Power Rangers Jungle Fury: Blind Leading the Blind

Welcome back to the Jungle Ranger Fans. Last time, in a bid to grow stronger, Dai Shi resurrected Carnisoar, the Sky Overlord, in hopes of training under him. Carnisoar then poked around in Jarrod’s memories and altered his perception of past events in order to increase Dai Shi’s evil influence, like you do. And now on with the show.

Today’s episode opens with Theo filling cheese shakers while reading Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, all while smugly priding himself on his ability to multi-task. Lily then feeds the smug little shrimp a slice of humble pizza pie when she points out he’s been filling the cheese shakers with salt.

At Dai Shi’s castle, Carinsoar’s brutal training regiment continues, Carny continuing to berate his student for not being strong enough yet. Dai Shi clearly isn’t ready to face the Rangers, so Carny summons his two deadliest enforcers, a Crow Beast named Bai Lai and a Crane Beast named Carden. I have to say, I love the design of these guys. They have this whole avian Yin Yang thing going on and I like that they each have one wing like Sephiroth.

Back at the loft, Theo continues to be more smug and insufferable than usual as he continues to pride himself on his ability to multi-task and even gives RJ and Casey a hard time for meditating, claiming he doesn’t need to meditate to focus his mind. Like Lily earlier, RJ puts Theo in his place by reminding him that he forgot to close the fridge last night. Theo says that he was walking on his hands at the time, practicing his inverted battle technique. RJ appreciates that our heroes have a lot on their plates, and even admires Theo’s work ethic, but he reminds his student that they need to focus on what their doing while their doing it, both at work, and in battle. As RJ finishes his speech, the alarm goes off which means it’s Ranger time.

Our heroes head out to meet Bai Lai and Carden and the two Bird Beasts prove to be tougher than the average Rinshi Beasts. Theo tries to fight both monsters at once, but ends up getting beat down for his trouble. The monsters grow and The Rangers call out the Megazord, but even with the added boost of the Elephant spirit, Bai Lai and Carden are too much for our heroes, especially with their ability to fly.

Our heroes return to the loft, desperate for anything that might give them an advantage over these flying freaks. That’s when Theo notices a strange man in shades and a long black duster holding a war fan hanging upside down from their ceiling. I’d say that’s not normal, but five minutes ago our heroes were summoning an elephant spirit to fight two giant bird monsters. Normal is relative when you're a Power Ranger. The stranger drops from the ceiling and lands with such grace that it’s almost as if he can fly. RJ introduces the stranger as Master Swoop, one of the Pai Zhuq masters who trained him. Remember a while back when RJ fought Casey and Lily blindfolded using what he called The Swoop technique? Well, this is the guy who taught it to him. See, Swoop here is Blind, so learning how to fight without the use of one’s eyes is definitely a skill he needed to master. Swoop also doesn’t appreciate Theo waving his hand in his face. Man, Theo is a dick in this episode. Anywho, down to business. Swoop’s animal spirit, The Bat, was able to sense the arrival of Bai Lai and Carden and Swoop himself witnessed the fight from earlier. Even a blind man can see that Theo’s need to do everything at once is a liability to the team and Swoop feels that he may be able to help.

Swoop takes Theo out into the woods for some one on one training, Theo continuing to be a cocky jackass and says he’ll probably pick up Master Swoop’s technique right away. Swoop says that Theo lacks focus. Theo disagrees and says that he’s always focused on everything, but that’s the problem. Swoop feels that if he can’t learn to focus on the task at hand, he’s sure to fail.

Back in the city, Bai Lai and Carden return for another round, and without Theo, Lily and Casey have quite the uphill battle ahead of them. Indeed the Yin Yang Birds give the Rangers quite a fight, Casey and Lily barely managing to hold their own.

Back in the woods, Swoop and Theo’s training begins. First order of business, Theo is going to learn to float like Master Swoop. Theo tries his best, but Swoop insists that he must clear his mind and focus in order to make the impossible possible. Theo clears his mind long enough to levitate briefly, but his need to try and do everything at once causes him to fall. Swoop commends Theo on an impressive first attempt, but Theo isn’t feeling encouraged. Theo says all his life he’s had to juggle everything at once, something that his parents, teachers and other authority figures always expected of him. After a while, trying to do everything at once just became part of who he is and Theo feels he can’t just change that overnight. Swoop reassures Theo that no one is asking him to change who he is. His skills and his work ethic have never been in question, he just needs to learn to be present in the moment. Life is a series of obstacles and sometimes they can come all at once, but we cannot conquer them all at once. Taking Swoop’s words to heart, Theo tries again to clear his mind, blocking out all but the task at hand, and, after a sweet montage, manages to master the levitation technique.

Back in the city, Theo arrives to help his fellow Rangers against the Ying Yang Birds, now wielding a war fan of his own, a gift from Master Swoop. Now with renewed focus, Theo manages to hold his own against the monsters.

The monsters grow huge again but this time the Megazord is ready for them. Like Lily did with the Elephant, Theo is now able to channel the Master Swoop’s Bat Spirit for an armor upgrade. With the bat armor equipped, the Megazord now has the ability to fly and makes quick work of Bai Lai, though Carden survives and vows revenge. And so our episode ends with our heroes bidding farewell to Master Swoop and Theo having learned to not focus on so many things at once.

This episode got off to a rocky start with Theo acting like an insufferable jackass, but it quickly course corrected once Master Swoop showed up. Speaking of, Master Swoop is Awesome. I liked Master Phant fine, but this guy just oozes cool from the moment he shows up on screen. I thought about comparing him to Daredevil, but a more apt comparison would be to compare him to Stick, the Blind martial arts master who trained Daredevil. Swoop is definitely less easy going than RJ, but not so much that he can’t crack a smile once in a while. He knows when to take a firm hand with his student and when to take a softer approach. Top all of that off with two of the coolest monster designs yet and a sick new upgrade for the Megazord, I’d say we can call this episode a winner. Next time, Camille takes matters into her own hands in Pushed to the Edge.