Power Rangers Jungle Fury: True Friends, True Spirits

Welcome back to the jungle Ranger fans. Last time, Casey briefly questioned his position as team leader after RJ officially became a Ranger, but other than that, not much of any real substance actually happened. I don’t know, Dai Shi mentioned something about a Nexus and I made a bunch of Star Trek and early 2010’s WWE jokes. That was fun. Anywho, on with the show.

After the kickass theme song, we head over to the villains’ castle where Carnisoar and Jellica are getting impatient with Grizzaka after old Grizz gave Dai Shi the boot and promised that things would be different with him in charge. Grizzaka says that the Rangers are already in battle with his latest monster, and has even raided Dai Shi’s closet for an urn containing malevolent spirits as an insurance policy.

And indeed, we join our heroes in Ocean Bluff’s abandoned buildings district as the Megazords are engaged with some kind of fish beast. And best of all, Flit is on hand to provide commentary. Our heroes have the monster on the ropes, but the Malevolent spirit infects RJ, causing him to reassume his feral Wolf Beast form and turn on the other Rangers.

As the Fish Beast fucks off, RJ’s Wolf Pride Megazord wails on the Jungle Master Megazord for a while until it triggers a huge explosion, sending everyone flying. Fortunately, the impact of the blast seems to have snapped RJ out of whatever the spirit did to him for the time being. As RJ recovers, he hears Flit, who was also sent flying by the blast, calling for help. RJ doesn’t exactly trust this large talking house fly who lives in the stomach of one of his arch enemies, but he still has the decency to lift some debris off the little guy. Grateful to RJ for saving his life, Flit says he owes RJ a debt, but RJ dismisses this as part of one of Camille’s evil schemes. However, Flit alludes to the fact that just because he hangs out with Camille, it doesn’t mean he’s evil like her.

Later, at Jungle Karma, we get a POV shot from Flit, having followed RJ home. After scaring the hell out of poor Fran, Flit heads up to the loft where Casey is benching RJ from active Ranger duty until we can get this Wolf Beast situation figured out. However, because the Rangers have this thing called peripheral vision, they spot Flit right away and demand to know why he was spying on them. Apparently, Flit has decided RJ is his new best friend since he saved his life and is basically the coolest character in this entire franchise. Lily finds this entire situation, as well as Flit himself, to be adorable and suggests they let him go, but Casey says they can’t now that he knows RJ’s animal spirit is going nuts again. Flit insists he won’t tell Camille and from the way he talks, it would appear he doesn’t actually like Camille all that much, which is bound to happen when you live in someone’s stomach. But here’s where we get the big reveal. Flit is actually human, or at least used to be. See, centuries ago, Flit was an enemy of Camille and from the looks of things in the flashback, a martial artist much like our heroes. It’s never stated outright, but it’s entirely possible that he was a member of the Order of the Claw. Anywho, Camille cast a spell on Flit, turning him into a fly and eating him, hence his deeply unfortunate and disgusting living situation. Flit also tells the Rangers about the malevolent spirit that Grizzaka sent after RJ that causes his animal spirit to go haywire. So good news, The Rangers now know what they’re dealing with. Bad news, while Flit was giving us his big exposition dump, RJ wolfed out again and is now attacking the Rangers. The Rangers do their best to contain their werewolf mentor, but even three against one, the Wolf Beast is too strong, especially when the Rangers are pulling their punches so as not to hurt RJ, which allows the Wild Beast to overpower our heroes and escape into the city.

We then get a brief scene with our villains which I would otherwise skip, but I find it significant for two reasons. One, Dai Shi overhears Grizzaka saying he wants to kill all humans and says he won’t be pushed aside so easily. Be it the influence of Jarrod or an acceptance of his current circumstances, I find it interesting that Dai Shi would consider himself human. The other reason, Grizzaka refers to the conflict ten thousand years ago as “The Beast War.” So… does that mean that Dai Shi’s forces are actually Predacons? That’s a twist I didn’t see coming, but if it gives us the best version of Megatron in this show I’m all for it!

Back in Ocean Bluff, the Fish Beast (who I’ve just noticed is modeled after Clint Eastwood from A Fist Full of Dollars, weird) is still kicking around and wreaking havoc. The Rangers decide to split up with Casey going after RJ and Theo and Lily meeting The Outlaw Josey Walleye at High Noon.

Casey chases RJ down and manages to catch him with the help of Flit. Flit reveals that he’s apparently fucking psychic and enters RJ’s mind, where a fierce battle between himself and his Wolf Spirit is taking place. Flit manages to contact RJ and helps him regain control and once again merge with his Wolf spirit, expelling Grizzaka’s evil one. RJ is back to normal, but Flit’s Professor Xavier routine has left the little guy exhausted. However, Flit is still overjoyed when RJ thanks him and finally accepts friendship.

That just leaves A Fish Full of Dollars to take care of. Our heroes go Jungle Master mode and fight off the a huge Rinshi battalion while RJ fries the Fish. As they often do, things escalate to the point where it’s Megazord time. And God Bless him, even completely wiped out from earlier, Flit still does his best to provide commentary. That my friends is what you call dedication. The Anywho, the Megazords double team the Fish Beast and the day is won. However, there’s a problem. The nature of Flit’s curse means he can’t be outside of Camille’s stomach for too long or he’ll die. The Rangers have no choice but to return the little guy to the enemy. Speaking of, Camille shows up out of nowhere and takes Camille back. While she doesn’t admit it, it’s clear from her face that she missed the little dude. It seems all’s well that’s ended well

This was a far stronger episode than our previous outing. Flit is already an endlessly endearing character, at least to me, and having him take center stage and showing that there’s more to him than meets the eye (I’m telling you, they’re totally Predacons) made for a fun episode. We still didn’t get much from our villains, just more talk about The Nexus, but hey, at least we got a cool monster design this time around. That was pretty cool. Top it all off with my favorite character, RJ getting plenty of time to shine, I think we can call this one a winner. Next time, we finally meet our next Ranger in Path of the Rhino. Until then, May The Power Protect you.