Episode 140- Master Vile and the Metallic Armour Part 1

It's Master Vile! I love Master Vile.

So we start this episode off with Civilian Rangers plus Bulk, Skull, and Lt. Stone on horses. They're riding through what looks like the park, western style. Most of them seem comfortable enough, and Kat even suggests galloping through the meadow. Skull complains about being on horseback, but for all his griping, he knows how to ride! He's got the best seat I've seen in quite some time, certainly the best seat of all the actors in this scene!

There is some generic discussion of nature and fun, but mostly we just pay attention to Adam and Billy's arms, and get irritated that Rocky is in long sleeves. Because apparently we can get half-naked Adam OR Rocky, but not both.

Anyway, it suddenly gets very dark and the ground starts shaking. Everybody dismounts and the rangers find a Very Large Tree to stand in front of. They can't get in touch with Zordon and so, it being dark, and their audience being Bulk and Skull, decide to teleport to the Command Center anyway. Alpha is powered down and Zordon is nowhere to be found. The Command Center appears to be out of power.

Oddly enough, on the moon, the same thing is happening. Rita wonders if Finster has forgotten to pay the electric bill again. In comes a mysterious figure. Zedd wonders who has come into his palace unannounced, and Rita goes all goey. Because she knows who it is. It's Master Vile! Her father! Zeddy, meet the in-laws.

Back on Earth, the Command Center and Alpha manage to reboot. Zordon comes back and tells them all about what's going on. He mentions Master Vile is Rita's father and Rocky is all amazed that Rita has a father. Oh, Rocky, Honey. You're not a stupid young man. Of course Rita has a father. Does Adam need to explain reproductive biology to you again?

Anyway, Zordon tells them about new metallic armour they will get. He also tells them about the Zeo crystal (ooo foreshadowing) and how it's protected by a force field that will only let the most innocent of pure hearts through. It's being held in caves on the moon directly beneath Rita's palace. Which is on the moon. On top of the caves. That are on the moon.

Back on Earth, Bulk and Skull are wondering where the Civilian Rangers are, and Lt. Stone tries to get them to see what's going on. He says that darkness can only mean one thing, and Skull says daylight savings time much be over. Lt. Stone is smart, however, and knows it means a monster attack is soon to follow! He needs volunteers to ride for help and the horses push Bulk and Skull forward. Aw, horses.

Back on the moon, Zedd is not so much trying to impress Master Vile, Father-In-Law, as he is trying to one-up him. Oh Zedd, baby, no. That's... not how it's done. Vile doesn't believe that Zedd captured Ninjor and so Rito brings the jar over, only he trips on something he can't see due to all the fog all over the place, and drops the jar. It shatters and Ninjor is free! They try to catch him but he escapes and goes right to the Command Center. Vile says he's going to take Rito and Monkey Boy to carry out his evil plan.

The Rangers don't seem too terribly happy to see Ninjor is finally free, but then, he was held captive on the moon for how many weeks now? And never once did they even attempt to come up with a rescue plan. So I don't think they were too concerned about it in the first place.

Tengas attack Bulk and Skull and so the rangers morph and go fight. Bulk and Skull get away but the rangers are overtaken by the Tengas. They can't fight them off this time. They call Ninjor and he goes to help them, and he grows, and then he gets his ass kicked. And he gets captured AGAIN.

But that's okay. The rangers get their new metallic armour. It looks nothing like metal. In fact, it looks like somebody threw glitter on their existing spandex. They SPARKLE. I shall from now on call them all Edward. They finally beat back the Tengas.

Back in the Command Center, Tommy is sure they need the Falcon Zord to win. We aren't sure why. They realize they need the Zeo crystal and figure Tommy is the purest good one and he should go. We do a double take. Because really? Tommy? He's the most likely to BE EVIL, and you're sending him???? Oh show. Kat decides she's going to distract Rita and Zedd by pretending to be evil again. Okay, I'll buy it.

Billy comes up with a plan to form their MegaZord even without the Falcon Zord. He's going to sell more toys by using it in place of the actual zord! Somehow the toy is tied into the zords and the Command Center and tricks them into thinking the Falcon Zord is there? Again, not sure why the Falcon Zord is the only solution here.

We learn a bit more of Master Vile's plan, what with him barfing up a big green egg full of blue goo that ten turns into a Goo Monster. Frankly, I think Ivan Ooze did it better. Vile has used the Goo Monster to drain Ninjors powers. And instead of THAT being our cliffhanger, we get more Kat-will-pretend-to-be-evil angst. Because apparently that's a better cliffhanger than Vile slowly draining away all of Ninjor's powers.

4 fish. It was... not a bad episode, just didn't make a lot of sense on it's own.