A cross between our TV Flashback series and Power Rangers coverage, we’ll be looking back week-to-week at past Power Rangers seasons, beginning to end, to coincide with breaks during and between the current seasons. With Dino Charge currently on hiatus, our Flashback coverage will resume through the summer.
Episode 28: “The Passion of the Conner”
Originally aired: September 5, 2004
Ah, Battlizers. There’s no pretending that these are toy commercials incarnate, as they’re usually ridiculous, bulky and gaudy pieces of equipment with weird weapons and quirks, like, uh, rollerblades. Dino Thunder‘s fire-themed Battlizer has its share of stupid powers — Mr. Fantastic stretch arms and “dragon yo-yo,” because okay — but it’s one of the best-designed. This has the benefit of the Sentai’s Triassic upgrade as a foundation, meaning there’s more consistency in the aesthetic. There’s still very, very shoddy CGI involved, but the suit itself is fitting.
Usually the backstory behind the Battlizer is kind of random, too, like throwing in a magic knight or new alien bestowing the power, or having a little girl press a button you’ve never pressed before. Dino Thunder‘s transformation is rather ingenious in its simplicity — Conner already had the Triassic power, he just needed to dig deep to take it to a new level. It’s an easy, cliched kids’ show thing, sure. But I have to say, it works pretty darn well here.
“The Passion of the Conner” is the sequel to “Wave Goodbye” in a broad sense. Whereas Conner’s first spotlight episode had him learning the value of doing good things to help people, “The Passion of the Conner” has him understand why people do it. This season has seen Conner progress while still being distinctly Conner — he supports his friends because he’s grown close to them, but he’s absolutely not afraid to call them out on things he doesn’t like or even tease them about things he still doesn’t understand — but it’s more about him sticking to his convictions than being outright mean. He learned in “Lost & Found in Translation” that it’s okay for things to be different, even if they aren’t for you. For this episode, Krista forces him to reconsider why he does what he does. Conner flips so easily between being a jerk and being a nice guy because he doesn’t overthink things, sometimes to his benefit and sometimes to his detriment. He’s never really had to address what makes him feel like something is good or important, and Krista’s pure passion for saving that tree makes him realize how much stronger he could be if he had that pure motivation. This is Conner we’re talking about, of course, so his motivation is still just a hot girl — but hey, he’s also genuinely interested in her interests and personality, so that’s a step forward for him.
The show also manages to make an episode about saving a tree without overhammering the environmental message, which it’s had a bad knack for doing in the past. In fact, the tree totally gets destroyed, in a ballsy move. The point of the episode, outside of Conner learning how to be motivated, isn’t so much about saving the environment as it is about new beginnings. Even if you fail, you can still come back. For Conner, he’s able to be forgiven by Krista — and perhaps the audience — for all his previous misdeeds. It’s a minor redemption for Conner, but it plays into this season’s larger theme of forgiveness when it comes to its major villains, which we’ll see as it progresses to its endgame.
The one counterpoint to that forgiveness theme is Zeltrax, who returns after his underwhelming original defeat. He’s got a new, non-Tommy-revenge motivation: staying alive. That makes him even scarier, and leads right into our next episode.
Odds & Ends
- So, apparently the official name for the episode is “The Passion of the Connor,” even though Conner said himself that it’s “Conner, with an -er.” Weak.
- The techno-beat music in the Triceramax Megazord footage is really good. The Battlizer theme music, which is even more prominent in the next episode, is kind of hammy and leaves a lot to be desired.
- Tommy gets a good Dr. Oliver mentor speech in to Conner, about how he had lots of ability and raw emotion, but didn’t have the confidence to believe in himself. I totally don’t buy it at all from Tommy as a character, but as the stand-in for every Veteran Ranger and general mentor, I’ll admit, it’s a nice speech. He also rightfully acknowledges that there’s an entire world of power that hasn’t been tapped into, which is always true for any Power Rangers season.
- Tommy’s line delivery in the weird scene where the Rangers use their dinogems to overload the Triptoids (or something?) is baaaaad. “It will create an en-er-gy…that will…deactivate the Triptoids!”
- “Passion doesn’t just happen. You make it grow.” – I won’t lie, a lot of the metaphors and themes in this episode don’t really connect — trees grow just like passion grows, I guess? — but I appreciate the show trying so hard to have a deeper throughline, even if it doesn’t succeed.
Episodes 29-30: “Isn’t It Lava-ly” & “Strange Relations”
Originally aired: September 18-25, 2004
In a broad sense, Dino Thunder is a solid season for giving as much attention to its villains as its heroes. While the villain stories aren’t as grand or tragic as more melodramatic seasons — this is firmly on the “action comedy” side of the Power Rangers spectrum — we nevertheless have individual characters with their own motivations and ties to the main story. Where Dino Thunder often fails here is the payoff — the completely botched reveal of Zeltrax’s identity being the first indication of this.
With Zeltrax back as a potentially major player, there’s a chance for plot redemption. “Isn’t It Lava-ly” deals with his new untethered presence, as without Mesagog’s control, he’s as dangerous as White Ranger was at the beginning of his chaotic rampage. As Tommy plays it up, they don’t want what happened to Krista — a civilian getting caught up in the mess — to happen again. It does anyway, as the guest professor of volcanoes gets turned into a monster; humans turning to monsters is an interesting trend this season that goes mostly unexplored, but is notable nonetheless. And Zeltrax fights ruthlessly, with the only thing holding him back being his own draining lifeforce. Zeltrax works much better when he’s a scorned, hardened warrior fighting for his life against all odds, rather than playing to a forced revenge story.
