Mod Post - Brief Hiatus

Happy Chanukah! It's the second night of Chanukah and we're very busy at the respective households of your mods, what with celebrations and planning and traveling and family and friends and everything else that goes along with the holidays. Due to our busy holiday schedules, we're going on posting hiatus until next year. We hope you all enjoy your holiday celebrations, whatever they may be. We'll be back January 2013!

Episode 344 - Wheels of Destruction

We are back, ladies and gentlemen! Pneumonia and holidays and work tends to really knock a person out. We're glad to be back and feeling better and schedules calmed down, because we love this blog and this show and it's great to finally get back to it. I've missed it! Today is a Joel episode. I do not approve. We start off with him going to ask Ms. Fairweather on a date. She is not at all upset when he has to go do Rangery things. She does not approve of his condescending attitude towards her and neither do I. So the rangers go fight something that shows up with lots of mooks. Can I just say I LOVE these guys? They have little bat wings! BAT WINGS! It’s ADORABLE. I hate when they have to fight them. So this monster apparently makes lots of wind. The rangers shoot him and he explodes and they THINK they’ve won. Dana hears something and they discover Vypra has a go-kart. With wings. She fires all the missiles. Joel attempts to take on the go-kart by himself and fails miserably. The only thing worse than his attitude is Vypra’s acting. Rangers chase in the Hummer of Heroness but they lose her. Because she’s in a go-kart, not a car, and therefore can hide in places a HUMMER cannot go. She leaves before finishing the job, though, and that’s okay. Because they have a whole season to get through and she can’t destroy them yet. She then vanishes at 88 miles per hour. Ms. Fairweather is sad at the damage done to the Hummer of Heroness (which is actually called the Rescue Rover, but I don’t care. I like my name better). Joel doesn’t even hit on her. The rangers report the new go-kart of doom to Captain Mitchell. Ms. Fairweather is very sad that her toy is ruined. Vypra gets reamed because she refused to finish the rangers off. They turn to an elephant monster instead and he’s going to stomp Mariner Bay into the dust. Vypra storms off in a pouty huff. Because she can’t act. Ms. Fairweather is busy fixing things when Joel interrupts her work and keeps trying to get her to leave and go on a date with him. She really does not have time for this shit. There is science to be done! But Joel doesn’t really want to take that for an answer so she has to trick him into leaving by telling him she’s working on a surprise and he assumes it's for him. He moons over her in the bunk. Carter and Chad gently mock him. But then he gets all snotty and says “She didn’t have to yes to a date with me because she loves me so much she has all her co-workers working around the clock to build me something awesome”. NO, JACKASS. You are self-centered and condescending. That is not attractive. Then he tells Carter to learn from his example, because Carter was clearly mocking him. NO CARTER. DO NOT LEARN FROM HIS EXAMPLE. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE BE A BETTER MAN THAN THAT. The rangers must go help a bunch of injured people because Vypra took to town with her Go-Kart of Doom. But then she does that 88 miles per hour thing again and Carter is not happy. He reports to Captain Mitchell and they come up with a plan. They need Ms. Fairweather’s surprise. Which is not for Joel, despite what he thinks, the condescending ass. He tells them to act surprised. But it’s him that will be surprised. Because her job is personal, but not for Joel. She built them ALL motorcycles (Lightspeed Cycles, whatever, they’re motorcycles)! Because she is AWESOME. Joel is disappointed, because he’s a douchebag who thinks her world revolves around him. Because he thought she was building him a ray gun thingy. But she wasn’t. She was building for the TEAM. Because it’s about the TEAM. Not about Joel The Jackass. Then there is a fight with the elephant monster thing and it is boring. I want more Ms. Fairweather, please! Then they go fight Vypra and her Go-Kart of Doom on their motorcycles and that’s only slightly less boring. They win this time. Back on base, Joel goes to talk to Ms. Fairweather. He says the motorcycle is very complex and he wants her to give him a private lesson. She is totally mocking him and I LOVE HER FOR IT. She tells him she will not go out with him because it’s against the rules. Regulation 322.1 – no fraternization between squad members. He is sure they’d have a great time if it weren’t for that pesky rule. She continues to mock him. BECAUSE SHE IS THE BEST EVER. And he’s a self-centered JACKASS. There is also no regulation 322.1. As Dana points out. Ms. Fairweather confirms but says in Joel’s case, there should be. I LOVE HER SO. 5 fish. This episode flipped between Joel is a Jackass and Buy Our Shiny New Toys. Also, it was boring. I was contemplating tagging it Rage Inducing, because Joel makes me see red, except then I realized I'd have to do that for ALL his episodes and... no. Just... no.

Episode 343 - A Matter of Trust

You know what sucks? The flu. You know what sucks even more? PNEUMONIA. I have been sick for the ENTIRE MONTH. It has sucked, and left me too exhausted to do ANYTHING, but now I've (basically recovered.)

Anyway, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I am thankful for all of you who are reading this blog! And I am thankful for my wonderful coblogger, , and I am thankful for Power Rangers. ♥

So. Lightspeed Resscue. Lets do this. I have no Dana icon, and no Captain Awesome icon, so Carter's face will have to do.

We open in a briefing where Captain Awesome is telling the team about a super powerful fuel cell that is extremely powerful and also sensitive. The team (except for Dana) is going to go to the airport and pick up the doctor and escort the doctor and the fuel cell to the base for safety.

Meanwhile, Dana is told that she's going to be escorting her father's old friend around. She suggests that he just call him a taxi because she needs to be with the other rangers. He tells her that she has her assignment, and she's understandably furious. She says he claims he trusts her to be the Pink Ranger, but instead, all he sees her as is his little girl.

Which, yeah. That is how parents are! And this is super realistic and great, because she's an adult now and wants to be seen as one, and also being given that assignment with no explanation has to be grating (even though it's totally obvious that she's guarding the real fuel cell from the beginning, and MAYBE her father could have just told her that) but having the conflict between the newly grown daughter and the father is a wonderful character touch and I love it.

The demons are all "so we'll steal the fuel cell" and then the baby monster creates a monster. Is he related to Finster? Is there an AU where Finster was one of these demons?

The four Rangers get the guy off the helicopter, and start escorting him to safety. Meanwhile, Dana gets to take the condescending old guy who hugs her without permission fishing, and because she's "Such a good girl" she can drive the truck. Stop being a condescending asshole, guy. That's really not charming at all.

Of course, there's no way that the four Rangers will make it to safety WITHOUT being attacked, so they're now trying to fight the monster and the ridiculous adorable bat things without jostling the super powerful thing.

Carter calls for Dana to help, and Dana says she's on her way, but the Captain counteracts the order and demands that she return to the base immediately. The monster grabs the box away from the others and opens it, and it turns out that the fuel cell isn't in there! The monster, being the smartest, realizes that as there are only four Rangers there, the Pink Ranger must be guarding the real box.

