In watching ‘Finders Keepers’ I was struck by how normal everything seemed. I don’t mean this is a normal episode because it clearly isn’t, but how all the Rangers acted around each other. Sure there was a little surprise from the Power Rangers Beast Morphers team meeting the Dino Charge Rangers but it was mostly matter a fact. There’s a problem and they need to team-up to solve it! I wish more teams were able to interact this way. There doesn’t need to be a giant world ending battle. Sometimes the two teams crossing paths is more than enough. It was really nice to see the Dino Charge team back in action. Sure Riley and Shelby didn’t show up in person but four out of six (of the main team) isn’t bad, although I wish they had gotten one of the women to show up. It’s especially jarring when both teams are standing side by side and Zoey’s the only woman there. Still, just seeing the Dino Charge team fight and their small scenes umorphed put a smile on my face. Whatever you feel about how Dino Super Charge turned out, you can’t deny these characters and actors are a delight. Despite what I argued in my review of past team-up ‘Dimensions in Danger,” where I said team-ups should focus more on the returning cast, I was actually all for this episode giving Zoey time to shine. The way it was set up it made it seem like this would be a great story for her that would be augmented by the returning cast. That’s a great way to do a team-up! ‘Always a Chance,” while a much smaller team-up, gave Carlos some time to shine and Adam helped him along the way. This could have been the new version of that! As is the episode quickly resolves Zoey’s guilt with a quick apology and she ends up saving Keeper at the end of the fight. The Dino Charge cast is mostly there to deliver exposition and have a, admittingly, very fun battle. It’s great to see all the old Dino Charge villains show up again (even after they appeared in Super Ninja Steel) and referencing “it’s a bomb” never gets old. Plus we get some great action sequences featuring both teams, including an absolutely stupendous truck chase. Adapting footage from Sentai movies (as was done here) should be done more often because they deliver the goods. Overall it’s an okay episode but I wish more had been done to either push Zoey’s story or give the Dino Charge cast a bigger role. They almost had something that could have balanced the two but they gave into spectacle over substance. Spectacle isn’t bad, that’s mostly what ‘Forever Red’ is, but it leaves the episode feeling a little empty. Even ‘Forever Red’ gave us a lot of great moments with all the Red Rangers. Here we see the Dino Charge Rangers and they say some familiar lines but that’s mostly it. It’s honestly the same as everything in the Ranger vault or in Rhijack’s ship. You can point and go, “I recognize that!” but if that’s all there is I can’t help but want more. ‘The Evox Snare’ handled this perfectly. Dr. K helped Devon figure out how to save his dad by using the Split Emitters from Dino Charge. It wasn’t just “hey we recognize her!” or “hey, that’s a prop we know!” It involved them in the plot in a substantial way. Yes we didn’t learn a lot about Dr. K in the episode but seeing her help Devon and learning she’s able to contact the “main” Power Rangers universe gives us something to chew on and isn’t just her saying, “THAT IS NOT SPANDEX!” Now we’ve obviously got more team-up action coming with the return of Jason so maybe this is all just set-up. As its own episode though, ‘Finders Keepers’ presents a nice outline for how future team-ups could work, it just needs to fill in the gaps to make something more memorable.
