Power Rangers Jungle Fury: Can’t Win Them All

Welcome back to the Jungle everybody. Last time, we were introduced to a team of monsters known as The Five Fingers of Poison, and already their numbers have dropped to four as the Centipede monster, Rantipede, got impatient and called out the Rangers on his own.

Today’s episode opens with our heroes sparring in RJ’s loft. At the moment, Casey and Lily have Theo in what looks like a really tight hold, but the overconfident Theo manages to break the hold easily and acts really smug about it too.

At Dai Shi’s castle, the now Four Fingers are lamenting the loss of Rantipede, Naja in particular chews out Gakko for cracking jokes at their fallen comrade’s expense. Gakko insists that if he were the one to face the Rangers, he wouldn’t have failed as Rantipede did. Camille appears and takes this to mean that Gakko has volunteered to face the Rangers next. Gakko, who I’ve just now noticed somewhat resembles a green pallet swap of Vargoyle from Beast Morphers, takes to his new assignment with enthusiasm and vows to succeed where Rantipede failed.

At Jungle Karma pizza, Theo continues to show off as we see in the time since Welcome to the Jungle Part 2, he has excelled at nearly every aspect of the job to the point where even RJ jokes that the others may not even be needed to run the restaurant. Unfortunately, the alarm goes off and RJ and the Rangers are forced to bail, once again leaving Fran to run the restaurant on her own. That makes three times so far. Still keeping that rant in my back pocket. All I’ll say is that I hope RJ gives that woman a big raise, she certainly deserves it.

Gakko arrives at the side of an office building where he learn of his ability to stick to walls like Spider-Man. The Rangers arrive and fight Gakko who proves to be a pretty tough customer, especially with his ability to leap and stick to where the Rangers can’t reach him. According to Gakko, The Side of the Building is where real warriors battle. The overconfident Theo tries to attack Gakko and gets instantly knocked down. Gakko taunts the Rangers before retreating, Theo appearing to take his humiliating defeat particularly hard.

Back at the restaurant, Theo is still having a tough time coping with his defeat at the hands of Gakko, staring at his pizza and probably listening to Simple Plan on his IPod. Lily tries to cheer him up, but to no avail. Casey takes a turn at snapping Theo out of his funk by asking him to show him some of the skills he’s picked up for the restaurant, giving Theo a project to take his mind off things, but no dice. Both Casey and Lily finally get tough with Theo and tell him to get his shit together, but Theo insists he’s now a liability to the team and is ready to pack up and head home.

At Dai Shi’s castle, Dai is pissed that Gakko allowed the Rangers to like and tells them if he doesn’t get his scaly ass back out there and finish them off, he’s going to skin the slimy lizard alive and make himself a new pair of boots. I’ll say this for Dai Shi, he knows how to motivate his underlings.

At the loft, RJ is practicing the most 2000’s dance routine I have ever seen in my life when he notices Theo sulking. RJ is wondering what Theo’s doing here and more importantly why he’s not downstairs working in the kitchen. Theo says he shouldn’t bother since RJ can find someone better than him. RJ clearly sees that Theo needs to snap out of it and says they’re going on road trip, even telling Theo to pack his chair. RJ goes nowhere without his chair.

In the city, Gakko, joined by Camille and a Rinshi army, has arrived for another attack. Casey and Lily spring into action, but they don’t stand a chance without Theo, who at the moment is in the woods with RJ climbing trees, an exercise that RJ hopes will build back Theo’s confidence. Once Theo reaches the top, RJ instructs him to walk across a narrow and unstable beam that leads to the adjacent tree. Once Theo gets half way across, RJ pelts him with oranges and tells him to start juggling. Theo is wondering what the point of all this is. RJ takes this time to remind Theo that a few days ago, he had all the confidence in the world and could do anything he set his mind to, but since he got his butt kicked by a Spider-Man wannabe with green dreadlocks, he seems to have forgotten that. RJ tells Theo that those skills he demonstrated before haven’t gone away, he just needs to find that state of mind that gave him that confidence in the first place again. RJ’s pep talk seems to finally snap Theo out of his funk as he starts effortlessly juggling the oranges and flips off the beam with the same level of skill he was showing off at the beginning of the episode.

Back in Ocean Bluff, Casey and Lily have their hands full with Gakko and Camille, Gakko pulling his Spider-Man routine again. Theo arrives and admittedly has a pretty dope one on one fight with Gakko while clinging to the side of the building. Move over Buzz Lightyear as it seems Theo has mastered the art of falling with style as he takes Gakko down to the ground. Our Blue Ranger definitely has his mojo back.

Gakko isn’t done yet and, of course, that means it’s time for a Megazord battle. You may notice that I don’t usually have a lot to say about the Megazord fights. That’s mostly due to the fact that they tend to be brief and somewhat repetitive. They’re still a ton of fun, but unless it’s a monster of particular significance, most of the Megazord fights tend to blend together. Still, I love reminding you all that Flit exists. I love that little dude. Also, in this particular fight, The Megazord rips Gakko’s arm off, that’s pretty gnarly. Don’t worry, he’s a lizard, it grows back, but still. In any case, The Rangers take down Gakko and the day is won.

And so our episode ends at Jungle Karma with Theo back to his old, confident self, but now having gained perspective and an understanding that he’s only human and allowed to make mistakes.

I don’t know Ranger fans, this one didn’t really do it for me. Don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of positives. The fight on the side of the building was very creative and a ton of fun and it was nice getting some insight into Theo’s character, but the entire conflict just feels forced. I get what they’re going for, hell the message of the episode is literally right there in the title, but Theo going full emo after getting beat once, even though this is hardly the first time the Rangers have been overwhelmed, even this early in the game, just doesn’t feel authentic. It feels like “this week we’re teaching the kids a lesson about self-confidence so we need our characters to act a certain way even though they’ve never demonstrated these tendencies up to this point,” otherwise known as “lazy writing.” Don’t get me wrong, an episode where Theo loses his confidence after a humiliating defeat can work, but I personally don’t think they stuck the landing in this time around. Hopefully things will improve next time in Dance the Night Away. Until then, May The Power Protect You.