I haven't been watching this but hasn't Sentai always been episodic?

Yes, but my point is Sentai doesn't usually recycle the same episodic plot over and over again. There are some plots that always show up at least once per series (body-swapping, marriage, etc.), but they're only used ONCE. Not four times over.

So far, there have been three Yakumo-centric romance plots (well, one was involving a lawnmower, but still) and at least 3 episodes where they take part in a big game (board game, JRPG, "keep-away"), and a couple where Nagi feels inadequate and has to try to use more advanced techniques. I personally have been enjoying it, but some people might find it a bit too repetitive.

The episodic nature of the show is not the problem. The problem is the lack of much happening in terms of the plot, and very annoying characters.

See if the show had a plot that could unravel in cool ways then more people would be fine, but it never really did. From what I've heard, there have been some plot esque episodes that come out of nowhere and are left abandoned as soon as they arrived, only to be replaced by countless annoying filler that does little justice to the show.

I'm sorry. I couldn't talk for a week after watching this episode from the cavity it caused.

All true. All incredibly true. The tropes have been thick in this series, which is where it's totally fallen flat. What kills it to me is how even with all it's exciting little throw ins, fan service, and non-anniversary guest appearances, it still winds up falling even further than ToQger. I'm kind of ready to move onto the next series with the hope that we can get that feeling of story plot that GoKaiger and KyuRyuger provided.

I thought this episode was pretty bad. Yakumo episodes are always very hit-or-miss for me. Like, I loved the one with the evil Ninja lady, but the lawnmower one and this one are a couple of the worst in the show.

It's not that I dislike Yakumo as a character, quite the opposite. It just that there's something off about his spotlight episodes. Also, it's pretty odd that everyone else gets joint spotlight episodes (ie, This is how Kinji and Nagi interact, this is how Kasumi and Takaharu interact, etc), but Yakumo gets solo ones. Maybe the actor is hard to work with?

Interesting how you'd bring up his actor possibly being hard to work with, since I always assumed a big thing with casting the sentai members is how well they mesh with the others in the group.