Recap: Power Rangers Dino Fury, Episode 17 – “I’m gonna drop anchor on your heads.”

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Recap: Power Rangers Dino Fury, Episode 17 – Our Hero

The Rangers are showing Aiyon what a day on the beach is like during Earth summer. Javi takes Aiyon to try out ice cream.

At the ice cream cart, Jane forces J-Borg (a robot) to eat some ice cream and she swallows it hole. The brain freeze causes her to malfunction and knock everyone in line over, which ends up pushing the cart down the hill.

Javi rushes over to grab a little girl who is in the path of the cart. But the cart is also on its way to run over a couple by the beach. Aiyon hops on the cart and stops it with the umbrella.

The ice cream man thanks them and calls them heroes. To repay them for saving his cart, he offers them lifetime free ice cream. Javi says he doesn’t have to do that, but Aiyon excitedly accepts it.

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Sporix Beast Trawler appears out of the sand and the Rangers head into the changing tents to morph. Jane and J-Borg livestream the battle and hurry over when Aiyon saves a bunch of beachgoers from Trawler’s tent. The peoples want to take a photo with Aiyon and Jane wants to interview him on the spot.

J-Borg points out to Aiyon that his teammates are trapped in Trawler’s net and he hurries over to save them. Mucus comes to fetch Trawler and they leave.

Amelia asks why Aiyon was wasting time posing for selfies. He says he had to give the fans what they wanted. Especially when they weren’t idolized as heroes like this on Rafkon.

Aiyon quickly returns to the fans to take more photos. Jane uploads the video onto the website, fawning over the new gold hero. Aiyon’s arrogance seems to give Void Knight the perfect idea.

Later, the peoples of Pine Ridge apparently want to throw a beach bash to celebrate the Power Rangers like it’s a 1994 Toys R Us meet and greet. Aiyon is more than excited to attend and soak up the limelight. Javi warns that Void Knight might launch a terrorist attack if he knew the Rangers will be there. So Ollie suggests they just go as civilians and at the same time, they’ll be able to jump in if needed.

Little do the Rangers know, the beach party is Void Knight’s plan to lure the Rangers out into the open. Slyther transforms into an events host and heads to the stage to begin the celebration.

Zayto tries to calm Aiyon and tell him to not draw attention to himself. But he can’t help it. When the crowd starts chanting for the Rangers, Aiyon sneaks away, morphs and teleports to the stage.

Aiyon enjoys the loving adoration of the fans and when Slyther asks him to show off his zord, he easily does. Much to the disbelief of the Rangers.

As soon as Mosa Zord leaps out of the water, Trawler catches it in his net. Slyther shoots Aiyon off the stage and heads over to a nearby pond where he will try to hypnotize Mosa Zord into obeying Void Knight’s every command.

The Rangers hurry over to Aiyon. “What have you done?!” Zayto asks Aiyon who apologizes.

Back at the command chamber, the Rangers locate the Mosa Zord. Aiyon admits that he was a total fool for how he acted earlier. Javi suggests they use the Invisi Key to save Mosa Zord and he asks Aiyon to back him up at the scene. The other Rangers head back to the beach where Trawler has appeared, upon Void Knight’s orders to lure the Rangers over.

Zayto, Ollie, Amelia and Izzy morph and take on Trawler. Aiyon and invisibleJavi work together to outsmart Slyther and regain control of Mosa Zord.

Solon sends in the Dimetro Blazing Zord which speaks with Mosa Zord and helps free it from the net.

The other Rangers hop into their Megazord to battle an embiggened Trawler. Aiyon combines the two zords to form the Electro Zord. Together they finish off Trawler for good. Aiyon is able to swipe the Sporix Blob.

The Rangers head back to the beach to enjoy the rest of the day. Aiyon decides to help out at the ice cream cart instead of taking free treats because he’s learned his lesson about being a hero.

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Episode Thoughts

So my feelings about this episode are connected to the last one and it has to do with the way they’ve introduced Aiyon. Because we know nothing about him and he literally popped up out of nowhere, his personality comes across as pretty abrasive. Which can be a good story, especially with Power Rangers‘ modern insistence on preachy moral lessons. But there’s no foundation to support such story at this point. Or at least, with the way the last three episodes have played out.

One thing that feels off is how Aiyon already feels like any other human instead of an alien that was asleep in a pod for 65 million years. The only reason to do that “awakened from deep slumber” trope is to play up the fish out of water aspect. The show didn’t really do much of that with Zayto and even he had a bit more fleshing out than Aiyon has had so far before jumping into a focus episode of him changing his ways.

So the plot of this episode feels hollow. And yes, kids show, blah blah. But if you want to teach kids about what it means to be a hero or to not be a cocky jerk, there’s better ways to do it.

What I did appreciate though was seeing the other Rangers visibly express their disapproval of Aiyon’s behavior. Or maybe it was just a “This guy’s weird” reaction.

But again, it just feels like the show has crammed in at least five-episodes worth of story and character development into two and 1/3 episodes and we are to just to excuse missed potential and awkward missteps as “oh it’s a kid’s show.” Or focus on the shiny Easter eggs for the rose-colored glasses-wearing old fans.