Power Rangers Super Megaforce #2.19 “The Wrath” Review

Summary: The penultimate episode is almost a success, with the exception of two undeniably egregious decisions.

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

With the Armada seemingly decimated, Orion finishes repairing his ship and plans to return to his homeworld and help rebuild it. As soon as he says goodbye to his friends and departs, though, Tensou intercepts a transmission from Emperor Mavro. He is sending ever Armada troop from every mission everywhere directly to Earth to get his revenge for the death of his sons. The Rangers fight back without Orion, and miraculously are able to defeat both Levira and the entire Armada fleet. …Until they realize that was only the first wave, and even more ships have arrived. The second wave of even more powerful ships quickly destroy every single one of the Rangers’ Zords, leaving them split up and unconscious as Mavro announces he will return at dawn to finish the planet.

Review

I don’t know.

Let’s start with the good: “The Wrath” does a while slew of things right. This is a very good penultimate episode of the show, carrying the newfound momentum and high stakes of the last few episodes to a natural point. This final arc hasn’t had a perfect flow, but every episode has more or less matched the previous in terms of being engaging and exciting.

These past few episodes have felt like Power Rangers again, and not much would have to change for these to work in a better season. Really, the only things missing are plot and character build-up leading up to it, but considering how little there was to begin with, it’s a feat that any of these episodes work as well as they do. Civilians are used to great extent to showcase the stakes, just as they were in “Vrak is Back” and “Emperor Mavro.” The Rangers pull out all the stops in their battles, leading to exhilarating fight sequences. And the menace of the Armada is finally, truly felt throughout—every time the Rangers defeat what they think is their hardest match, another bigger bad tops them again and again until they’re finally left for dead. Gone are the easy victories of the past couple of years; we’re now at a point where they’re fighting a losing battle, and when they take a stand, it means something. It finally pays off the “never surrender” and “the human spirit triumphs” mantras as the Rangers stand up to Emperor Mavro, and it’s a fantastic scene.

Orion’s departure, however inexplicable (so…not everyone on his world died? What exactly is he returning to?), yielded some stronger character moments for the show. We did not see nearly enough of Ernie this season—which we should have if nothing else just for this—so his goodbye to Orion doesn’t really play on anything. But Orion’s scenes with Emma are very, very strong, palpably using the underlying romance suggested in “United as One.” It’s not particularly significant, but Christina Masterson and Cameron Jebo clearly play it up the best they can in their performances, even if there isn’t much of it on the page. It works because the two have great chemistry, and Orion and Emma are an adorable match for one another, even if they don’t ever officially hook up. And hey, Orion got a kiss on the cheek from Emma, which is more than can be said for the Time Force’s epic starcrossed lovers Wes and Jen. Orion’s goodbye scene in general is solid, and as tragically minimal as his screentime has been, Jebo made his stamp in the cast. Orion managed to form a semblance of relationships with the individual Rangers in his limited time, at least as much as this season could allow.

So, that’s great, right? “The Wrath” is up there with the past three episodes—not good enough to save this season’s mediocrity and failings, but still solidly entertaining and not offensive or stupid.

That is, until two very important elements are taken to account, and it’s probably easy to guess what those two are. The less-important, more fan-rage-inducing one is not a new problem: these goddamn new powers. There isn’t much more to say about them that can’t already be said: there is a very slight coolness factor to seeing Sentai suits here in America, but it’s not quite worth it considering how many actual Power Ranger transformations we haven’t seen this season. Disregarding breaking the continuity–I’m okay with chalking it up to “Rangers from space or other dimensions” or whatever–I was all for showing of the Dairanger suits at the beginning, because that would have been a clever wink at the old school audience. Constantly throwing in those Sentai transformations when they could have been easily edited out, however, is inexcusable and lazy. It’s worse given what these reviews have pointed to time and time again: they made a brilliant edit in the premiere. Why couldn’t this be done throughout the show?

What’s insanely frustrating about “The Wrath” is that there are edits done. The Red Mighty Morphin Ranger footage is completely new, so time was taken to refilm some of this…but only to replace the one Ranger. So someone did think about how they shouldn’t do such a belated full-team transformation with all non-American Rangers, but the solution is incredibly half-assed. Yes, sure, budget, whatever. At a certain point, though, maybe it’s not worth it. Only half of Gokaiger has been adapted for Super Megaforce, if even that, so why not pick other fight footage? Was the ground-fight with Levira so pivotal that it had to be included?

I try to keep these reviews mostly in-universe, pulling the analysis out of what we’re seeing of the characters, and only touching on the production part of it when it’s necessary to talk about. But this new powers problem is such a headscratcher, because there isn’t a good rationale for it. We have beautiful outdoor shots with the Rangers and decent effects when Orion leaves, so the production crew for the American-produced footage in New Zealand is capable. The Red Mighty Morphin fight scenes are well-handled, even if the camerawork and stunts is visibly different from the Japanese footage (typical American wirework, slow-mo, and behind-the-characters explosions.) These guys can make good fight footage, so why not fill a team with Rangers who didn’t get big full-team changes, like Lightspeed Rescue, In Space, or Time Force? Power Rangers fighting in a Power Rangers show is a worthwhile place to put in money.

And then there’s our much, much bigger issue: Jake. There’s a single line that happens during the otherwise strong farewell scene, where Orion mentions Jake’s humor, and Jake’s response is: “That’s why everyone loves me…except for some really stubborn people,” followed by a side-eye at the annoyed Gia.

