The Megaforce Power Rangers saw a strong return after a near 5 month hiatus with Episode 10, “Man and Machine”
As with any Power Rangers episode there is always room for improvements with certain aspects such as the acting, scene selection and Sentai footage. I have to say that there were few issues with this in this episode and in fact some improvements. There did seem to be some time-wasting scenes but they can be overlooked. We get another Megazord combination and the Rangers attempt once again to get RoboKnight to work with them!
Let’s take a look at the episode!
We open on Bigs meeting a new monster inside of a darkened lake to explain that the Mutants have joined forces with the Aliens!
But the monster sinks back into the lake revealing he must wait for the sun to rise to steal the shadows of his victims!
Here is an example of a scene that was pretty useless in my opinion.
Noah enters Mr. Burley’s to return his scarf that had been left behind once again. Mr. Burley becomes frightened when his glasses fall from his head to reveal a picture of the Loch Ness Monster. I could only think this scene attempted to foreshadow the Shadow Serpent introduced in the next scene.
Shadow Serpent begins his assault on the humans with the instructions to antagonize Robo Knight and find his weakness.
He begins by stealing the shadows of random people, freezing them in their place.
The Rangers’ training is interrupted in the woods when Tensou alerts them of the situation!
Robo Knight is confronted by Shadow Serpent as his intelligence is slowly insulted.
The Rangers arrive and shortly realize that the monster is stealing shadows when Jake attempts to throw stones at him.
With a whip of his tongue, the Rangers retreat into the shade under a tree.
Robo Knight arms himself as the Rangers are attacked once more and thrown back into the sunlight.
Robo Knight attempts to attack Shadow Serpent until Troy begins battling instead, Robo Knight shouts for the Red Ranger to get out of the way!
Robo Knight scolds Troy for interfering, he had a shot but now it’s ruined.
Shadow Serpent notices the sun has receded and himself retreats.
Robo Knight confronts the Rangers and scolds Troy, Jake defends his actions for attempting to protect his teammates.
Robo Knight criticizes the human emotions they displayed in battle, if they had thought like machines the monster would not have bested them.
Meanwhile, in his Earth Armor, Vrak demands to be taken to Shadow Serpent to offer advice on the Rangers.
On a rooftop, Troy meets wit Robo Knight and comes with a plan. Like Robo Knight, the monster thinks working as a team is a weakness.
He opens himself up to attacks when shadows are stolen, Troy offers to sacrifice himself and the Rangers in order for Robo Knight to sneak in for the attack!
Robo Knight rejects the plan and calls it illogical to take such a risk, they can work together but seperately.
Robo Knight vows to destroy the monster alone.
Troy leaves, promising to see Robo Knight on the battlefield.
Vrak, Bluefur, Bigs and Shadow Serpent meet at the lake as Bigs reveals Vrak’s intentions with Earth.
Vrak advises the serpent not to underestimate the Rangers as Creepox had.
Troy and Emma meet up at the Brain Freeze and discuss Robo Knight, Troy is concerned about how stubborn Robo Knight is.
Emma reminds him no one can resist the call of the Red Ranger for long, Troy realizes how positive she really is.
As the moon rises, Robo Knight contemplates the Rangers working for Gosei who complicate things.
Somehow, he wonders if Troy’s plan may be the right one.
As the Shadow Serpent is about to steal the shadows of a passenger train the Rangers confront him!
The Rangers have a plan of their own as Robo Knight attempts to take the fight alone.
Using Megaquake, Seashower and Twistornado they create an overcast dirt cloud that blocks out the sun!
The cloud fails and Shadow Serpent knocks the sun free!
Again, Robo Knight attempts to take on the monster by himself but is over powered and thrown into the nearby rock quarry (somehow)
Robo Knight begins to overheat and yet the Rangers come to his defense revealing that Robo Knight is one of them.
The Rangers take on Shadow Serpent!
