Recap: Power Rangers (Super) Samurai, Episode (18 or 19) 41 or 42 – Evil Reborn

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Jayden and Deker both morph as they continue fighting on their horses. Mike, Emily and Mia head out to try and top Jayden from fighting Deker. Kevin stays behind to help Lauren in case of another Nighlok attack as well as protect her while she perfects the sealing power.

She sees Kevin staring at the Samurai armor display at the manse and tells him he can join the others if wants to. She knows they are friends as well as samurai. Kevin says his duty is to protect everyone in the city, not just his friends. Lauren says they’re lucky to have each other as she’s never had a friend before. Kevin says she does now.

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Down on the Sanzu, Dayu has an unsettling feeling and realizes it’s about Deker. Night falls and Jayden and Deker are still fighting. Deker rhymes some puns while he strikes at Jayden, but Jayden gains the upper hand and seems to have finally defeated Deker. The three Rangers see the huge explosion and run towards it.

Back at the manse, Lauren tells Kevin he should go with the others as she’s worried about him too. His dedication is admirable, but he should go, she says.

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In the middle of the burning field, Jayden struggles to get up and thinks it’s finally over, but Deker laughs and gets up.

“This cursed body won’t stop.”

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The others arrive and beg Jayden to stop. “Neither of you have to do this,” they say.

But Deker insists they finish this. Suddenly, he can’t lift URAMASA!! and looks down to find Dayu holding his arm. She shows her human self to him while the others wonder who Deker is talking to.

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Dayu says she doesn’t want to lose him again. Jayden stands and walks away, but Deker morphs back into his Nighlok form and charges. But suddenly, Kevin arrives and strikes Deker from behind. Kevin gives the others an opening to allow them to grab Jayden from inside the ring of fire.

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They look back at Deker who says he’s free before dissolving.

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Dayu tells Octoroo that Deker is gone, she say it in spirit. “I’ve lost him forever,” she says.

OOH-AH-OOH! At least we still have Xandred, Octoroo says. He tells Dayu to play her harmonium to help Xandred’s recovery speed up. Now with her broken heart, she has a lot of pain and misery to spread around. She’s got nothing else to lose.

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Morning. The Rangers are sitting around in the forest.

Jayden thanks them and apologizes for keeping a secret. He says he has to go, but the Rangers say they don’t care about the secret and that he’s still their leader. Mike challenges Jayden to tell them what they all felt wasn’t real. A tear falls down Jayden’s face as URAMASA dissolves like its master.

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Antonio tries to avoid Lauren, but she catches him and asks about Jayden when he was a kid. Antonio says Jayden treated him as an equal and made him think he could do anything.. No wonder everyone follows him, she says. Oh, you’re cool too, he tells her.

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The alarm sounds and Lauren and Antonio head out to fight embiggened Moogers. Mentor/Ji calls Kevin and Jayden says he’ll meet them there.

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While the Rangers fight off the big and small Moogers, Dayu is by the ocean and reaffirms her allegiance to Xandred. Mia sees her and they attempt to fight, but Mia gets the first strike at the harmonium. Dayu laughs and informs Mia that by doing that, she’s unleashed all the immense pain and misery that’s been stored up in the harmonium. A large dark cloud begins spewing out.

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“It’s like a cloud of pure misery!”

OOH-AH-OOH! The Sanzu quickly rises from all the misery and Xandred has finally risen.

Xandred thanks Dayu who feels like she’s repaid her debts to him.

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Episode Thoughts
Not as strong an episode as the last few weeks.

The Deker/Dayu climax was pretty flat and underwhelming. For being one of the few things Samurai handled pretty well, they dropped the ball with its ending. Tweaking Juzo and Dayu’s original stories from Shinkenger was an understandable, but welcome decision. It provided much needed creativity out of the steady stream of Google Translate scripts.

But its climax turned out to be anticlimactic. Even for Dayu herself, she seemed pretty underwhelmed by the love of her life getting killed.

The Antonio-Lauren scenes were off. The Kevin-Lauren scenes were off. The Rangers and Jayden scenes were off. It was just an overall flat episode after a few great episodes.

How Much Better Was Sentai Than Power Rangers?
Corresponding Shinkenger Episodes: Act 47 – Bonds

And it once again all comes down to translating the source material. Samurai kept much of the material from the Shinkenger episode. But as we already know, not everything can be translated over to Power Rangers and make sense.

First comparing Deker and Juzo’s ends. Juzo’s end was some dark sh*t. He took pleasure in his sword because he had nothing left. He was a depraved psychopath and when even his sword, the memory of his dead family turned its back on him, he really was nothing and he burned inside out. On Samurai, it took one strike from Kevin to finish him. Mmkay.

Antonio and Lauren’s scenes continued the strange direction they took with Antonio being a jerk to her when he had no reason to. Kevin’s scenes with Lauren continued Samurai’s insistence that Kevin = Ryunnosuke when that is definitely not true. They had to work around the Shinkenger footage, but laziness took over when they had to explain it on Samurai.

But the worst translation this episode and maybe this final act for the season is Jayden’s running from home. In Shinkenger, Takeru leaving and being sorry to the others for lying to them and keeping a secret worked because of that unique lord-retainer relationship. Takeru had to hold himself back from getting close with the others, he had guilt for having the others risk their lives for him when he felt he didn’t deserve that kind of trust in him. When his sole purpose in life was fulfilled, he felt lost. His family was dead. He had no more responsibility.

Jayden never had to deal with those kinds of doubts and inner struggles. When the Rangers talked about thinking everything was a lie or not real, it doesn’t quite have the impact it did on Shinkenger because Jayden always thought of them as his friends and comrades. “Rangers Together, Samurai Forever.”

So all this “He’s our leader,” “what we had together was real!!!” drama on Samurai just comes off incredibly flat and forced.

On a more positive note though, only TWO episodes of Samurai left! Two years later and we’re almost done! Whew.


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