Power Rangers Jungle Fury: Dash For the Dagger

Welcome back to the Jungle at Long Last Ranger Fans. It has been a WHILE since I’ve covered an episode of Power Rangers Jungle Fury. I don’t really have an excuse other than the tried and true “life got away from me” bit. Well, that and one other thing. See, Power Rangers Jungle Fury was the season that aired during the 2008 writers’ strike, and as a result, there’s a bit of a noticeable dip in episode quality right about the point where we left off. Fortunately, they do get their shit together in time to stick the landing, kind of… we’ll talk about it when we get there, but writers strike or not, hopefully now that I’m moved into my new apartment and life is slowing down a bit, we can get back to this with more regularity.

Last time, our heroes were introduced to Dominic, a promising former student of the academy who left to find himself. While at first, he annoyed the shit out of everyone, myself included, he did prove he was a good person who had the right stuff to be a Ranger and joined the team as the Jungle Fury Rhino Ranger. Meanwhile, Dai Shi and Camille are working on a plan to overthrow the usurper, Grizzaka, a plan that involves a place called The Rhino Nexus. 

After the always kick ass theme song, we open with Dominic having a dream about Master Mao giving him something called The Control Dagger before Dom went on his journey of self discovery, stating that it’s supposed to guide him to his destiny or some mystical something or other.

Meanwhile, after locating The Rhino Nexus but failing to find a way in, Dai Shi tries to sneak back into his castle, only to be caught by Jellica in gloriously sinister fashion. Seriously, why couldn’t she be the one in charge. She’s intimidating as hell and actually gets shit done, unlike Grizzaka who just sits on his bear ass and shouts and people.

The next morning, Dom wakes up and tells the others about his dream. RJ says that according to legend, the control dagger is the only way to enter the Rhino Nexus, and because Dom has the spirit of the Rhino, Dom must be destined to unlock the power of the Nexus. Um... Sounds legit to me, let’s go!

Back at the Castle, we meet our monster of the week, an Ostrich Beast who Grizzaka sends into the city, but more importantly, Carnisoar has managed to find two more Crystal Eyes, artifacts previously alluded to that are said to contain the spirits of Powerful Warriors known as the Phantom Beasts. This is all well and good, but he’s still missing six eyes. Well, while Carny is getting chewed out by Grizzaka, Jellica walks in like a total girl boss with Dai Shi in her tentacles. See, this is what I’m talking about. Jellica puts everyone else to shame. Seems Grizzaka knows what Dai Shi has been up to this whole time, and even knows that the Order of the Claw has the dagger you need to get in. Um… How? Well, I guess the answer to that question can wait because Jarrod has finally had enough of Grizzaka’s shit, breaks free of Jellica’s grasp and starts fighting Old Grizz one on one. This fight goes a little better than last time, but since Dai Shi hasn’t quite gotten the hang of the vaguely defined Zocato Power yet, he still gets his ass beat and thrown in the dungeon. 

Elsewhere, Dominic and Theo are heading to the place where Dominic hid the Dagger, bringing them to a coffee shop down town. Theo is frustrated with Dominc’s nonchalant attitude about this whole thing. Frankly I don’t blame him. Okay, so what actually happens next is that Dominic retrieves the dagger from underneath the cushion of the booth he’s sitting in, and believe me, we’ll unpack that later, but the way the shot is framed, oh lord, it honestly looked like Dom was trying to pull the dagger out of his ass. Frankly, Dominic would be the sort of weirdo who would hide an artifact of great importance up the old Ventura hole, but mercifully no, it’s just in the booth. Theo rightfully berates Dom for choosing a god awful hiding place, even though it could have been a lot worse as we just discussed, and thinks it’s a good idea that he hold onto the dagger for a bit. And so, after helping a lady with her laundry, our heroes hitch a cab, presumably to the Rhino Nexus. I wonder what the fair is like for a trip to the spirit world. 

Anywho, the Ostrich Beast is attacking Ocean Bluff and Casey, Lily and RJ head out in Ranger mode to fight it. The Ostrich Beast  is pretty tough, however, while the fight is going on, no one notices Camille lurking in the shadows. The Rangers call Dom and Theo for reinforcements, but before they head out to help their friends, Theo realizes he left the Dagger in one of the lady from earlier's laundry baskets. Well that sucks, but better there than the grody cushion or Dominc’s ass. While the others struggle against the Ostrich Beast, Theo and Dominic tear the Laundromat apart looking for the dagger. 