Since the Rangers won't tell the monster where the real fuel cell is (and why do monsters want a fuel cell, anyway?) the monster uses the power of the sun to BURN THE CITY. That is pretty traumatic. I hope that Mariner Bay has really good insurance. Does this count as an act of god? Do you need separate monster insurance?

Anyway, Dana and her dad's friend get hit, and the box starts to spill and some ice comes out. He runs to fill up the box with more ice, and Dana realizes that her dad actually DID trust her and believe in her, and then of course they get attacked by Vypra.

Dana leads the guy and the fuel cell away while  the other Rangers fight the monster and Batlings on a roof. Dana uses her medical skills to fix the guy's arm, and he tells her that she looks just like her mother, and that her mother would be very proud of her. I love ridiculously touching moments, but maybe wait until after Vypra isn't attacking you?

Too bad they don't have teleporters. Of course, if they did, this whole episode would be pointless. (Unless the fuel cell can't be teleported?)

Dana manages to get away from Vypra and escort the fuel cell to safety. (I'm not sure how? Did they swim? Was there a submarine waiting for them? Did the fish carry them?) She then immediately asks permission to go help the other Rangers, who are getting their butts kicked. Of course, Dana is super awesome and shows up to help.

There's a fight scene and then they blow up the monster, which of course manages to grow. Dana summons the zords, which then blows up the monster without any real problems.

Back on the base, Dana goes to see her dad so she can apologize to him for what she said. She's still not sure that her father doesn't see her as a child. Her dad tells her that he's been training her for years, and she so deserves to be a Ranger, but he'll always see her as his little girl. She tells him that she's proud to be a Ranger, but she also loves being his little girl.

I LOVE THEIR RELATIONSHIP SO MUCH. That is a SUPER realistic father&daughter relationship, and I adore EVERYTHING about it.

Fish: 2. Only because we still have no idea how they got from the pier to the base.

Episode 342 - Riding the Edge

Well, I was super bitter today because I woke up to find out that Power Rangers Samurai isn't on for some unknown reason that may have to do with Nick being the worst at promotion EVER.

Instead, I am recapping Kelsey/Nancy, which makes me happy.

Nancy the hot astronaut is out jogging with her dog when she stops to tie her shoe and drops the leash, making her the WORST DOG OWNER EVER. The dog runs into the middle of the street and then Kelsey does a dramatic flying leap on roller blades and gets the dog, although she then shows off and has to dive under a moving truck because of her showing off. Nancy and Kelsey flirt a lot, and Kelsey tells us that crazy is her middle name, and Nancy is VERY SAD when Kelsey has to go, because she has SUCH A CRUSH. (Have I mentioned that I ship them a LOT? Because seriously, girlfriends.)

Anyway, that was the most ridiculous puppy rescue scene I've ever watched, with the possible exception of Independence Day.

Back at Castle Greyskull, Diabolico is annoyed that the Rangers exist, and Vypra continues her bad acting. Jinxer is told to create a monster that will blow everyone away, and we meet Whirlin.

Later, NASADA is busy being pissed that Mariner Bay stole their shuttle design. Or did they open up a branch there? Watching TV Kelsey is SUPER EXCITED to see that her potential girlfriend is a shuttle pilot, because she's apparently been talking about Nancy nonstop since the rescue. And apparently the shuttle is only going in for four hours? FOUR HOURS?

While this is going on, the monster is a tornado going through the city, and tornadoes freak me out (I ended up getting a new roof back in 2008. SERIOUSLY, THEY ARE THE WORST.)

Diabolico introduces himself to the Rangers and monologues at them and then the tornado shows up again. Hey, could it take them to Oz? Rangers in Oz would be cool. Kelsey could flirt with Ozma!

Carter continues his shooting solves everything plans, and shoots the tornado, which brings the monster down to Earth.  The batlings (I keep wanting to call them batwings) show up, and we get a fight scene.

Meanwhile, Nancy is apparently done in space, and is heading back to Mariner Bay. Apparently they didn't check the weather to see that there's a tornado monster? Mission control fails forever. (Maybe NANCY could go to Oz! And then Kelsey has to go rescue her! Can someone write me that?)

... Also, space shuttles don't work like airplanes. QR is allcapsing that at me, so it should go in the recap.

They shoot the monster and it looks like everything should be fine, but then they find out that the shuttle is in danger. Kelsey is super distressed that her girlfriend is in danger of crashing, and instead of telling everyone what the plan is, she just tells them that they'll think she's crazy and calls the zords. We get a lot of stock footage of the train showing up, and everyone agrees that Kelsey should call the shots for this mission. Because her girlfriend is in danger.

Joel attaches some cable magnets which lets the shuttle level off, and then they clear the freeway by having everyone drive into Dana's car (really? REALLY? What is the size of that?) and then Nancy realizes that Kelsey is the yellow ranger and is SUPER HAPPY and agrees to try and land on her back. It's rough going at first, but they did it.

Because it wouldn't be power rangers without the monster growing, Whirlin grows and attacks the city. Good thing they already have the Zords out, right? So there's a fight. The Rangers win. Nancy is very impressed.

Kelsey takes off her helmet to see Nancy, and the two of them flail at each other  and Nancy winks, because she totally just got a date with Nancy. SERIOUSLY I SHIP THEM SO MUCH.

Fish: 3. It would have been more because of ALL the science fail, but we were too distracted by how adorable Kelsey and Nancy are to pay attention.

Fic we want: Rangers in Oz! ALL THE KELSEY/NANCY EVER. MOST ADORABLE.

