Saturday, September 19, 2020

Power Rangers Beast Morphers: The Evox Snare Review


PRBM "The Evox Snare"
PRBM "The Evox Snare"

The Power Rangers Beast Morphers team has returned for the final stretch of its second season, with an episode that compensates for fairly generic action by feeling like the better version of the continuity episodes from the Super Megaforce anniversary season. Plotwise, it features a mini-war of attrition on Evox and his need for Morph-X, and resolves the Mayor Daniels/Evox thread that has run throughout the season.

The macguffin of a juiced-up arrow from the lab that the Rangers need to fire at a specific target is familiar from the previous episode "Beast King Rampage". The difference here, I suppose, is its strangely literal interpretation of "freezing" someone in cryonic suspension - in a ruddy great block of ice. While Nate and Devon are at the base working on technical matters, the remaining team take on the Bulldozer Gigadrone, with Steel oddly taking on a leadership role. Shouldn't Ravi or Zoey be leading in Devon's absence? The action in the episode is most concerned with introducing toyetic arsenal developments, like the Beast-X Ultra Cannon and the Beast-X King Megazord.

The true headline from this episode is the shockingly on-point fanservice. Olivia Tennet appears as RPM's Doctor K (!), giving advice on how to split the Mayor from Evox... based on tech established in Dino Super Charge. It's notable that Beast Morphers is connecting to RPM and Dino Charge, as those are particularly siloed off seasons in their own dimensions. But the episode casually and efficiently bridges those gaps.

It's also revealed that Nate has been basing Grid Battleforce Ranger tech on past Ranger teams' equipment, which is a fantastic reveal. A humble closet holds some exciting and tantalizing props from the past, most notably Mystic Morphers.

Ben and Betty are up to their usual cartoony hijinks, but still prove useful to Devon, which is an important endearing detail. The episode as a whole is operating from a basic framework, but what spices it up are the rewarding continuity connections. 7/10.

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