Power Rangers Beast Morphers Season 2 Episode 7 Review: Beast King Rampage
An important missing piece of characterization robs this Beast Morphers episode of its power.
This POWER RANGERS BEAST MORPHERS review contains spoilers.
Back in October Power Rangers Beast Morphers aired one of its best episodes, ‘Sound and Fury.’ In it we were introduced to Megan, a seemingly one-off human character who flew in the face of the long-standing Power Rangers trope of redeeming every bad person. She was vile, mean, backstabbing, and wasn’t under the spell of a monster! She didn’t get taught a lesson by the Rangers, she was quickly ostracized and fired from Grid Battleforce for blackmailing Zoey and trying to steal Nate’s job.
She was just a bad person and that was refreshing for Power Rangers. For a show that bends over backward to make sure everyone has some good inside of them it was great for the show to finally run with the idea that some people are beyond redemption. At the time I hoped Megan would return so we could see more of that side of her… but instead we got ‘Beast King Rampage.’
This episode had some potential. Megan showing back up and wanting some forgiveness could have made a great plot line. What happens when someone who did something horrific to you wants forgiveness? Even if they have changed, are you obligated to show them mercy? Even if they help you do you have to make a complete 180? It could be an impressive moral dilemma, juxtaposing the resentment Nate and Zoey feel with the needs of the whole team.
We get some of that but it sadly doesn’t quite connect because Megan has functionally become a different character. Where before she had tons of attitude and would do anything to get ahead, she’s now meek and desperate for forgiveness. We’re missing a huge piece of how this change happened. What made her turn around? What lead her to working with General Burke?
These are all questions that, if properly addressed, could have made abandoning the vileness of Megan’s character worthwhile. Instead she just suddenly has remorse. Nate and Zoey do resist this at first, and Nate’s anger especially feels very real, but ultimately everyone’s friendly by the end of the episode. It doesn’t ring true with just how angry they were before. Sure, they could give Megan props for helping them but could still resist outright forgiving her.
It seems to say that as long as someone feels bad you should forgive them. That’s an okay lesson for something like Power Rangers and wouldn’t be out of place in a standard episode. Coming off the unique ‘Sound and Fury’ though? It just robs that episode of its power. We didn’t get the traditional “forgive the bad person” there so we could have it here. Such a shame.
Megan’s work with Commander Burke was at least interesting, even if I doubt more will be done with it. Burke wants a fleet of Beast King Zords to protect the Grid Battleforce network since the Ranger team is so focused on protecting the city. He totally cut Commander Shaw and the team out of the process, which was great! He’s the military (of sorts), he’s going to do what he wants to get the results and doesn’t have time to send his ideas down the food chain. It helps the world of Beast Morphers feel broader, that there are interesting actions going on behind the scenes that will eventually impact our main characters.
We also got some good unmorphed fights and the Zord action was more engaging than normal.
As has become standard, Beast Morphers has a lot of great ideas but can’t seem to make them land in a way that would make the season stand out.
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For more from Shamus including original TV scripts visit www.ShamusKelley.com. He’s been a TV writer since 2009 when he created and executive produced the 21 JSR…