Episode 341 - Trial By Fire

Today on Power Rangers, we get our Red Learns to be a Leader episode. We start out with Kelsey taking everybody rock climbing. They mock each other and tell funny stories about stupid things they did when they were kids. Fireman Sam Carter says he didn't always want to be a firefighter and then starts to tell a story. It's apparently sad, because he stops before he really gets anywhere. They get called to the training field and have to be all military and saluting and stuff. So much for rock climbing, I guess. There is a big training montage that I just can't hate, even though it makes no sense for what these people were like as civilians. Like, seriously, vaulting so artfully over that wall? Not gonna happen. I do love that they really have to train hard though. Right down to rescuing civilians and medical care on babies. CPR is important to know, even for a Power Ranger! And their weapons training involves lots of paintball, which is always great. Carter apparently was the fastest but got the lowest score because he didn't use his brain, he just shot at the targets. I like this! He has to be able to see the safest way out of any situation and just shooting all the bad guys isn't always it. I can see the argument that Captain Mitchell should have told him why he basically failed. But honestly, given the fact that Carter is basically an adult, and not a cocky badass, frankly I think that wouldn't be giving him enough credit. Nor would it have been a lesson that would have really stuck with him. He needs to find the answer himself, with minimal guidance. He has to work through the steps on his own before he can figure out what he did wrong and what he'll need to do better next time. On the Bad Guy ship, baby creature is upset by... something the monsters are talking about? I don't get it. They decide to destroy things from the ground up and cause what appears to be an earthquake, except of course Lightspeed Rescue knows better. They confront Vypra who has her goons hammering... things?... into the ground in a warehouse. I do not see the point. Anyway, Vypra can't act to save her life so this scene just hurts. Like, wow. She's not just bland, she's BAD. Carter has to jump in to save the people shopping nearby from the bad acting. He puts himself between them and her, but doesn't take into consideration that this warehouse is full of explosive chemicals. Vypra does, and manages to set everything on fire. Carter is ordered to put the fire out first, but he wants to rescue the people from the collapsing ceiling. He does as he's told and saves things from exploding, but does not manage to save a Tiny Child from the falling concrete. Joel rushes in to take the kid to a hospital. Which was actually a bad idea. He should have immobilized the boy's spine and waited for the ambulance. You don't move people with head injuries. Carter rushes back to base and yells at the Captain. He insists he was wrong to listen and should have rescued them. It takes everything Captain Mitchell has to not point out all the explosive chemicals that would have killed everybody instead of just causing one little boy to get hurt. Carter will have to learn this for himself. He goes to visit the little boy in the hospital and apologizes. He tells him the story he started to tell before. He was trapped in a fire (school? apartment? I can't tell). The fireman comes in to rescue him, tries to get him out, and then stops a beam from falling on them. The fireman insists Carter runs away, out of the fire, and into the arms of another fireman. He knows he'll never be that good, but he wants to. He wants to be that strong. It's only then he goes back to the training room where he shot all the paintballs. It's only then he sees the explosive containers and realizes he shot one. It's only then he runs back to the warehouse and sees the containers of gasoline. Then he realizes what he could have done. Captain Mitchell gives a poor inspirational speech about being a leader. This guys is AMAZING. He knows how to teach the important lessons. Carter wouldn't have really learned it if he hadn't been able to puzzle it out for himself. He has to be able to apply that to every situation, not just the obvious one. I am seriously impressed. There is another fight, Carter questions his use as a leader, but leads anyway. It's kind of boring. Carter apparently really likes to shoot stuff. This seems to be his solution to everything. This is probably why it was so important he learn that shooting things is not always the best solution. They win. Duh. Carter goes back to visit the little boy. He's not in his bed and Carter is all sad thinking something really bad happened. But the little boy was just up and about having a walk and he stops Carter. Says thank you and tells him he's okay because of Carter. Then he says he wants to grow up to be just like Carter. My little heart melts. And apparently so does Carter's. 2 fish. Really not bad. I also approve of Captain Mitchell's teaching methods.

Episode 340 - Lightspeed Teamwork

Hey, we live! And we're recapping! Season 8! I never thought we'd make it here. Oh, and Alpha's Magical Fic Exchange is still open for signups! You should sign up! We have awesome prompts so far!

Right. So I get a Joel episode. Um.... it's entirely possible that he's in my top three least favorite Rangers list? (For the record, the other two are Sky and Dax.) And I know that his whole arc is how he learns to be less of a dick and less of a patronizing jackass, but I hate him. So I'm not particularly looking forward to this episode.

We start off in the demons Castle Greyskull, with Diabolico planning on destroying the Lightspeed base. Turns out that since the base is underwater, they can't do anything about it, because water weakens them. So Diabolico demands a monster.

Back on the base, Joel catches sight of a woman, and is like "hoooooooot." He knocks her over and spills all the things.

Themesong! I love this themesong! It's catchy and fun and pretty awesome. You know what else is pretty awesome? The costume design. I seriously love it. I also have nothing else to say about it, because both are fun.

Anyway, the woman puts her glasses back on. He tries to impress her, and is all being a GIANT ASS in his attempt to flirt. He shows off his morpher, and is trying to use his status to impress her, and is basically a giant ass.

So, Captain Mitchell (who is AWESOME) is giving them a tour of the base.  And oh, turns out that the woman (Ms. Fairweather, who is probably ABD) is the genius behind all the tech. BECAUSE SHE IS GREAT. Seriously, I think she's my favorite.

Their zords are trains. Which.... I agree with Kelsey. Trains?

Meanwhile, Joel has ditched the training so he can go buy flowers for Ms. Fairweather. The city is being attacked by a lava monster, and the Rangers aren't sure if they're ready for this. Ms. Fairweather explains that they're programmed to assist him.

Joel gets yelled at for being late, and if he's this much trouble and this much of an ass, why did they choose him? (He even tries to convince Captain Mitchell that he was on a top secret mission that even the captain didn't know about.) And like, I like cocky assholes? I HATE JOEL.

Anyway, the trains launch, and it is a pretty cool sequence, even though I keep thinking about Shining Time Station. I'm not really sure that bridges can move like that? And the fact that there's a volcano in Mariner Bay MIGHT be a longterm problem.

From the GIANT train they were in, they split off into smaller zords (.... so what was the point of the train?)  and Carter picks up that there are people trapped in a building. So all the Zords go to stop them. Joel is all "I can do this alone" but Ms. Fairweather is all "NOPE." Joel is sulky about it, but agrees anyway. Instead they need to combine into part of the Megazord, and this sequence isn't nearly entertaining enough for the amount of time they spend on it. Blah blah blah, rescue mission for three people in the elevator. Isn't there a monster running lose in the city? JUST SAYING.

I mean, the city clearly has regular fire departments and all that. They're supposed to be FIGHTING THE MONSTER. THAT IS THEIR PURPOSE. The fire department can handle this! They CAN'T handle the monster. DO YOUR JOB AND FIGHT THE MONSTER, RANGERS. LET THE CIVILIAN FORCES DO THEIR JOB.

Instead, they get a new toy. (This early in the season?) This allows Carter to open the busted elevator where Kelsey, Dana and civilians are stuck. Bah.

... And then Dana and Kelsey have to go take the civilians to safety while the guys fight the monster. UM. Yeah.

Joel once again attempts to disobey the order because he has a better idea, and Ms. Fairweather ends up screaming at him to obey the order. And her plan works because she is smart. And he is an ass who didn't bother going to the briefing.

Then they combine into the Megazord, and there is way too much zord fighting in this episode. I so don't care. It is too early in the season for me to be all "I don't care!" But seriously, 80% of this episode has been Zords, and the other 20% has been Joel being an ass.

So the Megazord punches things and they throw the monster into the volcano which blows him up? WHATEVER.

