Megaforce has done something right with their first Halloween Special and done something that Samurai/Super Samurai obviously could not achieve: create a balance between Clip-Show footage an Original footage. “Raising Spirits” is a perfect example of how to balance the two while keeping the audience entertained and not necessarily affecting the main story-line that will be resumed the following week. I have never enjoyed a Halloween Special from Power Rangers this much since Zeo and I hope this is a sign of things to come in the future. But let’s go over the story!
We open on the Megaforce Rangers spreading the Halloween cheer showing off their Jack-o-lantern designs!
Emma is busy working on making a pie and opts not to wear a costume!
Troy challenges Noah to a show off and shows off his big grinned pumpkin.
Noah is a little unsure of himself but turns his pumpkin to reveal a magnificent Einstein inspired pumpkin!
Meanwhile a strange monster is loose in the city and begins to mess with electricity!
The power goes out at Ernie’s and gives a creepy vibe to the room, but the others are suspicious when Ernie reveals he had nothing to do with the blackout.
The power comes back on and Jake arrives to tell the others he needs to show them all!
He grabs them, leaving Emma behind, and takes them to a new Fortune Teller.
The Rangers enter the tent which mysteriously looks bigger on the inside.
Gia sits next to Jake and the Rangers experience some strange occurrences as the table begins to float and the candles blow out!
As the lights go out, Gia attaches herself to Jake in fear and when they return a strange figure in a cloak greets them all.
The figure looks into his crystal ball and welcomes them all and offers visions from their past and future!
He already senses that someone has a secret crush on someone, suddenly Jake and Gia separate!
The Rangers look into the crystal ball and relive their battle with Pirox, but the hooded figure is shocked to see that he is seeing visions from the Power Rangers’ lives and not from his guests.
Jake laughs to Noah but bothers the figure who tells him to shut his trap!
Another vision suddenly comes over the crystal ball!
The vision once again is from the Power Rangers’ past and shows them their battle with Dragonflay
The figure is once again confused as to why he’s seeing visions of the Power Rangers and tries again!
But the visions continue and shows the battle with Yuffo!
The figure grows angrier that his guests are not concentrating enough, but recognizes the Power Rangers’ voices somehow!
After Yuffo is shown to be destroyed the figure demands to see a monster than can handle the Rangers!
The Rangers relive their battle with Creepox!
As the vision continues suddenly the figure realizes that the teenagers in front of him ARE the Power Rangers!
The figure throws off his hood and reveals himself to be Glytcher, the cousin of the formerly defeated Gremlin!
He vows to finish what his cousin started and races out of the building!
After the Rangers morph Glytcher makes his rounds around the city and causes machines to malfunction!
After messing with the brakes in a truck, it’s up to RoboKnight to morph and stop it in its tracks!
But catching Glytcher is becoming an issue as he bounces from one location to another causing havoc!
The Rangers corner him on a roof top!
Emma finally finishes with her pie and leaves Ernie to finish the rest.
She heads to battle!
Meanwhile, the Rangers take on Glytcher! Suddenly, RoboKnight questions where the Pink Ranger is.
The others try to explain but RoboKnight doesn’t care for their reasoning, as they squabble Glytcher gets away once more!
The Rangers chase after Glytcher as he bounces around and around!
As the Rangers chase after Glytcher some more he keeps moving around!
Luckily, Emma shows up at the last moment ready for her Pink Moment!
Emma takes over and stops Glytcher with some powerful attacks!
With Emma in the lead, the Rangers call upon another power!
The Sky Zords come out and as the Rangers combine them with the Mega Blasters!
The blast is so powerful that Glytcher no more!
Suddenly, the Zombats come out of no where and make Glytcher grow!
The Rangers remember that he hates to be tickled and form a plan!
The Rangers call upon their Mechazords and Emma unleashes her Tickle Attack!
Emma’s Phoenix Mechazord attacks and uses the best tickle attack it can!
The Rangers form the Gosei Great Megazord!
Together with the Gosei Grand Megazord the Rangers are victorious over Glytcher!
Back at Ernie’s the Rangers are grateful that they don’t have to deal with anymore real monsters during Halloween!
Ernie brings over Emma’s pie, but admits it is a bit over done!
Jake thinks it looks just fine and attempts to cut into it!
Hilarity ensues. OH ERNIE!
Final Thoughts
As I said before I haven’t enjoyed a Power Rangers Halloween Special in a really long time and I am really glad that this episode was an excellent balance between a clip-show and new footage. I did not however understand the connection between the Sentai footage used and why with all of the other unused Goseiger episodes why they chose the episode in which the Phoenix Mechazord tickles a monster in his crotch.
I never really understood the purpose of the flour being thrown on Glytcher in either Megaforce nor in Goseiger.
Although, Emma was able to redeem herself in the end I still did not care of the fact that she was absent from battle through most of the episode. Even RoboKnight was aware that choosing a pie over Ranger duties was not the best choice. But, wasn’t it fun to not only see a joke from RoboKnight but we got to see Emma in the middle of the Ranger pose!
I really wanted to see Emma in a costume as the others were really awesome. I just love seeing Rangers in costumes during these kind of episodes and even Super Samurai’s version of costumes were a fun treat for me! Jake as a cow and Gia as a witch was the best for me but let’s not forget Andrew Gray actually showing off a country accent! I also loved the fact that they paid an homage to Billy in MMPR and dressed Noah up as Einstein! I can’t explain how much I loved the Jack-O-Lanterns too!
As mentioned above I didn’t care for the Sentai episode used, but it was also strange to hear the Rangers use the wrong Megazord call in this episode. The Rangers call it the Sky Gosei Great, when it’s just the Gosei Great Megazord. That was disconcerting. It was also strange to randomly have Gosei shout “Twistornado” when he has never called out any of the attacks before. So, that was strange.
Even in this Halloween episode we got to see more character development, somewhat, from Gia and Jake. It seemed to me that Gia has a crush on Jake as well. When Glytcher as the cloaked figure revealed someone has a crush on another they both recoiled from each other. Interesting eh? Not to mention the fact that Gia clung to Jake the entire time she felt scared.
I can’t really pick this apart any further because it was simply a good fun holiday themed episode and I hope that we get this good of treatment for “RooKnight before Christmas”. Up next is “The Human Factor” which I have already seen and it is fantastic! Until next week!
Episode Scores
Story: 9/10
Action: 8/10
Monsters: 8/10
All Together: 8/10