Our heroes finally manage to take down the Ostrich Beast, turns out they just had to hit him really hard, but you all know how Power Rangers works, so you know it’s not over until we have us a badass Giant Robot fight. The Ostrich grows giant and RJ summons the Wolf Pride Megazord to face it one on one. 

Back at the laundromat, Dom finds the dagger and Theo thinks that maybe he can be trusted with the dagger after all. However, as Theo heads out to help the Rangers and Dom heads back to the loft to put the dagger someplace that’s hopefully not his ass, Camille is shown to have overheard the two Rangers and follows Dominic. 

Back at the Megazord Fight, Theo arrives to reinforce the others and they finish off Ostrich boy with the Jungle Master Megazord. 

On his way back to the loft, Dom tries to help what he thinks is a woman getting assaulted, but is actually Camille luring him into a Rinshi Ambush. The Rangers arrive to help fight off the bad guys, but thanks to Dom showboating after his victory like an idiot, Camille gets away with the dagger, much to the annoyance of the others. Oh, and as if things couldn’t get any worse, a giant purple egg rises out of the ground

OH FUCK, IT’S IVAN OOZE!!!

Nah, I wish. What’s actually happening is that before he exploded, the Ostrich Beast pulled a King Piccolo and put his life essence into an egg which has just hatched into an even more powerful Ostrich Beast. This new monster proves that it’s more than a match for the Rangers, but Dom’s Raw Power manages to keep the Beast on its toes and the combined might of all five Rangers puts the big birdie down, but not for long as, second verse same as the first, the Monster grows Giant and the Megazord cuts it down to side. 

Back at the loft, like last episode, Casey apologizes for coming down on Dominic so hard. RJ tells our heroes not to get too comfortable. Now that Dai Shi has the dagger, he’s sure to go after the Nexus, which means our heroes need to get there first and stop Dai Shi from taking the Rhino power. 

Our episode ends with Camille presenting Dai Shi with the control dagger and Dai Shi using it to break himself out of the dungeon, claiming that the winds of fate are about to change. 

There were one or two decent moments in this episode, but for the most part I found it rather frustrating, the dip in writing quality I mentioned at the top really starting to rear its ugly head. Perfect example is the Rhino Nexus itself. We’ve been told about the Nexus for a while now, but we don't actually know that much about it other than “It Holds the Power of the Rhino.” I mean, Rhino’s are cool and all, but I need a little more than that. Like, why is the Nexus so significant. Why does it contain great power? Is it just because Rhinos are really strong? Why does Dai Shi think it will help him master his new power? And the most pressing question, why are Dom in Theo in such a damn hurry to get to the Nexus? Dom says he’s had the dagger for years, so why is there such a rush to get there now, it’s not like Theo and Dom were aware the bad guys were after the control dagger, or even that they knew about it. For that matter, how DID Grizzaka know that The Order of the Claw had the Dagger? You see the problem when you keep this whole Nexus thing so vague? I’m not asking for a massive Tolkien style lore dump here, but give me something that will let me make sense of this whole mess. Speaking of mess, the more I see of Dominic, the more I don’t like him. He’s a decent fighter, but also comes across like an annoying screwup. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad the dagger wasn’t up his ass, but what kind of moron leaves the super important artifact of destiny in a random cafe booth where literally anyone can find it. And what makes things worse is how the Rangers are always apologizing for coming down hard on him even though they’re completely justified in doing so. Now granted, Dominic was lured into Camille's ambush because he thought an innocent woman was in trouble, but the reason he lost the dagger was because he decided to start showboating after he won the fight. Given that Dominic being a moron has given the bad guys access to a realm of great power or some such, frankly I don't think Casey came down hard enough on him. I have a bigger rant about how to fix the whole Rhino Ranger thing, but I’m saving it for the right moment. In any case, this episode was frustrating, but it had just enough positive stuff that it breaks even into a solid meh. Next time, we race to the nexus in… Race to the Nexus. Until then, May the Power Protect You