A vast improvement over the previous episode and an obligatory shirtless scene, “True Black” takes us back to pure Dino Charge goodness and gives some more focus to Chase & Shelby. With it’s usual laughs, beautiful integration of Sentai footage and epic action this episode succeeds in pretty much every aspect. Action, humor and heart are all present! Let’s dish!
Opening Sequence: I love these training sequences with the Rangers, even when it was water bottles with the Megaforce Rangers. I welcome any chance to see Brennan Mejia perform his acrobatics or Yoshi Sudarso do a flip! It was also great to see Ivan and Riley practicing their sword work, I’m hoping this leads to more in the future 😉
Armor X Charger: The original footage filmed here in the forest while Chase practiced with the new Charger was awesome! Especially Chase’s enthusiasm when testing the new hardware! While I know this goes along with the Sentai footage, it was a little unclear as to why the Charger only works with Black energy and somehow gets volatile if Blue or Green uses it. While it blew up on Chase when he had a dip in his heart, the other Rangers are just simply unable to use it period !? Interesting.
Shelby & Chase Clash: A lot of these scenes really made Chase look like a big jerk, however he never lost his charm with me. Most of the time I was thinking to myself that Shelby got what she deserved for making fun of Tyler in the previous episode. However, Tyler (being as pure and good as he is) still defended her. Now, he was a little petty in the previous episode but it really stood out to me that Tyler was ready to pounce to her defense once more.
The N-Zed Boys: It was rather interesting to see another facet of Shelby’s personality, which appears to be a boy band fan girl! But here is the reason why this got its own post. Either I share a love of boy bands like Shelby or I have a good ear but I could recognize a few re-worked One Direction songs in there. Seriously, I sang the words along to this new arrangement, it’s the same. Either that or all boy bands sound the same LOL.
Gold Digger: I really rather enjoyed Gold Digger as a monster because he wasn’t just one note. He not only had the power to block attacks with his slabs, he also had the ability to smash his victims AND shoot coin bombs! While he was goofy and didn’t give off an air of power, he was still a formidable opponent for the Rangers. Plus, how hilarious is that monster design! What a Treasure Pest!
Wrench: I had to mention that I definitely saw a change in Wrench during this episode. For some reason, being he was in charge of Gold Digger, he was rather hands on more-so than he had been in the past. Including fighting the Rangers on his own a few times! I absolutely loved the fight with Chase and the throw of the ax! Especially since the ax cried 😉 But even tiny changes in his voice were noted as he started to sound a little more fierce and formidable. Even though, he was reduced to a squirming mess by the end!
The Chase’s Failure: It was sure Chase’s moment to shine during this episode, from being a little bit of a jerk teasing Shelby about her interests, to actually feeling remorse for failing the team and for hurting Shelby when he realized what he had done. James Davies was great in all of these scenes because you could feel the emotion of his failure.
Of course, Keeper had to pop out of no where in order to convey his wisdom which again is most welcome in this scene.
Apology: As many would say, as they have in previous episodes, the resolution here was rather rushed to fit into the show’s premise. But I was expecting that and to be honest Chase’s apology was rather heart-felt and true. Again, here the Rangers, especially Shelby who was the most hurt here, don’t seem to be petty at all as they forgive their friends for their mistakes. I feel the lessons learned here, and in other DC episodes, are rather very good lessons to learn.
The Ending: O.K. how cute was Koda ready to smash the radio because he lost! Adorable! But I really loved how Shelby and Chase buried the hatchet and now are able to go to the concert together! There was a lot of chemistry between the two of them this episode, now now let’s not sail the ships just yet. I just meant, their friendship is much stronger now.
Random Things I Noticed: Did you notice the Rangers all had cell phones of their Ranger color? Even Ivan and Koda apparently know how to use cell phones now.
Poisandra mentions Glitz World again. Chase called Wrench “Tin Man”
Ivan thinks a Dollar is an acceptable tip!
Final Thoughts
As I said in the opening paragraph this was a vast improvement over last week. While, the previous episode was not BAD per-say it was a little drop in quality. The action, writing, humor and heart are much more prevalent in this episode than before AND we got the awesome Power Rangers action we love!
Story: 9/10
Action: 10/10
Writing: 9/10
All Together: 9/10