Summary: A stellar turning point for the season moves from comedy to social awareness to game-changing revelations with swift confidence.
Recap
Shelby tries to get her friend Julian an art show at the Dino Museum, but Kendall rejects him on the grounds that it’s a history museum, not an art museum. Fury attacks in the Ptera Zord, revealing a new fighter mode that’s far too powerful for the Rangers. Fury has to retreat when his power in the Charger runs out, though, and the Rangers contemplate where that energy could be coming from. Meanwhile, an exhibit from the country of Zandar is coming through the museum, and the Rangers learn of the monarchy’s legendary Sir Ivan, the knight who found a powerful stone. Before the story can be completed, they realize that the stone in their possession, meant to be the one from the tail, is in fact the gold Energem. They know that Fury will want it, so they concoct a plan to bring him to them on their terms so they can strike first — Tyler and Shelby go undercover as the Prince and Princess of Zandar visiting the Dino Museum, with the gold Energem around Shelby’s neck. Shelby at first doesn’t like the idea, and is in fact frustrated with the rich and powerful elite who don’t do good for people. However, Keeper convinces her that having power doesn’t inherently make you evil, because you still have the opportunity to do good.
When Tyler and Shelby begin their masquerade, Shelby uses her temporary notoriety to give Julian’s work attention. Fury attacks as expected, and he takes a fake gold Energem that causes blowback from the Charger. The Rangers fight Fury with their new Dino Drive mode, which gives them more power in the cockpit, and they’re able to knock him out of the Ptera Zord. Tyler nearly beats him and takes back the Charger, but is stopped by the golden energy emerging from Fury, who Tyler recognizes as his father. He lets Fury go because of this. After the battle, Shelby learns Julian now has shows at both New York and in London. Tyler tells Kendall that he thinks the Energy may be his father, and while everyone agrees that Tyler made the right decision in not destroying Fury, they still need to figure out what they’ll do next.
Review
Dino Charge‘s greatest strength, above a whole slew of strengths, has been a sense of pace. We’re halfway through the first season now, and it’s about time to start kicking things into high gear — and “The Royal Rangers,” while cleverly masked as a comedic or single character-focus episode at first, ultimately proves itself as a major turning point. I still maintain that “Return of the Caveman” is a series best, but that’s mostly because of what that episode deals with and represents individually. Conversely, “The Royal Rangers” isn’t a terribly unique installment, perhaps aside from how quickly it jumps into the plot. But it’s a piece of the grander Dino Charge puzzle, one that has everything that works in a Power Rangers episode: Humor, plot momentum, characterization, and attention to detail in the midst of it all.
The humor is the most obvious here, and Dino Charge pulls very a typical “Rangers go undercover” plot. A major plus to how this particular scheme is handled is that it’s an example of the Rangers being proactive rather than simply reactive. Too often do Rangers constantly go on the defensive, only fighting because a monster attacks first, so it’s refreshing whenever we have a team concoct an idea to bring a fight to them on their terms. Brennan Mejia has typical Tyler fun playing with his accent and improvising his awkward Prince speech, and while Shelby’s constant complaints about her princess attire get a bit grating at times, it’s perfectly in-character and understandable.
To be fair, Tyler and Shelby didn’t need to play the Prince and Princess of Zandar — they could have just announced that the gem would be presented at a specific place and Fury still would have showed. This might have been a major complaint if the masquerade was only played for laughs, but that aspect of the episode surprisingly plays into one of two emotional cruxes. Shelby in the princess role lets the episode dive into the concept of privilege, and while it’s certainly the shallow end of it, that it dips its toes in the water at all is notable. Shelby, being a young, minimum-wage working black woman, is perhaps the best possible character to explore this idea. She shows off some mature social awareness, noting the disparity between most people vs. the rich and powerful elite in a very straightforward way, and her tirade about the worth of the tiara is a spot-on little example.
The episode is hardly preachy about it, though, and instead uses this to shine a light on Shelby as a human. Her petulance has fluctuated between endearing and spoiled at times, but her feelings towards class inequality go a long way to define her as passionate rather than spoiled. The latter doesn’t really seem to be the case at all, in fact; she gets flustered and complains when she doesn’t get her way, but it’s because she genuinely believes in what she’s doing and what she thinks is right. It can get on people’s nerves now and then, sure, but she’s often totally in the right, even if her execution isn’t perfect. And beyond that is the charming lesson of the episode — if you are in a place of power, you ought to do something good with it. As Keeper notes, it’s not necessarily the power that’s the problem so much as the people wielding it — an apt parallel to Fury commanding both the Ptera Zord and Tyler’s father’s spirit, and a smart way to tie these threads thematically.
