Season 26, Episode 11: Tools of the Betrayed

 

"Tools of the Betrayed"

Episode 11

Air Date: September 28th, 2019

Hmmmm, I find it extremely interesting how Beast Morphers is handling their moral lessons of the day by just allowing the rangers to have genuine conflict without the solution being spelled out to them.  It makes the characters as well as the story feel more natural with not having a typical mentor moment where an adult figure has to step in and give the rangers a new perspective on a situation.  I mean it's Power Rangers, so that kind of sentiment is in the very foundation of the show and will always be brought up again and again at some point.  But the rangers are also young adults in the making aka teenagers and teenagers make A LOT of mistakes, especially toward each other that they must work out for themselves by learning from it on their own.  Here, something as simple as Zoey taking the blame after Ben and Betty break Devon's new VR game feels something kinda trivial and too normal to explore when the rangers are facing bigger threats but small morality stories like this CAN work well, especially when it comes to how it is delivered.

How the writers intertwine it with the main plot with Roxy and the Robotron she creates to disassemble the rangers' weapons makes it work even more.  The rangers are being proactive by actually setting up Nate's new Gigadrone detectors around the city so they know of an incoming attack before it happens.  It makes sense and I'm glad the last episode's dilemma with the underground Gigadrone was the catalyst of pushing this plot development forward.  It helps with pushing the overarching story forward as well as showing Grid Battleforce is a way more competent organization than just responding to attacks as they happen! :) Anyway, thanks to the Robotron's error is dismantling the Gigdrone detector, it looks as if Ben and Betty might have screwed up (AGAIN!), leading Devon to discover that Zoey covered for them last time about the broken VR game.  I actually really enjoyed Zoey's selflessness here and it makes so much sense for her character.  She's someone who will run into danger without thinking too much and is willing to put herself on the line to solve a problem as we have seen before in "End of the Road".  Devon's reaction is harsh but understandable and I'm glad he was able to figure out the error in his assumption that Ben and Betty messed up with the detector after encountering the Robotron himself.

Once again, the villains' plan also includes Roxy getting more Beast powers from the rangers via Scrozzle's data chips.  Unfortunately, Blaze seems to have been outcast thanks to rangers stopping him at the beginning of the episode; even managing to destroy their Robotron maker thanks to Devon's cheetah speed!  So it seems like Roxy is quickly winning the favor of Evox; tho with Scrozzle around, I don't think she'll be having his favor for long.  Also, this episode marks the debut of the Stryker Megazord which is basically the Wrecker Zord and Jet Zord's combination to form the megazord.  It's...ok, not as nice as the other rangers' megazord, at least to me.  Overall, "Tools of the Betrayed" has a thoroughly enjoyable lesson that is delivered while actually moving the plot along in terms of both sides battle to won up each other.  Dare I say, even Ben and Betty's bubbling nature made some actual use in setting up genuine conflict between the rangers. Wow! Bravo! O_O

 

Final Morph: A-