Power Rangers Beast Morphers: Grid Connection Review

PRBM "Grid Connection"

Beast Morphers' three-part team-up event comes to a conclusion with "Grid Connection", bringing Austin St. John as Jason Scott back to the show for the first time since "Forever Red", almost 17 seasons ago. Short on time, the episode only gives his characterization space for standard but effective leader material. And yes, he gets a typically forceful "It's morphin' time!"

With a crisis in the Dino Charge dimension, Devon taps into the Morphin Grid to reconstruct the Tyrannosaurus Power Coin, and call the Mighty Morphin and Dino Thunder Rangers to help the Dino Charge and Beast Morphers Rangers in the other dimension. Keeper tells Devon, "You must trust the Morphin Grid". Substitute Morphin Grid with "the Force" or "the heart of the cards" as you see fit.

After all the buildup for the return of Goldar (now calling himself Goldar Maximus, as a handy way to distinguish himself), he's not much more than a placeholder threat for three combined Dino Ranger teams to vanquish. The climactic sequence where this takes place is your standard big quarry for lots of Rangers to work their magic - see above - but I feel pretty confident in saying this action scene is an exercise in sustained insanity the likes of which hasn't been seen in Power Rangers. The Mighty Morphin, Dino Thunder, and Dino Charge teams use finishers after finishers, rapidly fly around, and combine all their weapons into a Dino Ranger Ultra Blaster. It's wild. In a good way, I suppose. It's almost too much to keep up with, but when it comes to fitting as much as possible in a ten minute period, this episode gives the audience bang for their buck.

The bigger threat comes when Evox, hoarding dinosaur DNA like Dr. Wu from Jurassic Park, cooks up maybe the biggest zord in Power Rangers history. (Since we're in the Dino Charge dimension, dinosaurs are around, but we only see a velociraptor on a TV screen; nothing once we're properly in the location.) It takes the Dino Charge Megazord, the Thundersaurus Megazord, and the original Megazord combined with the Beast-X King Zord to take Evox' Hydra-like Chimerazord down. And when the original Megazord cockpit is shown, prepare for a small frisson of nostalgia as archive footage from Mighty Morphin is used.

As with "Finders Keepers", it's a visible regret that so many past Rangers are only back as anonymous suit actors, especially in the case of Dino Thunder, as no member of that cast returns properly. At the end of the day, however, suit actors are better than nothing. "Grid Connection" packs a lot into the last third, a breakneck climax that keeps endlessly stacking on itself. While lacking the elegance of past team-ups, "Grid Connection" certainly does not lack for bombast. Jason's final words are "Today, tomorrow, or decades from now, there will always be Rangers like you to stand up for what is right". Hopefully he's right, and Power Rangers will continue to live on. 8/10.

Stray observations (aka, the suit actor head canon speculation section):

- Jason calls his fellow Mighty Morphin Rangers, with the exception of Tommy. The Blue Ranger is Billy. Since Kat was last seen using her Turbo powers in Super Ninja Steel, the Pink Ranger is likely Kimberly. But is the Black Ranger Adam or Zack? We've seen Adam use the Mastodon Power Coin in both In Space and Operation Overdrive, so Occam's Razor says it's Adam. Real-life tragedy aside, it's unclear if the Yellow Ranger is Trini or Aisha.

- The Dino Thunder Rangers also show up, minus Tommy and Trent. A non-James Napier ringer voices Conner.

- Same situation as "Finders Keepers", with Shelby and Riley only appearing in the suits. At least Camille Hyde and Michael Taber provide the voices. No sign of Kendall or Phillip.