Power Rangers Dino Charge #1.11 “Break Out” Review

Summary: The introduction of a new Ranger is chock full of twists and surprises, and despite some rushed pacing, sports some of the cleverest writing of the season.

Recap

Prince Phillip of the real Zandar royal family arrives to seize the contents of the exhibit, angered by the impersonations in the previous episode. The Rangers know he’ll be in danger with the Energem and go after him — and they’re right, because Poisandra, Fury, Curio, and a bunch of Vivix attack. While fighting the monsters off, Phillip realizes that Fury is after him, and the people he was mean to earlier are out to help him. Fury gets the Gold Energem, but the energy inside of him emerges once again — revealing himself to be not Tyler’s father, but Sir Ivan, the knight who found the Energem and protected Prince Colin 800 years ago. Fury had captured him, but now he’s been released thanks to the power of the Energem, and he uses it to morph into the Gold Ranger and take back control of the Ptera Zord. After fighting the bad guys off, Ivan recognizes that Phillip is part of the Zandar line and gives the Energem back to him. Phillip, having become aware of his hubris, gladly gives the Energem back to Ivan, whom he believes deserves it. Ivan goes off on his own to explore his newfound freedom.

Review

They got me. I totally bought Tyler’s revelation at the end of “The Royal Rangers,” and the red herring hints before that, and even with some foreknowledge of where this season was going, they still got me.

A quick aside: Being a Power Rangers fan on the internet means spoilers are even harder to avoid than lots of other media. The footage all comes from a series that’s already aired months or even years prior, and over the past few years, our seasons have been broadcast in other countries well before we see it here in the US. It also doesn’t help that neither Nickelodeon or Saban are exactly tight-lipped; while plenty of other networks place embargoes on information outlets obtain or actors release, with the outlets running the risk of falling out of their news-contacts’ good graces, no one bothered to stop the leak of basically everything about Super Megaforce’s finale over a year before it was slated to air. Not only are spoilers in general harder to avoid, but the very definition of what to even consider a spoiler is impossible.

All that’s to say, sometimes it’s easier to judge something like Power Rangers less on how surprising a plot twist actually is, but rather on how well it plays whether you saw it coming or not. You can know the twists of Fight Club, The Sixth Sense, or The Usual Suspects and still enjoy the character work or appreciate the social commentary. We all know the alien bursts out of John Hurt’s chest in Alien, but even without the surprise, it doesn’t make the sequence any less riveting. Power Rangers has the additional hurdle of being a kids show, so it can’t play its cards too close to its chest without potentially alienating its demographic.

Something like “Break Out” is about as far as the show can get into twist territory, and it’s a prime example of the solid, audience-respecting writing of the season. All that spoiler talk above is because this episode is chock full of twists, mostly built on our foreknowledge of Power Rangers tropes. To varying degrees, spoilers would reveal the surprise appearance of the Gold Ranger, that the energy in Fury is not Tyler’s father, and that the new guy we spend so much time on isn’t the episode’s new Ranger. Twitter accidentally spoiled most of those things for me at different points, but even then, I still wasn’t buying that the energy in Fury would be anything but Tyler’s father. It’d be too perfect of a story, and the father/son villain/hero dynamic has been a story Power Rangers — and lots of superhero stories — have told. Power Rangers wouldn’t go against the archetype, or sacrifice a story so easily chock-full of drama, right?

And yet it does, and at this point, it’s better for it. The storyline is even more unknowable than it was before, and that’s fantastic. Chip Lynn’s previous seasons have dealt out their fair share of major plot twists — the identity of Astronema in In Space probably standing out as the best example — but those twists were seldom surprising so much as simply well-written, even if a bit obvious. Likewise, the identity and appearance of the Gold Ranger — that it’s Sir Ivan, having been trapped inside Fury for 800 years — has been set-up and hinted at since “The Royal Rangers.” But so was the alternative that it was Tyler’s father, and the show sold both potential answers well enough that either would be satisfying. Making the red herring and real answer both viable story choices is hard to do with any mystery, and Power Rangers hadn’t really attempted something like that before, so kudos to Dino Charge for pulling it off swimmingly.

The episode’s only flaw, perhaps, is that it’s the first case of Dino Charge moving a bit too quickly. For a season that’s been notably slow burn, Tyler’s revelation at the end of the previous episode could have yielded a bit more introspection and even angst had the truth been held out for another episode or two. Tyler had a big moment of hesitation at the end of “The Royal Rangers,” but it would have been nice to see him really deal with his inability to fight Fury in the long term. That’s likely because of the Sentai material, so the Gold Ranger needed to appear sooner rather than later, but it’s a shame that it couldn’t have been mediated. We do get lots of great reactions of both relief and disappointment from Brennan Mejia during the Gold Ranger’s reveal, at least.