Back on the base, Carter is all stressing the importance of teamwork, which Joel agrees to, until he sees Ms. Fairweather, and then he runs off to hit on her some more. He wonders if she's allowed to be in here, because he's a patronizing jackass. Then he manages to insult her and computer geeks in general and she yells at him that next time she'll just let him explode. YOU DO THAT, MS. FAIRWEATHER. And then the rest of the team mocks him, which I'm okay with.

Fish: 3. It would have been 5 because of how Joel is an ass, but QR says we can't rate like that. So instead all the fish are from seriously, monster right there! Let the civilians do their jobs and FIGHT THE MONSTER.

Episode 339 - Operation Lightspeed

Yay new season! I think I've seen one or two episodes of this season? I don't remember anything about it though, so maybe I didn't. I might just have absorbed it via osmosis. So I'm going into this knowing NOTHING. I can tell you this. I may not exactly like the theme song, but I dig the opening because it shows everybody being a badass OUTSIDE of being rangers. So we start off a brand new season in the desert. There are a bunch of stereotypes walking along with a camel. They find some ruins. These ruins do some Suspicious Ancient Magic-y Things. This bothers me and is not a good way to start out a brand new season. Our Walking Stereotypes end up in some tomb where they are raiding it for treasure. They open a chest and it starts shaking. One of them wants to run in terror. The other convinces them to stay and take what they can. The chest emits a blue light that knocks them out, then spirits fly around and basically kill them. Somehow the flying spirits make it from Stereotypical Middle Eastern Desert to Generic American Oceanside City. In what appears to be a secret military organization, a young woman reports that "they have escaped" and suddenly Guy In Charge, Captain Mitchell, decides to "bring them in". He is apparently her father. We meet Joel first. He is left-handed! Yay lefties! He is apparently a cowboy stunt pilot. Secret Military Men in Black bring him in. Then we meet a rock climber, who I am informed is called Kelsey. She is wearing bright yellow pants. Gee, I wonder what colour she'll be. She is pretty badass. Men in Black are waiting for her at the top and tell her she's going with them. She cops an attitude and will have none of it. Next we meet Chad. He is a whale trainer! He is already my favourite. Because I have a thing for whale trainers. He's also adorable. We'll see if he has a personality or not. Last but not least we meet Fireman Carter. He rushes into a burning building, grabs a little girl, and sees one of those spirit things. It shoots fire at them. He manages to dive out of a window with the kid, saving her life. He is recruited by the young woman from before, with her own Men in Black guard. Clearly he will be the Red Ranger. Also, y'know, fireman. He should totally be Captain America. So they're all shoved in a little helicopter and flown over the ocean to a submarine. I kept expecting the soundtrack to Jurassic Park to start playing. Then they go to an underwater colony where the secret military organization is based. It's almost as cool as Seaquest. But not nearly as cool as the Helicarrier. Joel accuses Captain Mitchell of kidnapping him and is irritating. He kind of grates on my nerves here. I hope he gets better. I don't dig the cowboy thing, but I like greens so... maybe. We'll see. Captain Mitchell convinces them all to sit down and tells them about how 5,000 years ago the world was inhabited by demons, capture, entombed, and buried. They have prepared for the escape of the demons by creating ranger powers and sitting on them for awhile. They hand picked these kids to combat the demons. Joel thinks it's crazy and goes to leave again. Carter speaks up that he saw something. Joel sits back down. There is a report of the city being attacked and suddenly everybody is all "Yeah, okay, I'll be a Lightspeed Power Ranger". I kind of dig that they all had a choice to volunteer for this thing? Then Captain Mitchell's daughter gets the pink morpher. He's apparently been training her for this HER WHOLE LIFE. And that kind of bothers me a little? Because, well, what if she didn't want it? Did he allow her to cultivate her own interests or just push her to Super Secret Military Stuff? Poor kid. She was groomed, not reared. They take their morphers and leave the underwater base in a HUMMER. They had to be flown in, but they can just leave in a Hummer? What was the point of the dramatic helicopter ride? Whatever, there are people being attacked by black spandex wearing goons wearing TINY ADORABLE BAT WINGS. I think I like these guys. I also like that all the rangers TOTALLY FAIL AT FIGHTING. Because they aren't fighters. They're just strong personalities. So they morph and it's kind of... well different I guess. Boring, but different. Yellow does not have a skirt on her morphed suit, but pink does. Was yellow male in Sentai? I know nothing. There is a fight. It is boring. They win, though, and that's nice. They demorph in front of a bunch of people. So I'm guessing this is NOT a secret identity thing? Captain Mitchell kind of kills their buzz because he warns them there are more monsters to come and they'll be fighting for a long time. He's pretty bad at the whole "inspirational" thing. Everybody awkwardly salutes, except his daughter, because I get the feeling she's been saluting him her whole entire life. I have a lot of questions about this episode, but I will let them mostly slide because it's first episode of a brand new season. Like, how did they know about the demons? What made them decide to create the morphers when they did? If this was 5,000 years ago, this was post Zordon. So what was he doing? Also, who the hell opens a cursed chest? And keeps opening it when it does weird crazy things that chests should not be able to do? Also, if Dana has been trained for this for the past 18 YEARS, why is she not red? Carter has no training whatsoever to be a Ranger. Dana was freaking GROOMED FOR THE JOB. She should be red. 2 fish. Not bad for an opener.

Season 7 Round Up

Highlights:
Dramatic Cape of Dramatic Swishyness, now with Dramatic Theme Song!
Damon is the best. Also, Miles O'Brien.
The best sci-fi horror episode EVER.
swords in stones
Yay Karone!
Trakeena
Villamax
Training sequences of epicness!
Slaves. Soooo many rangers as slaves episodes.
Which leads to chains. Lots of being chained up.
Leo ripping his shirt. And in the opening credits, to boot.
Star Trek worthy saucer section crash. TWICE.
Team polyamory

Lowlights:
Kendrix leaving us. We know why she did it, but it hurt. It hurt so much.
The whole stealing beauty episode. Let's pretend that just doesn't exist.
The overprotective brother scares off potential boyfriend episode
Did they really have to show the Magna Defender's child die over and over and over again? I really didn't need that trigger in my Power Rangers.
The Fish of Orion
Most ridiculous armour ever. I'm looking at you Leo and your overly exaggerated shield of cheapest bling.
Forgetting the title of the season for 3/4 of the season.

Episode 338 - Journey's End, Part 3

So! After an epic start to the finale, we reach the FINAL EPISODE. We're ending Lost Galaxy, you guys! I can't believe it! (Mark, since you've said you were looking forward to these recaps, I hope they live up to your expectations!)

Trakeena makes her way to the cocoon, and she has a flashback to her father telling her about it. She's going to turn herself into a bug! Her daddy will be so proud of her! The whole transformation sequence is HORRIFIC and there's green goo and it is DISGUSTING.

