Summary: Dino Charge resumes from a long hiatus by getting right back on track, showcasing adept characterization and long-term narrative plotting.
Recap
With the Pteradactyl Dino Charger in his possession, Fury grabs Wrench and a monster named Puzzler to find a way to charge it and obtain the Ptera Zord, getting him back in Sledge’s good graces. Meanwhile, the Rangers struggle to figure out how to get the upper hand with the E-Tracer still broken, but Riley determines that all the villains will eventually need to find a source of energy to power the Charger. Chase encounters Puzzler, who can’t resist attacking kids playing with a giant chess board. The Rangers follow Puzzler into an abandoned building with medical equipment, which Fury plans to use to power the Charger, much to Wrench’s dismay. Puzzler uses his powers to turn the building in a maze, complete with false-exits and time loops. Riley figures out he can climb through the vents, and after witnessing Fury harness the mysterious golden energy to power the Charger, he makes his way to the roof. Riley challenges the Puzzler to a game, but secretly throws the marbles into the vent a strategic angles, signaling the Rangers lost in the building to use the vents to escape. They finally team up and fight Puzzler, while Fury uses the Charger to raise the Ptera Zord, which accidentally eliminates Puzzler after mistaking him for attacking. Sledge welcomes Fury back onto his ship after obtaining the Zord, to the Poisandra’s frustration. Riley tells Tyler that he saw the energy within Fury, too, and Tyler remarks that they have to destroy it before Fury can continue using it against them.
Review
Though the long wait for Dino Charge‘s midseason premiere was shortened by a week and then released even earlier than that, it’s still been about four and a half months since its midseason finale. That episode, one of the strongest of the show’s first eight, was only starting to ramp up this phase of the story, appropriate for the slow burn plot this season has been telling. That gives “When Logic Fails” a tough break, because it has to renew any excitement the original run instilled, remind everyone what’s going on, and pick up on whatever momentum the season had kicked in despite the long hiatus. Not to mention that long hiatus was certainly a network decision rather than a creative one, to begin with.
Without a cliffhanger in “Double Ranger, Double Danger,” “When Logic Fails” has the opportunity to mostly start fresh. Dino Charge is too gutsy to start back with a filler episode, though, and instead plunges right back into the kernels of story the finale left us with in full-force. We have an amusing mini in-episode recap thanks to the back-and-forth with Kendall and Shelby, which hilariously remarks on how convoluted the plot has already gotten even this early on. But the big continuation here is the ominous possibility of the Ptera Zord rising and falling into the wrong hands — and that’s exactly what happens. More than that, the Ptera Zord completely disintegrates a powerful monster with one blast, all by accident. Fury may have summoned the Ptera Zord and technically owns it now, but he hardly has total control over the semi-sentient machine.
It’s yet another variable among many, many variables — the Zords themselves, the Energems that may already be in the possession of new Rangers, and the Chargers that could work independently from the Energems. And then we have the growing rivalry between Fury and Poisandra now that Sledge has brought the former back into the fold. In this case, the villains have to work very hard to get the upper hand, so it’s oddly satisfying when we see the bad guys make some headway because, well, they honestly earned it, bad guys or not. I’ve expressed that I’m not a huge fan of multiple zords storylines, but Dino Charge is packing so many unique angles into this tried-and-true trope that it’s anyone’s game. The pieces are set-up for any twist to be thrown out without seeming like a deus ex machina, and that’s wonderful storytelling set-up for a show that needs to be constantly moving and changing like Power Rangers.
That’s no better expressed than the episode’s brilliant narrative move, which sees Fury utilizing the energy he tried to keep at bay in “Double Ranger, Double Danger” to power the Dino Charger and raise the Ptera Zord. Suddenly, a curious mystery is turned into a dire threat. What makes this work so well is how tightly it ties all the seasons threads together; we know Fury is involved in Tyler’s father’s disappearance, and all signs are pointing to that energy being a manifestation of Tyler’s father. But it’s also an immense enough power to match an Energem charge, one that Fury — the villain with the most to lose and the biggest chip on his shoulder — can harness. So without the Rangers even fully realizing it, they might be placed with a terrible choice: eliminating Fury’s trump card but also eliminating a connection to Tyler’s father. We don’t even know for sure if that’s what’s really going on here, or if Dino Charge would dare to go so dark. But the roads are heading in that direction, and it’s yet another intriguing and exciting piece on the narrative board for the show to play with.