Shelby has a brief moment of wielding social power, and of course uses it to help a deserving friend. It’s a heartwarming moral for kids watching the show to never lose their sense of human connection, especially if they find themselves on a higher playing field. Kids aren’t going to necessarily be playing the role of prince or princess, but many will certainly be in a position where they could easily bully someone beneath them, and understanding that it’s better to wield that power to help rather than hurt is a simple, but highly necessary facet to embrace in life. And morality aside, Camille Hyde is incredibly funny in the episode, with Shelby skewing the typical female tropes by absolutely hating the glamour that comes with her disguise. She’s probably the first Ranger to morph because she hates what she’s wearing, in fact. The little spark of attraction between she and Tyler when the two are dolled up is promising, and nicely natural, as well.
This would be enough for a single one-off character episode, but Dino Charge doesn’t take the easy route. What makes “The Royal Rangers” such a powerhouse is how it explores all these themes and layered development in a comedic setting, then still finds room to charge right along with major revelations. It’s not a shocker that the energy in Fury is Tyler’s father — or at least, that’s what we’re being led to believe — but Tyler’s discovery is a beautifully suspenseful sequence. Tyler shows a spot of mercilessness as he literally threatens to kill Fury, which is scary enough that Fury actually surrenders, and the win is only stopped because of the rise of that energy. I predicted last week that the Rangers would be forced into an ultimatum like this, but had no idea it would happen so soon. Like any well-paced mystery, it answers a big question while asking new ones — in this case, the suspicious timing of the energy’s emergence. Last time it emerged, it saved Tyler’s life; this time it allowed Fury to escape. It could be random, or it could be something more — and that this mystery may be less-than-straightforward is promising.
Mejia’s finest moment is certainly the aftermath in the episode’s surprisingly quiet ending. Power Rangers is known for a particular brand of overacting, and Tyler’s excited boyish quality really lends to it. But like we’ve seen before, that crafts even more pathos when we see someone as neverendingly joyous as Tyler in a state of stoicism like he is at episode’s end. Like “Double Ranger, Double Danger” briefly began to touch on, Tyler is a contradiction in that the loss of his father forced him to grow up early, but he compensated by seemingly not growing up at all. He’s constantly reveling in the fun of life and superherodom, but harbors a darker side — which we see in his confrontations with Fury in both “Double Ranger” and his upfront death threat in this episode — and Mejia has nailed those different shades of Tyler on all accounts. It’s a real joy to see the layers of these characters exposed, rather than guessing or reading too much between the lines.
And then, of course, there are the details. There’s a hilariously-rendered TMZ-esque celebrity gossip show, and in what I hope is meant to be some pointed commentary, the villains are the ones we see watching and enjoying it. And after I complained about Keeper not having anything do last week, he actually bestows some genuine, insightful advice to Shelby here. The Dino Drive mode is introduced and utilized, but is far from the focus of the episode, instead appropriately focusing on the emotional dilemmas. The backdrop behind Tyler and Shelby during their speech has Sir Ivan fighting what’s not-so-subtly a cloaked Fury, not to mention Fury bursts through a disguised image of himself in a splash of clever comedy. That’s definitely foreshadowing, considering Fury’s longevity and that the episode spent so much time on an as-of-yet unfinished Sir Ivan/”Prince…uh…him” flashback. It’s great to see the mythology expanded further, especially as we move into the season’s second half.
This has been one of the most solid ten-episode stretches in the franchise, with an episode consistency and pace that few seasons can match. There are scarce few complaints about Dino Charge thus far, and none at all for “The Royal Rangers,” which finds time to develop its characters, expand the mythology, twist the plot, teach a social lesson, and still have time for typical Power Rangers fun.
Odds and Ends
- Keep in mind if you comment — I’ve avoided detailed spoilers from the episodes aired overseas, and even for ones I know, I’m trying to not address them for the sake of unspoiled readers.
- Chase’s goatee really ought to stay.
- These have been very Fury-heavy episodes, which is fine, but I’m really missing seeing more Sledge. Still crushing hardcore on Sledge.
- Is it just me, or does Julian bear a striking resemblance to Milo Cawthorne, aka Ziggy from RPM?
- “Zandar? I’ve never even heard of Zandar!”