Prince Phillip’s mini-arc moves along too quickly, too. The concept comes through just fine; he’s an arrogant prince who becomes aware of his hubris thanks to the Rangers’ intervention. Jarred Blakiston has a lot more finesse than a typical Power Rangers actor, playing up the Royal Pain stereotype at first without getting too cartoony, while realistically retaining enough heart and shades of empathy that his progression is believable. But I’m not sure that arc would have worked if anyone with less talent than Blakiston was in the role, because it’s unnecessarily truncated. Phillip is arrogant in is introduction, sure, but he’s also rightfully angry about Tyler and Shelby’s impersonation of the royal family in the previous episode. That doesn’t color him as needing redemption as much as the episodes wants it to.

We do get the parallels in the flashback’s petulant Prince Colin, which is a subtle way to handle the storyline. But even so, it would have played better if we had some instances of Phillip actually doing some antagonistic things to make his realization (“I’m a fool, but I’m fine”) and decision to give the Energem back to Ivan more earned. As it stands, the lesson and arc of doing what’s best for others is clear enough, and thematically all ties back to the talk of privilege in “The Royal Rangers,” but Prince Phillip himself comes out a bit underserviced. Again, Blakiston is probably the episode’s standout, and Prince Phillip is shaping up to be an imperative character as his role continues — it just might have been nice to see him more before his realization.

Davi Santos as Sir Ivan is the reverse — he’s definitely a Power Rangers-style actor, with some exuberantly fun cartoonishness, but his out-of-time knight character is written precisely for it. As an introduction to the season’s first of many additional Rangers, it’s too brief to get a good grasp of how he’ll fit just yet. But it’s certainly triumphant in a way Sixth Ranger debuts ought to be, and Ivan’s knight-themed quips and puns are a perfect fit for this season’s tone. There’s even a creative spin on his “lone wolf” departure — it’s not because he doesn’t want to be on a team, but simply because he wants to explore his newfound freedom. It’s another example of Dino Charge‘s penchant for avoiding the easy route, taking old Power Rangers story tropes and spinning them in different, but not necessarily deconstructed, directions.

“Break Out” is also another example of the season’s solid production, with a pristine wardrobe for Phillip, the impeccably choreographed extended civilian fight sequences, and the general beauty of New Zealand’s landscape in exterior shots. The introduction of Zandar characters, and having Koda primarily interact with them, seems to have knocked the dialogue up a notch too. A slew of clever lines and exchanges are listed in the “Odds & Ends” section, and they’re all great.

I’d mentioned back in Super Megaforce‘s Silver Ranger introduction that the Sixth Ranger’s appearance is typically the turning point and defining moment of the season. It represents what’s to come, and fully forms what we should be expecting. In Dino Charge‘s case, it’s certainly a turning point, and the Zandar characters will surely be an integral part of the season. But it mostly reaffirms what we already know: this season is smart, solid, and we have no idea what to expect, except that it will be good.

Odds & Ends

• As I’ve said in the past, I’m only marginally knowledgeable on a lot of Sentai, so it was fun to learn that the country of Zandar, and linking characters to it, was created solely to account for why the phrase “Zandar Thunder” is animated in the Gold Ranger’s finishing move — Zandar Thunder is the name of his weapon in Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger. That creative style of writing and adaptation is so unique to Power Rangers, and is a reason I’ve come to love the show and its production so much.
• I didn’t pick up on the Ptera Zord’s knight-style design in its warrior mode until now. This show is too clever.
• While I love all the focus on civilian fights this season, in all fairness, the Rangers were pretty reckless with their secret identities when they showed up to save Prince Phillip without morphing…and proceeding to use their weapons in front of him.
• Other bits of cleverness: Shelby giving Riley her Tricera Drill because the bad guys “won’t expect it,” which is totally right. And then Koda and Chase giving him their weapons to yield as one, plus Koda noting that his is heavy. All the flipping of weapons is underplayed, but it’s a really cool and unique aspect of this season.
• Introducing the Dino Gas charger fairly early in the season has paid off, because something like the Dino Stretch charger seems so tame in comparison that it doesn’t even phase us.
• “Look at you, filthy, shoeless. What, were you born in a cave?”
  “No, born on Mammoth Hunt. Mother could not make it home to a cave.”
• “Look they’re all dressed up!”
  “Dressed for their own funerals!”
• “Everyone has good on inside. Even mean prince, like you.”
• “He fried my brain!”
  “Luckily I don’t have one!”