REVIEW: Dino Charge 8 "Double Ranger, Double Danger

The last episode before the hiatus is the "evil Rangers" episode. This is something that has been done before, make no mistake about it (MMPR did it twice). But recycled plots come with the territory when you're talking about a kids' superhero show that's been on the air for 23 years and counting. What matters is how the plot is done, how it fits into the narrative, what new twists on the idea are brought in, and how strong the storytelling is. When done correctly, you can have a blast, though when done incorrectly it's a bit of a boring same-old same-old. Let's see how Dino Charge tackles it.

One of the things I really appreciate is how creepy and atmospheric the episode makes the idea of clone Rangers. Usually, we get this thrown at us from the beginning, we see the monsters making their evil set of Rangers, and then there's a bit of dramatic irony where the Rangers themselves are confused about what the heck is going on while we know there's a second set of Rangers. But here, after a short opening scene where Poisandra asks for a chance to prove herself, the villainess cackles somewhat cryptically that "the Rangers won't know who's friend or who's foe!" This, other than the title, is the only clue that we get until the appearance of the clones with Tyler later. And when they do show up (only morphed throughout the ep) you can sort of go along with it even if you're bewildered like Tyler. But the "calls coming from inside the house" moment when Tyler gets a call from Shelby even as he's looking at the Pink Ranger is really well done here. They even add a moment where his car has broken down on a lonely side road for emphasis of how much danger he's in.

Another thing I found pretty great about the first half of the episode was how well they've established the characters. Before being ambushed by the clones, the Rangers are using Shelby and Kendall's e-Tracer to find the locations of the Ptera Zord and the Gold Energem. The framing device for this is Tyler journaling about his experiences with the team, which reminds the audience of the various Rangers and their traits. Chase is a ladies' man, Riley's the smart guy, Shelby is also very smart in addition to being cute (!) and Koda is the caveman with strong animal instincts. Also, Tyler's season-long quest is to find his father. Each of these traits as touched upon in the first part of the episode end up being used later on. When the clone Rangers steal the e-Tracer, Tyler ends up getting defeated by Duplicon, the MoTW responsible for the clones. This splits up the episode's A and B plots: fighting the clones and regaining the e-Tracer.

Fury's understandable anger at being upstaged leads into the seasonal tie-in, as he decides the best way to curry favor with Sledge is to capture Tyler. Since Tyler's been separated after fighting Duplicon, he has to catch up with the rest of them, giving Fury the perfect opportunity to ambush him. And pictured above is probably the best heads-up display we've seen in PR thus far. It's fantastic. Rather than the basic inside-helmet shot like we got in RPM, we also get a shot of Kendall communicating with him along with a little map that he uses to track down the rest of the team. It's really a thing of beauty. Before he can tag up with them, however, Fury catches him first, and the two duke it out. There are two main things of note that we learn from this fight. First, we get confirmation through the dad's-bracelet-plot device that Fury did indeed run into Tyler's father some years prior. Secondly, when Fury seems to have the upper hand, he's suddenly prevented from laying down the finishing strike by a surge of golden energy, robbing him of his strength. There are some interesting things Fury says, like "No! I'm...in...control!" that make me think that perhaps something weird is going on here beyond the obvious.

Unfortunately, Tyler's also interrupted by a call from Chase regarding the clones, so Tyler can't get any further info out of Fury for the time being. Speaking of the clones, it's a great fight. There's a cool moment when the Rangers are mostly confused, as Poisandra predicted, not being able to tell real from fake. But Chase the hotshot ladies' man slips the flowers he was playing "She-Loves-Me-Not" with into the real Rangers' belts, allowing him to do some sharp shooting to incapacitate them. Once he explains the plan, the Rangers easily overpower the fakes. This is sort of what I was getting at earlier regarding a new twist on an old tale. In most of the other episodes that deal with this, either the clones are easily identifiable (like with weird telltale black markings or antennae sticking out) or the Rangers simply have to overpower the bad guys. Here, Chase used an intelligent plan to weed (heh) them out.

Having wisely realized that they need to take out Duplicon rather than wasting time and energy fighting what could have become an army of clones, the Rangers use the Dino Spike to finish him off. It's moments like these that make me love this team. Well, also the shipper moments; Shelby's exuberant hug of Tyler after they've defeated Duplicon mirrors Tyler's relief in the last episode when Shelby escaped the Ankylo Zord's pit. There's also a lot of good teamwork stuff here on both sides of the equation. The Rangers working together allows them to defeat Duplicon, while Sledge watches Poisandra's back with a Magna Beam; this gives her time to get the stolen e-Tracer up and running with an assist from Wrench. The giant fight is a good one, featuring the incredibly powerful Oviraptor Charger that gives the Megazord the power of fart gas. I like the touch that Koda dislikes this more than the other Rangers, because his sense of smell is so strong. But on the other side of things, working apart hurts the villains, because Fury comes to mess up Poisandra's plans while the Rangers are busy blowing up (in more ways than one) Duplicon. Had he allowed her to succeed, they would likely have found both the Ptera Zord and the Gold Energem, but his interference gives the Rangers time to catch up.

This message is a good one for the target audience, and they really drop it like an anvil. Fury trying to curry favor with Sledge on his own is placed in direct contrast with the Rangers working as a team. And again, the Rangers' individual strengths come to the fore, because it's Chase who makes the critical shot to destroy the e-Tracer. I'm glad that the Rangers are capable of making that decision, because another small theme that seems to be running through the season is what heroes are willing to do to get the job done. Even in this episode, Tyler could have continued trying to beat the answers he sought out of Fury, but the safety of his team was more important to him than his own issues. And so it's so important that even when Shelby balks at losing the device she and Kendall worked so hard on, she also agrees that they have to do it, because Sledge having the e-Tracer is essentially game over. In fact, it may already be too late, as Fury gets the coordinates for the Ptera Zord before they can blast it. The episode ends with a reiteration of this idea of teamwork, plus another nice shipper moment. Shelby gives Tyler his bracelet back, which was knocked off during the confrontation with Fury. I'll overlook how she found it because it was a sweet scene, and Riley and Chase's faces seem to agree with me.

This episode set a lot in motion, which I love. Is Fury going to strike out on his own, or is he still going to try to placate Sledge with the Ptera Charger? What connection is there between Fury and Tyler's father? We had already seen the picture of Fury in Mr. Navarro's journal which we saw again this episode, but this episode confirmed that Fury was also aware of Tyler's dad when he saw the bracelet during the fight. Of course, the biggest thing was the golden energy inside of Fury that protected Tyler at the end, allowing him to escape relatively unscathed. I thoroughly enjoyed this ride, especially as it featured one of my favorite tropes of the villain being undone by his own villainy. "Double Ranger, Double Danger" leaves us with many questions going into the hiatus, but unlike some previous seasons, I'm absolutely confident that these questions will be answered.

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