Recap: Power Rangers (Super) Megaforce, Episode (6) 26 – "Keep your hands to yourself!"

Recap: Power Rangers (Super) Megaforce, Episode (6) 26 – Spirit of the Tiger

The Rangers are at the zoo. There’s a commotion over a zookeeper cleaning up a lion’s pen with the lion right next to him. Everyone’s in awe.

“It’s like he’s one with the tiger!”

The Rangers move on to flamingos, elephants and monkeys.

“Look, Troy, it’s your brother!”

They start hurling animal facts at each other while Emma takes stalker pics of the zookeeper who’s putting on a jacket with a very familiar logo on it.

Up on the ship, Argus introduces Pacha Chamak, a notorious warrior known for his hand-to-hand combat that can overpower any enemy. Vekar thinks he has a silly name, but alright, Pacha Chamak better take care of the Rangers or he’ll face his wrath.

At school, Jake asks Emma if Gia’s around, but she’s already gone. Though they’ll be meeting at Ernie’s. Wanna come with?

Of course!

A master is teaching kung fu to kids at the park as Jake and Emma walk by.

Are you going to offer to carry my books like you do for Gia? Emma asks.
Sure. Jake takes her bag which is considerably lighter than Gia’s. Emma says Gia likes books, she’s very smart. She’s also strong, Jake adds.

“She’s both!”

They snap out of being flirty with each other when Jake asks, you’re her best friend, you’ve gotta know; Do I have a chance with her?

But Emma’s not listening. She sees the kung fu master/zookeeper and they walk over. They introduce themselves and the guy says his name is Casey.

Kung fu and being a zookeeper, what a strange combination.

Casey says he specializes in hand-to-hand self defense, no weapons. He learned it from animals who use their claws, speed and explosive moves to defend themselves.

Jake and Emma’s morpher rings, so they say bye and run off.

Pacha Chamak is attacking the city as the Ranger arrive.

“Keep your hands to yourself monster!”

The Rangers are already morphed but now they go SUPER! Troy, Noah and Gia fight the X Borgs while Emma and Jake take on Pacha Chamak who takes their weapons.

Not all of us need to rely on weapons, Pacha Chamak says as he swats away Troy, Noah and Gia and Blitzes Jake and Emma with punches, knocking them out of the fight.

Troy steps in front of his teammates and says they need to go Legendary. He, Noah and Gia morph into Wild Force and try to get their weapons back from Pacha Chamak who ends up retreating back to the ship.

That’s it!? Verak is not impressed by Knick-knack Paddywack and lays into him until Levira interrupts to say she has a way to amp up his powers.

Back at the park, the others are trying to calm Troy down as he is super pissed that they let go of their weapons.

“A Ranger must never let go of his weapons… EVER!”

Troy storms off and Gia and Noah follow. Jake and Emma think they should fight the monster in his style… NO WEAPONS! They remember that Casey-guy from the zoo so they hurry over.

Casey is cleaning the lion’s pen again. Jake and Emma stutter their way through asking to be Casey’s students. Okay, he says and asks if they could bring that bucket over.

Is he serious? In there!?

Emma grabs the bucket and they slowly enter the lion’s den, weary of a hungry tiger. They carefully take the bucket of supplies to Casey who says fine, meet him at the park tomorrow at dawn.

It’s dawn. Jake and Emma arrive and they begin the crash course in animal spirit kung fu.

Casey says Jake is fierce and strong; he has the Spirit of the Snake. Emma is brave and resilient; she has the Spirit of the Phoenix.

Casey’s been trained to see a person’s animal spirit. He is a Pai Zhua master who can see who they are inside. He says Jake and Emma can trust and control their instincts and know not to use it in anger but only as a means for survival.

“Bare hands can be as mighty as any weapon out there.”

At school, Gia finds Noah sleeping in the computer lab. He’s been here all night looking through the Ranger data Tensou gave them for a new weapon they could use against Pacha Chamak.

Troy comes in, still pissy. WHAT are you guys doing here, class is about to start!

They tell him about researching possible new weapons, but…

“Stop it. I told you, a Ranger never lets go of his weapon. Next time, we just won’t let go. That’s all there is to it.”

Troy leaves. But Gia recognizes the claw logo on the screen. Noah explains it is from the Order of the Claw, a group of Rangers who discovered with proper training, you could release your animal spirit and become a fearsome warrior.

