Recap: Power Rangers Dino Charge, Episode 18 – "You're definitely not the man who inspired me."

Recap: Power Rangers Dino Charge, Episode 18 – Deep Down Under

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Fury tries to convince Sledge that the Plesio Zord has been awakened since the Purple Energem has bonded with someone. Sledge doesn’t really have any faith Fury will get the job done, but Fury has already asked Wrench to resurrect Meteor to help. Sledge goes along with the plan.

The Rangers are still in New Zealand because that’s where Disney moved production of the series because they too are sure the Plesio Zord is somewhere nearby. Shelby’s arranged a meeting with her idol Dr. Runga who Kendall agrees would know plenty about Plesiosaurs.

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“But shoes squish toes. It very much pain.”

Shelby, a barefoot Koda and the rest approach the paleontologist who is in the middle of a magazine cover photoshoot. Back cover at least.

Shelby tries to explain that they are she is a huge fan of his. He doesn’t really care and wants to know why they’re really here. Riley comes right out to ask where would a living Plesiosaurs live today?

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Runga assumes they’re just searching for the legendary tanihwa, like a New Zealand Lochness monster. If the thing were real, it’d look plenty like a plesiosaur. He tells them where to “find” one and returns to his photoshoot.

The Rangers split up and search different areas. Kendall sends Tyler and Shelby coordinates to a new location. And here, the Purple Energem reacts! They look out at the water and the Plesio Zord appears!

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Shelby takes a video on her phone, but suddenly the Plesio Zord is being attacked from the sky.

Fury and Meteor arrive. Fury tells Meteor to destroy the zord. But the Plesio Zord dives back into the water.

“Sledge keeps sending monsters we already defeated. He must be running out of ideas.”

Fury promises they will never gain control of the zord. That encourages Tyler and Shelby to morph.

Vivix appear and Meteor sends some of his balls at them. But Tyler smashes them all and smashes Meteor’s blaster. While Ivan fights Fury off to the side, the others try to use the DinoSpike against Meteor. Fury jumps back to whisk Meteor away as he has an idea who can lead them to the Plesio Zord .

Fury smashes a dinosaur skull at Runga’s feet and demands he find the dinosaur/tanihwa that the six teens spotted. Runga is blinded by the possible fame and magazine front cover, as well as Fury threat to kill him.

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Kendall tells the Rangers that after analyzing Shelby’s video, she thinks the Plesio Zord must be sick. After zords are awakened, some need to be near the Energem or they’ll be extinct for good.

The guys go ahead to the car while Shelby finishes her lunch. That allows Runga to appear and give him an opportunity to steal Shelby’s video from her phone.

The Rangers have no luck searching a cave. But Kendall has some news for them. Runga has already sent a screencap of the Plesio Zord to the media and will hold a press conference to reveal “his” findings. Shelby is pissed.

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The Rangers head to Runga’s dig site as preparations are made for the live broadcast. Shelby confronts him and says Runga better tell everyone the video is fake or New Zealand will be crawling with gawkers and the dinosaur will die.

Runga says he can’t do that. He offers to share the credit and both of them can become uber famous. But Shelby is disgusted. This is not the Dr. Runga that inspired her to become interested in dinosaurs when she was younger.

The Rangers hurry to try and find the Plesio Zord. Kendall directs them to a nearby seacave and indeed, the Purple Energem starts glowing once they are near.

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“I’m still amazed the world isn’t flat.”
“Oh yes. Why’d they change that?”

Runga follows them to the seacave. Shelby is upset, but Runga says she made him remember his dream of finding a real live dinosaur. And now he can finally meet one. But actually, it’s not a dinosaur. It’s a Dino Zord.

But, zords are used by Power Rangers. And they are Power Rangers!

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Runga tells them the guy had said it was a real dinosaur. The guy being Fury who now appears with Meteor and a bunch of Vivix.

The Rangers morph and take care of the Vivix while Runga heads into the cave for safety. Fury and Meteor join in the fight. Shelby runs into the cave when the Energem starts glowing again.

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Meteor follows her inside and attacks. Shelby drops the Energem. Runga runs over and picks it up. Shelby tells him to toss the Energem to the Plesio Zord in the cavern. That reenergizes her. Meteor runs out.

The Plesio Zord flies out and attacks Meteor. Sledge embiggens Meteor and the Rangers hop onto the Plesio Zord. But not before Shelby thanks Runga and he thanks her.

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The Rangers go Battle Mode and activate the Plesio Charge Megazord in space to defeat Meteor for good with a Galactic Blast.

Sledge is upset at Fury’s failure again and decides he’ll be doing things himself from now on.

The Rangers head home. Kendall commends them.

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Episode Thoughts

I thought this was a good episode. It was basically one of those zord searching episodes, but still enjoyable. I like that Dino Charge episodes feature actual plot instead of random footage being forced to make sense.

Here it was Runga and being Shelby’s idol and talking about the idea of fame and doing the right thing. Nice little lesson for the kiddies.

Shelby being upset and standing up for herself and all that were great character moments for her.

And I liked identifying the Plesio Zord as female. Have they ever noted genders of zords before? I don’t immediately remember any.

There were some questions though. Like Fury intent on destroying the Plesio Zord. Wouldn’t they want it for themselves? Wrench can resurrect dead monsters, they could surely find a way to control zords, yeah? (hehe)

And people are shocked to see evidence of a Lochness-type monster, but no one cares huge robotic dinosaurs and other monsters are running around some city called Amber Beach in the US?

