Power Rangers Jungle Fury: Dance the Night Away

Last time on Power Rangers Jungle Fury, Theo briefly lost his mojo after getting beat by a member of the Five Fingers of Poison. Fortunately, he got over himself, and another monster bit the dust.

We open today’s episode at Jungle Karma Pizza where Theo is waiting to meet Lily for lunch. Apparently they always have lunch together on the second Tuesday of every month. However, Lily appears to be late and Theo is so agitated by this that he knocks over Fran who is carrying a tray of food. Okay, it’s not leaving her to run the restaurant by herself so I won’t count it towards the total, but it’s yet another example of how this poor girl needs a raise and possibly better friends. Fran learns of Theo’s monthly lunch with Lily and thinks it’s cute that the two have a standing date. Theo insists that it’s not date, but it’s clear that Theo has a thing for Lily even if he won’t admit it to anyone, including himself. This is made even more evident when Theo hears from RJ that Lily is presently hanging out with Casey and bolts upstairs like he’s being chased by an axe murderer.

At Dai Shi’s castle, the remaining fingers of poison aren’t exactly in the highest of spirits, understandable given the fact that their poisonous posse is now down to a mere toxic trio. Alliteration is fun. To make matters worse, Stingerella is pissed off that a lovesick Toadie won’t leave her alone. Toadie suggests they team up to fight the Rangers, a surprisingly smart plan given the fact that when the fingers had their full numbers, they were able to easily overwhelm their foes, but Stingerella finds Toadie to be an annoying nuisance and wants nothing to do with him.

Up in the loft, Lily is showing off her sweet dance moves for Casey, much to Theo’s annoyance. It is here where Casey commits the most unforgivable of sins. No, not keeping Lily away from Theo, something far worse. Casey has sat in RJ’s chair. Poor bastard. You just know that there’s a toothbrush and a nasty grease trap in Casey’s immediate future. Getting back on track, Lily says she didn’t forget their lunch appointment and has even picked out the perfect place. That’s great. She’s also invited Casey to come along. That’s not so great, at least as far as Theo is concerned. We also see in this scene that RJ is working on a new weapon, a Huge Mother Fucking Canon. Ah yes, that ancient traditional Kung Fu weapon, the Huge Mother Fucking Canon. RJ says that in order to power the Huge Mother Fucking Canon, all three of our heroes’ animal spirits need to work together. That seems a dubious prospect as right now the boys are competing over Lily’s attention, an argument that is fortunately interrupted by the alarm going off.

In the city, it’s Stingerella’s turn at bat, and at the moment, she’s current leading a… Rinshi flash mob, what the fuck? I joke, but Stingerella teaching the Rinshi to dance like Thriller Zombies has actually made them more formidable fighters, allowing them to easily overwhelm the Rangers with their superior rhythms. Then there’s Stingerella herself, who’s no slouch in the fighting department either. As Stingerella and her demonic backup dancers wipe the floor with the Rangers, we see Toadie standing off in the shadows, still lusting after his beloved. But, when it appears that the Blue Ranger is getting to close, Toadie is enraged that someone else would dare touch the object of his affection and skips ahead to gigantification. You know, even though Toadie here is portrayed as a dumbass, I have to hand to him, this is twice so far he’s had the idea to buck monster tradition and just go straight for the winning strategy.

Our heroes call upon the Jungle Pride Megazord to take on the giant amphibian and as per usual, our friend Flit is on hand to provide commentary and throws some shade on Camille while he’s at it. The Rangers try their spin attack, and knock the monster to the ground, but when Toadie notices that Stingerella has left, he completely abandons the fight and runs away sobbing.

Back at Dai Shi’s castle, as Camille tries to hype up Toadie to get him to head back out to the battlefield, Naja is berating Dai Shi for keeping him on the sidelines, but Dai Shi is having none of it, taking on his armored lion form and reminding the Cobra of his place.

Back at the loft, RJ has an idea. As we saw earlier, Lily is quite the dancer herself. Maybe if she teaches her dance moves to the boys, they’ll be able to incorporate them into their fighting style counter the dancing Rinshi. Casey and Theo pick up on Lily’s skills quickly , but their petty squabble causes them to try and one up one another. The team is clearly still not in sync, especially when Theo keeps referring to Casey as “The New Guy.” The alarm goes off which means it’s time for round 2 with Stingerella and her battalion of extras from Lindsey Stirling’s Moon Trance video.

Oh, by the way, while we’re here, I just wanted to point something out. It’s common knowledge at this point that Power Rangers borrows stock footage from its Japanese sister series, Super Sentai, and Jungle Fury is certainly no exception. The reason I bring it up is because we see a shot of all three Rangers standing side by side in morphed form, likely a shot taken from Gekiranger, the Sentai Jungle Fury is based on, and Casey and Theo are the same height, when in reality, Aljin Abella who plays Theo is significantly shorter than Jason Smith who plays Casey. It’s not that big a deal and hell, it’s not like there’s no precedent for Morphing altering one’s height, I just wanted to call attention to it because I found it amusing.

Anywho, the Rangers try out their new dance moves against the Rinshi and this time, in a fight scene set to a song that I swear was meant to sound like Limp Bizkit of all things, manage to take down the dancing monsters. Now they just have Stingerella to deal with, or maybe not as Toadie arrives and says he’s helping his beloved destroy the Rangers whether she likes it or not. Our heroes attack Toadie with everything they’ve got, but his defenses are too much for them to penetrate. Seeing how strong Toadie is, Stingerella seems to have changed her tune about the big slimy lug and the combined might of Toadie and Stingerella proves to be more than the Rangers can handle. Only one thing can save our heroes now, the Huge Mother Fucking Canon. Our heroes get ready to fire the Huge Mother Fucking Canon, but Casey and Theo are still bickering and the Huge Mother Fucking Canon won’t fire without all three of them. Our heroes get trounced by the monsters, only saved when they leave in the middle of the fight to get married or something.

Back at Jungle Karma, Theo and Casey continue their petty bickering until Lily has finally had enough of their bullshit. Lily says that she doesn’t care about Casey’s inexperience, he’s just as much a member of the team as her or Theo, and just because she and Casey are now friends, it doesn’t mean her friendship with Theo is in any way diminished. Now they better work out their shit because there’s a giant toad and a dancing scorpion on the loose, and it’s their job to get out there and kick their asses! Casey and Theo both admit that Lily is right, and work things out. With the team back on the same page, it’s time to get back to action.

After stopping the poisonous power couple from setting off a volcano, Theo and Lily charge up the Huge Mother Fucking Canon and blast Toadie to smithereens. In retaliation, Stingerella grows giant and it’s time for a Megazord battle. As Flit provides his commentary, the Jungle Pride Megazord makes quick work of Stingerella and our episode ends with Theo and Lily finally having their montly lunch appointment.

While Theo and Casey’s bickering got old after a while, this episode was still a blast. Toadie and Stingerella made for an amusing and formidable double act and Stingerella and her dancing Rinshi were not only an hilarious visual, but also made for a pretty awesome fight scene. This episode also plants the first seed of what will eventually blossom into a romance between Theo and Lily. It certainly makes sense given that they trained together at the academy and have been close for years, but there have definitely been and will be better romances between Rangers in other seasons. Overall, I had a good time with Dance the Night Away. Join me next time for Pizza Slice of Life. Until then, May The Power Protect You.