Recap and Season Review: Power Rangers Dino (Super) Charge, Episode (20) 40 – "A new chapter begins."

Recap: Power Rangers Dino (Super) Charge, Episode (20) 40 – End of Extinction

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The Rangers find the Dark Energem and hurry back to the command cave. As they fight off Vivix and Spikeballs outside the museum, Sledge explains to Wrench that the hatching eggs are actually Electronets which they will use to pull Earth out of its orbit and to its demise.

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Fury attacks Keeper and tosses him around the command cave. The Rangers arrive and that forces Fury to poof away.

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Keeper says they are no longer safe here and must leave. But Sledge contacts them and tells them his plan to drag Earth into deep space and into a deep freeze. The farther Earth is from the sun, the colder it will get and everyone will freeze to death.

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Sledge connects the Electronet anchor points to his ship and begins to tow the Earth. Kendall says they have an hour left until they freeze to death.

Keeper says their only hope is to destroy the Dark Energem and to unlock the Ultimate Power of the Energems. Riley asks if pure light can destroy the pure darkness of the Dark Energem. (ToQger?) Chase has an idea, but it requires teamwork.

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The Rangers speak to the people of Earth and ask for their help. Everyone, including Col. Truman, Kaylee, Riley’s brother, are handed mirrors. The Rangers + Heckyl head into space aboard the Ptera Zord and Plesio Zord.

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They release the Dark Energem, attached to G-Ma Betty’s light reflector, into space. At just the right moment, the people of Earth point their mirrors into the sky. That shines light back into space at the Dark Energem which heats up before exploding in spectacular fashion.

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BUT! The huge explosion has created a blackhole! It first pulls in Sledge’s ship and Earth is sucked in right after.

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The Rangers can’t believe it. They killed everyone themselves. They feel guilty. Heckyl feels this is Sentai 6 all over again.

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Keeper says it is time to use the Ultimate Power. He tells the Rangers to toss their Energems into space. Keeper leaves the cockpit and floats in space to explain that the ten Energems “break the chains that divide the past, present and future.” The Ultimate Power can transport them through time!

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Keeper says he will send them back in time to stop Sledge forever. The time portal is ready and the Rangers fly through in their zords.

Shelby, Koda, Ivan, Riley and Chase land the Ptera Zord. They don’t know where the others are, but they walk around to find they are…

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In prehistoric times! A time when dinosaurs were still alive! This is the day Keeper and Sledge crashed into Earth. Speaking of, they see Keeper’s crashing into Earth and they run over.

Keeper finds the Energems and is startled by these strange people.
“We are Power Rangers from the future.”

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Keeper asks them to prove they have bonded with the Energems. They put their hands out and the Energems fly over to them. “Indeed! You are Power Rangers!”

Sledge’s ship crashes on Earth and he and Fury approach the Rangers. Koda leads the morph and the battle begins.

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Fury gets the Energems box, but it’s empty. Tyler appears and has the other Energems, leaving with box only with a bomb. It explodes and absolutely incinerates Fury in mid-air.

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Sledge shoots at the Rangers and they get knocked on their butts. Sledge calls for the Magnabeam and is surprised the Rangers know what it is.

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Sledge is embiggened, but Kendall, Philip, Papa Navarro, Zenowing and Heckyl storm Sledge’s ship and take over. Heckyl works the controls and sends the Electronet to grab Sledge. He sets the ship on a collision course to the sun. The Rangers quickly hop back into the Plesio Zord and watch as Sledge’s ship melts in the sun.

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Earth is saved. Everything’s fine now.

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Keeper says Koda and Ivan can return to their own time if they like. They like.
“There’s no place like home.”

Keeper opens the time portal.

The Rangers say they will never forget each other. They share a group hug and say goodbye.

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Koda and Ivan step into the portal.

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The others turn to Keeper who also bids them farewell, “until we meet again, my friends.”

The Rangers step into the portal as well.

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Keeper would like Heckyl to go back in time to stop the Dark Energem from being stolen. That way, Heckyl can also save Sentai 6 with Zenowing. Keeper says Heckyl will also become a Keeper, of the Dark Energem. Heckyl thanks Keeper for the opportunity. He and Zenowing go through the portal.

“Order is restored,” Keeper says, “a new chapter begins.”

The Rangers arrive back in the present day. They all make plans to return to their normal lives, but Kendall suddenly gets an emergency text from the museum.

They hurry back and are shocked.

The Amber Beach Dinosaur Museum is now… the Amber Beach Dinosaur ZOO!

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The Rangers realize that since Sledge’s asteroids never hit Earth, the dinosaurs were never wiped out!

A caretaker runs out and tells them to hurry and help a triceratops with its indigestion.

“A new aventure begins now.”

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Episode Thoughts

WOW! That has to be the biggest finale twist ever on Power Rangers! (At least, that I can remember. Venjix being alive is pretty big too.) But the dinosaurs are still alive?! What?! I didn’t follow international airing spoilers or any possible spoilers from final arc Kyroryuger footage, so I had no idea what to expect from the finale.

