Power Rangers Samurai, Episode 10 – Jayden’s Challenge

(More like… The Challenge of Power Rangers Fans to Keep Watching This Show)

It’s nighttime. Jayden wanders town and Jii wonder where he is. Jayden doesn’t ever want to put the team at risk for him ever again. If only they knew, he says… wink wink.

The next morning, Kevin and Emily are still resting in bed, though Kevin’s been working on how to combine all their zords. Jii comes in acting “happy happy” but the Rangers know something is up and that Jayden hasn’t been back.

Oo-ah-oo! Over on the Sanzu, Xandred learns about the Red Ranger still being alive and that Decker’s been helping. Jayden continues wandering as Decker decides to visit Xandred though he’s welcomed by moogers. He introduces them to URAMASAAAA.

Xandred pops up and questions Decker’s intentions. Xandred’s blasts causes Decker to demorph into his Cole human form he throws out some exposition to explain because he’s half human, he can come and go from the Sanzu netherworld whenever he wants.

Jayden the nomad ends up by the water and sees a crying boy who misses his dad. Jayden can relate and he flashbacks to his father, in his Red Samurai uniform. handing over his origami/Samuraizer to a young Jayden.

Jayden makes a paper airplane and the boy cheers up. After more nomading, moogers arrive and he tells a lady to get the kids to safety.

The other Rangers are ready to go, but Jii tells them about how much Jayden does not want to put them in harm’s way. When Xandred first awoke, he hesitated in summoning them in the first place (which we would have seen had they actually AIRED those episodes. Hmph.).

But the Rangers say from now on, they’ll always be by his side. They run off to help Jayden who takes on the Nighlok. The Rangers arrive and have a motivational roll call for their leader. He thanks them and flashes back again to his father believing in him.

They morph then zord up. When things get dicey, Kevin shows them his diagrams that use the three auxiliary zords to combine with the megazord for the new Battlewing Megazord.

After finishing off the Nighlok, they return home and Jayden apologizes for leaving. Jii suggests they have some time off and enjoy themselves. The four run in and Jii assures Jayden they’ll the others (about their deep dark secret) when the time is right.

Nitpicks of the Week Episode Thoughts
Save for the completely unnecessary Bulk and Spike scenes (they really don’t need to exist here. #FreePaulSchrier), this was one of the stronger Samurai episodes. And that is relatively speaking of course.

The episode established a few things. With Decker, it established that he’s half-Nighlok/half-human and with that comes “perks” I guess. He’s not like the others, basically.

For Jayden, the episode confirmed his father was the Red Samurai Ranger before him and that the power was passed down to him. (That was never clear since we never had the first 2 episodes of course.)

And finally, that Jayden and Jii are hiding a deep dark secret from the other Rangers.

All good things to be established and even better, this episode did not have the glaring inconsistencies that other episodes have had from being put through Google Translator. Though expanding on Kevin coming up with the new zord combo does not make up for Jayden ordering some random lady around (vs. the corresponding teacher/day care lady that actually had plenty of lines in Shinkenger).

So overall, a good episode (surprising!). But again, that’s relative to the rest of the season… and of course…

Sentai or Power Rangers?: Sentai of course
Corresponding Shinkenger Episode: Act 12 – The Very First Super Samurai Combination
…that was before I rewatched the corresponding Shinkenger episode again.

And once again, I see how much Samurai lacks when compared to the source material that they’re continuing to copy and paste.

There’s the little things in Shinkenger like Chiaki and Mako playing with their Origami adding to scenes where they’re talking about considerably heavier things. Best example of this is in the unmorphed fight scene where the other Shinkengers, give Takeru their words of belief and encouragement in ways that gave a look at each of their characters as well as held deep meaning for their leader. The Samurai Rangers just spouted off generic teamwork lines that had no meaning behind them.

And in general, Sentai does take things deeper and heavier than Power Rangers ever has, but seeing the source material, you can see how the scenes from Samurai held much deeper meaning with a fuller context and better acting.

Power Rangers is on DVD!
Want to own Power Rangers Samurai? The entire season available at
.

And you can finally own the first seven seasons of Power Rangers, from Mighty Morphin to Lost Galaxy by ordering now: