Power Rangers Super Megaforce: Silver Lining Part 2 Review

Well, it’s safe to say Super Megaforce was able to do what I thought was impossible, outdoing the Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters episode, “Universal Hitchhiker.” If you don’t get what I’m talking about, as I mentioned last week, that episode from 1994 has almost the exact same plot as this weeks Super Megaforce episode. Seriously, compare them for yourself.

But where Super Megaforce triumphs? It actually shows us Orion’s back story, instead of just telling us. The episode leads with an elongated flashback to how Orion came upon the Silver Ranger powers. Which is basically that he found some Power Rangers toys in a rock… We’ll probably never get any explanation for that, but much better is what happens after. The Armada murders his entire civilization, and we even see his home village burning, along with Team Up Quarry! Filled with vengeance, he trains until he’s finally able to shoot down and steal an Armada ship.

In the span of 10 minutes, we get a better back story than any Ranger we’ve had in the past four years. Orion is pissed off and will do anything to avenge his people. While the footage doesn’t exactly support this, considering he seems to be jumping around and being more elated than anything else, my theory that I highly doubt the show will ever acknowledge is this: when he was left all on his own to train, vengeance became second nature to him. Almost natural, to the point it barely even manifests. So, when he finally goes into battle? He gets jazzed, almost high, from finally enacting his revenge. It’s nice to have a theory about a character in Power Rangers have some examples in the show to back it up instead of just guessing from random lines.

That jumping around and jazzed attitude the footage is giving Orion actually reminds me a lot of Andros during In Space. The writing was trying to give us a brooding character filled with angst but instead we got someone who was just flailing his arms around. At least they’re going a different direction than the footage. Thank god.

One point that is barely touched on this episode, which I would love to see more of? At the tail end everyone is celebrating their victory, but Troy insists that Orion needs to be more of a team player. A rivalry between Troy and Orion, belief in humanity versus revenge is a great theme to run with, but Orion seems to be a little too happy go lucky for this to really bore out into anything substantial.

Speaking of which, the montage of the Rangers giving Orion a makeover was just a ton of fun, something Power Rangers has lacked in the past few years.  It also should have utilized this song, but I’ll take what I can get.

Hell, not since “A Strange Case of the Munchies” have we seen the Rangers just goofing off and enjoying themselves. Everyone gets some beats to play here, although by far my favorite is Noah. Everyone is fighting over who gets to hang out with Orion and he damn near whines that he wants to be friends with Robo Knight. Maybe it’s just the writers making him seem like a kid, but I still wonder if Noah is actually on some sort of spectrum. The show will never confirm it, but it’s interesting to think about. At the very least, they finally utilize the various shops in the mall, something I’ve wanted to see since it was introduced in Megaforce.

Oh yeah, Orion also has the Q-Rex… Where do I even start? One can assume it might just be ANOTHER Time Force Q-Rex, perhaps another one built after the original was lost in time? More likely it’s just the writers being lazy and thinking it’s a cool fun reference that don’t wouldn’t mess with continuity at all. Maybe Eric sent the Q-Rex back to get upgraded? DON’T THINK TOO HARD AND JUST ENJOY THE REFERENCES!

Overall, this is a solid introduction our newest sixth Ranger. It’s set the show on a good path with all new storylines to build on. Too bad the show’s going on a hiatus till September at the earliest. Oh joy. Thanks a lot, Nickelodeon. Oh well, at least we went out on a high note.

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