Power Rangers Dino Charge: Sync or Swim Review

This Power Rangers Dino Charge review contains spoilers.

Power Rangers Dino Charge episode 13.

While I don’t believe anyone involved in this thought they were working on a landmark episode, “Sync or Swim” still delivers the goods and even some nostalgia in lots of subtle ways.

First off, the “Fossil Fun Day” is so season 1 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. It’s a perfect event for little kids that provide a lot of comedy for the Rangers. Whereas Megaforce and even Samurai tried to ape MMPR nostalgia in the worst kinds of ways, this reminds you of the old days without beating you over the head with, “Zordon. Remember him? We’re gonna mention his name!”

Second, the bomb. Or should I say, a bomb with a detonator. I know detonators have been to death in Power Rangers, none more so than Turbo, but we got the extra layer of Wrench and Smokescreen arguing about it. Remember in the Alien Rangers mini series when Goldar and Rito were left wandering the basement of the Command Center trying to place their own bomb? This episode reminded me of that in all the best ways, right down to the bickering between the two. We know we’ll never see Smokescreen in any significant way again, but it’s nice for a monster of the week to have some personality outside of his fart joke gimmick. It also perfectly mirrors the other plot of the episode.

Tyler and Ivan. While the shows seem to be staying away from Tyler being too resentful over Ivan being released from Fury and not own father, we do get a little jealously from him. The tension between Ivan and Tyler was classic MMPR character conflict, although back then their argument would have probably been caused by a spell. That’s what I like about Dino Charge and this episode in particular, we have characters that can clash personality wise and we don’t need a spell or random plot contrivance to do it. Tyler wants to seem cool to Shelby, Ivan upstages him, and Tyler wants a little revenge. When Power Rangers allows its characters to have flaws like this, instead of the goody two-shoes we’re so often used to, it makes them more real and the lessons they learn much more impactful.

It was also a nice twist on the usual romance trope. Tyler was trying to impress Shelby instead of the other way around and she’s allowed to express her distaste at his outfit without seeming like a horrible person.

Ivan. Oh Ivan. This guy is still the best thing to come out of Power Rangers in a long time. He’s just so happy and cheerful! One could interpret this as living life to the fullest after being locked within Fury so long and I think that’s what the show is going for. We’ll see if they revisit his time in Fury later in the season. But hey, Ivan really knows how rock a vest. #VestToImpress Man, he didn’t even need that jacket after Tyler ruined it in the mud.

The conflict between the two was resolved far too easily for my liking (it’s basically, “Damn, I suck.” “No you don’t” “K cool.”) but the episode more than made up for that with what looked like original Zord footage! When the Rangers not only pick up the magna beam enhanced bomb and fly it into space! Holy crap, I didn’t think we’d see the Rangers take on Sledge’s spaceship head on until much later in the season! Nice to see the Rangers are capable of getting into space with their Megazord.

The episode ends with Ivan and Tyler fully made up and now taking selfies, or as Ivan calls them, self-portraits. They even do “the famed duck mouth.”

This episode was non-stop fun from start to finish and was a worthy 800th episode. I’m sure some fans wanted something bigger to mark this milestone, but I think an above average basic episode of the show is fitting. It shows off Power Rangers strengths without going completely outside the box.

Stray Thoughts:

-Oh thank god we don’t start the episode with a scene of Sledge telling off Fury.

-They added a glint to Ivan’s smile. Magic.

-Did anyone else catch Koda putting a bucket on his head after Ivan arrived with his horse?

-WHERE DID IVAN GET A HORSE?

-Kendall flipping out at the kids messing with the sand is great. Great little character moment.

-Tyler’s judging face is a national treasure.

-Koichi Sakamoto’s action for the show is stellar.  

-Oh hey, Chase didn’t say hotshot!

-Kendall is so frustrated. At everything.

-Fun tidbit, the fart jokes were apparently added in after the fact as revealed by James W. Bates on Twitter.