On the moon, Leo looks at his ruined jammer and tries to contact anyone, but everything is broken. He sees Trakeena's crashed ship and goes to investigate.

On the new world, Mike tells the Commander that everyone is accounted for (EXCEPT LEO). He's told to try and count the food and water supplies, and he worries about Leo, as do the rest of the Rangers.

Leo tracks the green goo to the ruins of Terra Venture where we get our first glimpse of the transformed Trakeena.  They must have had fun destroying this set. Trakeena uses her new powers to power up the city (which, considering the state of destruction, is REALLY IMPRESSIVE) and launch it into space.

Leo makes his way to the Command and he's like "WTF DID YOU DO TO YOURSELF, TRAKEENA?" and the two fight. She's all crashing the ship into the planet, and he fights her unmorphed and it is FABULOUS and then she throws him out a window and he manages to morph as he falls. EPIC FINALE IS EPIC, RIGHT?

She's got a bunch of awesome new powers and the fight is amazing. Somehow the feed of the fight is being fed to the commanders on the new world, and Mike lets the others know, and they get in the jammers to go after Leo and help him stop Trakeena before she crashes Terra Venture into them. Trakeena is just threatening to EAT LEO when the other Rangers show up.

The fight scene that follows is FABULOUS. Trakeena is beating the crap out of them. Everyone on the new world watches as Terra Venture slowly approaches. The Rangers try their weapons but have no luck. Their motorcycles don't work. They are losing BADLY. Even Leo's special motorcycle fails to do the trick, and Terra Venture is still crashing.

Finally Leo summons his battlizer of fug and grabs Trakeeena and pulls her into him as she struggles to escape and he shoots her at POINT BLANK RANGE even though the explosion should destroy them BOTH and FAVORITE TROPE, YOU GUYS. I LOVE THIS SO FREAKING MUCH I CAN'T EVEN.

So Trakeena is destroyed and everyone is flipping out about him sacrificing himself to save the colony, but somehow he managed to survive although his visor is totally destroyed. I'm not sure how it didn't force him to demorph, but WHATEVER, THAT SEQUENCE WAS AWESOME.

They still have the whole ship crashing into the colony problem though. And then the Megazord shows up out of nowhere and crashes it away from the colony, destroying a section of jungle and I'm super impressed that they managed to pull off an Enterprise D destruction sequence twice in three episodes.

Everyone thinks the Rangers are destroyed, but they and the fug zords show up and everyone cheers for them. (Leo, your helmet is STILL CRACKED.)

Maya is all "so the Zords want us to follow them" and the Rangers take off after them. Everyone takes off their helmets, and then we get to my big problem with this episode - we find out that they're on Miranoi. Maya narrates the beginning of the season again and rehashes the legend, etc.

Maya is all "quest is complete, putting the sword back in the stone now" and the rest of the Rangers follow. This SOMEHOW manages to return everyone on Miranoi to normal. Not really sure HOW. Not only that but somehow Kendrix comes back. Was she not dead in the first place? Was she trapped in the sword? Are we going to get an explanation? The important part is that Maya immediately runs over to her girlfriend and hugs her. How are they going to explain this to anyone?

And then there are fireworks somehow, courtesy of the fug zords. Sure.

So Maya, who has been portrayed as the jungle girl the whole season, and her native planet, has now been invaded by Earth. There are some REALLY unfortunate implications here.

Look. Here's the thing. The planet already had a civilization living on it. Terra Venture and the people from Earth? Invaders/colonialists/whatever you want to call it. They do not have a right to anything on the planet. And yes, they're stranded. But there's no mention at ALL of how the civilization is going to work out. And how did they fail to notice that half the planet is stone?

I just. Imperialism. Maya's people are probably screwed. But we're supposed to be all excited! They could have found a sister planet to Miranoi that was devoid of life and then returned to Miranoi at the end, and not ended up with Earth colonizing somewhere that ALREADY HAD A CIVILIZATION.

The whole thing just really leave a bad taste in my mouth and spoils what was otherwise an awesome finale. NOT COOL, SHOW.

Fish: 4. If it hadn't caused a rage blackout at the end it would have gotten a 2.

Episode 337 - Journey's End Part 2

Today on Power Rangers, we get an epic start to the usually-awkward middle part of a three part story. Also, OMG THEY REMEMBERED BULK IN THE OPENING CREDITS! I thought they forgot he was on that darn ship.

So our Starship Troopers are quickly ushering civilians onto the shuttles. they have to evacuate the station pretty darn quick. On the surface of the moon, the zords are fighting off Stingwingers. They try to stop them from getting into the ship, but it's no use. There's too many of them. And they are blowing up everything in sight.

We see Bulk (BULK!) running with the Professor. The Rangers are now helping to try to get people to safety, away from the explosions and the stingwingers. They keep blowing themselves up. It's... suicide bombers. It's kind of a disturbing plan, really.

Meanwhile Villamax is upset that Trakeena is destroying her own army. He sees something out of the corner of his eye and chases it, only to discover a little girl hiding behind some rubble. A building explodes and HE PROTECTS HER! HE COVERS HER AND SAVES HER FROM GETTING HURT! HE IS THE BEST! Then she asks for help and he chastises her for not being in a safe area. Her mother comes running up and carries her away, but not before Tiny Cindy says "Thank you" and hands him a flower. MY HEART IS A PUDDLE OF MELTED DAWWWW.

The rangers sort of beat back the army, mostly because they all kill themselves. The dome is cracking. The rangers are exhausted. Things look pretty bleak. Trakeena wants to kill everybody, but Villamax isn't too sure about it.

Back on Terra Venture, Leo is picking up tiny children and placing them on a car. Kai is telling people to leave their personal items behind because there is no room on the shuttle. Mike finds the commander in the bridge, looking over his ruined ship. He's sad because it was supposed to be a shining beacon of humanity but instead it's a shipwreck. Even Kai is pretty upset over it. Apparently the domes were supposed to be parts of the colony? And that's why they have them? Which... doesn't make much sense, but whatever.

Villamax is having flashbacks to Tiny Cindy and he refuses to follow Trakeena's orders. Trakeena is following one of the shuttles. She's going to kill them all, but Villamax will not fire the missles and kill them. He points out that the Red Ranger killed her father, not the innocent people and small children on those shuttles. He talks to her of honour, but she tries to bypass him. She fights him but he won't fight back. He would rather be destroyed, and takes the killing blow as she crushes the flowers, than live with less than honourable actions. I REALLY like this guy. He needs to be friends with Ecliptor.

I also don't think she's entirely acting out of her own free will. I think a lot of this is Deviot's influence from their accidental merging. Trakeena learned more from Villamax than that. This is more like Deviot than Trakeena.

