Antonio shows up to officially request to be added to the Samurai team. Mentor Ji and Jayden are skeptical of whether or not he is ready to be part of the team, as he has not recieved proper Samurai training.
When a Nighlok is sent into the city, Ji confiscates Antonio's morpher and the Rangers face off the monster without him. The five find out they're not strong enough to defeat the monster. Later, Mia and the rest of the team help convince Jayden that Antonio is ready to be the 6th Samurai Ranger.
The Rangers meet up with the returning Nighlok. Together, the six fight together and defeat the monster. When the monster grows, they combine the Megazord with the Octozord and win the day.
What Worked
-Another well timed and genuinely funny dream sequence from Spike. But yet again it feels totally out of place in this show.
-The villain was cool and kind of menacing. The fight scenes involving him overall were pretty solid.
-Antonio definetly adds some much missed personality to the main character roster. We see some of his backstory, and his showboating attitude has carried over from his debut. Moments like trying to find a place to stand during the roll call and the 4th wall breaking slow mo replay works well for the character.
-They really shook things up this episode by giving Xandred something to do. Swatting at hanging yellow monster ball things.
-Mentor Ji didn't win any popularity points in this episode. I could maybe understand him wanting the Octozord back, but where does he get off taking Antonio's morpher? It's not like that would've stopped him from just building another one.
-The flashback stuff was just awful. Putting aside the acting (c'mon, they're just kids), it added very little to what we had already seen. I also find it amazing that samurai training consists of repeatedly beating a dummy with a wooden sword without any form or grace.
-Lets break down how Antonio became the Gold Samurai Ranger. In his own words, it wasn't very hard. Antonio and Jayden meet as children. Antonio trains alongside Jayden and they vow to become Samurai someday. When Antonio leaves, Jayden gives him the Octozord without telling Ji. So far, so good.
So then this kids grows up to be a traveling fisherman, who has nothing to his name but a few fishing polls, a tank, some exploding fish, and a squid robot. Somewhere during this time he becomes techie, and also taught himself to be a better swordsman than any of the other Samurai Rangers. Turning into a bit of a stretch, but moving forward...
So he finds a cell phone in the forest and figures out he can speak to the Octozord through texting. Shorty afterwards, he was somehow able to construct a functional morpher based on things Jayden told him as a child and studying the Octozords systems. So the self taught master swordsman tech junkie genius who created his own connection to the morphing grid traveling fisherman decides to rejoin his friend Jayden in his fight against the Nighloks.
It wasn't very hard.
-To be a samurai you must trained in the samurai way by a samurai. It is the way of the samurai, young samurai. Ya know, throughout the series they never really specify what it means to be a samurai or why it's so great. It's just a word that's thrown around, and a lazy excuse to not add Antonio to the team. I don't suppose they could be reluctant to let him join for some legitimate reason, like being over enthusiastic and unpredictable in battle. Or the fact that being a wandering fisherman doesn't inspire immediate trust or feelings of reliability.
-The last fight sequence was cool and all, but why did it only take Jayden and Antonio to defeat the monster? From a character standpoint it was kind of cool to see the two of them finally fight together like they dreamed about as kids. But the entire episode is based around the idea that they need a 6th Ranger to tip the balance of power back in their favor. And it's not like they even gave the other 4 something to do, they literally just disappear for a few minutes. Not even a reaction shot.
What To Remember
-Octo Spear Megazord debut
Bottom Line
Antonio brings some much needed enthusiasm to the show, but little else.
1.5 bananas out of 5
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