Power Rangers Jungle Fury: Ghost of a Chance Part 1

Welcome back to the Jungle my friends. Last time, Casey became the latest to receive a new Master, a spiffy new weapon and an upgrade for the Megazord. However, this time it turned out that Casey’s new master was none other than RJ’s estranged father. Long story short, RJ and his dad found common ground despite their drastically different methods of doing things, the monster of the week got taken down and RJ defeated Dai Shi in a one on one fight as an unmorphed civilian.

We open today’s episode with a tree frog monster terrorizing the city. Camille is certain that this time she’ll emerge victorious, but our buddy Flit emerges to remind her that she doesn’t exactly have a stellar track record in that department. Gotta love self aware villains. The Rangers arrive and make incredibly quick work of the big frog, showing off all three of their Megazord upgrades in the process.

At Dai Shi’s castle, Dai Shi continues to toil under his new teacher, Sea Overlord and Evil Girl Boss, Jellica. Camille arrives to report her failure and this time Jellica has had enough of her shit and attacks her. Camille begs Dai Shi to help her and, surprisingly, he does. Dai Shi claims that she may still be of use, but this could just as easily be more of Jarrod’s true nature asserting itself. In any case, Carnisoar arrives and animates two statues in Dai Shi’s throne room, which he refers to as Shadow Guards and says that with their aid, Dai Shi will easily destroy the Rangers.

At Jungle Karma Pizza, the Rangers are feeling very pleased with themselves after an easy victory. Fran asks where they’ve been, and the Rangers struggle to come up with a satisfying answer. RJ calls the three Rangers up to the loft, leading Fran to grow more and more suspicious.

Up in the loft, RJ seems less than enthused about the Rangers’ attitude, especially when Lily thinks they’re already ready for their Master Tattoos. As RJ puts it, confidence is great, but overconfidence is not. RJ suggests the Rangers go back to basics with their training, something that all three Rangers scoff at.

Dai Shi arrives outside the city and calls out the Rangers. Our heroes head out to answer the call, despite RJ’s warnings that something seems different about Jarrod this time and that charging in head first might not be such a great idea. The Rangers engage Dai Shi and while they put up a decent fight, Dai Shi quickly proves more than they can handle. Dai Shi wipes the floor with each of the Rangers, even with the weapons and techniques they learned from their new masters. An especially cool moment is when he effortlessly catches Lily’s Jungle Mace. Casey even tries to run Dai Shi over with a motorcycle, but no dice. Not even the Huge Mother Fucking Cannon seems to phase the Lion Warrior. The Rangers are beaten and forced to demorph. Dai Shi is about to deliver a killing blow, but RJ arrives to make the save. RJ puts his guard up, but despite how this went down last episode, Dai Shi has had a serious power boost since then, and both know that this is a fight RJ can’t win. Dai Shi offers RJ a chance to surrender in exchange for the lives of his students and RJ does so, cryptically telling the Rangers “You Know What To Do” before he’s taken away.

The Rangers return to Jungle Karma, dejected. Fran gives them a hard time for leave her to run the restaurant alone, but since the Rangers just went through a world class ass whooping and lost their mentor in the process, I’ll let this one slide. Still counting the one from earlier though, which brings the count up to nine. Fran asks where RJ is and the Rangers don’t have an answer.

Back at Dai Shi’s Castle, Dai Shi brings RJ before Jellica and Carnisoar. RJ maintains his usual calm and snarky demeanor, but it’s clear the situation is dire. The villains think the Rangers will be useless without their masters, and since the Rangers have already trained with the only other living masters in the world, it’s unlikely that they’ll find a replacement.

At the loft, the Rangers are feeling hopeless. Casey says that “You Know What to Do” had something to do with RJ’s mandate of Back to Basics, and makes the leap in logic to return to the Pai Zhuq temple where all this started.

Our heroes return to the forbidden room from the Temple, where they see a carving of the battle from ten thousand years ago that depicts an Elephant, a Bat and a Shark fighting Dai Shi, but also see a Penguin, an Antelope and a Gorilla that they don’t recognize. So, I’m going to park here for a second because this scene is kind of confusing. See, the implication here is that Masters Phant, Swoop and Finn and the same warriors who originally fought Dai Shi, but I don’t think that’s actually the case. Mainly because if RJ’s dad was some immortal kung fu shark man, he probably would have mentioned that at some point, regardless of any estrangement between the two. My personal head canon is that the names Master Phant, Swoop etc. are actually inherited titles given to the master of that particular style. This is further evidenced in the previous episode when Master Finn says that his father and his father before were all proud Shark masters. The reason those are the only three is because the others died before they were able to pass on their titles to an apprentice. We never get confirmation one way or another, but this is just what makes more sense to me.

Anywho, speaking of dead masters, the ghost of Master Mao appears before the Rangers and informs our heroes that the Antelope, Penguin and Gorilla masters were destroyed long ago and now reside in the spirit world.

At Dai Shi’s castle, we learn that Dai Shi is planning to fight RJ one on one to showcase his new power. RJ cracks wise at the big bad, but when he’s alone, it’s clear that he’s starting to get nervous.

Back at the temple, Our heroes beg Master Mao to take them to the spirit world, but Mao says it’s too risky. After some convincing Mao reluctantly agrees, but warns the Rangers that while he can take them to the spirit world, but for getting out, they’re on their own.

The Rangers enter the portal to what looks like a cherry blossom forest where they’re immediately attacked by the three masters, Master Rilla, a grizzled old man who fights like an ape, Master Lope, a dude who specializes in kicks like Sanji from One Piece, and Master Guin, who fans of Power Rangers SPD will recognize as Michelle Langstone, who also played the character of Kat Manx from that show. The Rangers all put up a decent fight, but against Pai Zhuq masters, they’re out of their league, ending the episode on a To Be Continued.

When it comes to multi partners, I tend to save my final thoughts on the story as a whole when we get to the end. In that spirit, I hope you all join me next time for Ghost of a Chance Part 2. Until then, May the Power Protect You.