Plus, I don’t remember what reason the monsters keep coming back to life in Kyoryuger. It’s not really explained here either. Which is why Riley’s line about “running out of ideas” is kinda hilarious and maybe a knock on Kyoryuger? lol

But those are just nitpicks. The episode was still enjoyable. Nice little character moments from all, especially Shelby. And nice little unmorphed fight scenes as well.

As an aside, Tyler must be greatly inspired by Filipino actor Enchong Dee. Just check out his Instagram and you’ll hear the exact same “Awesome!” as Tyler’s in almost all his videos. lol I was wondering why Tyler’s awesomes sounded so familiar. And I only just realized. Lol

How different was Dino Charge from Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger?
Corresponding episode(s): Brave 21 – “Zoom! Plezuon’s Back”

This episode only uses footage of the megazord battle in Kyoryuger since they used the old man Purple plot in the last episode. Plus, we don’t need to meet some random scientist in a secret lab since we already have one in Miss Kendall Morgan. *wink*wink*


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6 thoughts on “Recap: Power Rangers Dino Charge, Episode 18 – "You're definitely not the man who inspired me."

  1. This second episode of the Purple Energem story arc was awesome! Just like the last episode, it was like 90% original footage! It makes me wonder, will the finale keep the classic tradition of Judd Lynn’s “first and last episode 100% original footage”?

  2. Nice to see this episode takes place on New Zealand.

    It’s nice to see that Shelby has a role model, Dr. Runga, who is paleontologist.
    Her interaction with Doctor was pretty touching and memorable.
    She had such a great character this episode, which proves once again that Dino Charge is far superior to its sentai counterpart.
    Shelby is FAR more interesting and has better character than Amy, who wouldn’t give a crap about education and rather read comic and watch TV (by using her foot to use remote… yeah).

    It’s interesting that Dr. Runga mentioned “zord”, where it’s not often you get to hear that term from civilian; granted, he does know about Power Rangers (which is no surprise, since Power Rangers has been existed for 20+ years), but it was noteworthy.

    It’s nice to see original zord footage for Dino Charge Megazord: Tri-Stego-Ptera Formation and Plesio Zord, even they are in CGI.
    I also like bike scenes for Green and Black, which is also original.

    I wished Albert was in this episode.
    Even if can’t morph, it would’ve been nice to see him hang around as tour guide or something.
    I already miss him very much. I don’t think I ever missed 1-shot/guest character this much before. I didn’t care a bit when Ulshade retire as ranger. lol
    I would have liked to see him pilot the megazord with Tyler’s help.
    So much for seeing MALE Purple Dino Drive mode (for now).

    Since rangers got Plesio Zord, it would have been nice if Shelby used Plesio Charger in this episode, since it was she was the main. Then again, Plesio Charger wasn’t mentioned once in this episode (it was on megazord however), which is kind of odd.
    It’s nice see to ranger goes back to U.S. with Plesio Zord; it’s sure going to save a lot of money, next time they travel to another part of the world. lol

    One thing that kind of bothered me is that how did Koda and Ivan got their passport?
    Did they even get residency (Green Card) or citizenship for U.S.?
    Koda would definitely need either of those, if want to pursue his career as caveman insurance man. lol
    I know this is a kid show, but still.
    It’s also interesting how Kendall managed to afford trip for 6 people to New Zealand, which is quite pricey. Either Kendall has tons of mileage or she’s very rich.
    Then again, they could just use their Dino Charge Megazord to fly to New Zealand; I guess Kendall wanted Koda and Ivan to experience flying on 20th/21st century vehicle.

    Not as goods previous episode, but it was very solid.
    Good Bye New Zealand!
    Welcome Back to U.S.!!

    1. Omg yes! I didn’t really think about the passports, especially for Koda lol and its definitely expensive to fly to New Zealand from the US he he

      I remember Amy’s feet remote. Lol I am definitely enjoying DC more than Kyoryuger

  3. Very nice episode. I liked it. I thought Shelby really shined in this episode after being somewhat absent for a while.

    And I liked the consistency in this episode as well. Namely Dr Runga not bonding with the Purple Energem even after a change in heart. At least with Prince Phillip he was trying to do good deeds, even if it was for the wrong reason. He also had good intentions with becoming a ranger and never was a jerk at any point. Not the case with Dr Runga.

    Although I personally would have liked to have seen him explain his actions at his press conference. See the repercussions and take the consequences. Also, while it made sense that Sledge didn’t trust Fury to get a zord and an Energem, isn’t there the old saying “If you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself”? I thought he would’ve gone down there himself and done it. Or maybe we wouldn’t have a season if Sledge got axed too early. Then again, Power Rangers has done multiple big bads in a single season before (I’m mainly talking about seasons where you start with one big bad, then he gets replaced by another one, then possibly another one). Mystic Force, Samurai, and Megaforce to name a few. And there’s that monster resurrection device again. They can’t keep using it throughout Dino Supercharge, can they? I don’t know.

    One last thing: did Shelby just throw out a Star Trek quip at the end? Did I really just hear that? That’s not a complaint, mind you. If so, then that’s awesome (even though I’m not into Star Trek that much)! Chip Lynn, you sly dog!

    Look forward to the next episode!

    1. Yeah that was one thing I was wondering too. I know who will become the Purple Ranger, but I almost expected Runga to become the Ranger when they were in the cave. Good point though how it didn’t work.

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