Meanwhile, the rangers are trying to protect the shuttles with the Megaship. And they're doing it helmetless! It's great. Except they're totally losing the battle and the Megaship is in serious trouble. Trakeena's ship has rammed them and is stuck. Leo knows the only way to stop Trakeena is to set the Megaship on self destruct. Damon really doesn't want to, because he loves his ship, but it's the only way. So they do it.

Leo goes to get Alpha while the others clear rubble from their only avenue of escape. They manage to blast a whole big enough to get the little rockets through and Leo gives Alpha a lift. They make it, but just. They clear enough to not explode, but not enough to avoid the blast wave. Alpha goes hurtling through space. Leo crashes on the moon. The others make it to the planet. The Megaship is destroyed. Somewhere, Andros is crying emo tears of sadness.

But the shuttles make it to the planet in one piece which was the whole purpose. Maya, Karone, Damon, and Kai all made it to the planet. They find Alpha as well, but there is no sign of Leo. Kai is the first to notice and nobody suspects he's stranded on the moon. UNMORPHED. Because the crash was pretty bad. At least this moon apparently has atmosphere? Because he can breathe.

Trakeena crashed as well and she stumbles from her wreckage of a ship towards the cocoon that turned her into what she is today.

To be continued!

2.5 fish. Only mildly plot-holey and really actually pretty epic. Especially for a middle episode. This one wasn't the least bit awkward!

Episode 336 - Journey's End, Part 1

First thing - Con report. Only a month late.

Second - We have reached the finale! It feels like we've been recapping Lost Galaxy forever! *checks* Oh. We started this in January? Wow. Well, we'll start Lightspeed Rescue next week and it will be awesome!

So! Recap! Epic finale is epic, and all that.

Trakeena is so excited to see Terra Venture again. And we're really excited to see Trakeena! Seriously, we've missed her. She's AWESOME. Deviot comes up with such a ridiculous excuse about how he was forced to serve Mutiny, but she's so not buying it. She's all "destroy him! Before I get a headache!" LOVE. He runs to the cocoon that had been prepared for Trakeena and makes his way towards it.

However, he's stopped by Villamax before he can get into it, and a fight breaks out, and during the fight Deviot grabs Trakeena and they both fall into the cocoon, where they merge. So now Trakeena has Deviot's insanity and strength and also a bunch of other powers and shit is getting real.

Back on Terra Venture, the commander is like "we have one engine left, can't fix anything, we're screwed." There's only one planet within reach. Luckily for them, the planet has everything to support human life, so it will be their new world for the colony. ... Shouldn't they have chosen a world before they left? I mean, I'm glad that they found a Goldilocks planet, but...

Stanton makes a fairly good speech (I keep expecting him to yell "today will be our independence day!") and the dome projects an image of the new world, which they'll get to the next morning. Everyone is like "yay! We're home!"

Mike doesn't want to go to sleep because he doesn't want to miss anything, and the rest of the Rangers are also staring at the world. Everyone is excited about the lack of cars and pollution (don't worry, I'm sure they'll screw it up quickly enough) and Maya is sad that Kendrix isn't there. Then Kai realizes he's late for his shift, and everyone is like "who cares? We have a home!" Kai's response is "I have to land this thing, idiots," and they pretty much shove him towards his shift.

Just as they're about to land, Trakeena's ship shows up, and crazy!Trakeena fires on them. Leo then steals some explosives because he has a plan. Why did Leo go over the hood, in the window by the soldier, and then exit on the side with Damon when he could have just opened the door by Damon, stole the explosives, and then closed the door? Trakeena's ship is awesome, and she takes out the last engine.

Then Damon waves at Trakeena to try and get her attention and he's sad that he's the decoy. Again. It's not that you're the decoy, Damon, it's that Trakeena wants you so she was most likely to come after YOU. Leo attaches the explosions to Trakeena's ship when it burst through the dome and apparently a really tiny explosive on the outside of Trakeena's ship is able to seriously damage Trakeena's ship. Sure.

And then Terra Venture crash lands on the moon. The city dome detaches and the rest of the ship is destroyed. But they aren't safe on the moon, the dome is cracking. Some little kid asks his dad if they're going to make it to the new world, and the dad is like "Sure, kid." Leo is determined.

The Commander is like "if it cracks, we're not going to survive." The first council guy is like "how dare you suggest we abandon Terra Venture???" and like, all they have to do is get from the moon to the planet. The colony is a total wreck, councilman, do you just want to argue? Luckily, smart!councilwoman is there and she agrees to evacuate.

Trakeena has a plan, and she turns the Stingwingers into SUICIDE BOMBERS. I'm honestly wondering if this is going to be able to air on the vortexx now that they're showing Lost Galaxy there. I mean. Suicide bombers. Really. Villamax tries to reason with her, that they can destroy the Rangers without destroying their troops, but she's hearing none of it.

She has a date with DESTINY. Trakeena approaches the troops and makes a great villain speech about being ruler of the universe.

I'm honestly wondering how much of this is from the cocoon, and how much of it is from merging with Deviot. I mean, is it all her in there? How much of this is his influence? Or is this the part of Trakeena's personality that the cocoon revealed?

The suicide bomber Stingwingers approach Terra Venture and Trakeena laughs maniacally. To be continued...

Fish: 2.5! We have some questions and Leo's plan made NO SENSE and again, space doesn't work like that, but there are some pretty epic moments.

Episode 335 - Escape the Lost Galaxy

So hey! DragonCon. That was a thing that happened. Did I see any of you at the Power Rangers panel on Saturday? But as I now owe TWO con reports, I guess I should talk about the recap instead.

Well. That last episode was super boring, right? I guess we know why all the fish abandoned that one, they were needed for this episode.

We start off with villain guy kidnapping people from Terra Venture to make them slaves. Because apparently what Lost Galaxy really needs is a slave AU. (I'm totally serious about this.) We'd also like to point out that villain guy has an amazing horned helmet, and somewhere Loki is super jealous.

Mike is very upset about the slave situation. Kai is playing... is that 3D chess? YES. Oh right, while we got distracted over that, Mike comes up with a plan for him to get kidnapped and taken and the others can go after him. He refuses to let Leo go with him. This plan seems to be working just fine, and Mutiny welcomes them to his slave camp, and we get Mike in chains. *____* (And at some point after he's chained, he removes some of his clothing to show off his nice arms.)

The slaves are all digging for jewels (which are all shiny immediately out of the ground), and some old man is being threatened for not working fast enough. Mike helps a woman who collapses, even though she tells him not to help her. Turns out if you help someone else out, you'll both get destroyed or something.

Mike gets beaten by the villain, but slave woman manages to help him since Mike had given his collected jewels to her grandfather.