Back at the park, Jake and Emma are sparring when they suddenly start to shimmer. They have their animal spirits!

Pacha Chamak is back downtown and blowing up buildings. The alarms sound at the command lair and Gosei tells Tensou to alert the Rangers. Troy, Gia and Noah arrive first and Pacha Chamak tries to take their weapons again, but they hold on this time.

Troy’s not pissy anymore, so he suggests they fight with their hands instead. But Pacha Chamak pulls out his new Levira power up and uses hand cannons to blast the Rangers away.

Gosei demands Tensou reach Jake and Emma. He calls again and their morphers ring.

“Aren’t you going to answer those morphers?” Casey asks.

Whaaattt?

Casey explains that he is the Jungle Fury Red Ranger and that he couldn’t reveal his true identity until he knew they were ready.

ZOMG, Jake and Emma are starstruck. But Casey tells them to Go, GO! They thank him and go.

Jake and Emma arrive to help the others and try to use what they’ve just learned, but they just get swatted away by Pacha Chamak. They decide to use their animal spirits inside them so they Go Legendary and morph into Jungle Fury.

Jake and Emma tell the others to follow their lead and unleash their animal spirit! They downmorph and finish Pacha Chamak’s first life off with a Final Strike.

Levira embiggens Pacha Chamak and the Rangers hop into their Megazord. They see their Jungle Fury keys are glowing so they decide to use a Jungle Fury Final Strike.

They unleash the Full Fury! And they get the Super Mega Win.

The Rangers are back at the zoo. First Jayden and now this guy!? Coolness. Troy says he realizes being a Power Ranger means they are part of a much bigger plan. They are part of a legacy.

They think they find Casey, but it’s a different guy who says there’s never been a Casey working here at the zoo.

No, he was really here, Jake and Emma say. But that’s okay, Troy says. “We believe you, I believe in all of you! We all did great. Noah, Gia, you didn’t let go of your weapons. And Jake and Emma….”

While Troy is giving his kudos speech no one is listening to, Jake and Emma see Casey in the gazebo, but after he bows, he disappears.

Jake and Emma smile. The others think they’re going crazy.

Episode Thoughts
What is this, ToQger? Casey’s dead and a ghost?!

But seriously. I must say this was a pretty good episode (by Saban Brands standards). And I actually liked it a lot.

Sure there’s plenty to nitpick about like the horribly awkward way Casey reveals who he is. Or Troy being all pissy and getting in a huff over letting go of their weapons only to tell the others to try hand-to-hand combat first chance they get. Uh… okay.

But as tribute episodes go, this was much better than last week’s Samurai “Let’s bash Mia” episode or the non-tribute SPD episode.

Which now gets me thinking. They never explained how they have SPD powers before the SPD Rangers even exist. Hmm…

I haven’t had any problem laughing at the New Powers and Blitz and Supernova Rangers, but it was very nice to have an episode WITHOUT any new Rangers.

Anyway, this was a very solid episode. And it was nice to see Jason Smith on-screen as Casey. It also reminds me that I’ve been meaning to re-watch Jungle Fury next.

How Much Different Was Power Rangers From Sentai?
Corresponding Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger Episode (s): Episode 7 – Niki-Niki! Kenpo Lesson

I liked that the Megaforce episode had a lot of unmorphed footage but seeing the Gokaiger episode, it was definitely out of necessity what with the Gokaiger eating, running around chasing cats, Joe putting on women’s clothes and Doc and Ahim training with Jan and the kids most of the episode.

But I definitely like that Megaforce decided not to directly translate Doc and Ahim’s “I’m so weak and helpless” story from the Gokaiger episode and instead adapted the basic premise of it to fit Jake and Emma’s characteres as well as Megaforce itself. That is something Saban Brands has not done a lot if at all throughout Samurai and now Megaforce.

The flipside of that though was they needed to come up with that pissyTroy being a dick plot point, but it’s alright in the bigger picture.

Overall, definitely the episode this year, maybe almost as good as those meaningless finale episodes last year. And a great episode by Saban Brands standards.

Celebrate Power Rangers‘ 20th Anniversary on DVD!
The first 18 seasons, from Mighty Morphin to RPM on four complete DVD sets!
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