Every season of Power Rangers has an episode that is supposed to tug at the heart-strings and ends up being cheesy. Megaforce is no exception when it comes to “Rico the Robot” I felt like a lot of the elements were supposed to make you feel something but it ended up being more cheesy than anything. However, I can say by the end of the episode I really had an emotional response to Rico. However, I would’ve had a more emotional response had he died like he was supposed to, but let’s get to that at the end. First, here’s what happened:
We open aboard the WarStar ship where Malkor contemplates how his many minions could have failed.
With only a short time before “the others” arrive, Malkor decides its time to power up in his cocoon while Vrak focuses on eliminating the Power Rangers. He demands they be gone before he emerges.
Vrak laughs at Malkor’s foolishness and meets up with Metal Alice who has another robot prototype.
Alice heads out to the city to attack!
Alice arrives on Earth to immediately meet with the Rangers, she sends Loogies to take the fight out of them but ends up fighting Troy!
She introduces Robot 1CO and commands he destroy the Rangers!
However, her new robot does nothing and does not attack the Rangers.
When the Rangers attack with the Megaforce Blaster, the Robot again does nothing but Metal Alice shoves him in front of her to take the blast!
Metal Alice, annoyed by her robot’s failure departs leaving him damaged.
The Rangers investigate as Emma urges them not to harm him.
Emma intercepts and tells the robot he doesn’t have to be afraid and that the Rangers can be trusted.
Since he has no weapons and has not attacked, the Rangers decide to take it slow and trust the robot.
Meanwhile, Noah checks over the robot as the others contemplate if this is a trick.
Emma feels for him the most and urges they show him some kindness!
Emma suggests they take him to the Park to have some fun and suddenly named the robot, Rico!
The Rangers play some sports with him, including a game of tag!
Emma and Gia heatedly discuss why they’ve “adopted” Rico, Emma somehow knows he is good as he has resisted evil. She feels sorry for him.
Gia doesn’t understand why they should feel for him while Emma suggests he could be an Ally like RoboKnight.
The group sits down to a picnic where Rico picks up on Jake’s feelings for Gia, but the group just shrugs it off!
As Rico watches the others eat, Rico feels sad because he’s different and not like everyone else.
The Rangers assure him that even though he’s different, he is still their friend.
Emma takes group pictures!
It is then that Noah notices that a light on Rico’s chest has begun blinking.
The Rangers take Rico to the command center and realize that there is a sensor placed inside of Rico so that Metal Alice can command him!
When the Rangers begin to argue on whether they can trust him, Rico disappears.
Emma finds Rico near a river, he has become sad that he is being controlled and that the Rangers being near him is dangerous.
Emma reassures him that the Rangers will find a way to set him free.
The Rangers come up with a plan to destroy the sensor with their Power Cards to neutralize the sensor.
They decide the best way to not harm Rico is to use pinpoint attacks of rock, water and lightning.
Emma’s lightning will be precise enough, but she is worried about her aim.
When the Rangers attempt it, Emma wimps out and cannot strike.
Suddenly, Metal Alice appears and laughs that her experiment on human friendship has shown her that it is only a weakness in their decision-making!
The Rangers show Metal Alice the power of friendship and morph into Ultra Mode!
But Metal Alice decides it’s time to activate R1CO, erasing all his memories of their good time
Rico attacks the Rangers
RoboKnight begins to take on Rico but is stopped by the Pink Ranger even though Rico continues to attack her other friends.
Emma runs to Rico and attempts to get through to him
But Rico does not remember and strikes Emma!
The Rangers know that the only option is to fight back, but don’t want to harm Rico.
Noah recommends they must attempt to destroy the sensor one more time!
As Jake and Gia hold Rico back, Noah and Troy create the waterwind pathway as RoboKnight freezes Rico!
Emma prepares herself and loads the Power Card!
With the Lightning Strike Card the attack works perfectly!
The Sensor is destroyed!
Rico is back to himself, but Metal Alice has other plans!
Metal Alice reactivated the sensor and uses the Zombots to make him grow!
The Rangers call upon the Gosei Great Megazord, luckily Rico still ignores Metal Alice’s orders and even will not self destruct!
But Emma is determined to save him and calls upon the Gosei Ultimate Command Ship alone
Rico attaches himself to the ship and the two of them make their getaway!
Emma decides she wants to take Rico far away so that Metal Alice’s signal can’t harm him!
Rico ascends into the heavens and says an emotional goodbye and thanks
The Rangers are…. victorious?
Metal Alice reveals to Vrak that she has failed but promises results next time!
As the Rangers return to play, Emma and Gia remember Rico and what a good friend he was with a montage of what we’ve just seen.
Final Thoughts
I am disappointed with a few things in this episode. As usual the comedy is on par with the other Rangers including the hilarious picnic scene where Rico pointed out Jake’s interest in Gia. There were also some funny moments from Rico himself that I did love during my original watch and re-watch. I loved the message of acceptance and friendship that the episode conveyed which during this time in history is a very important lesson to learn, even if it was for Human/Robot acceptance. The lesson still stands regardless. I also feel like I am the only one who enjoyed the voice work on Rico. The voice was cute sounding but still robotic and effective to what plot was trying to do.
I am very excited that there was at least some more plot development with the villains! I was intrigued by a few lines after Malkor entered his cocoon (which I loved because of its Lost Galaxy connections) was that he mentioned that “the others ” would be arriving soon. I wonder if these “others” are from Vrak’s royal family or something else. Vrak did mention that he wanted to show his royal family what he could do. So it is possible that they’ve called up Gokaiger’s Zangyack empire for reinforcement. I am so excited to see what will come from Malkor after the cocoon, Vrak’s final forms and what becomes of Metal Alice in this series.
I was a little weirded out that the Rangers chose to take Rico into the command center even though they figured out that a strange sensor was on him. That’s like finding a passed out Goldar on the street and taking him to Zordon to find out what was wrong. Guh.
I can tell you that I was not happy with the ending as the producers severely watered down the true story here. In the Sentai version, the robot is flung into the sky by Gosei Ultimate and ultimately explodes. Like all monsters of the day this monster was extinguished in the same fashion as all the others. For some odd reason this ending was not suitable for US audiences and instead we got Rico flung into space…..I mean is he on the moon? Is he just floating in space? Is he dead? Is he on Aquitar with Billy? I mean this was just ridiculous and insulting not only to the child viewers but us as well. It just makes no sense, at all. Blow him up for god’s sake! I still didn’t get how flinging him into space somehow gets him out of Metal Alice’s reach, I mean doesn’t her master have a freakin’ spaceship orbiting the Earth? This ending just really bothered me.
This was not one of the better episodes of Megaforce and the Emma focus is really wearing thin on me considering Jake and Gia haven’t gotten much development, not to mention Troy who is still very mysterious. He better not end up a robot or something because I may just flip tables if they pull that crap on us again. I am still hoping that Super Megaforce will attempt to give us more time with the character gaining some development.
Next week, it seems that the plot will push forward so look forward to that!
Story: 8/10
Action: 8/10
Monsters: 7/10
All Together: 7/10