In the midst of all this is a story about Ethan being too cocky about a videogame tournament and then, unsurprisingly, losing because of his cockiness. It’s a forgettable story that doesn’t shed much light on him, but the sideplot revealing Cassidy’s utter dependence on Devin — who disappears to practice and eventually win the aforementioned tournament — is one of the funnier Cassidy plots this season. Her relationship with Ethan softened her and made her less self-centered, and now she has to face just how imperative her best friend is in her life. The episode ends before she has any sort of revelation about it, but it’s fun to see her fall apart so quickly, but in totally benign ways that prevent it from feeling too mean.
It’s clear, though, that this section of the season is a bit aimless. Zeltrax’s unfocused relentlessness is a new threat, and Anton Mercer’s secret always looms in the background, but there isn’t any mystery left for the story to draw on. That would be fine, of course, if we were transitioning to the final arc of the show after ending a previous one. But again, the mysteries that have unraveled and face-offs that have occurred haven’t yielded much satisfaction. The original defeat of Zeltrax was meant to be a fake-out, so it couldn’t be very big. The end of Trent’s evil White Ranger arc wasn’t meant to be much of an ending, given the nugget of his father’s secret and the Rangers’ continued distrust of him. The White Ranger Clone stood sort of alone from most story arcs, and had the most potential for its own solid endpoint. From a production standpoint, it seemed like a clever idea to retain use of the evil White Ranger Sentai footage, where the White Ranger was a bad guy for much longer. I always like when Power Rangers messes around with the story to work around the footage to tell the story they wanted to tell, and the prospect of two White Rangers had promise for a long term identity crisis.
The problem is, well, the clone is just another mook. He is, ultimately, just a a soulless monster in the skin of a White Ranger. Elsa at least has personality, and even Zeltrax’s total failure of a story originally let him have his own goals and brought him to this more interesting point. As a bad guy, the White Ranger Clone doesn’t really have anything distinctive about him until his finale episode, where he’s essentially forced into having a motivation – he has to kill Trent or he’ll literally die.
Honestly, it’s easy to forget that the clone has even been a player for so long. That seems like a huge waste, given we have been in desperate need of a new villain element in these past episodes. We’ve gotten decent and great episodes since Trent turned good, there hasn’t been much of an overarching story beyond what we had at the top of the season. Most seasons of Power Rangers progress the stakes throughout the season, but lately, the bad guys have been arguably less powerful than they were at the start. White Ranger Clone could have been the wild card, but instead he turned out to be just another monster that happened to last a little longer. At most, he was a Zeltrax stand-in until now, with a vendetta against Trent instead of Tommy, and even that vendetta wasn’t really utilized until now.
“Strange Relations” is a very action-heavy episode, which is expected considering there’s not much to the clone as it is. To be fair, there is an apt parallel here — White Ranger Clone learns he can’t exist in the same place as Trent for much longer, while Mercer feels defeated by Mesagog’s evil deeds outweighing any good he does. Both are dealing with their other self on the opposite side preventing them from living their lives. While White Ranger Clone takes action and tries to destroy his other half, Mercer succumbs to his depression, accepting that the little good he’s doing isn’t making enough of a difference. This is a perfect bit of writing, especially when Mercer gives Trent his award, and Latham Gaines is especially good playing Anton Mercer at his lowest point. It’s even more affecting because Mercer and Trent are otherwise at a good place in their relationship; with the secrets out in the open and no one trying to protect the other from things they can’t control, they are both equally supportive of the others’ endeavors. It’s a great progression of where their torrid relationship started, and perhaps if Mercer could see how he’s fought through the evil to find that good relationship with his son, he’d be more confident. But he’s only seeing the evil Mesagog has done, and that’s ironically exactly what’s letting his evil side be more in control.
Still, while shining a light on that is good, little actually changes because of the clone’s final confrontation. Trent doesn’t learn anything from his potential exisistential crisis at facing his clone (though, I like that his attitude at the end was essentially “Who did you think would win?”) Mercer is more defeated, technically, but little more than he was at the beginning. The Zords are back in control, and there’s a new mega-transformation. But the person who gets the most development from this, oddly enough, is Elsa. After being terrified and backed into a corner for so long for the failures of her peers, she’s decided to strike Mesagog where he’s most vulnerable as a preventative measure. That promise is exactly the kind of propulsion we’ve needed for his season to push us into the final arc.
Odds & Ends
- So, the Rangers summon the Stegozord in “Isn’t It Lava-ly,” and Tommy even uses his staff to create a tsunami (that’s a little overpowered, right?) Then, “Strange Relations” makes a big deal of the Rangers getting the Stegozord back from under the White Ranger Clone’s control. Does that mean the Stegozord has just bounced back and forth between good and evil between whoever called it, or was this a really big continuity error?
- I really appreciate how supportive everyone is of Ethan’s interests and understand how important it is for him. Conner even plays the game, unironically, to help Ethan practice…and is pretty good at it!
- Shout out to the White Ranger Clone’s voice actor Adam Gardiner, who clearly has a lot more fun and seems better suited playing Sledge in Power Rangers Dino Charge.
- Why did the Rangers go so long fighting the White Ranger Clone without contacting Trent in “Strange Relations”?
- Love that we finally get a scene with all five Rangers morphing together. It’s perfect. The last act of “Strange Relations” feels like what we usually get when a new Ranger officially joins the team for the first time, only belated.
- “There’s nothing wrong with being confident. Unless of course you wear a t-shirt that says ‘I am detonation man.'”
- “I don’t have a soul. Thanks for reminding me.”
- “I have lost all interest.” – Mesagog, commenting on how anti-climactic the White Ranger battle ends up being.