I’m not really obsessed with continuity in Power Rangers. Maybe I once was before. But after getting into Sentai and then this clusterfrak of a transition from Disney to Saban Brands, I don’t mind if things aren’t of the same continuity. As long as every season is acknowledged, even if you must suspend disbelief. Does that make sense? Like all those Sentai and Kamen Rider crossovers that absolutely don’t fit with each other. But they still happen and you accept them for the fanwanks that they are. So long as you don’t completely discredit and discount and throw away a whole group of seasons just because they weren’t produced by you (Johnathan Tzachor!), everything will be fine.

Anyway, back to this episode itself.

It was a fun and exciting episode. I have no idea if this story is lifted from Kyoryuger’s finale or not. But I enjoyed those (PR original?) scenes in space and all the blackhole sucking. Very dramatic.

The time traveling was kind of contrived. And the “Ultimate Power” thing with the Energems, I don’t think has ever been introduced before. Thanks a lot Keeper. lol It definitely reminded me of the Gokaigers trying to collect all the Keys for some Ultimate Power as well. But here on Dino Charge, it basically came out of nowhere in all its deus ex machina glory.

The Energems’ Ultimate Power is time travel?! Umm… okay.

But it did give us a truly emotional scene with Koda and Ivan going back to their own time. It was the first and only MaGMCM for me from this entire season. And it was very effective.

I actually forgot that Keeper caused the extinction of the dinosaurs until they started replaying the scene from the premiere. It reminded me of how amazing that moment was last year when the show presented us with the direct cause of the extinction of dinosaurs. Tying it into Power Rangers in such a clever and original way.

Anyway, ending with such a cute and clever twist was very interesting and fun. There’s a lot of questions that come up now though and no doubt Ranger fans will be debating the answers to those questions for years to come.

One question I have is: So is “Keeper” not his name? How is Heckyl a Keeper now too? That was probably the most odd thing for me this episode. lol

I enjoyed seeing everyone unmorphed in the cockpit. Loved seeing Keeper fighting again. And the drone shots! I just love drone shots.

For this episode overall, it was fun and enjoyable. But as a season finale, it was very underwhelming. Like I’ve mentioned many times in recent weeks, this final stretch of Dino Charge has been completely slow and without any sense of climax. And I guess I’ll discuss more of that below:

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Season Hindsight Review

It says a lot about the Dino Charge that there is no need for an entirely separate, long and ranting Hindsight Review post.

Power Rangers Dino Charge is a huge accomplishment for Saban Brands and the franchise after four years of huge disappointments. So it certainly was not a difficult task for Dino Charge to improve on those two seasons (and FOUR years!). And the good news is Dino Charge did.

Samurai and Megaforce were just poor seasons in just about every aspect. Dino Charge was good in almost all aspects.

Basically, Power Rangers Dino Charge has been a good, enjoyable season. It wasn’t mind-blowing or out of this world amazing. It won’t crack my Top 5 Power Rangers seasons. But it didn’t need to be all that. The season overall was comparable to a regular Disney season, to be honest.

And that’s definitely a compliment. I’ve written about the positive things Disney did for the Power Rangers franchise. And I saw many of those positive qualities here in Dino Charge: great casting, smarter writing to keep up with today’s more sophisticated young target audience and actually adapting the Sentai footage to work for them instead of the other way around.

The season started off in epic fashion. Our season’s mentor caused the extinction of dinosaurs. Wow! It then introduced us to a likeable and charming team of Rangers. (Made possible in large part by a likeable and charming cast.) Keeper was awesome most of the time. The story was solid and the action exciting. Sledge and Co. were a fun, yet still dangerous group of villains.

Everything was going great for a while, especially relative to the four years before it. But when the show returned from its summer hiatus this year (in the middle of Dino Super Charge aka the second half of Dino Charge), something felt off.

The episodes were largely filler, but they weren’t all that fun or enjoyable. They just seemed to be there. One or two would fine. But the entire stretch of episodes were stunningly bland. And that bled into what was supposed to be the season’s finale arc. A finale, as I’ve mentioned above, was very underwhelming.

Nothing really came of Heckyl/Snide as villains. Lord Arcanon was a basic MOTW as well. So why the need to keep Sledge away for half the season? Lack of story for him? His “I’ve been planting eggs around the world” excuse felt very tacked on. And while the idea of towing Earth into deep space so it can freeze to death is a great evil plan, the execution was far from great.

I think a big problem is that there was no clear endgame for Sledge. Yes, he wanted the Energems. But what was he going to use them for? Was he going to sell them? He already had a great bounty hunter business going. And selling asteroids on the side as well.

The battle to protect the Energems kind of lost its significance and importance as time went on. And the post-hiatus episodes really exacerbated that. There wasn’t really a sense of gravitas to the world saving at the end here. Especially when the solution was easily pulled out of nowhere.

But as disappointing as these final 10 episodes have been, I still consider Dino Charge a successful season.

Overall, I echo my sentiments from my Check-In Review last year:
“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)”

“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.”

So thank you Dino Charge for restoring my faith in Power Rangers. And now on to Ninja Steel.


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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Also, check out the brand new Power Rangers Dino Super Charge store, also at Amazon!

