[Androzani84]

Week 8 continues with?

Time Force Epusode 8: Jen?s Revenge

My interesting fact about this episode is that Erin Cahill, who played Jen, named his as her favourite episode of the series because she got to be more aggressive. How much more? Let?s find out.

As Trip checks on the 7 Mutants the Rangers have captured so far (hooray for continuity), which are being held in a freezer (probably in case the capsules malfunction, but that?s just my interpretation. I?m half sure someone will disagree with me). Wes then wakes up to his alarm and falls out of bed, with the others telling him that it?s not early (despite the clock reading ?6.45? and the sun looking like it was rising or setting in the establishing shot). He notices that Jen isn?t there, and learns she?s ?training as usual?.

By which I mean, she?s out by the lake, punching a tree with a rope wrapped around it with fingerless gloves, before staring wistfully at her engagement ring. Wes then arrives, offering to work out with her? only for her to throw him flat on his ass.

Jen: Someday, if you get up early enough, maybe you can keep up with me.

(That quote isn?t that important to later in the episode. I just thought it was distinct enough to stand out)

We then cut to Casa de Ransik, where Frax defrosts the unfortunately named Fatcatfish (adapted from Mad Blast from Timeranger 05), with the latter tasked by Ransik with taking out the Rangers in exchange for half a briefcase full of money. And Frax loses the mechanical delivery to mock him for his surprise.

Frax: Surely a bounty hunter of your reputation will have no problem going after them.
Fatcatfish: Of course not. I?ll pulverise them.

He demonstrates by using his gatling gun arm to take out Nadira?s entire entourage. Which she?s oddly ok with, laughing at the robot carnage. But Frax fails to see the humour in Fatcatfish?s Robo-racism, and vows revenge - and implies that robots share the same discrimination and goals that mutants do (which would explain how Ransik got him to join the gang - playing on that).

But before Fatty (Nadira?s nickname for him, which I?m adopting to spare my spell checker) can go and kill the Rangers, Nadira Shanghais him as a valet while she goes shopping, forces him to pay for all her purchases and then deserts him once he goes broke. Predictably, he goes on a rampage in response.

The Rangers arrive on the scene to stop him. And in a divergence from the Timeranger episode, Jen does recognise him? Alex arrested Fatty alongside her back in the year 3000 (and somehow, Fatty recognised Jen beneath the helmet. Does he remember her voice from their one meeting?). And when he insults her over Alex?s death (How did her learn about that? Because the only way he could know is if Nadira told him during her shopping splurge), which is what prompts her to stock footage mandated ?he must die? rage (I know we couldn?t do a gunned down parents story in a show aimed at PR?s demographic, but they probably could?ve come up with a stronger motivation to replace it). And Fatty chooses to withdraw when the other Rangers stop Jen. (And apparently, the V5 has a ?destroy? setting, despite being made to capture criminals. That invites a lot of questions)

Fatty comes across Frax, who proceeds to mock him for his cowardice and forge a friendship? purely so he can make a copy of his likeness and voice, which he uses to send a bogus surrender message to Jen (So deepfakes still exist in the future. Ok) offering to hand over Ransik in exchange for clemency at an old warehouse. That night, Jen sneaks out to said warehouse on her Time Force uniform, where Frax has arranged for Fatty and Ransik to meet up at said warehouse to sell the ruse (with the former even reassuming his robot voice to deny involvement). The ruse goes off with, Ransik shoving Fatty aside, before Jen finds herself dealing with an ambush of Cyclobots. After a fairly well choreographed and creative foght, Fatty runs away, and Wes discovers Jen went out on her own. The other Rangers arrive in time for Jen to need saving from Ransik? somewhat redundantly, as his mutation disease flares up before he can land the final blow, with Ransik being helped to safety by Frax.

