[DreamSword]

Episode 19: Dismissed

This is an episode that hits way harder for me as an adult than it did as a kid.

Because I've seen how true to real life this scenario is: Where someone at the top thinks they know better than everyone else solely due to their title.

And thankfully, Supreme Commander Birdy isn't portrayed as being in the right or even any sort of sympathetic in this scenario. His expectations are ridiculous, his leadership is awful, and he shuts out any voice that isn't his.

All he ends up doing is making the lives of everyone at the Earth Branch of SPD even harder, especially after firing Cruger. It only gets worse when Gruumm arrives on Earth, accepting an earlier challenge that Cruger sent out. And he has a sick bike ontop of that.

Speaking of which, this is the second "bike" episode, as Shadow Ranger also gets his ATV during the episode's' climax. And just like with the first bike episode, this one features an uptick in fireballs; though not as many as what the first one had. And at this point, it seems clear to me that the "slo-mo explosions" that some obsess about during the "Kalish Era" of Power Rangers are really only pronounced specifically for the vehicle episodes in SPD.

My hot take? I actually support it, because it ends up meaning that both of the aforementioned episodes end up having their own unique style in terms of the stunt and camera work. And it's not like the more tradition PR style of action is totally gone either, because plenty of that gets to be seen during both Megazord fights as well as the fight against the monster of the week.

There's some little things that stand out in hindsight too, such as Birdy noting that Katt deserves a promotion, the flashback of Cruger cutting off one of Gruumm's' horns, and I just love the Mexican flavoring of the MOTW's' design. This episode has a surprisingly solid balance of action and story, with both happening almost simultaneously.

It didn't suddenly become one of my favorite episodes, but it is one I've definitely grown to appreciate more during this rewatch.