“STRIKE’S ULTIMATUM”

After finishing this special Friday airing of Dragon Knight, my first thought was surprise. At the fact that they bothered to air a commercial that told us when and where we could watch the following episode. If you’ve been keeping up with my thoughts on theCW4Kids, you may know how I feel about the way they’ve been handling these details recently. But let’s move on.

I’m rarely the type to say this (since I know that there will always be people who say this about every show ever made) but I really do feel like Dragon Knight gets better with every few episodes. As we become more familiar with the world and its key players, it gets that much easier to enjoy what happens. Despite some of my criticisms, I really do like this show and am excited when I think it succeeds. And “Strike’s Ultimatum” is no exception.

As the name implies, the story centers around Kamen Rider Strike and his proposal to Kit to join Xaviax. And his role in this episode is among the many reasons why JTC is without a doubt my favorite character in the entire series thus far. Scott Bailey is one of the few Riders who looks like he’s playing the part with relish, giving his character such a fun, snarky, and devious personality. He’s also the most convincing in his role. 

The brief origin story they gave him about being rescued by Xaviax after the FBI had taken him was a welcome surprise, as I wasn’t expecting to hear about his past this week. I like the idea that he’s interested in secrets, and his abilities as a Rider give him access to any information he wants. A refreshing change from the super-obvious “world domination” stuff, or the tricks and games that were played with the other Riders.

Meanwhile, Lacey still has her subplot with Michelle Walsh and it’s still not all that riveting. But at the very least, it makes me wonder what may happen now that Walsh has this information. If she had the identities of the Riders, she could threaten to expose them. Which I suppose is more interesting than Lacey having a random lapse of sanity…

Now, the thing that slightly bugged me about the big action piece with Kit, Strike, and the Cho Brothers, is the way they handled the mirror thing. They way they handled the scene, it seemed they were suggesting that Kit had no way to escape the fight except through one of the mirrors located inside that warehouse. But that makes no sense to me since they’ve shown us many times that any reflective surface can take you through to the opposite world and you’ll be just fine. Kit should know he could never beat all three Riders himself. The only thing that explains some of this away is that he wanted to keep them distracted while Maya wheeled away with his dad.

Still, scene had a good finale. I have to say, I was kind of glad that it was Albert that got vented and not his brother. He has to have been the least interesting Rider we’ve had so far, and that includes Camo, who was only there for like five seconds.

And I’m glad that this show is allowing its characters to actually have emotions about the things that are happening to them. We’re not glossing over the drama with hugs and rainbows. People are dying (essentially) and it’s not happy fun times 24/7. And can I just say how glad I am that, when Len asked Kit if he was okay, Kit didn’t answer him and just silently handed him Spear’s Advent Deck as he walked away? We so didn’t need any added dialogue to throw off the emotion of the moment.

The show ends with a nice surprise: Kase has arrived, and so has her ass.
 
A preview vid spoiled the actual moment for me, but I did notice that the transformation effect seems to have been changed slightly. There’s more “currents of energy” flowing around the Riders as they change. It’s not a massive difference, but I like it.

“Strike’s Ultimatum” was a solid Dragon Knight episode. It gets an A.

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“A RIDER’S RESOLVE”

Gawd, it is really hard to try to defend the dialogue on this show. This episode was just filled with dialogue that, as written, isn’t so bad, but is just so poorly delivered. I mean, practically every scene this time had something that made me want to shoot myself.

But looking past that, this episode was pretty solid.

The best scene is easily the one in which Danny tells Xaviax to take his money back and Xaviax proceeds to make him his bitch. And I continue to be fascinated with JTC’s development, as he was clearly struck by what he witnessed here. It seems like they’re planning to give him a change of heart as well, or at least a more sympathetic ending than I was looking forward to. Which I suppose is fine, as long as they don’t try too hard to make him a victim when he so clearly is the architect of his own impending demise.

I also REALLY don’t want to see a flashback that does nothing but show us what he already told everyone in “Strike’s Ultimatum.” You only do a flashback if you have something new to communicate to the audience. What’s the point of revisiting, if all you’re doing is retelling the same thing all over again? That’s what the 20-minute recaps are for.

Of course, Danny does the obvious thing and stupidly defies Xaviax’s orders to stay away from Kit. But I appreciate that Danny has always been written as a character who is in over his head and just can’t understand how screwed he really is. His dialogue about taking out both Kit and Xaviax proves that. And I LOVE the fact that Kit threw it back in Danny’s face that they messed with his family too. 

Kase telling him to take that armor off was also pretty satisfying. It effectively communicates what she’s about without her feeling too much like a female version of Len. They’re both all business, but she seems a lot angrier than Len is at this point. Like she’s offended that Danny and the others would even think of calling themselves Kamen Riders. 

And Len’s flashback moment raises some interesting ideas. Len says he was basically like a grunt, who wasn’t relied upon to lead. I have to wonder if Kase actually outranks Len. The preview for next week certainly eludes to the possibility that she’s a better Rider. And if that’s true then the team dynamic just got a lot more interesting.

“A Rider’s Resolve” gets a B+. Solid all around, but not outstanding. And I’m truly getting sick of the teaser scenes concerning Kit’s parentage. Just get to it already. Looking forward to Strike vs. Axe. And wondering how that scene might end, given the motivations of the characters involved. 

-Dr. Tristan of Heropower