED this in Dino Charge/Dino Supercharge and both seasons were all the better for it despite their own problems.  The thing is Victor and Monty continue to make less and less sense as characters to begin with!!!! -_-  They are always, always, ALWAYS hanging out with each other and are best friends but NEVER hang out in their own social cues.  Victor is suppose to be the high school jock but what sport does he play???? O_o Monty seems to be the biggest nerd in school but doesn't get picked on by anyone but Victor! Doesn't seem to have any friends either more like him; making this feel like these two are only made to be superfluous, illogical gags thrown into the episode as some kind of mandate and yes, it definitely MUST me a mandate cause Lynn would NEVER!!! I mean Bulk and Skull made sense cause they both were punk bullies to begin with and frequently interacted with the rangers so their unfortunate appearances at least made sense there.  But I should just move on because there were some things about this episode besides that also bugged me.

So last episode ended with Aidan miraculously and shocking come back into Brody's life as the episode begins with him explaining what happened to him since.  Tho I wonder where exactly was he living this whole time when he ran away??? Was he adopted and had his own family??? Was he homeless??? Looks great so that can't be it!  But clearly there's something too good to be true about Aiden as Mick doesn't seem to trust him to come in their base, not to mention, tries so hard to prove to Levi and Hayley how much of an awesome fighter he is in comparison by being too competitive during their training scene.  Also, when Brody is tragically poisoned, he seems to be keeping a very close eye on the rangers' power stars.....hmmmmmm.....  By episode's end it turns out Aidan is just a secret plan by Madam Odius, maniacal over the top laugh and all! O_o  I just wish they kept that reveal for more episodes, by making Aidan more mysterious and the team wonder what his real motivations are!  But it's an awesome twist on paper, even if it comes off a bit to campy onscreen because Aidan's actor had a little too much fun with his evil reveal. lol  Madam Odius is definitely the most interesting villain so far with her behind the scenes machinations so far so hopefully this will pay off in the end.

While I did absolutely love the urgency of the situation with the rangers possibly having to sacrifice their power stars to save Brody, it was odd Levi and Hayley were paired this episode instead of Hayley and Calvin since they're dating.  Not saying they have to be together all the time as a couple or anything and it's nice both characters continue to exists nicely on their own individual characters; not just a couple.  I don't know, maybe it was the actors, but I felt lots of romantic, lustful tension between them.....maybe that was me!??? lol  Just seemed a bit strange and when it seem Hayley and Calvin should have been the ones at odds with Aiden too. I like how that tension between them was resolved by episode's end in a very natural, real way so all for the best I guess??? Overall, Poisonous Plots is pretty good, outside of the now infamous Victor and Monty assassination of humor sequences that are starting to seriously effect my enjoyment of the show.  Lots of upcoming betrayal ahead, a villain clearly more devious than the others and the rangers prove to be smart by setting up the villains with fake, chocolate power stars.  Mmmmmm, I wanted to taste one, is that weird??? O_o lol

Final Morph: C+