The next morning, a badly bandaged (for kids tv) Jen wakes up to find Wes has been sleeping with her all night. Meanwhile, Faty had realised Frax?s deception and try?s to shut him down? only for the regular villain to be saved by Jen reappearing to settle things with the monster of the week. But Wes notices her absence and alerts the others, with the 4 rushing to the scene just as she?s preparing to ?give (Fatty) the same mercy that Ransik gave Alex?.

Wes manages to get through to Jen by pointing out that while she?s justified in wanting to kill him, Alex wouldn?t have wanted it, causing her to decide to bring him in ?by the book? (kind of anticlimactic, but whatever). Fatty then recovers his courage, in time for Jen to deliver a sword strike to defeat him. But Fatty grows to giant size, with the Rangers summoning the Time Fliers and combining into Jet Mode to hit Fatty with the Cyclone Defence, before reforming as Mode Red. Wes gives Jen the honour of finishing off Fatty, allowing him to be recaptured.

Later, as Trip adds their latest prisoner to the freezer that is Tome Force?s Hotel California, we end on Wes and Jen having a heart to heart, with the latter admitting she like Wes because he isn?t Alex, resulting in a hug? and everyone else proving that the Scooby-Doo method of spying on people by stacking on top of one another sideways doesn?t really work in real life.

Next time: Frax steals a crystal powder that he uses to fuel a robot that defeats the Megazord, forcing Mr. Collins and a mysterious party to send out their own giant mecha.

But that?s going to be about two weeks off, since here?s where I announce a schedule change. To overcome the 10 episode difference in length between Timeranger and Time Force, I?ll be spending the next three weekends and the next two scheduled update days covering episodes 9-18 of Timeranger, before resuming the simul-review with episodes 19 of Timeranger and 9 of Time Force. If it proves sustainable, I might make that my new update model. But now, onto the final thoughts.

Final thoughts: Now I?m not saying this is a bad episode - it?s well acted, we get a bit of development for Frax, who up until now has been rather static (and no, that?s not a pun) and some development of the Wes/Jen ship.

But I will say that the title is rather misleading (what exactly is Jen taking revenge on Fatcatfish for? Mocking her? Because if so, her reaction is, as pointed out, rather overblown) and the resolution to the plot feels like they?d written themselves into a corner when working with the footage. Plus Jen getting angry and trying to murder a criminal had slightly less impact than when Yuri did it, because as Shi z Ranger pointed out, shouting is Erin Cahill?s default mode as Jen, whereas Mika Natsumura normally plays Yuri as stoic and business first, which made for a greater contrast.

So, it?s not an awful watch, but I feel it could?ve been made stronger. How, I don?t know, but it could?ve.

[DreamSword]

This is an episode that I can see being very necessary for younger viewers.

As it essentially answers the question of "Why is Jen in such a bad mood alot of times?" for those that didn't piece it together with the first two episodes.

And really, it is all about her personal vendetta in this entire war with Ransik that's been going on, and how desperate she is in seeking vengeance for Alex. It causes her to act out and put both herself and others in danger.

Not only does it make it very easy for Frax to lure her into a trap, but she almost ends up smoking a criminal into dust just through sheer guilt by association. Sure, it was also a criminal she'd arrested in the past, but given that opening where Ransik is on her mind, it was clear who she was really lashing out at.

It's a pretty solid character piece for our Pink Ranger, with some surprising development for Frax added to the mix too. That said, the most surprising thing to me on this rewatch was that the censors allowed Jen to be shown bloody and bruised; a very rare occurrence in the world of Power Rangers. Not to mention Jen's' use of the world "death" during the climax.

I liked it. Though it might've maybe been nice to see this episode slightly sooner in the lineup.

[Androzani84]

As promised, we're doing two bonus reviews this weekend and the next. If the stress is manageable, then I?ll probably make it the regular schedule. But anyway, let's get on with the show

Timeranger: Case File 09: The Don?s Depression, 15/09/2000

We open with a bit of reality sweeping in, as the Londarz are exposed to the public by a tabloid magazine.



Discussing this over breakfast, the Timerangers agree that this turn of events was inevitable.



