Recap and Season Review: Power Rangers (Super) Ninja Steel, Episode (20) 40 – “We are still a team!”

Recap: Power Rangers (Super) Ninja Steel, Episode (20) 40 – Reaching the Nexus

Mick leads Madame Odius to the command shop. Hayley is worried about being unable to contact Calvin, but she and Sarah go after Badonna. Brody, Preston and Levi go after Mick and Odius.

Redbot tries to escape with the Ninja Steel, but Odius blows out the door. The debris hits Redbot and he falls to the floor, causing him to malfunction. Mick grabs the Ninja Steel.

Downtown, Hayley and Sarah watch as groups of mind controlled people are teleported to the Warrior Dome. They are shocked when they see Calvin is one of those people. Hayley decides to blend in with the mind controlled people to get them to the Warrior Dome as well. Sarah thinks she’s crazy, but has no choice than to join her. They sneak away from the group to find Calvin.

Back at the command shop, Odius has Mick forge a new Shuriken. The boys try to stay quiet, but Odius hears them and shoots at them, allowing her and her minions to leave with the new Star and the Prism.

Brody, Preston and Levi find Redbot who has been able to reboot himself.

Hayley and Sarah call in to tell them what’s happened. Redbot tells them about the satellite dishes so they can find a way to stop them. They sneak off while everyone else is amused by Victor and Monty juggling their exploding balls.

Hayley and Sarah find the satellite room, but Basherbots find them. Sarah takes on the Basherbots by herself to allow Hayley inside the satellite room. But the Basherbots sound the alarm.

Victor and Monty drop the balls into their pants and try to escape now that their Basherbot guards have left.

Brody, Preston and Levi find Madame Odius who has just turned the Nexus Prism evil, just as she’s planned for 1000 years to enable her to build an army to control the galaxy.

Mick hurls the new Star into the Prism with Madame Odius hoping the Ninja Nexus SuperStar will get spit back out.

Brody remembers Papa Romero had a Nexus Star which is what Galvanax wanted and which turned into their Ninja Stars.

Just then, Papa Romero pops in, also mind controlled, ready to kill them. They battle. Preston asks Hayley for an update.

Hayley finds the control panel for the satellites, but mind controlled Calvin appears and hurls her out of the ship. Hayley is able to grab hold of the ship. Calvin tries to slash at her hands, but Hayley pulls out her Blaster. She points it at him, but shoots at the satellite behind him instead.

The controlling signal is turned off and all the mind-controlled people are back to normal. Calvin hurries to grab Hayley and pull her back up into the ship.

Papa Romero is back to normal right before he kills his youngest son.

Mick is also back to normal and runs over to the others.

The Prism spits out the SuperStar. Brody, Preston and Levi shoot at Madame Odius, but the SuperStar protects her.

Hayley and Calvin share a heartfelt reunion as they apologize to each other. They hurry out just as a bunch of uncontrolled people arrive to save Sarah from a dozen Basherbots.

Calvin, Hayley and Sarah get Victor and Monty to find a way to teleport all the humans back to Earth. They relish in becoming heroes for the day.

Calvin, Hayley and Sarah reunite with their teammates as Madame Odius fuses with the SuperStar. The merging causes a huge power to reverberate across the city, hurling the Rangers into Ninninger footage the ruins of a building.

The Rangers morph, but Madame Odius’ power is too strong. The Rangers hurry away to form a plan.

Victor and Monty have teleported all the humans back. Cosmo Royale and Badonna find them, but Victor and Monty toss their exploding balls at them. They teleport away before the balls explode, blowing a hole through the ship and sending it hurtling into space.

The Rangers decide to combine their Super Steel Power Stars. Preston does a spell and the Stars combine to give them all Nexus energy as a team, able to share power of six Stars.

The Rangers battle Madame Odius and they are now more powerful. They deliver an Ultimate Nexus Blast as her and she counters with a Dark Nexus Strike.

“I’ll never surrender!”

The Rangers deliver a Nexus Ninja Strike Steel Slash Final Attack at Madame Odius. She explodes.

“It’s finally over! Odius is gone for good. And the Earth is safe!”

Back at school, the mayor honors Victor and Monty with the Summer Cove Trophy for Extraordinary Heroism.

Later, the Rangers return their Nexus powers back to the Prism. Brody says the Prism is done helping them and it’s time for it to go help someone else.

They thank the Prism and it spins away.

The Rangers thank Mick and Redbot and say their goodbyes. Levi says he’ll write a song about them. They have a group hug.

But Mick says he’s not leaving since he loves teaching shop and he’s been able to establish a satellite link with his parents so he can call every night.

They head back to school to clean up, study for exams and continue training.

“We are still a team!”

Episode Thoughts

I barely remember Samurai, Megaforce or Dino Charge’s finales, to be honest. Yes, even the big Legend War finale. Though I do remember how rude the Samurai Rangers were to Mia. (#NeverForget) But I have to say these last two episodes might be the best Saban Brands Era finale out of all of them.

Now, I’ll get to my criticism of the season as a whole below. But for these two last episodes on their own, as season finales, I thought they were pretty great.

Like I mentioned last week, Madame Odius’ plan to build an army to take over the galaxy is good. And I’ve criticized the lack of big picture hints from her throughout these two years, but her wanting to create a SuperStar gives a reason for wanting to collect the Rangers’ Power Stars.

So her two-pronged plan, again, is one of the most cohesive and logical villain master plans I’ve seen. And I think that’s what helped make the situation that much more dire and exciting to watch.