Kai starts studying the book, and Leo suggests reading the spell backwards. MAYBE YOU SHOULD WAIT TO DO THIS UNTIL AFTER YOU HAVE MIKE BACK, YOU IDIOTS. Anyway, we get a lights show, and the two hide behind a couch, until they realize they did it. Everyone is very excited that the portal is open, and now they're about to leave. HEY, MIKE IS STILL A SLAVE, MORONS.

All the slaves are being led back to their cells, when Mike grabs random girl and tackles her. She tries to refuse to leave without her grandfather, which nearly gets them caught, so then her grandfather causes a distraction and gets put in a "special" cell.

Mike calls the others and tells them 30 minutes (how do they know they won't be through the portal by then?) and starts the escape. I don't know why he wanted the thirty minute delay, since getting all the Rangers there would HELP EARLIER. But planning is clearly not their strong suit. All the slaves start to board the Megaship, but the girl refuses to leave without her grandfather, who is still locked up. Shouldn't they have grabbed him earlier? Fish. So many fish.

Girl and Mike release the grandfather from the stockade, and then Mike morphs, sending the other two back to the ship. Girl and grandfather make it back to the ship, but Mike is still fighting. The rangers hand out blankets to everyone, and the girl figures out that Mike is still missing. Mutiny fires at the Rangers, but Mike distracts him long enough for the Rangers and former slaves to escape.

Instead, Mike gets hit and knocked out, and the villains decide to go to stop Terra Venture from reaching the portal. Mike is visiting by the spirit of the Magna Defender, who tells him that he has his most important mission ever. The portal is rapidly closing, and Mike in the Torozord shows up and holds the wormhole portal open, which somehow a) restores the wormhole (how has Terra Venture NOT gone through yet?) and b) blows Mike up? The amount of science doesn't work that way can't be stressed enough.

Both ships make it through the portal, and Mutiny follows them, but Trakeena is having NONE of it, and she blows them up, because she is GREAT and doesn't want the competition.

Leo goes searching for Mike, and he finds his UNMORPHED BODY floating in space. Leo's main concern is that his MORPHER has been destroyed, not that Mike should be DEAD. Of course, turns out that Mike is still alive, but he's lost his powers, and that's it. The Magna Defender's spirit shows up and thanks him for everything, but SPACE DOES NOT WORK LIKE THAT.

If he'd stayed MORPHED until Leo had got him, I would have bought that and it would have been super dramatic, etc. BUT SPACE DOES NOT WORK LIKE THAT. I will BUY THAT THEY CAN BREATHE ON THE MOON, BECAUSE REASONS. But I can't buy this. I'm sorry, that is RIDICULOUS.

Fish: FIVE. And this episode is lucky we can't redo the fish scale so I could give it TEN.

Fic we want: I wasn't kidding about the slave AU.

Episode 334 - Raise the Titanisaur

Today on Power Rangers, we get even more toys. Joy. We start off with engine troubles. Things are not going well on Terra Venture. Damon is down in the engine rooms running around ordering people to cool things down and turn that knob and press that button. There is lots of steam and explosions and it's all pretty great that everybody just listens to him. He calls for the evacuation of the area because he realizes this is one problem they just can't fix. The engine explodes. Damon meanders through the hall later, sweaty, dirty, exhausted, heartbroken. He actually plays this very well. He apologizes to the captain for failing him, but the captain reassures him. It's okay. He knows Damon tried. He also knows Damon can keep the other three going. He later tells Mike that if they lose another engine, they're lost. Which is a little odd. Because I thought they already were lost and there was no way they could get home OR to whatever their destination was in the first place? But whatever. Damon is amazing, so I forgive the show forgetting they were lost all this time. Meanwhile, the beach area is closed. One would think they could conserve fuel and engine performance if they, I don't know, SHUT OFF SOME OF THE UNNECESSARY DOMES? Like, turn the ocean off or something. Seriously, do you need beaches and waves on a space station? Not this one. Anyway, Barbaraxe shows up on the beach and the rangers have to fight him and then Deviot shows up and taunts them. As he does. The ground rumbles. (ground. on a spaceship. this show... I will never get over this) The Rangers are confused because I guess even they realize spaceships are not supposed to have EARTHQUAKES. Whatever. Out of the ocean rises Titanisaur. HOW DID HE GET THERE? HOW DID NOBODY NOTICE? HOW COME NOBODY IN THE CASTLE ON HIS BACK DROWNED WHILE BEING SUBMERGED UNDER SO MUCH WATER? ON A FREAKING SPACESHIP??? I mean, at least this coming-out-of-the-ocean shot was better than Dragonzord's shot? And that means somewhere Tommy is crying his manly tears of jealous sorrow over this fact, which makes that whole scene totally worthwhile. But it still makes NO SENSE. So then all the toys come out to fight Titanisaur and look, we're less than 10 minutes into this episode and it's all fighting. ZORD FIGHTING. Which is even more boring than morphed fighting. I'm sad that the only fighting I care about, unmorphed fighting, is so incredibly rare. Anyway, Titanisaur overheats and has to go into the ocean to cool down. THE OCEAN ON THE SPACESHIP GUYS. The rangers regroup to plan on how to beat him. Kai suggests focusing on the castle on his back. Karone points out that "if" is not the word to use, but rather "when". Meanwhile, Damon checks on the engines because he is a super awesome engineer and that's what you do when you've lost an engine and are responsible for keeping the other three working. So Titanisaur comes back as soon as he's cooled down. We get all the fugzords again. Mike even leaves his post to go help. In the City Dome. BECAUSE SPACESHIPS OFTEN HAVE LARGE CITIES WITH SKYSCRAPERS AND ABANDONED WAREHOUSE DISTRICTS FOR MONSTERS TO FIGHT THROUGH, OF COURSE! Oh this show. The castle is gone, because Captain Mutiny got wise to his weakness and left it behind. Maya is all about taking care of business anyway and Damon is very supportive of her kicking ass. As you do. There is a lot of fighting. Really boring fighting. Guys, this isn't even fishy, it's just boring. THIS EPISODE IS TOO BORING TO EVEN HAVE FISH! THE FISH HAVE ABANDONED IT BECAUSE IT'S SO BORING. What has this world come to??? So we end up with four zords and a rubber dinosaur suit fighting it out in the abandoned warehouse district OF YOUR FRIENDLY LOCAL SPACESHIP. They win. Of course. Fighting finally over, another engine is about to explode. Damon is fighting to keep it going. He even stops to reassure some guy he's doing a good job turning that valve. Oh Damon. I heart you so much. He manages to save the engine. Because he's clearly the most awesome person ever. And I love that he's totally in charge. He may not run the whole department, but he is definitely in the highest ranking position that still allows him to fix things and get dirty. Chief or Foreman or whatever. And his crew trust him! Look at them running straight into the danger zone because he asks them to... and goes himself as well. Damon is totally my favourite. 5 fish. There was no plot and yes, technically the fish abandoned this episode. They gave it up as a lost cause. It was too boring even for fish, which is an automatic five.