The line itself is, perhaps, mostly benign, in the sense that none of those words are offensive on their own. And really, “offensive” wouldn’t even really be the right word for this situation. Jake’s crush on Gia was a little funny at first because he was a dork about it, and Gia generally wielded the power and bounced right back at him. But after a few episodes, the joke shifted; this wasn’t about the two having their claws out, this became about Jake being pushy while Gia just rolled her eyes and took it. This was about taking the comedic character—who, when not dealing with Gia material, is really engaging and portrayed by one of the best actors on the show—and gradually turning him into an entitled creep. This isn’t an unrequited crush, this is Jake being angry that the girl he “deserves” is still turning him down. Rizk seems to do his best to play it down, or play it up jokingly, but this is a case where the acting doesn’t rise above the script. The joking might even make it worse, because it implies that we’re supposed to laugh at how much Jake objectifies Gia. And we’re not supposed to laugh because he’s pathetic or in the wrong, but because he’s funny, or whatever.

In another context, perhaps we’d have seen Jake and Gia growing as characters, learning about each other and falling for each other, but Gia having to refuse the relationship because of some commitment to her job as a Ranger or something. Or maybe there’d be a single issue with Jake that she couldn’t get past, and it wouldn’t be until Jake overcame this issue that she’d finally see someone she could be in a relationship with. Jake would still be annoying with his incessant nagging that they date, but there might be some justification for why they could be a couple in the first place.

But, nope. Jake thinks Gia is hot, and Gia doesn’t really like him back. That’s it. There have been moments where Gia finds herself surprisingly attracted to Jake or she’s a little more noticeably caring of him, but nothing to suggest that she wants to be in a full relationship with him. That makes it worse, actually, because Gia has been coming around, and it still isn’t enough. She’s still “stubborn” because she doesn’t “love” Jake. The fact that he associates it with the “L word” is infuriating.

Maybe for some reading this, I (and many, many others) am reading too much into this. When Seth Walther wrote the script, and when the showrunners plotted the season, maybe even when Azim Rizk and Ciara Hanna were playing the parts, they probably weren’t thinking that this would be any more than a gag. This is Jake’s main character goal: to let Gia see him for who he is and fall in love with him. And in episodes like “Power of Six” and “Emperor Mavro,” Jake is really awesome and fun. But that’s not what he’s constantly trying to show off to Gia; instead, we just see heaps and heaps of a creepy guy practically forcing himself on a young woman and getting pissed when she doesn’t like it.

This is supposed to be aimed at the “young boys” demographic, after all. Power Rangers, as problematic as the franchise has been at times, has always at least tried to strive to teach its viewers lessons of tolerance and friendship. The Megaforce seasons haven’t taught many outright lessons for kids to live by, so that makes it all the more frustrating when the subtle ones—how these superheroes and potential role models act for the viewers—are the ones that could be replicable and might just stick with their viewers. We have enough creeps acting like Jake as it is.

So, how is “The Wrath”? Like I said: I don’t know. Maybe, with this season’s big-hitting problems exposed in their worst forms here, that means we’re cleansed enough to not have the same problems next week in the finale. Super Megaforce is almost over, and for all the excitement the last few weeks have generated, “The Wrath” is a big reminder of what’s been so endlessly frustrating about these last two years. But it’s also a reminder of the great fun this season constantly has the potential to be when it’s not being stupid. There’s hope that the finale will finally live up to that potential, but it’s also all-too-likely that it will be inevitably squandered yet again.

Odds & Ends

• I realize that this is definitely the rantiest review I’ve written, but after all the solid efforts from the past few episodes, “The Wrath” throws out these utterly nonsensical and problematic things in an otherwise pivotal point in the season, and that’s beyond frustrating. So with that said: Does “The Wrath” refer to Emperor Mavro’s wrath, or the fandom’s wrath at how awful some choices in these episodes are?
• Levira’s part in this episode is pretty much filler, with her big boss Zord defeated in record time. It’s also yet another case of this show having this weird affinity for putting faces on things.
• New Powers Rant aside, if we must get these damn Sentai suits shoved at us, at least there are some cool names for them. Blue Lightning Ranger, Yellow Supersonic Ranger, Black Blitz Ranger, and Green Prism Ranger. Hey, Emma turned into a Green Ranger! (I’m being as optimistic as possible, here.)
• The Rangers each having a moment to stand up to Mavro for their big “This is our answer” moment is classic Power Rangers.
• According to Rangerwiki, the wings inexplicably attached to the Q-Rex “autopilot” come from In Space‘s Mega Winger, or at least it did in Gokaiger. So it’s extra frustrating that we got all these new powers, but no mention of using powers from In Space, which were seldom used this season at all.
• They say all their Zords were destroyed. So does that mean even the sentient ones, like Turbo Falcon and Red Lion were? Because that’d be a really sad way for Red Lion Zord to go down.
• So, why exactly does Mavro need to return at dawn? He seems to be at full power right now.
• “This planet is such a happy place!” – Sure, keep thinking that, buddy.
• “These Armada ships are really amazing…when they’re not trying to destroy us.”
• “They entrusted us with their power, because they believe in us. We’re not just five, we’re over a hundred.”
• SPOILERS: Unless you have been VERY conscious of spoilers (which I know a couple of readers who are, so the warning is for you) — then you know which veteran Rangers are returning next week. Of course, going by the teaser promo from the end of this episode, it’s Tommy, Tommy, Tommy. There’s nothing wrong with playing up the uber popular Ranger in the marketing, but it’s a big punch in the face to all the other actors who returned, considering the promo still includes shots of them, but the voiceover dramatically says, “Him” and only references “The original Green Ranger.” Ugh.