The Rangers in this episode were all great as well, each contributing to the narrative. I will admit, I wasn’t a fan of seemingly shoehorning Calvin and Hayley’s relationship troubles into the penultimate episode. But it actually set up that truly awesome scene between them in the satellite room. That’s the kind of emotional and exciting moment you want to see more of. And it was a great climax to their relationship.

Sarah fighting off the Basherbots on her own was truly “epic,” as Brody would say. And the guys got that little battle with Papa Romero (who randomly pops up again, more on that later).

And Victor and Monty were much more relevant this episode than they have been. Plus, their involvement this time did not involve fart jokes like they did last year on the midseason finale. Thankfully!

So, they used this from the Ninninger finale:

I think they did find a creative way to use it and it made sense as a counter to Madame Odius getting her own Nexus Star of course.

I do think the Ninninger finale as a whole was better only because it was much more emotional. Despite everyone else absolutely hating it (and basically hating Ninninger as a whole), I loved the climax of Kyuuemon’s story. And the fact that it tied in with the Igasaki Family’s story and dynamic really made that finale work. It was “pitch perfect,” I think I remember calling it.

Here on Ninja Steel, I think they were able to do a pitch perfect finale as well. I didn’t moan or groan at any point during these last two episodes. And I don’t think I can say that for the recent seasons.

If you follow my toku recaps, I always harp on and on about how I hate when finales and endgames get pulled out of thin air. Like, there’s no build up to them or there’s no reasonable connection to the grander scheme of the season. No foundation. I’ve expressed how Ninja Steel has been just that way. Yet, I found myself truly enjoying these last two episodes and feeling like these finale episodes on the own really felt like a conclusion to a story.


Season Wrap-up/Hindsight Review

(And to note, I recognize Ninja Steel as one 40-episode season as I do with all these Super-ized Saban Brands Era seasons.)

But! Like I also mentioned, this second half of Ninja Steel has been mostly filler episodes. And many of them didn’t even have at least great character moments that would justify them. This is one of my biggest problems with the season.

I can reach to find how Madame Odius’ master plan has been there all year, but it’s still not the most fluid and exciting way to develop and build the story. There was no sense of rising tension through the year. And I can even stretch that back to last year as well.

I do applaud the way they were able to use Galvanax and Madame Odius with respect to Ninninger. It provided a clear midpoint for the season.

But Galvanax and Madame Odius were rarely ever on screen. I think we saw more of Cosmo Royale than either of them, to be honest. (And I still can’t get over how they messed up Baron Nero’s face. I do look forward to seeing how they handle the eventual Hasbro ToQger adaptation though lol)

So the lack of Big Bad action also contributes to the lack of tension and danger for the Rangers. We get lots of MOTWs, but no grave threat to the world.

My other biggest problem with Ninja Steel is the lack of actual ninja-ing. I think Samurai might have actually done a better job at the samurai action than Ninja Steel did with anything ninja-related. And that’s a shame. Especially when they had those beautiful ninja training outfits at their disposal.

I think having more ninja-related training and action would’ve contributed a lot to the season as well. You can’t really go wrong with ninja action. And when the filler episodes and most of the season felt flat, some of that action could’ve helped.

We got a solid cast and group of characters this season. For what little in terms of character moments we got, the actors did a good job with what they were given. And at the end of the day, each of the characters were at least distinct from each other enough to not be completely forgettable.

Though I do think Redbot was completely wasted all season long. They really could’ve done a little more with him. Though they could’ve also done a lot more with the Rangers as well.

Actually, I just remembered Papa Romero was also complete irrelevant most of the season too.

Victor and Monty were unnecessary most of the time, but they save themselves from being Bulk and Spike by actually interacting and being involved with the Rangers throughout the season and obviously, the big finales as well.

Overall, I like Ninja Steel. During this Saban Brands Era, being inoffensive is actually a big accomplishment. But on its own merits, it was an okay season. When it was great, it was really great. When it wasn’t great, it was alright, but not horrible. I mentioned last year that Ninja Steel seemed to be on track to be one of the middling seasons and would’ve fit in perfectly with Disney Era seasons, though probably towards the bottom of that Era as well. There were plenty of missed opportunities, but all in all, a mostly fun and enjoyable season.

And with that, we come to the end of the Saban Brands Era. During this era, I think we got about three good years of Power Rangers. One meh year and the very rough four years at the start.

Now we’re on to the Hasbro Era. (Though not before the Ninja Steel Christmas episode of course. Hehe)

4 thoughts on “Recap and Season Review: Power Rangers (Super) Ninja Steel, Episode (20) 40 – “We are still a team!”

  1. I think it was very good finale. I’m glad Calvin and Hayley’re back together again, Mick stays with Rangers forever and, Victor and Monty finally did a good deed 🙂

  2. As a normal episode, this one was really amazing. Pretty cool scenes, like Hayley vs Calvin. The fight of Dane Romero vs Brody, Levi and Preston was great also, Dane’s acting was spot-on, really determinated to kill the Rangers. But the most shocking scene for me was when the captured people helped Sarah with the Basherbots, it reminded me of “Countdown to Destruction”.

    Now, as a finale, it felt so rushed with Madame Odius’s final form revealed and then defeated in the same episode, and I also feel sad that Dane didn’t participate in the fight. Heck, he even didn’t appear at the final scene.

    I don’t know for sure if the final fight was 100% original footage or there was some Sentai footage in it. It kinda looked like it was all original, if so, Chip Lynn once again kept his tradition of making the first and last episodes 100% original footage.

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