Recap & Check-in Review: Power Rangers Dino Charge, Episode 20 – "It's all part of the adventure."

Recap and Check-in Review: Power Rangers Dino Charge, Episode 20 – One More Energem

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Wrench is overseeing preparations for Sledge’s big attack on the Rangers as hazmat suited-Vivix handle dangerous chemicals capable of blowing a hole in the ship. But Poisandra has already packed her things and is set to leave the ship forever. Sledge promises to get just one more Energem and they can get married.

Meanwhile, Kendall has created a Getbot which will be able to find the Energem anywhere on Sledge’s ship. They just have to figure out a way to get the Getbot onto a transport pod.

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Kendall says they’ll need to use everything they’ve got, including the Graphite Ranger. Prince Philip walks into the command cave. And just in time because transport pods have entered Earth’s atmosphere.

They head to the location where they are set to land. Kendall and Ivan will work to get the Getbot onto one of the pods while the others distract them.

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But Sledge himself appears in front of the Rangers along with Fury, Spikeballs and an army of Vivix. Sledge freezes the Rangers. Ivan tells Kendall he knows how to help. Kendall places the Getbot into the pod and watches from behind a tree.

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Keeper arrives to help and Sledge decides it’s time for revenge. They battle, but the Purple Energem helps give Sledge the juice he needs to overpower Keeper.

Keeper loses his staff and Sledge orders Fury and the Spikeballs to take him back to ship and torture him.

Sledge returns to his Energem extraction and starts with Tyler. He reaches into his body and pulls it out, forcing Tyler to demorph.

Kendall watches as Keeper is thrown into a pod.

“You have no choice Kendall.”

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She fights off a Vivix and jumps into a pod just as they return to the ship.

Sledge is about to reach into Koda’s body, but Tyler picks up Keeper’s staff and swats Sledge away. That breaks the others out of the freeze hold and Ivan arrives just in time in the Ptera Zord. They hop in.

The Rangers wonder where Kendall is, but she calls in to tell them. Just then, a brand new already embiggened monster arrives. Tyler says he and Shelby will take the Plesiozord to save Kendall and Keeper while everyone else hops into the Megazord to stop the monster.

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Shelby is worried about Tyler, but he says it’s dangerous for both of them. That’s not going to stop them. They fly into space.

Already in space is Kendall as her transport pod docks. She hops out, thankfully with no one around. Getbot gets to getting and Kendall puts on a hazmat suit.

Wrench comes in with the Purple Energem. He puts it in a tin box and hands it to Kendall to put it in the vault. Kendall grabs the Energem before handing the box to a Vivix.

Sledge walks in and gives Wrench the Red Energem to turn into a laser cannon. Sledge is excited to get the other Energems, but Poisandra is upset since he only said one more and wedding.

Tyler and Shelby try to stealthily land on Sledge’s ship. But the sensors detect them. Kendall tries to destroy the computer system, but Wrench has the Vivix hold this “donkey brained” hazmat suited-Vivix.

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“How did this spectacled scientist get on our ship?! Take that disgusting human where it belongs! The trash room!

Meanwhile, the guys have initiated the Ptera Formation of the Megazord and do what they can to take care of the monster.

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In the trash room, Kendall and Keeper are reunited, but are to be burned alive in the incinerator. Keeper says Kendall should not have come after him, but Kendall has an idea. She takes one of the hazardous chemical jugs and just before they get thrown to the fire, smashes it on the floor.

It opens a hole and both she and Keeper jump in. They fall into a room with two Spikeballs playing space chess.

“I’m still shackled!”
“I got this.”

Kendall fights off the Spikeballs. But wait. Something’s happening. She reaches into her pocket and grabs the Purple Energem.

It bonds with her! And…

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Kendall becomes the Purple Ranger! She easily takes care of the Spikeballs as Tyler and Shelby come in, surprised.

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Kendall slashes Keeper’s chains off. He tells her she was always deserving of being a Ranger. She just needed an opportunity to prove it.