0 thoughts on “Recap and Season Review: Power Rangers Dino (Super) Charge, Episode (20) 40 – "A new chapter begins."

  1. Yes, I’ve already seen some fans getting angry because this finale ruins the so-called “PR Continuity “, and of course, let’s not forget the whole thing about the Talon Ranger. Heck, even Chip himself said this season was a challenge because there was 10 Rangers. Yeah, maybe it’s not the best finale in PR history, but it’s a good one and that’s good enough for me.

    I’m so glad Judd “Chip” Lynn has kept his tradition of making the first and last episodes 100% original footage. It was a breath of fresh air after the Samurai and Megaforce finales.

    1. I didn’t even know about Talon Ranger or Deathryuger (I still haven’t reached that point in Kyoryuge lol). So I wasn’t upset about that.

      So you watched all of Kyoryuger? All this finale was original NZ footage? Also, how do you compare Dino Charge to Kyoryuger?

      1. No, I haven’t watched Kyoryger, only a few scenes. Yes, it was NZ footage, remember that Sledge and the Energems don’t appear in Kyoryger. And finally, as I said before, I don’t know much about Kyoryger, so I can’t make any comparison.

  2. At least the final episode of Dino Charge was different from Kyoryugers and at least there was no Daigo-centric plot in this series.

    1. Did you watch all of Kyoryuger? I only got to around 30 (or maybe even earlier) before I just stopped. How do you compare the two? Which is better? One better than the other? Same? Good things from both?

      1. I watch some of the episodes for comparison but I read some of the comments from netizens claiming that Kyoryuger was too “Daigo-centric” story.

  3. Ehhhhhhh….. I’m not really sure how I feel about this episode. I do think it’s better than the the finales to Samurai and Megaforce, but I do agree with others that this does mess up the timeline of Power Rangers a little (to say the least). If it was established that it was a alternate timeline (as I hear RPM is), then I wouldn’t have a problem with it. Then again, that just makes me ask more questions that I will not bother going into right now. Time travel is something that can either make or break something. Here, I think it just broke it.

    And it’s a shame, really. Dino Charge (or as I like to say, the first half of the season) was pretty good. But Dino Supercharge (or the second half, as I call it) just failed to hit the same highs that Dino Charge had. The season on the whole has been good, and I do think the cast is one of the high points of the show. Certainly better than Samurai and Megaforce. But between the very good first half and the weak second half, especially with the (what I consider) poorly handled time travel in the ending, I put this somewhere in the middle of Power Rangers. Not great, not terrible. Just in the middle.

    Hopefully Ninja Steel is great and builds on the strengths on Dino Charge and doesn’t repeat mistakes made. But only time will tell. See you then!

    1. I agree. For me, I guess I’ve gotten over PR continuity lately. But I definitely understand fans’ frustrations since I do remember being one of them in the recent past Hehe.

      The first half of DC was definitely great. Just refreshing and enjoyable. The Super part of the season wasn’t Samurai/Megaforce bad, but definitely underwhelming, especially after the great first half.

      Definitely hoping Ninja Steel will be good. But I might be more critical since I actually watched Ninninger all the way through and liked it, unlike most of the fans out there lol
      See you then!

  4. I still say the biggest problem of this finale wasn’t, that it destroyed continuity, but that it destroyed the season itself. Like, 40 Episodes of Dino Charge just didn’t ever happen now and the Rangers never existed. This just makes the whole season feel kinda pointless for me. We basically watched it for nothing. Which is even worse, since Dino Charge was actually good.

    Also I think, it didn’t really make sense for Ivan and Koda to return. Koda was attacked by a Sabre-tooth Tiger when he bonded to the Energem, so technically he would be dead if it weren’t for the Energem and Ivan was an important part of Zandars History, so his return should change the timeline even more.
    And the Idea of Humans actually existing if the Dinosaurs didn’t went extinct is just ridiculous.

    It’s not like I don’t care about continuity at all, but compared to some other problems of this finale, it’s really not that important.

    1. That’s a good point. I can see how one would feel like the whole season was a waste. But at the same time, they did emphasize the “A new chapter begins” at the end, meaning that brand new adventures could happen in the future. Or even, for example, having to go through all of their battles all over again. Their story was only beginning, especially with countless number of butterfly effect-type things.

      It’s definitely a huge twist. And I do appreciate it at least being different.

      1. I definitely appreciate their effort as well, but I still think they just overdid it. The Rangers could’ve easily just traveled back a few hours to stop themselves from destroying the Dark Energem, but did they really have to revert the whole season?
        I also kinda doubt it’s possible for them to go through their battles again, since the Rangers never got their Energems. (Which raises even more questions, if you think about it. Like for example, what if Lord Arcanon shows up on Earth? He should still be alive in the new timeline.)

        Of course there is still much to like about Dino Charge, but for Ninja Steel I really hope they’re going to put a bit more thought in it.

        1. Yeah, will be interesting to see what kind of story they come up with for Ninja Steel. The premise sounds like a complete departure from Ninninger’s story, so it seems like they would really have to put more thought into its story.

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