Power Rangers Super Megaforce #2.9 “Power of Six” Review

Summary: Azim Rizk shines in a strong return from hiatus for Power Rangers, with the most solid character development the season has produced.

If you have not seen this episode yet and don’t wish to be spoiled, don’t continue reading. It’s not like we’re MEGAFORCEing you to, or anything.

Recap

Orion impresses everyone with his charisma and dedication, and when he’s gifted a new belt that will let him have full access to all Legendary Sixth Ranger modes, Jake gets jealous of everyone’s adoration towards him (especially Gia’s.) His distracted attitude causes him to freeze up during a fight, and when his teammates try to help him, they’re struck with the monsters’ tentacles that suck out their energy and put them to sleep. Feeling guilty, Jake storms off, but is stopped by Orion, who relays his own feelings of survivor’s guilt over the loss of his planet. Jake and Orion bond, and decide to team up and take down the monster themselves. Jake helps Orion discover his ability to fuse keys together, and Orion fuses the power of all the Sixth Rangers into a Gold Mode armor, which allows him to temporarily incapacitate the monster and return the Rangers to normal. The monster grows as usual, but the Rangers defeat him together with their Zords.

Review

The first half of Power Rangers Super Megaforce (before an unnecessarily long hiatus) has been plagued by mediocrity, though thankfully cocooned in a shell of fuzzy nostalgia, dedicated actors, and an explosive pace. There hasn’t been an outright bad episode in the bunch, because all have managed to at least crank out something fun in the nonsense. But Super Megaforce is very much not the sum of its parts; its individual episodes are entertaining romps for entirely different reasons each week, but the show as a whole ironically won’t be remembered as a solid total product. That’s clearly due to two factors playing against one another: the nostalgia of its anniversary celebration juxtaposed against a complete lack of plot and character development. The former is fun to see played around with each week, but it doesn’t hold up in the grand scheme of things with the problems of the latter.

So coming onto “Power of Six,” it’s a bit of a shock to see an episode that’s nearly a complete antithesis to the half-season before it. There’s still some problematic bits, but otherwise this is damn near close to the type of show Power Rangers is when it’s firing on all cylinders. This is another episode penned by Jason Smith, who’s proven himself to be the most consistently good writer on staff when it comes to subtly and smart choices, even in the face of less-than-ideal use of the footage.

It’s immediately apparent when the episode opens with Orion, the newest alien addition to the team, dancing in his shiny silver boxers in a hilariously out-of-place Risky Business parody. Just in this opening, we see a handful of character and plot nuggets that aren’t spoonfed in typical Megaforce fashion; Orion is a math genius, he’s letting loose and being extra productive in lieu of sleep, and he’s keeping his school escapades from his new friends. These are secrets and character bits that could easily flourish as the season progresses–and yes, it’s possible that these things won’t go anywhere outside of this episode’s joke, but that something is maybe being set up at all is a plus for this season.

There are typical “mystical alien boy” tropes here, but they work in the show’s favor, as they turn out to be a misdirect. The focus isn’t on Orion’s secret nightlife, at least not yet, but how people perceive him. Like just about any teenage drama, problems come from others’ one-sided perspectives, with the Rangers only seeing the suave Mr. Perfect in a shiny jacket, not the guy who’s spending his nights in a locker. This in turn sparks Jake’s jealousy when he misinterprets Gia’s attitude towards Orion as infatuation—a jealousy that has been consistent (and kind of annoying) with Jake’s character since day one. But while the show usually plays Jake’s overwrought crush for laughs, this time it actually affects his performance and gets his team hurt. This isn’t the first time Power Rangers has played out this type of story; In Space did both sides of this, with a Ranger of that season jealous over a perceived fling between the Yellow and Silver Ranger, and an episode with the Black Ranger facing guilt over a mistake that hurt his comrade. In Space honestly handled those stories better, but Super Megaforce has more of an uphill battle when it comes to doing serious character work, and makes its achievements in “Power of Six” that much more of a pleasant surprise.

Particularly, the way it morphs Jake’s jealousy to guilt when his distracted attitude causes the rest of the team to be incapacitated is smart. But what’s better is how Orion and Jake bond: survivor’s guilt, plain and simple. It’s an ingenious and unexpected way to tie together a rather standard guilt plot from Jake into Orion’s tragic backstory. We aren’t just digging deeper into Jake’s current motivations, we’re getting a subtle answer for why Orion was so willing to go from man on a revenge kick for the loss of his home planet to a makeover montage. It can’t be a coincidence that Orion’s escapades are the intro this week; it suggests that that only way Orion can stop himself from being a seething-angry loner like Jake attempts to be is by letting loose and distracting himself. His mind has to be focused on something else to let him be focused when he needs to be. But the difference between Orion’s situation and Jake’s is that the Rangers can be saved, and thus Jake has a way to redeem himself. It’s surprisingly heavy stuff for something as light as Megaforce to be dealing with, but it’s much better for it, as that tinge of darker human tragedy immediately brings the show up in points.

