[DreamSword]

Episode 13: Abandoned

This one was... alright.

Like, I get the general idea here: The team is getting complacent and needs to realize that if they start to slack, their mission of defending Earth is doomed.

More specifically it's about not over-relying on the Shadow Ranger to carry all the weight, and reinforcing that as a team, the Rangers can accomplish many great things, just as they always have.

I just don't think the execution was the best, especially given that the overall plot of this episode features something that features a surprising bit of continuity with two past seasons: Lightspeed Rescue and Ninja Storm. More specifically that The Abyss comes into play.

And heck, you could easily write an entire episode centered around that! It's the first time that magic has come into play in SPD's' setting, and the continuity inherent in "The Evil's'" existence is ripe with crossover material, even if it'd have to be more subtle or minor stuff like what we'd end up seeing in Disney seasons beyond this one.

Even ignoring that though, I feel like the overall message would've been alot better had the monster of the week just been a rather average criminal that the team needed to deal with, rather than a superpowered unique beast. Then Cruger would've been even more justified in his refusal to contribute to the case. With how things are, one could very much argue that he was being reckless in risking total annihilation over something relatively petty.

But for what it's worth, the message itself is fine, and many of the usual things that tend to make help make an average episode of SPD work is still here; Namely the way everyone plays off eachother. I just felt like this should've been two separate episodes, mainly. One about The Abyss and the other about taking things for granted. It's not a particularly great episode of the show, but it's not anything horrendous either. I overall just kinda shrug at this one.