The alarm sounds and they hurry out. The guys have initiated Ankylo Pachy Formation and call Tyler and Shelby only to be answered by newly Rangered Miss Morgan.

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Shelby and Kendall guide Keeper to safety, but Tyler gets left behind as Sledge, Wrench and Fury walk into the hallway. He hears their plan to use the Red Energem to power the ship’s lasers with power strong enough to destroy the Megazord with one blast.

As Getbot continues rolling through the ship, Tyler runs after the others and tells them about the plan. Shelby says they should hurry and warn them, but Tyler wants to go after the Energem.

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The alarm sounds and the doors begin to close. Shelby wants to go with him, but Tyler says no.

“You can’t do it alone!”
“I don’t want to do it alone, but I have to. We both know it.”

Shelby calls after Tyler as the door closes. Tyler runs through the halls.

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Kendall, Shelby and Keeper are onboard the Plesiozord and hurry back to the others. They activate the Plesio Charge Megazord.

The guys get ejected from the Megazord and Kendall takes over with the Plesio Charge Megazord. Keeper tells the guys to help Tyler on the ship.

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Tyler knocks out a Vivix who had been following Getbot. He runs toward the bridge of the ship and fights off the Vivix there. He sees where the Red Energem is, but Sledge arrives and blasts him.

Wrench says the laser is locked on to the Megazord and Sledge pushes the button. But nothing happens.

Getbot has taken the Energem! It hands it to Tyler and he morphs.

He and Sledge fight. Tyler knocks Sledge back and Wrench tries to get him to not destroy the navigation console. But it’s too late. The ship is freefalling to Earth.

Tyler heads to the transport deck. But a Vivix has taken the last pod.

“I wish you could see me now Dad! It’s about to get wild!”

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Tyler decides to jump out of the ship.

Fury, Poisandra and Curio join Sledge and Wrench in the bridge.

“You just had to have one more Energem! You’re a half-brain!”
“After 65 million years, you’re just figuring that out?!”

Tyler watches the ship crash into the mountains.

“Looks like it’s the end for both of us Sledge.”

Tyler is ready to die, but the Pterazord swoops in and swallows him.

“You do like to live dangerously, Sir Tyler.”

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The eight Rangers join up and they activate the Plesio Charge Megazord Pachy Rex Formation.

And with their new toy, they finally take care of the monster with a Galactic Blast.

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Everyone’s back at the command cave. Keeper thanks the Rangers for having returned the eight Energems. He says Kendall, Koda and Ivan will help him find the last two. With Sledge gone, the others can return to their normal lives.

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Until the last two Energems are found, they will remain bound to their dinosaur spirit. If ever they are needed again, they will know.

They say their goodbyes. Big group hug.

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Tyler loads his jeep and Shelby asks where he’s headed. He says wherever the next page in his dad’s journal leads him. He is still hoping to find his father.

Tyler asks if Shelby would like to help him. “I could use a Di-know it all.”

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Shelby says sure and Tyler loads her luggage onto the jeep. They drive by and see Riley has trouble with his scooter. They offer him a ride.

“Is this deja vu, or what?!”

Meanwhile at the wreckage of Sledge’s ship, something emerges from solitary confinement.

“It’s my turn now!”

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Episode Thoughts

Whew! That was definitely wild!!!

First of all, this episode showed a few things in the greater scheme of the Power Rangers franchise. First, how is it possible that this MIDseason finale was more exciting than the Legendary Battle finale of Megaforce?!

Second, how did this season show that a 20-episode season could actually work?! Dino Charge could’ve ended with this episode and it would’ve been a perfectly fine season. One of the better ones actually! Sure, there are toys left on the shelf from the 2nd half of Kyoryuger, but they were able to tell a pretty full story in 20 episodes.

But let’s focus on this episode first.

It was definitely a great and exciting midseason climax. So much happened in this episode, yet it didn’t feel rushed at all. Lots of exciting action that never took away from character moments that have made this a great season so far.

The Keeper-Sledge fight was awesome. Though I wish it went a little longer. We definitely need more Keeper action!

