***As big a Power Rangers fan as I am, I must admit: I’m a little behind on modern PR. Here’s where I attempt to fix that, as I check out episodes of Power Rangers Beast Morphers!***

SERIES: Power Rangers Beast Morphers
EPISODE: S26:E21 – “Hypnotic Halloween”
STARRING: Rorrie D. Travis, Jazz Baduwalia, Jacqueline Scislowski, Abraham Rodriguez, Jamie Linehan (Voice)
WRITERS: Becca Barnes, Alwyn Dale, Maiya Thompson, James Collins, Cameron Dixon
DIRECTOR: Oliver Driver
PREMIERE DATE: October 19, 2019
SYNOPSIS: The Rangers are hypnotized into believing they are their Halloween characters.

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By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

Here we have one of our season-requisite holiday clip shows. The “Rangers think they’re their Halloween characters” thing is a creative framing device, though.

This episode aired on October 19, which would seem to indicate it chronologically falls between “Tuba Triumph” and “Sound and Fury.” But oddly enough, every source I’ve checked lists it as the 21st episode of the season. Perhaps that’s indicative of the order the episodes were produced in…?

Hold on, so Steel wasn’t effected by Vargoyle rewriting the memories of everyone in Coral Harbor, but he’s effected by Scrozzle’s hypnotic streaming service? Doesn’t necessarily make sense from an in-universe perspective. But if you let Steel stay coherent, this episode starts to feel a lot like “Rewriting History.” So I guess we’ll let it slide.

This episode feels like it was a lot of fun to make. Particularly for Jacqueline Scislowski, whose loud and boistrous Viking character was a radical departure from the often shy Zoey.

Speaking of Vikings, was Rorrie D. Travis channeling Sean Connery for his Viking impression? Is he even old enough to know who Sean Connery is?

Jazz Baduwalia might have needed some more direction as Sherlock Holmes. It seems like he was told, “Just look through the magnifying glass a lot. That’ll make you look like Sherlock Holmes. I mean, he always did that, right?”

Here’s how much of an old school Power Rangers geek I am: I remembered that Billy also dressed up as Sherlock Holmes way back in the season one episode “Life’s a Masquerade.” Also Tommy, much like Steel in this episode, dressed as Frankenstein. Actually, Billy dressed as a mad scientist in season two’s “Zedd’s Monster Mash,” much like Nate does in this episode. Deliberate homage? More likely, it’s a sign that stock Halloween costumes haven’t changed much in two decades…

You know who would have been perfect for this episode? Ben and Betty. And yet, they weren’t here for whatever reason.

This was actually a pretty intense zord fight for a clip show. Nicely done.

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.