Power Rangers Beast Morphers Season 2 Episode 18 Review: The Silva Switch

This POWER RANGERS BEAST MORPHERS review contains spoilers.

I have never been more surprised at an episode of Power Rangers than I was for ‘The Silva Switch.’ In the middle of the story, out of the blue, with no warning, we got an elaborately choreographed song and dance number featuring Steel in Nate’s body as the entire cast, augmented with backup dancers, sing about great it is to be human.

I…. I am beyond stunned and delighted. I never imagined this could happen in Power Rangers. There’s never been anything like this! The most “musical” the show has been was Zeo’s ‘Another Song and Dance,’ Kira singing sometimes, Antonio’s ‘Everyday Fun,’ the incredible Tanya music video ‘Stick Together,’ and a performance from random Rangers here and there. There’s never been anything like this, a giant production with decent choreography and the entire cast joining in!

The biggest smile was on my face! While it’s a shame we didn’t get to hear Abraham Rodriguez’s real voice he really put his all into that performance. His energy, the moves, this dude went beyond all out. He gave a million percent and the team behind making it matched it. The whole thing is so wild and bizarre I can’t help but love it. Even the costuming was stellar! All the cast were dressed up, Ben and Betty in particular looking sharp in those suits!

I’m not going to say the song is an ear worm or that I need it on my phone but that doesn’t matter because the actual performance of it is all that matters. It’s stunning. The second the episode was over I went back and rewatched the scene just to take it all in again.

I’m in awe of this sequence. It’s zany, it’s weird, and most importantly it’s fun. I’ve written before that Power Rangers needs to embrace its zany side more often so long as it really goes for it and this musical number did that and more. The show is silly, play into it! You can have all the emotional stuff I love but never forget the potential in just how weird the Power Rangers universe is. Having a musical number that no one questions is a perfect example of that.

The rest of the episode could never measure up to that and it’s mostly forgettable. The idea of Nate and Steel switching bodies is fun but having them dub over each other ruins what could have been really humorous. I’d love to hear them try and sound like each other! The story also doesn’t take much advantage of what this means for Steel emotionally. He gets excited to be a human sure, but the only deep moment in this episode is Nate saying he’s taken being human for granted? Uh, okay. I guess? That came out of nowhere.

We also finally get to see human Blaze in the middle of the musical number and this is the first time we’ve seen him in a long time. What is he up to? It just reminds me that human Blaze and Roxy have gone underutilized (especially Blaze) and there’s so much more the show could be doing with them. At least we seem to be getting some set up for the end game with evil Roxy and Blaze coming to blows and Scrozzle possibly leaning more towards helping Roxy.

Outside of the musical sequence the episode isn’t anything special but the plot won’t be what anyone thinks of when they look back on this. That sequence will dominate the episode and for good reason. There’s truly been nothing like it in Power Rangers, which isn’t something you can often say when a show’s had over nine hundred episodes.