Power Rangers Beast Morphers Episode 4 Review: Digital Deception

This Power Rangers Beast Morphers review contains spoilers.

Power Rangers Beast Morphers Episode 4

Beast Morphers? I’m worried about you.

While perhaps not quite as strong as some people are making it out to be, the first three episodes of Power Rangers Beast Morphers have had a lot of potential. Sure, the second episode was weighed down with exposition but we could chock that up to getting it all out of the way. Episodes 1 and 3 were solid and seemed to be taking the franchise in a much better direction.  This episode?

There’s really no delicate way to say it. This episode was a total mess. Look, any show can have a bad outing and we don’t think the sky is falling. After the franchise’s streak of lackluster seasons though? Having an episode that squandered so much potential and felt this directionless sends up red flags.

On paper there’s something interesting going on here. Ravi’s relationship with Roxy, while a bit too much MAN PAIN for my liking, was at least unique for Power Rangers. Roxy’s his ex and he feels guilt for breaking up with her. Deep down he probably feels responsible in some way for her being taken over by Evox. The last private moment he had with her? He pushed her away. It’s no wonder he’d try and save her at the first chance he got.

So this episode was inevitable and needed to happen sooner rather than later. It’s a shame it feels like they’re just checking the box of “Ravi has to try and save Roxy.” It feels so perfunctory. It isn’t milked for all its worth. The plot feels like something we should have gotten way later in the series, after we’d seen Ravi desperately trying to save her. After Roxy had strung him along episode after episode. Here? It’s all done at once and isn’t given enough time to breathe.

You can pin it all on Ravi stealing from Grid Battleforce. This should be a huge moment for Ravi. The guy who follows the rules to a fault. This should be torture for him. A moment that goes against everything he believes in. Instead it’s just really quick and no one mentions it again. It’s head scratching that Nate is the one given a dressing down in this episode but no one ever calls Ravi out for his blunder.

It’s shocking to me that after the premiere of Beast Morphers, which was able to balance introducing all the characters extremely well, to have an episode that just meandered through something that could have been incredibly dramatic.

Not only that, in episode two we established Ravi’s “not a hugger”.  Here though he gives Devon and Zoey a side hug. Another moment that could have felt really big just squandered.

It doesn’t help the main fight felt totally disconnected from the episode. A problem in recent Power Rangers seasons is that the main A story just stops so they can have a ground and Megazord fight. The emotional through line grounds to a halt. Wouldn’t now have been a great time to show Ravi getting over heated? After getting tricked by his evil girlfriend you’d think he’d be really pissed. Instead it’s just another regular fight for Ravi and Zoey while Devon gets all the zord action. Episode 2 had this same issue of balancing the fights with the plot and I worry it’s going to continue.

I’m also not here for Nate having a crush on Zoey. Why? Why are we doing this? They shared a nice little moment last episode so he’s got a crush on her? Yawn. So now all the main Rangers or villains that are women have a love interest thing going on? Look, I enjoy some good Ranger romance but this could be too much. Hopefully this is setting up a nice story of Zoey turning him down and Nate being cool with it. I hope.

The only bright spots of the episode are the power play amongst the villains and Roxy herself. For someone who’s pretending to be good I believed her fake story more than any of Ravi’s actual emotions.

Beast Morphers needs to hit it out of the park really soon or this could be an early warning sign of another season that squanders its potential. Please don’t let that happen.

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Shamus Kelley is a pop culture/television writer and official Power Rangers expert. Follow him on Twitter! Read more articles by him here!