Season 25, Episode 3: Tough Love

"Tough Love"

Episode 3

Air Date: February 10th, 2018

I can't believe I'm saying this but this was one of the rare times that an episode of Power Rangers have been the least predictable in a while.  I think one of the best things that is helping me with my Ninja Steel/Super Ninja Steel viewing is that I am seeing these episodes for the first time! I missed both seasons during its original airing and episodes like this just goes to show how good a show can be when watching it for yourself for the first time vs hearing fan backlash/harsh opinions of it.  Madame Odius is already turning out to be a far more strategic main villain than Galvanax (Like seriously, most of his plans were barely his if I think about it! -_-) as she comes up with a plan that even I never saw coming.  The writers, especially Judd Chip Lynn do a fine job of setting up the episode and how it plays out is seriously unexpected.  When the rangers, especially Levi run into Jess, a musician playing music for some change, it seems like a genuine new love interest for Levi and you can honestly see why he would fall for her so fast.  She can sing, not to mention is a fan of her music and my god, the way she dismisses Victor made me instantly LOVE her.  You go girl!!! :_)  ......And then, she turns into the monster we saw earlier with Madame Odius, Spyclops, which I didn't see coming at all!!! O_O

I was actually really heartbroken thinking Levi would get a new love interest and some how face some kind of struggle with being with her thanks to his duties as a ranger getting in the way aka him turning evil but Jess turning out to be a monster in disguise as Levi slowly falls for her was even more intense and entertaining.  Not to mention it is completely believable that Levi would want to impress her so bad given how enamored he is by her.  He suddenly wants to change his looks and sing music that isn't exactly his style; something his brother and friends genuinely remind him of during a great scene where Levi is upset that they are questioning trying something new.  It makes sense and leads to the unfortunate moment of Levi actually being tricked into singing Madame Odius' spell in trying to commit to Jess' changes of him because of liking her so fasr.  Gotta say, evil Levi is soooooo sexxxxxx-O_O.....I mean so aggressive and efficient in making sure the rangers don't reverse the spell on him. Tho, Preston's magic is becoming a bit too convenient and was able to reverse the spell pretty easily thanks to Calvin hilariously chasing down the ripped pieces.  I wonder if he used his special element star to make the wind carry them back to him.  Would have been awesome to see! lol ;) But I suppose we should be glad that Preston's magic isn't just some random gimmick and has played a major part in certain episodes so......*Shrug*

After the spell over Levi is reversed by Preston, all 6 rangers reunite to take out Spyclops before being GIGANTIFYED and the rangers forming the Ninja Fusion Megazord to destroy her for good.  In the end, Levi learns a valuable lesson on his own about not changing for anyone despite his feelings for them.  It was a well acted dilemma and Jordi Webber managed to make the story work even better thanks to his best acting yet. :)  Really builds on the character of Levi as well as telling an unforeseen engaging story that has some nice twists and even some truly hilarious bits involving Victor and Monty for once! Jess turning into Spyclops and telling Victor "Am I your type now?" after Victor asks her the same question was PRICELESS!!! More scenes like that with them would work FAR better than their usual confounding antics! O_o  Best episode in a while! :)

 

Final Morph: A+