***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:E20 – “Evox: Upgraded”
STARRING: Rorrie D. Travis, Jazz Baduwalia, Jacqueline Scislowski, Abraham Rodriguez, Colby Strong
WRITERS: Becca Barnes, Alwyn Dale, Johnny Hartmann
DIRECTOR: Simon Bennett
PREMIERE DATE: December 7, 2019
SYNOPSIS: The Rangers journey into the Cyber Dimension to save Devon and defeat Evox.

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By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

This episode squeezes a lot into 22 minutes. We get the Rangers traveling into the Cyber Dimension for the first time. We get resolution to the conflict between Devon and his father. Blaze gets his own zord and battles the Red Ranger in the Beast Racer Zord. There’s also the apparent defeat of Evox and his forces. If this were the end of Beast Morphers, I’d actually call it rushed. But as it’s only our first season finale, and this is all a fakeout ending, “Evox: Upgraded” gets a pass as simply fast-paced.

It’s funny what little things you notice, and when. That “GB” logo has been on the Rangers’ suits, and all over the show since the first episode. But I never really noticed it until early in this episode, when we see the Rangers without their helmets on. It stands for Grid Battleforce, obviously. But naturally, I suspect that in Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters, the GB in question stood for Go-Busters.

This episode marks the first time we see Evox in his physical body (shown above), as opposed to being a CGI snake. Question: Are they allowed to show skulls on Super Sentai and/or Power Rangers? Or are they deemed too scary? They’ve done it in the past. But that was then, this is now. I ask because it really feels like whoever designed this suit for Go-Busters wanted the head to be a metallic skull of sorts. It looks fine the way it is. But a skull might have made him look more formidable and intimidating.

Is this episode the first time we see the Steel robot head on top of the Silver Ranger’s body, indicating that the Silver Ranger has removed his helmet? Either way I kind of like that look, even though strictly speaking, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. The Silver Ranger is just an alternate, powered up form of Steel’s robot form, right? So why would he need to take the helmet off?

Cruise really came through in this episode, didn’t he? He piloted the Beast Racer Zord in Devon’s absence, and then helped Devon escape from the Cyber Dimension before the gate closed. Hopefully somebody gave him an oil bath or something…

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