I don’t remember a time when I was so happy to see someone become a Ranger. I mean, even before the season started I knew Kendall would become the Purple Ranger. But the way she’s been written this season (though admittedly with some questionable episodes early on), it was very satisfying and exciting to see her finally, officially become a Ranger. It was a great moment and I think there was excellent build up over the season to that moment. Great for the midseason finale too.

It’s become common for 6th/extra Rangers to just pop out of nowhere instead of it being a character already on the canvas from the beginning of the season. So when it’s a character that you’ve already made a connection with, it makes the moment that much more exciting and awesome.

Actually, I remember the last time I was excited to see someone become a Ranger.

*spoiler alert!*

Coincidentally, it was another Purple Ranger, this time on Ressha Sentai ToQger with Conductor becoming ToQ-7 in the Returns movie. I absolutely loved that.

*end spoiler alert*

Back to Dino Charge, it was good seeing Prince Philip pop in. Having Ranger Reserves, basically, is a fresh idea. But you might run into the problem of “Why don’t they show up to every battle and make it easier on themselves?” instead of just popping up randomly, you know?

That falling ship and Tyler jumping out though felt very RPM-like. Take a look:

Right?! Very effective. I guess Chip Lynn was inspired by his own work. Hehe.

While I did like the little goodbye at the end and it fit with the story of this midseason finale, you do have to wonder if they even checked out the crash site before proclaiming their fight was over. I mean, come on now. Kendall and Riley, at the very least, would’ve questioned it, yes? As we saw, the ship actually looked pretty good for such a huge explosion and crash (seen only as a reflection in Tyler’s visor).

While Power Rangers would never show dead bodies, human or not, of course, the ship was absolutely empty. Except for the new big bad to emerge from solitary confinement. But how about the hundreds of criminals who were imprisoned on the ship?

I think it’s safe to assume they’ve all escaped and are now roaming Earth, ready to wreak havoc, including Heckyl and likely including Sledge and Co. (Hello 2nd half of the season!) But it does seem odd that the Rangers and Keeper wouldn’t make sure before packing their bags and heading off to New Zealand, Zandar and on a road trip. No alien DNA alerts?

So the ending was all nice and sweet on the surface. But when you actually look at the situation (and of course as we get to the next episodes), it looks like they all made a pretty huge mistake. Very illogical! (What happened to Riley’s logical head computer? lol)

Writing that, I’ve now discouraged myself. lol This episode was definitely very exciting and satisfying, but far from perfect. Looking at it now, I guess they really did not need to do that neat little ending. There was no need to send the Rangers home like that.

Actually, it would’ve been okay to have the Rangers with their packed bags, but have the alarms go off to stop them and they realize alien monsters are converging on Amber Beach or something. That’s a good cliffhanger. Hmm…

How different was Dino Charge from Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger?
Corresponding episode(s): Brave 23 – Stand! Bakuretsu Kyoryuzin and Brave 24 – Burn! The Seven Kyoryugers

Very different of course. This Dino Charge episode is meant to be a midseason finale while Kyoryugers were sort-of the midseason climax episodes/new Ranger intro eps.

So the stories were certainly completely different. Different Rangers doing different things. And different villains with different goals.

Needless to say, Dino Charge again took the footage and made it work for them and not the other way around.

 

Check-In Review

For these first 20 episodes, Judd Chip Lynn has shown that he knows exactly where Power Rangers needs to be in 2015. Both Samurai and Megaforce were unfortunate messes stuck in 1993. The lack of effort was very clear in those two seasons while here on Dino Charge, the big amount of effort is clear. A cohesive and engaging story, well-written characters brought to life by actually talented actors. None of that was present on Power Rangers the five years previous. (That includes reversioned Mighty Morphin lol)

I’ve mentioned in earlier recaps of this season that Dino Charge would fit right in with the Disney seasons of the franchise. Similar sensibilities in story and character development and the same amount of focus on original New Zealand footage to help make the original Sentai footage work for Power Rangers.

