Power Rangers Samurai, Episode 18 – The Ultimate Duel

Dayu walks away from Mia and Emily. Mia calls after her “I thought you still had a shred of humanity in you, but I guess I was wrong!”

Across town, Moogers arrive to interrupt the glorious duel, but Decker easily finishes them off so Jayden will be in top form for the duel. Decker gives Jayden 24 hours to rest up, but Jayden says they don’t fight for fighting’s sake, they only fight to protect the innocent.

But Decker threatens to fill his glorious hunger with innocent blood instead if they don’t fight. Jayden has no choice.

OO-AH-OO!!! Xandred sends Rhinosnorus back above ground to “scare some humans” and raise the Sanzu River. (And since it still hasn’t been explained, the Sanzu River level rises on the strength of human tears.

Back at home, Emily and Mia are in the kitchen. Mia, guilty about putting Emily in harm’s way, pours some tea for her, but Emily tells her to stop fussing. She recalls how she hesitated to fight Dayu after sympathizing with her.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” Emily tells her as Mike comes in and they decide to play Big Brother and have a house meeting.

They want to stop Jayden from dueling Decker. It’s crazy to let a Nighlok dictate battle. But Mia says to let him go. Kevin doesn’t want to risk the only person who knows the sealing power. But end of discussion, Jayden says as he walks out.

In the forest, Decker comes across a crying Dayu. He tells her… “My thirst for the ultimate duel shall finally be quenched. Win or lose, I shall be free.”

Dayu hopes he’ll be freed too.

Jayden practices through the night. Kevin again tries to talk him out of it, but it’s no use. Instead, Hayden asks Kevin to help him practice and they spar.

Everyone else is in the kitchen having tea. They know the risk, but they also believe in Jayden.

The next morning, the Rangers see Jayden off as he goes to the seaside duel site. The alarm goes off and Jayden gives Kevin his two Power Discs and appoints him leader of the team while he’s gone.

They go their separate ways. The Rangers morph and have a nice little roll call as they fight Rhinosnorus “for Jayden!!”

Mike tells the Moogers to “have a nice trip.” (But thankfully, no seeing them next fall.)

Jayden and Antonio meet by the sea. Both Jayden and Decker morph into Japanese footage their other forms and begin the glorious, ultimate, wonderful duel.

Meanwhile, Kevin finishes off Rhinosnorus’ first life and after embiggening, the four Rangers zord up. (Antonio is “too weak.”) They quickly finish Rhinosnorus off.

Back to the duel, Decker is pleased by Jayden’s fight. He is not disappointed by this glorious duel. They end up by a tall cliff. Decker thinks he’s struck Jayden and won, but it’s only a trick to allow himself to finish off Decker.

Well played, Decker says. And he thanks Jayden for freeing him from his “torment.” Decker falls off the cliff, but disappears in a poof of smoke before dropping into the ocean.

“I won,” Jayden says as the other Rangers arrive. He tells them it’s finished and they take him home.

At home, Jayden thanks Kevin for leading the team and Antonio calls them over for a golden fish dinner.

Jayden apologizes to everyone for dueling Decker, but “something in me wanted to fight him to prove himself worthy of being the Red Ranger.” (*foreshadowing*!!!)

There is still much to do. Xandred is still out there. Ji/Mentor/Uh-huh pulls the Black Box (it still exists?) out of his robes and he and Antonio share a creepy smile.

Jayden says it’s nice to fight the world with friends and they cheer… “RANGERS TOGETHER. SAMURAI FOREVER!”

Episode Thoughts
Well that was certainly refreshing! The writing and storywise, the episodes was good. Save for the expected puns, it was a nicely paced and well put together ep. And For once, the acting was the only negative of the episode… and that’s progress!

I was definitely cringing the first couple of minutes, especially that Jayden/Antonio/Decker scene. I’m actually starting to think they’re acting this way on purpose. The overacting, overdramatic jerks in reciting lines. That’s not natural, right?

But otherwise, one of the stronger Samurai eps so far. And if every episode can be this good, then that’s a big win.

How Much Better Was Sentai Than Power Rangers?
Corresponding Shinkenger Episode: Act 26 – Decisive Match Number One

But in comparison to Shinkenger, the episode was completely watered down and devoid of what made the Shinken episode really great.

There were a considerable amount of differences and Samurai did well with them (which really should be a sign that they can do much better writing on their own instead of merely translating).

In Shinkenger, the episode was as big an episode for Mako as it was for Takeru and that was not the case for Mia. While Mia’s cooking has just been a running joke, Mako’s cooking connects to her dreams of being a good housewife (eek) and mother. She feels her dreams of cooking and all that perpetuate her naiveté, so she throws her apron and cookbooks away in the trash. But Jii (the real Jii, the awesome one, not the Rene Naufahu version) later tells Mako that it’s good to have resolution, but you must also have flexibility. He hands her the cookbooks and apron she had thrown away.

Samurai exchanged all this with that short scene between Emily and Mia, but it totally lacked everything that made the scenes with Mako and Jii very emotional and sentimental.

The entire Shinken episode itself was deeper. Darker of course because of Dayuu and Juzo’s real, unconnected pasts. But it all climaxed and led to a really nice, touching ending about holding on to your dreams and the strength everyone has in themselves. (The beautiful score might have helped a lot too.)

But overall, Samurai did a good job. And next week… FINALLY! The Origin episodes which really at this point seem kind of pointless, but still nice to have I guess.




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0 thoughts on “Power Rangers Samurai, Episode 18 – The Ultimate Duel

  1. So many people hate Power Ranger Samurai.I wonder why.I love PR Samurai! But I keep it secret at school.Could somebody tell me what is Jayden’s secret? I got this little brother named Jayden,spelled the same as this one on pr.

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