Power Rangers Super Megaforce: Vrak is Back Part 2 Review

What is the theme of Power Rangers Super Megaforce? What is the driving force behind the show? What’s the arc of the series? Is it defeating Vrak and Vekar? No. Is it Gia and Jake’s romance? No. Is it Troy’s dreams and his fear surrounding the future? No. This episode truly cemented what the centerpiece of Megaforce and Super Megaforce was: Robo Knight and the discovery of his own humanity. He’s the driving force behind nearly every major plot element in the series and one of the only ones to get a real pay off.Robo Knight started as an emotionless robot, ready to destroy anything in his way to protect the environment. Throughout Megaforce, Robo Knight learned about emotions. About feelings like love and the concept of self-sacrifice. He grew as a character when the main Rangers were barely getting any screen time. He’s changed because of his interactions with them. So when today’s episode has Robo Knight sacrificing himself for the team he originally couldn’t have cared less about? We feel something, because we’ve seen a character grow and change through two seasons, and finally reach the end of his journey. He’s learned to care for others and feel what he so completely lacked in the beginning. Emotions.

Thankfully, Troy is along for the ride and some of Robo Knights arc rubs off on him. While Troy hasn’t exactly grown as a character (if anything the writers seemed to forget about him on a pretty consistent basis), he at least gets to act as a catalyst for Robo Knights growth. In the finale of Megaforce, Robo Knight gives Troy his blaster, signifying Troy needs to carry on where he left off in accomplishing his goal of protecting the earth/environment.

Troy worrying about Robo Knight and trying to find him were quickly dropped from Super Megaforce but finally picked back up here. When Robo Knight is turned evil by Vrak and becomes an emotionless creature once again? Troy and the others know they have to save him, for in Robo Knights humanity lies the key to saving the world.

Troy is able to free Robo Knight from Vraks control by using… his voice (it’s pretty stupid and comes out of nowhere but it does the trick). However, Orion is still captured and the Rangers have to protect the city. So when Robo Knight sacrifices himself to save Orion? He’s doing exactly what Troy did for him. Troy was willing to put his life on the line because he believed Robo Knight could be changed. Thusly, Robo Knight puts his own life on the line to save Orion’s, someone he’s never met but knows is a friend of the other Rangers.

That is the strongest arc Power Rangers has had in a long time, which is saying something when it only comprised a few Megaforce episodes, the first two episodes of Super Megaforce, and now this two-parter. It was badly mishandled thanks to a shifting writers room but at least James W. Bates was able to finish Robo Knight off in a satisfactory way. (And yes, I am aware of what happens in the finale. We’ll get to that when it airs in America).

Outside of the Robo Knight stuff, nothing else matters in the episode. Vrak dies, and it doesn’t amount to much, because we’ve never really been attached to him. Sure he gains new fancy wings but when the Rangers can defeat him in a mode that’s inferior to their Super modes? It doesn’t make much of an impression.With the Robo Knight stuff, getting an unmorphed fight with Troy and Robo Knight was a true highlight we don’t get much of these days. Andrew Gray is finally given something to work with and acts the hell out of trying to bring Robo Knight back to the side of good. Again, it’s stupid how he does it, but at least they’ve finally given Troy an emotion besides “aloof.”

With only a few episodes left in the season, we’ve still got to have the Rangers take out the rest of Armada and Vrak’s father. That much is certain. But why should we even care when the best character and the only one with a real arc are gone? The show is basically over and the rest of it is just killing time.

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