That may be why, right now, I’d have Dino Charge ranked around other Disney seasons on my all-time Power Rangers list. And that’s a good thing for me. With RPM and DinoThunder comfortably on the top of my list, Dino Charge is right there in the scrum of Time Force, Operation Overdrive (yes!), Mystic Force, Lost Galaxy, Ninja Storm and Wild Force on my list.

What also works in favor of Dino Charge was that it came after two horrible seasons that failed to meet expectations. So unless this season had gone lower than Megaforce did (which is possible, but would’ve been a huge feat), Dino Charge would look much better, regardless.

But like I said, it’s more than proven itself and that’s in large part to Chip Lynn being in charge. Of Dino Charge. It’s certainly not perfect (no season is), but it’s doing most things right. And that results in a wholly enjoyable, entertaining and exciting series. That’s a very refreshing feeling to have after 5 years of nothingness.

 

 


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6 thoughts on “Recap & Check-in Review: Power Rangers Dino Charge, Episode 20 – "It's all part of the adventure."

  1. I LOVED this episode! I think this may be my favorite episode since the premiere. THIS is how you do a mid-season finale. Not the ones you saw in Samurai and Megaforce. If the MID-season finale was this good, imagine what the ACTUAL finale will be like. It may be a year away, but with the quality of this season, I will wait and find out. Thank you, Chip Lynn, for delivering a great season thus far! I can’t wait to see what’s in store!

    I knew Kendall was going to be the Purple Ranger for a while, and it was awesome to see her officially become one. Are Sledge, Poisandra, Wrench, and Fury all destroyed? What about Heckyll and all the other monsters from the prison cells? Did they suffer the same fate? Or did they all somehow survive and are now out and about? I liked seeing the ruins of the ship at the end. I thought it was very atmospheric (if that’s even a word). And apparently the monster we see at the very end, according to the Power Rangers wikia, is named Snide. He and Heckyll shared the same cell, so I guess Heckyll survived as well.

    I guess we’ll find out in February with the premiere of Dino Supercharge! See you then!

    1. I think it’s safe to say they all survived the crash. Which is why I’m a little surprised the Rangers think everything’s fine hehe. Little do they know they have 20 more episodes of fighting!

  2. Now THIS is how you made a finale! Now I wonder how Chip Lynn’s gonna top this with the Dino Supercharge finale, but I’m sure he won’t let us down! This was a solid and great season, thanks to Mr. Lynn, of course. Maybe you should made an article with your favorite episodes of this season.

  3. When I first saw the title of the episode, it really confused me.
    “One More Energem”? They haven’t found Aqua or Silver yet, so technically, they have 2 more to go.
    Apparently, if Sledge gets ONE MORE Energem, he can marry Poisandra.
    Make sense. Still better and convincing love story than King/Amy (Take That Sanjo!).
    Though, I’m still bothered why they couldn’t just get married, but I digress.
    Vivix looks nice with yellow hazmat suit.

    Tensou, is that you? lol
    It’s nice to see another Kendall invention, GetBot.

    Good to see you back Prince Phillip!
    We’ve missed you.
    Just in time for season finale!
    Nice to see 7 rangers!!

    Regarding getting to Sledge’s ship, couldn’t Keeper just teleport himself to it?
    Couldn’t rangers just hold/touch Keeper and teleport themselves, instead of using pod, which is riskier?
    I guess his teleportation doesn’t work out of atmosphere.
    Then again, Keeper doesn’t know where the ship and doesn’t know the interior, so it kinds of make sense.

    I like that this episode uses a lot of original footage.
    It’s been a while we’ve seen Sledge confront rangers.
    Keeper fighting Sledge was pretty awesome!
    Even though it was short, it had great action and choreography.
    It proves once again that Keeper is better than Torin (Take that Sanjo!!).

    I also like the use of original zord footage, even though they’re CG.
    Nice to see unmorphed ranger (Tyler) in zord (Plesio) cockpit; we haven’t seen that since Super Samurai.

    Any one wanted to see Vivix fall in incinerator?
    Granted, it would have been too violent and dark for kids. lol
    Liquid that makes holes in the ground; nice Alien reference.
    Good thing it didn’t penetrated the ship or else they would have sucked out in space!