But they'll have to be on their guard. After all, who knows what these journalists might uncover?





But that gives way to everyone heading to their jobs... except for Ayase, who goes to take his driving test (so I'm guessing those documents Tock and Sion were forging just allowed him to take the test?). Cue a montage of Timeranger at work.









But then we cut to Casa de Dolnero, where Lila is sick of the Sentai trope of carrying on with their operations as if the heroes don?t exist and won't stop them every time (I know how she feels).



Gien then gets an idea after finding one of the criminals they have frozen is a police officer, and decompressed him, with the name being a bit of a hint as to what he was busted for.



And by ?brother?, he means in the street sense (apparently, that?s universal enough to exist in Japan).



He reveals that he used his position as a police officer to help pass hints to Dolnero's gang back in the future. And as Gien points out, he obviously didn't do a very good job since he was arrested. Despite being dismissive of his "Brother's" new crew, Arnold willingly goes out to gather money, as Dolnero returns to his apparent craft model building hobby.



Meanwhile, back with Ayase, unlike Lucas during his test, he has a competent and appropriate instructor.



But the lesson comes to a screeching halt when Arnold attacks motorists, demanding they hand over exorbitant fines for alleged infractions.



Ayase sends the instructor away, before transforming and moving to battle Arnold. The others arrive, and battle Arnold until he decides to withdraw and regroup, leaving the heroes to escape the paparazzi.



Back at the prison, Arnold talks with Dolnero, getting an answer as to what the model he's building actually is.



Arnold then flaunts his old friendship with Dolnero to insult both Gien and Lila, causing both of them to leave and grumble about how much they hate the smug bastard.



And then as they agree they're going to kill him, Dolnero overhears this, and decides to take action. So he provides Arnold with an upgraded weapon (wait for it).



Arnold proceeds to go on the attack again, with the Timerangers finding out about it from Sion's hacking the police radio, of all things. They face Arnold, and Tatsuya gains a palpable advantage over him, forcing him to use his new weapon.



But before Gien can take a shot and finish him off, the new weapon explodes, weakening Arnold, much to the shock of even the two regular villains.





Sou Arnold weakened, Timeranger take the opportunity to blast their foe with the Voltech Bazooka, which... look, you all know the drill at this point. But the giant battle does stand out, because Arnold turns invisible to ambush TimeRobo.



But they're able to come back from behind and win. Meanwhile, Dolnero confirms to his lieutenants that he sabotaged Arnold?s weapon.



He explains that while Arnold is his friend, the other two are his family, and keeping harmony within the family comes first. Meanwhile, the heroes finish freeze-compressing Arnold, before the same paparazzo from earlier comes back, successfully taking photos for her editor.



Unfortunately for her, they refuse to answer any questions and leave. Meanwhile, the heads of the police decide they need to do something about all those questions about whether the Timerangers are affiliated with them (They're already getting flak for talk that one of the Unidentified Lifeforms they're supposed to be neutralising is somehow stealing police equipment to slaughter his fellows).



Their solution: Produce an article that confirms the rumours as "truth".



Yuri doesn't mind the lie, since it'll help them operate in secret. But then Tatsuya changes the subject with some good news: Ayase passed his driving test and got his license. (And all it took was not having a biased instructor who took a minor injury too seriously)



But during the celebration, Ayase's hand shivers, as he drops his wine glass, and he stumbles out, unnoticed by all but Tatsuya. The episode ends with him collapsing outside Tomorrow Research.





Next week: Ayase explains the truth to Tatsuya: He's dying from Osiris Syndrome. This and more in Timeranger Case File 10: The Escape to Tomorrow.

Final thoughts: I like the Dolnero plot with him being torn between his old friend and his new family (even if "Depression" doesn't really fit as a title), and the hook with Ayase is interesting, even if the trailer spoiled it. But I wasn't too keen on the subplot of the news reporting on the Timeranger's battles. Realistic? Probably. Interesting? I wasn't too thrilled.