Sometimes you have to come back to an episode months after it has aired to fully remember and experience it! My first viewing of “Gold Rush” I remember fully enjoying it without reservations, upon further reviewing it I have noticed a few flaws in it while still finding it rather enjoyable. In this episode, we get introduced to the newest Ranger on the team, the Gold Ranger: Levi Weston! This episode was chock full of attention to detail on both Brody and Levi’s characters as well as cementing their friendship. While showing us some decent original footage, there was also confusing usages of Sentai footage here and there. While I will have to say that some things were right and wrong here. Let’s take a look back at what worked and what didn’t.
Intro of the Gold Ranger: The introduction of the mysterious Gold Ranger was rather interesting and I loved seeing him battle in the shadows. It was also fantastic to see the villains cower in their ship for a few moments afraid of what monster he might destroy next. Of course, Madame Odius doesn’t want to be found out that she was the one who was stowing away the secret passenger and Ripcon is hot on her trail. It was quite a fun few minutes and I kinda wish that this had gone on a little bit longer before we were fully immersed into the world of the identity of the Gold Ranger. I am hoping for more treachery between Odius and Ripcon!
Meeting Levi Weston: One of my favorite scenes was watching the Rangers lining up to meet the Levi Weston. One of my favorite parts of Power Rangers is to see the Rangers outside of their normal clothes, or in some cases same clothes as every day or uniforms, and go into some sort of costume. In this case, the Rangers were dressed in cowboy attire. Sadly, Brody having grown up in space, was not a fan of Levi Weston and probably had never even heard country music (but he can drive though, right?).
But, how cute was it when Calvin got a little jealous of Levi and Hayley had to make him come around, awww! Preston had a cactus stuck to his butt which speaks not only to his character’s humor but I bet that Peter Sudarso had something to do with that too. Haha.
Levi & Brody: One of the first things that Levi and Brody agreed to when they first started hanging out together as protector and star was that they’d treat each other as equals. I think that was what cemented their friendship the most during these scenes in the episode. You can totally see the chemistry not only between the characters but between actors, Jordi Webber & Will Shewfelt as well. (If you’ve seen spoilers you know what I’m talking about…sshhhh). I was happy to see that the Burger jokes began almost immediately when Brody and Levi went to try out the Double Danger Chili Burger, which Brody claims was his brother Aiden’s favorite (hmmmm). However, Levi had never had one before…
Every scene with these two together so far is full of light and a joy to watch, very positive and you can very much see that when the two of them help a mother and her kid fix their car. Unfortunately for Brody, Levi gives over his burger to the starving kid in the car. I feel that these two are going to have lots of fantastic scenes together in the future.
Ninja Star Morph & Ripcon’s Horn: Was I the only one watching this random scene on the beach and saying, “Why the hell is this scene even in here?”
First, apparently, Ripcon chased them to the beach and then Brody had to join them. I supposed it served the purpose to have Levi see him morph into the Red Ranger, sure. But, after that we did get an awesome Ninja Star Morph which indeed was cool but then for no reason Ripcon’s horn is ripped off, Madame Odius takes it and laughs and then that’s it.
Was it ever mentioned again? Did I miss it? Was I texting or something?
I’m hoping this leads to something in later episodes, perhaps to the demise of Ripcon in the end. I hope, otherwise, this scene served no purpose but to waste Sentai footage.
The Ninja Training Suits: While Ripcon had Tom tied up when he believed he was the Gold Ranger, the Rangers had to use their Ninja tactics to rescue him. The Ninja Training suits were introduced pretty early on in this season and I have always loved them. Many have called them impractical and useless, well too bad because this scene pretty much just proved you wrong.
Sorry not sorry, but this scene was pretty awesome. The Rangers donned their masks and slid in there silently taking out the Kudabots so they could confront Ripcon! I love that scene and I hope that the Ninja Steel Rangers use their suits for more purposes like this.
While the Ninjetti suits of MMPR served more purposes as well, I hope these suits can too.
Levi’s First Morph: I have to tell you it was pretty funny to see Tom squirm and say “What are you talking about?” and run away when offered the Gold Power Star. Obviously, he wasn’t the Gold Ranger and when Levi stepped out of the shadows was a fun way to introduce him.
That aside, I cannot tell you how much I hate his morpher. It’s god awful. Now, I’m not gonna bore you with the whole “Mahhh they should’ve used the Burger Morpher” argument because that has been done to death, but come on the Rockstorm Guitar could’ve easily been made into a morpher for him AND a much cooler morpher. But, I suppose Bandai has to make some profit…..
I will say however, that the original footage that was shot in the warehouse and outside during the fight with Ripcon was pretty decent. But, how many times or different iterations of “That’s for me to know and for you to never find out…” are we gonna hear? Come on, writers.
Entering the Cockpit: I gotta tell you, this all just seemed so rushed to me. Levi joined the cockpit in his first episode. This has happened in other seasons sure, but it just didn’t seem like his time to me. I honestly thought, seeing this episode, that the Rangers would quickly defeat the Skullgator with Levi watching on the ground. No, we got him fully in the cockpit, completely handed his Ninja Master Mode (as the others were) and then even handed the Ninja Master Blade. I mean, wtf. Preston had an entire episode where he upgraded the Megazord cockpit with his Dragon Zord and he didn’t get to use the Ninja Master Blade. What gives Brody?!
At least Sarah got to use her cool Ninja Clone Star….
Levi is Handed Everything: Is this annoying anyone else? Again, this isn’t just a Ninja Steel thing. It’s been a thing for a long time. The Rangers are handed things on a weekly basis.
“Hey guys here’s a Zord! Here’s a weapon!”
Mick hadn’t even known Levi for more than five minutes and he handed him a new Zord Star and where did that Zord even come from? It just came out of nowhere, we never saw an introduction to it whatsoever.
But the point that am I making here is that Levi is the new guy on the team and this is his first episode and so far in just two episodes he has been freed from a prison, given a Morpher, a Power Star, two Zord Stars, Control of the Megazord, Ninja Master Mode and even usage of the Ninja Master Blade! Levi has been clearly handed everything. Sure, he spent all that time under Odius’ control…but it seems a bit unbalanced in my opinion.
The Lion Galaxy: Wow, we are just blasting through Zords aren’t we? Just before the Rangers returned to the base Redbot and Mick got a glimpse of what we know as the Lion Fire Fortress Zord floating through space and firing at asteroids. Mick said that it came from the Lion Galaxy….wow, writers… really. The Lion Galaxy. I could come up with a better name in two seconds, ready? The ShiShi Galaxy, it means Lion in Japanese, Done. Sigh.
I hope the Zord at least has an interesting backstory.
Victor & Monty: As usual Victor and Monty are up to their usual shenanigans. This week they were also trying to win tickets/backstage passes to Levi Weston’s show. Since it was the plan to show Levi who his biggest fan was Victor just had to beat this little girl who showed up dressed as an actual large fan. So to copy her he dressed up as a large fan as well. I don’t know about you but I liked their first costume when they were dressed as a horse…or was that a donkey?
Either way, hilarity ensues when the little girl wins instead of Victor and decides to flip the switch on his costume sending him BLASTING OFF AGAIN!
“Gold Rush” in of itself is a good episode, but just like with most Ninja Steel episodes so far there are a lot of flaws that need to be addressed.
I will say however that this episode did get me excited for what is to come with the Fall Premiere coming soon!
But, I want to hear from you! What did you think of this episode?
Power Rangers Ninja Steel Returns to Nickelodeon Next Saturday
August 12th!