As the Rangers fight they attempt to convince Robo Knight that their feelings for each other only strengthen them!
Robo Knight realizes that as they work together it is like cogs in a motor, powers times five!
The Rangers use the Megaforce Blaster but this time the Dynamic Victory Charge fails and sends the Rangers flying!
Troy and the others get up and remind Robo Knight of their plan. The Rangers run into the sunlight and get their shadows immediately stolen!
Robo Knight saves them and strikes Shadow Serpent when he leaves himself open, the plan worked!
Robo Knight calls upon the Vulcan Cannon and with his Knight Dynamic destroys Shadow Serpent!
Before his imminent demise, Shadow Serpent sends a message to the WarStar ship begging Vrak send down the Zombats.
Vrak obliges but not before causing suspicion with Malkor who doesn’t seem to like the idea of Vrak working alone!
Robo Knight calls upon morphs into the Lion Mechazord and calls upon the Knight Brothers while the Rangers call upon their Mechazords as well!
The Gosei Great Megazord and the Gosei Grand Megazord work together!
But separately they may not be enough!
Shadow Serpent sends a powerful blast at both Megazords and sends them all flying apart!
Separately, but together, they strike against him!
Their teamwork unlocks a new card and a new combination! They are finally able to combine the power of 6 into 1!
Together they create the Gosei Great Grand Megazord!
With its Mega staff the Gosei Great Grand Megazord is able to utilize three attacks. Land Lance Attack, Sea Spike Attack and Sky Spear Attack!
With a final Victory Charge, Dual Strike; the Rangers finish Shadow Serpent once and for all!
Working together they can accomplish anything, the power of 6 is a Mega Win!
The victims were freed and the Rangers meet with Robo Knight after their victory.
Robo Knight congratulates the Rangers on their plan, they should collaborate after all.
However, they still have a lot to learn; perhaps they all do.
Final Thoughts
I have to say that I really rather enjoyed this episode and I consider it to be what Power Rangers is all about. It had a decent moral to the story, had great action and awesome interaction between the characters. I saw no issues here with the Sentai footage integration and in fact it seemed seamless to the story. Of course there was a random send off to a quarry, but when hasn’t that happened?
I feel as if Troy is growing as a character as the episodes go on and luckily there won’t be another long break until we finish Megaforce. Thus, it is exciting to think that as the episodes continue we will get to see Troy grow. We not only got to see a little anger, but we actually saw Troy smile in this episode which completely took me by surprise! I was pleasantly surprised as well by the interaction between Troy and Emma which hinted at the idea that Emma may be the person who brings Troy out of his stoic Red Ranger shell!
When it comes to Robo Knight, there is not much I can say about this character besides the fact that I am glad that we are seeing him join the team this early on in the show considering how long it felt for GoseiKnight to join in Goseiger. However, I’m not sold on him just yet. There were points where he acts solely as a robot but then other times where he says things a robot would never say. To be honest, I am not sure if I like the character just yet. So far, I am only liking his Zords and weapons but hopefully I will grow to like him a little more. His voice actor is another thing that gets me as well, I’m not much of a fan at this point. I’m not sold on emotionless robot. As I’ve said before, Robo Knight’s voice acting is not on par with Vrak’s voice actor.
The plot line as the story progresses with WarStar and Vrak is growing and I loved the idea that Vrak is deceiving Malkor with his own plans and I cannot wait to see where this goes in future episodes. It seems Vrak will be the main man pretty soon!
As I said earlier there were several moments that could have been cut out of the show in order to make way for more battle, more character development, etc. Did we really need the Mr. Burley scene? The Parents scene? But shhh we definitely needed the hot dog scene, because of reasons.
Episode 10 was a strong return for Power Rangers Megaforce and I can’t wait for the debut of Ultra Mode next week!
Episode Scores
Story: 8/10
Action: 9/10
Monster: 8/10
All Together: 8/10
