Power Rangers Jungle Fury: Sigh of the Tiger

Welcome back to the Jungle Ranger fans, as we take a look at our third episode of Power Rangers Jungle Fury.

After the always awesome theme song, our episode opens with Dai Shi, who remember, has possessed Jarrod’s body. What we learn here is that because Dai Shi was locked away for so long, he’s not quite at full strength at the moment, hence his need to take on a human host. As such, Dai Shi has ordered his Rinshi to attack him with everything they have so that he may evaluate his current level of strength. Dai Shi naturally wipes the floor with the Rinshi as Camille sings his praises. Apparently, the sexy Chameleon lady has a thing for Dai Shi, but Dai Shi outright ignores her advances. Camille needs a plan if she’s going to win her master’s favor.

At the loft, Lily and Casey are engaged in a two on one sparring match with a blindfolded RJ, who says in order to win, the two need to be in perfect sync with their animal spirits, and also get incredibly lucky. It’s also worth mentioning that RJ is using something called the “Swoop Technique,” which is why he’s blindfolded. Put a pin in that for a later episode. The Rangers come at their teacher with everything they’ve got but RJ manages to take them down effortlessly. RJ instructs his students to learn from this defeat and suggests they all take a break. After Lily leaves the room, Casey asks RJ for some additional one on one training, recognizing that while he’s come a long way since becoming a Ranger, Theo and Lily are still way ahead of him. RJ agrees, but only if Casey follows his exact instructions without question. Two seconds later, RJ requests that Casey give him a shoulder massage.

Meanwhile, at the Ocean Bluff museum of native heritage, Camille and a Rinshi battalion have stolen some sort of medicine bag, even giving the poor security guard a good tongue lashing. Literally, Camille can attack people with her long Chameleon tongue. The Rangers see the heist on RJ’s security cams and spring into action, which apparently necessitates swinging on a vine like Tarzan through a large hole in the wall. Gotta commit to that Jungle theming I suppose.

The Rangers fight off the Rinshi at the museum and Casey even gets into a pretty cool one on one fight with Camille herself. During the fight, Camille demonstrates more abilities, including the ability to leap off walls and turn invisible. After tripping Casey up with her tongue, Camille escapes.

In the restaurant, we see poor Fran forced to run the entire place on her own. I don’t have anything specific to say about this just yet, but make a note of any time this happens, I’m going to have a lot to say about it later on.

Back at the loft, Casey, angry at himself for letting Camille escape, is ready for more training, but RJ merely tells him to fix his chair and reminds him of the whole “Whatever I Say” thing. Now, if you’ve seen The Karate Kid, you probably already know where this is going, but we’ll let it play out.

At Dai Shi’s castle, we learn what was in the bag Camille stole, another Talisman like the one they attached to the Mantis Beast last time, only this one containing the angry spirit of the Buffalo. So, my read on how all this works is that the talismans contain the essence of the creatures, but need to be attached to Rinshi host bodies in order to manifest. In any case, Camille attaches the Buffalo talisman to a Rinshi and our Monster of the week, Buffalord, is born.

After a brief scene of Fran getting swamped by an influx of customers and Theo and Lily being too chicken shit to help her out, we see that Casey has finished fixing RJ’s chair. His next task, wash RJ’s nasty yoga mat. And you just know that thing stinks of skunk weed and old pizza sauce. The alarm goes off, meaning another Rinshi attack in the city, and our heroes need to spring into action, Casey berating RJ for wasting his time before heading out to join the others.

In the city, after making quick work of the Rinshi, our heroes tangle with Buffalord, who is, in fact, a Buffalo Monster… in a cape, and this monster is no pushover, easily able to plow Casey through numerous stone pillars. Lily manages to harness her cheetah spirit for some lighting fast strikes, forcing the monster to retreat, for now, but Casey is still annoyed about getting his ass whooped yet again.

Back at the loft, Casey confronts RJ about how he hasn’t given him the training he asked for and because of it, he’s been getting creamed out in the field. RJ insists that Casey continue to do as he say and orders him to scrub the floor. Angrily, Casey capitulates.

Buffalord returns to the city to go on another Rampage and Theo and Lily head out to face him, but RJ insists Casey stay behind and finish scrubbing the floor. The two rangers do the best they can, but Buffalord is way too strong for just the two of them.

Back at the loft, Casey has finally had it. His team is out there getting killed by a Buffalo Monster… in a cape, and he’s busy doing chores. RJ insists that he’s already been training Casey and before you can say Wax On Wax Off, RJ throws a punch at Casey which he catches using the same motion used to operate the screwdriver while fixing RJ's chair. Yup, it's the classic Miyagi method, using mundane tasks to build up muscle memory and applying it to combat. Not the most original method, but the classics never go out of style. Plus, RJ's teachings seem to have worked since Casey is easily able to dodge RJ’s attacks using what he learned doing chores, except for the shoulder massage, that was just because RJ slept funny last night.

Back in the city, Casey arrives and faces Buffalord one on one. As the Jungle Fury theme song swells, Casey uses what he’s learned to use Buffalord’s strength against him, particularly using the scrub the floor technique to trip up the beast.

However, the laws of Rangerdom dictate that we’re not done yet. Buffalord grows gigantic and our heroes call out the Jungle Pride Megazord. And of course, our buddy Flit is on commentary. Buffalord tosses the Megazord into the air, but our heroes come down with a massive drop kick, finishing off the monster.

At Dai Shi’s castle, Camille is being made to scrub the floors as recompense for her failure, and I’m pretty sure Dai Shi isn’t trying to teach her any fighting techniques.

And so our episode ends with Fran having been through the wringer handling the lunch rush by herself on her second day. Our heroes apologize to her for not helping her out, and RJ makes them clean up the restaurant while he, Fran and Casey get ice cream.

Sigh of the Tiger is another solid episode and a great character building episode for both Casey and RJ. Casey acknowledges that he still has a ways to go before he’s caught up with the more experienced Theo and Lily and is impatient to get there. RJ demonstrates his tendency to favor more unorthodox teaching methods, hence the Miyagi method, something that will become more significant to who he is as a character as we continue. And of course, we continue to see how Casey is quick on the uptake as we see him use what he’s learned to easily take down Buffalord. We don’t get a lot from Dai Shi this time around, but the notion that he is not yet at full power will be important in episodes to come. There are also a few subtle hints that bits of Jarrod’s personality have melded with those of Dai Shi, something that will become increasingly more apparent as the series continues. Overall, this was a solid episode. Join us next time as we get one of the more unique concepts for monsters of the week as we get A Taste of Poison. Until then, May The Power Protect You.