    Kendall became Purple Ranger! Finally!!
    I wished it happened earlier in the season; better late than never I suppose.
    It’s nice to see FEMALE Purple Ranger in ORIGINAL footage.
    PR Fans who’s been waiting for Female Purple Ranger got their wish.
    Nice action scene, but I think Yayoi got more edge IMO.
    I really like Tyler/Shelby moment, before they leave the ship.
    Tyler wanted to stay to retrieve his Energem, while Shelby convinces him not to.
    It was a great character moment, really shows how they really care about each.
    I really don’t want to see them apart.
    This is something that was completely lacking in King/Amy relation. (Take THAT Sanjo!!!)

    Nice to see 2 FEMALE RANGERS (Pink and Purple) AND Mentor (Keeper) on zord’s cockpit.
    It’s an interesting combination.

    R.I.P. GetBot.
    You’ll join eTracer in Robot Heaven.
    Nice escape Tyler! I like how he’s like ready to die, when he mentioned “end for both of us, Sledge”. That’s what you call BRAVE!! (TAKE THAT SANJO!!!!)
    Nice rescue by Ptera; if this was King, I would let him fall to death. lol

    Great cockpit scene with 8 RANGERS!
    It’s going to get really crowded, if/when Aqua and Silver joins.

    It’s interesting that none of the rangers checked the wreckage of Sledge’s ship to check the status of monsters. Since all the cells are broken (including Heckyl), I’m curious where they all went.

    It’s sad to see rangers goes separate way.
    It was very cute to see group hugs of 8 rangers; far more convincing than if Kyoryuger had one.
    Tyler, Shelby, and Riley goes along, mentioning about Ankylo (Aqua); I wonder if it foreshadow Ranger they are going to encounter on their trip.
    Chase and Phillip goes back to their home, while Koda stays at museum, since he has nowhere else to go. Koda, you better start thinking about getting job as insurance agent, since chicks did that job. You can’t stay there forever! lol
    Since everyone went their separate way, Kendall, Koda, and Keeper are the only one at museum…
    Keeper is a guy right? Kendall is going to have a pretty interesting time for next couple of weeks/months until other rangers comes back. lol

    What a great way to wrap up the season.
    Probably one of the best season finale I’ve seen in a while.
    It was bit rushed IMO; this could have been a 3-part, but 2-part was decent enough.
    I honestly think this season would have benefited 32~40 episodes a season/year format much better than previous years. 30 episodes season would have been nice number, but I digress.
    I wished this episode aired last week, instead of Christmas episode (which was decent), that ruined the momentum; blame Nick U.S. for that; Nick really needs better management.
    Regardless, this season is not only better than last few years, but it’s already better than first half (24 episodes) of Kyoryuger, which was really hard to sit through.

    Despite the popular reception of Dino Charge, it such a shame it’s the lowest ratings among the Saban Brands/Neo-Saban Era (Samurai~Dino Charge), where Super Megaforce had higher ratings. I guess lack of new episodes on online streaming (Hulu, Netflix, etc.) really affected it.

    Thank you for your review and it was an honor to comment about it.
    See you next year for Dino Supercharge (which is still silly name) and have a Happy Holiday!

    Take care.

    1. Hi! Yes, it was definitely nice to see lots of original footage.

      I watched the Kyoryuger episodes after I already watched this episode and I found that I enjoyed them even less than I did remembering the Kyoryuger episodes I did watch. It’s definitely a different feeling! Makes me kind of sad since I really liked Kyoryuger when it first began. I still don’t know when or if I’ll finish Kyoryuger! lol But I guess I will next year.

      Definitely too bad about the ratings. I guess people tuned in to see the anniversary and were probably scared away by the poor season and thought Dino Charge would be the same. =(

      Anyway, thank you for commenting every week! It’s always great to see everyone else’s comments about the episodes since I sometimes don’t have time to go perusing the PR message boards and stuff. =)

      Happy Holidays! And see you next year!

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