TV Review: Guns-a-blazing, “In or Out”

Our Ranger count is now 7 on Power Rangers RPM. However, our two newest Rangers act more like one person than two. Since their actual debut in the episode Dr. K, I never liked these twins, and now that they are actual Rangers, my feelings as not changed at all. The story in In or Out is great as are most of the episodes of RPM; it’s just the Wonder Twins really bring it down.

Venjix sends his Attack Bot to attack the dome’s air supply. The attack forces Colonel Truman to seal off the dome and power up the defense so they can regain their air. Gem and Gemma decide the best way to defeat Venjix is to go outside the dome to destroy him once and for all. Truman disagrees with this plan, but Scott figures out that Venjix’s plan was to have everyone in the city trapped inside. The 3 Rangers go outside of the dome against the colonel’s wishes and Scott tries to rationalize the Gold and Silver Rangers before they attack without thought.

I’ve known many twins in my life (2 of my best friends in grad school wore matching outfits everyday!!) but I have never met twins this annoying. These guys finish off each other sentences all the time, and they really don’t have individual personalities. There is even a scene where Scott suggests they split up and they hesitantly do so saying they never go apart before they do. I have high doubts that we will get individualism out of these two, but maybe they might get less annoying as the series progress … I hope.

Dr. K almost does a 180 in her character here. Olivia Tennet does a fantastic job making the transition from her character to a non caring mentor to someone who is trying to be the Rangers’ friend. The beginning scene where she calls each Ranger by their real name and then hugs them is just priceless. It’s very awkward as she goes to each of them and says something positive to them then forces herself to hug them. It’s almost like watching a scene from The Office. Also, just when you think her heartlessness is completely gone, she talks to Ziggy and cannot get herself to say his name or anything personal about him. This becomes the running joke throughout the episode as Ziggy wants nothing more than to hear Dr. K calling him by his real name. It would be fantastic if they can keep Dr. K from doing this until the series finale, so it will just give it that great feeling moment at the end.

It is an actual relief that this episode does not deal with anything about D44 and his unknown past. As much as getting to get to know more of Dillon’s character is great story development, he has been out shining the other Rangers a little too much in this series. We get to see great character interactions between Scott and his father. Also, Colonel Truman probably does the most in this episode than any other episode so far. Ziggy continues to steal the show as he tries to get Dr. K to say something nice to him and call him by name. We also get to know more about Gem and Gemma and just see that they are just over eager to attack to destroy the Venjix virus.

I am glad that this series has not completely ignored the world outside the dome. I actually like the battle scenes in the ruined deserted world much better than inside the dome. It reminds us that the world is in chaos and shows us what the Rangers are actually fighting for. Even the Megazord fight gets a video filter to make it more orange to fit with the outside dome scenes which is almost flawless in the transition from Power Rangers scene to Super Sentai scene. Also another great callback is that the Rangers leave the dome from the same exit which Dillon tried to leave at in the beginning of this series. We even get to see the Rangers’ powers again.

So our two newest Rangers feel more like just one new Ranger instead, and they are annoying beyond belief; however, this series still delivers in the great story telling that has enticed me from the beginning. The biggest highlight is the Ziggy and Dr. K relationship and hopefully they will let that continue until the end of the series, as I’m still not getting used to her calling the other Rangers by name.