Azim Rizk, easily the MVP of this season’s cast in any scenario, is especially strong this week. Rizk is tasked with delivering a lot of emotion in subtle glances, and shines in his scene with Orion on the beach. While acting with the eyes is hard enough, doing it within the context of typical hammy Power Rangers acting is only another wall, and Rizk pulls it off with aplomb. Megaforce has cheated at pulling out the “best friends” card at times without justifying it, but Rizk’s performance supports a full arc for Jake and fully-formed friendship with Orion, from jealousy, to guilt and self-hatred, to understanding and a deeper bond with his Silver Ranger ally. The character interactions aren’t forced, and in fact build on what came before. We even finally, finally get development on the Jake/Gia relationship, however slight it is, with Gia kind of making a move on Jake at the end. It’s still moving at a snail’s pace, but even something as tiny as Gia grabbing Jake’s arm is satisfying in the face of an obnoxious two-year long running gag.

In addition to the character stuff, there’s still no lack of fun with Legendary Mode, something the show has done a nice job keeping fresh thus far. It’s admittedly confusing that Orion’s Legendary Mode belt is gifted to him like it’s a big deal, when it was already established in the previous episode that he could use the Legendary Sixth Ranger keys. (It’s possible that he simply didn’t have as much direct access until now or something, but the show isn’t clear on it…like most things on Super Megaforce.) In any case, it immediately gives way to a deconstruction of the Sixth Ranger trope as a whole, as the term doesn’t necessarily directly correlate with an actual sixth team member. As such, we play with the seven-person team of RPM, which had its Silver and Gold Rangers join the team at the same time. The buildup of the key fusion is really strange and nonsensical, but the idea of it–and the execution once the fusion happens–is very cool. The conversation Jake and Orion have about it is basically Super Megaforce in a nutshell: “I don’t know how they fused in the first place!” / “Didn’t stop you before!” Almost everything from the Megaforce seasons, from “unlocking” new Zords and powers to possessing the keys at all, tend to appear out of nowhere for no given reason, which is easily one of the season’s most glaring flaws. But at least it yields something creative from time-to-time, as it does in this case.

The actual Gold Mode that this fusion business leads up to is kind of ridiculous. It’s not the worst armor Power Rangers has crafted, but its awkward bulkiness and design certainly feels at home with the American-produced Red Ranger Battelizers of yesteryear, or the profoundly stupid Mega/Shogun/Whatever modes of Samurai. It’s not the worst by a long shot (no roller blades, armored diapers, or extendable arms!) but the appearance of Sixth Ranger hemets all over the shield is just kind of weird, in all honesty. It’s also interesting who’s included and who isn’t; debatable Sixth Ranger Robo Knight is included, while Magna Defender isn’t, for example. And of course the American-made Titanium Ranger is unsurprisingly left out. That said, this surely all has to do with the characters’ counterparts in the original Sentai footage, but it’s still interesting to see how these things play out in the context of our show. This is irrelevant in the end, though, considering how much of a blast Orion’s Final Strike is. Gaudy as the Gold Mode might be, the rush of every Sixth Ranger blasting or charging on the enemy is a brilliant effect that more than makes up for the design.

Either way, the character material this week so good that it transcends any of the usual weirder bits. Frankly, the episode could have stood to nix the Megazord battle–the Gold Mode Final Strike was about as triumphant as anyone could hope for–and focused even more on interactions between Jake and Orion. As per usual, the dedicated Megaforce cast is what makes this material work, and Rizk and Cameron Jebo both prove that they can carry an entire episode on their shoulders, comedically and dramatically, if need be.

But even at that, “Power of Six” simply has good writing behind it. Previously established character beats become interwoven as the plot unfolds, and they conclude a specific character arc while still leaving some bits to explore. Megaforce has failed doing at that on most levels, but “Power of Six” manages to crank it out and still have time for some good old Power Rangers nostalgia. More of this, please!

Odds & Ends

• Seriously, though, did a Power Rangers show in 2014 really open with a Risky Business spoof? That actually happened?
• Nitpick: Is Orion enrolled in school now? They didn’t seem surprised that he was there and they expected him to go to class, but then laughed it off when he didn’t go. But he also works during the day, so apparently not. And if they’re oblivious to where he’s sleeping, did they really never bother to try to help him find a place to live on this planet he crash landed on? Great Earth family you’ve got there, buddy.
• The use of the Megaforce suits will never not be weird, but for some reason I really like the look of Megaforce Black and Civilian Orion next to each other to do their morph.
• This may have been unintentional, but it’s funny that the episode where Jake screws up the most in his Ranger form, conveniently matching the weirder and more uncertain fighting style of his Sentai counterpart, happens when in the Green RPM Ranger mode. Ziggy, the RPM Green Ranger, was notably closer to Jake’s Gokaiger counterpart, in that his fighting style was wild, untrained, and clumsy. Just a unique kind of synergy you’ll only get from how Power Rangers is made and adapted.
• We get another random unexplained “New Power” this time, by way of the Choushinsei Flashman change. It’s much better handled this time, though, with a clever wink at knowledgeable fans with Jake shouting “Prism punch!” and “You have your fishy fist, I have my flashy fist!”
• I’ve grown to dislike Gosei’s voice quite a bit, unfortunately, mostly because of the awkward expository voiceovers that ruin some decent scenes. Case-in-point: Orion’s dream sequence with all Sixth Rangers is super cool, but Gosei breaking down something that we already know is totally nonsensical anyway drags it down.
• “I think he’ll be okay here,” Emma says about the extremely vulnerable unconscious man sleeping in the middle of a curb.
• “Skelltox? More like…Smelltox.” Well, even Jason Smith’s stronger writing can’t save a typical Power Rangers pun.
• “Easy for you to say, everything you touch turns to gold. Or silver.”