That’s all without mentioning the heart of the episode, which is a charming little Riley-centric piece. Riley briefly wonders about the difference between making the logical decision and making the right one, though the lesson is refreshingly de-emphasized, since everyone’s generally on board with “not letting your friends die” as the best option. What’s more interesting is simply learning how Riley thinks, in that he’s very left-brained and strictly logical. Michael Taber has a solid grasp on the character, who isn’t the typical introverted nerd stereotype we’re used to getting from this type of character. He’s quiet, reserved, and introspective, but he’s not at all awkward or anxious around people. It’s refreshing to see an intellectual type that’s not played up as an aloof supergenius. In fact, we’ve seen shades of Riley’s straightforward and rules-oriented way of thinking before, and mathematical prowess seems like a natural progression.
Ironically, the use of logic is actually rather creative throughout, utilized in some unexpected ways rather than boiling the topic down to a basic definition. “Logic” is a massive umbrella for a whole slew of schools of thought, and the episode acknowledges this by not having Riley simply thinking like a robot. In fact, he’s mostly a logical thinker in a mathematical sense — that certain rules and formulas can be used to deduce the most likely outcomes. Granted, he doesn’t go beyond using things like the Pythagorean theorem, so we’re not playing with anything terribly complex. But those are the subjects some viewers in the targeted demographic might be learning in middle school now, and that Riley can use what’s essentially flashier versions of mathematical proofs to save the day provides a nice parallel for the kids at home.
It’s much more effective than preaching “stay in school” lessons, which the earliest Mighty Morphin episodes liked to hit the gas on. Like those maths and sciences, it’s often most effective to see those concepts applied. Riley’s use of the concepts are pretty ridiculous, sure, but it’s exaggerated in a fanciful enough way that it makes the dry, often boring thought processes engaging. The effects, clearly borrowing from the illustrated deduction recently popularized by Sherlock (and used briefly before being dropped on The Flash, oddly enough) are nicely-rendered. They’re simple effects, but there’s plenty of detail involved, like how the lines fade out of focus in the distance. It’s a small detail, but it’s telling in the amount of care those making the show put into every aspect of its production.
On that production note, the visuals are particularly stunning this week. We already know that New Zealand’s landscapes are gorgeous, but even the city is beautiful. Dino Charge seems to do more on-location shooting than a lot of big-budget primetime shows, and this episode in particular puts clear effort into choosing and designing the creative giant chessboard and the rooftop face-off between Riley and the Puzzler. Even the interior of the maze is strategically filmed, with continually darkening lighting as the temperature drops and plenty of off-kilter camera angles. Little details, like the water droplets in Tyler’s scenes that eventually turn into icicles, go a long way to make the world believable.
There are certainly mistakes and cheats here and there, of course — it’s a low-budget show and it’s editing in lots of already-filmed material. And as good as the script is in “When Logic Fails,” there’s a big misstep in focusing so heavily on Riley using his logical skills to correctly deduce where the bad guys will inevitably end up, only for Chase to run into the monster by random chance anyway. For an episode that provides so many careful long-term narrative choices, that kind of lazy plotting really stands out. But those narrative missteps are notably minor, much smaller than the widespread problems of Super Megaforce, and are issues even the most polished of primetime scripts can possess.
Any missteps throughout this entire season have been scarce and minor, in fact, and there’s noticeable care put into every aspect of this production. That may seem like a backhanded compliment — every production should care about their product — but when on the Power Rangers curve, it’s an exceedingly high one. Even the best writing in the franchse has often been hindered by the low budget and weak production, and conversely, a high-quality production can be (and has been) hindered by careless writing. Dino Charge is the best of both worlds, with Chip Lynn’s superior plotting and characterization matching up with a high quality of technical production. “When Logic Fails” is but a small piece of the larger Dino Charge narrative, but it showcases Dino Charge‘s consistency and strength: that it’s just a really well-handled season of Power Rangers.
Odds and Ends
- Keeper update: He’s still pretty useless and we don’t know anything more about him. I have faith that he’ll play a more integral role as the series progresses, but right now, his lack of relevance is all-too-noticeable. It doesn’t help when he’s absent for the bulk of the episode and then pops in at the last second to reiterate what Kendall says anyway. It might have been better to keep him off the board completely and then introducing him later in the show, rather than having him around but sort of floating in the background.
- I like that James Davies seems mostly annoyed and flummoxed during Chase’s fight with Puzzler, which is appropriate considering the encounter cost him all those pizzas.
- There are lots of civilian fights this week, and all of them are stellar.
- Love the running gag with perpetually hungry Koda and the climax with the vending machine cookies. “I…still hungry.”
- No one can ever say “Inconceivable!” in anything ever again thanks to The Princess Bride, at least without assuming it’s a reference. Which I hope Puzzler’s line is.