Episode 333 - Hexuba's Graveyard

Good morning, recapees! I am not entirely awake during this recap (I may have spent the previous one repeatedly saying Scorpina instead of Trakeena, but then again, Scorpina is my favorite.) ANYWAY. I am back from Morphicon, and at some point I will actually get my act together and post a con report here. (And maybe we'll do a DVD review at some point, since I purchased the shiny box set. Along with the VR Troopers box set. And a lot of toys. Morphicon was really expensive, okay?)

Speaking of things being posted, there won't be any recaps next week, because it's DragonCon weekend! There's a Power Rangers panel this year, so if you're going to DragonCon, hopefully I'll see you Saturday at 7!

So, we open up on Mutiny going to see Hexuba, who is in a graveyard somewhere, planning a spell to cast on the Rangers. I wonder if she's hung out with Rita before? Is this where Rita got the spell to turn Tommy evil? Did they go to evil Hogwarts?

Hexuba tells Mutiny she has a plan (that somehow involves gopher's guts, IDEK) that releases a bunch of old villains and send s them to Terra Venture. They immediately come upon jogging!Leo, who is very pretty and has really nice arms. Leo is like "wtf, I beat you already" and the monster attacks him.

Leo fights the monster (unmorphed) when the other Rangers show up. Kai helps Leo up, and everyone is like "wait, didn't we beat him already?" and then Leo breaks the fourth wall about it being his last appearance. Leo is also able to beat the monster on his own.

Leo explains that the monster appeared right after a colored streak of light went by, and Karone is like "you mean like that one?" So they follow the light and see ANOTHER monster that they've already defeated. Oh god, this episode is going to be all fighting, all the time, isn't it? DOOOM.

Mike lets them know there's another attack, so the Rangers summon some more weapons and blow up the monster. (We're trying to figure out if they've used those particular toys before. We don't think so, but then again, our recaps tend to include the phrase "and then they pull out some new toys and fight with them.") They go and fight the monster in the city dome, and then Mike shows up and is like "two more monsters."

Kai points out that they can't do this forever, and he has a plan. Leo is like "too dangerous!" but Kai is all "going to the source to stop them, k, bye!" There's some more fighting.

Kai makes his way to the space castle surrounded by space lightning, while back on Terra Venture the ghost of Treacheron threatens Mike, who chases after him. The Rangers are starting to get tired, and they have to split up to fight all the monsters. (And I'm sorry, Mutiny's mooks are so horrible looking. The putties are so much better.)

Kai sees Hexuba cast another spell, and he starts fighting her. We switch back to the Mike vs Treacheron fight, which ends really quickly. I guess Hexuba couldn't bring them back at full power. Leo and Mike fight another monster, while Damon and Karone take on another.

Have I mentioned how little I care about fighting unless there's some character development in it?

Kai tries to stop Hexuba from releasing another monster, but she binds him in magical rope. He manages to escape her and then destroys her crystal ball, which causes her magic castle to blow up.

Back on Terra Venture, the Rangers keep destroying monsters, and they're all exhausted. Just as they're losing, Kai shows up to save the day, because he is great! He blows up the monster, and then Hexuba shows up. Kai chases after her, and everyone else is like "wtf is going on?" But they follow him anyway!

Hexuba uses the combines powers of all the monsters, but the Rangers use the fish of Orion. That has no effect. So Leo summons his fugly battlizer. And I guess transformation is a free action, because while he's powering up, Hexuba just stands there. He shoots her, and then she grows, so they summon the zords.

The Zords don't seem to be doing very well, so they summon even MORE toys. And look, if you want to have this battle mean something, you need to introduce this villain WAY EARLIER IN THE SEASON.

They finally blow her up or whatever.

Back on the ship, the Commander goes to find Mike and Kai and takes them to see the woman in charge of the station. It turns out that the fuel reserves have been tainted, and the systems will start to shut down in 2 more days.

WORST CREW EVER. HOW DID THEY NOT FIGURE THIS OUT BEFORE NOW?

Dramatic reveals, you are DOING IT WRONG.

Fish: 4. Too much fighting, not enough characterization, and massively failing on dramatic reveals.

Episode 332 - Dream Battle

We are back! TSB will be providing a Morphicon report when she recovers enough to do so. As for me, I spent last weekend working and attempting to not think about all the fun I was missing, so I have nothing to report. But we're back! And today's episode is... special. The city is evacuating. And we're trying to figure out HOW they are evacuating because this is a SPACE SHIP. You cannot just evacuate a space ship. That's not how it works. But I can temporarily forgive that because it gives Damon an excuse to be awesome and fix a random girl's car in two seconds flat. Because he is Damon and he is the BEST. Later, he's in his room (during an evacuation? I am confused) when a ginger kid delivers him flowers. He takes a good whiff, because they are from the girls (or are they?) and he's thoughtful like that, but then he falls under a spell and falls asleep. Magic flowers! Sleeping spell! Damon has restless sleep with some bad dreams, but he doesn't wake up. Because the Monster of the Week is controlling this dream state. He does eventually startle awake and Leo tries to reassure him, with no luck, and then he falls asleep again. Then Kai gets a whiff of the flowers, and does not appreciate them, but then he falls asleep too. AND LEO DOES NOT CATCH ON. Seriously Leo? Grow a brain. You're pretty and all, but really, this is ridiculously obvious. Leo finds Alpha and it turns out Damon's jet is damaged, just like in his dream. Leo finally puts the pieces together, sort of. He realizes the dreams are real and tries to wake up his boyfriends with no luck. Unfortunately, he didn't think to warn Karone and Maya because they had flowers delivered to them as well, sniff them, and both end up in the dream world. But not before laughing off that the flowers are "just from the guys" and then saying they won't turn down flowers. Oh girls. I love you. Leo is left alone now, because everybody else is asleep. Did he try to kiss them? That might have worked... Alas, we don't get that. Instead we get Leo being stupid and sniffing the flowers. THE SAME FLOWERS THAT KNOCKED OUT EVERYBODY ELSE. YOU DO NOT SNIFF SOMETHING THAT PUT EVERYBODY ELSE TO SLEEP. Luckily he calls Mike and they start to figure things out. But not before Mike smells them too and then everybody starts to fall asleep. AND ONLY THEN DOES LEO REALIZE IT'S THE FLOWERS. Good lord people. Have you never read a fairy tale? In the not-really-a-dream dreamworld, the other rangers are fighting and fighting hard. They're losing. But in this world, if they lose, they don't wake up in real life either. Ginger delivery boy tries to deliver flowers to Mike, who smartly tells him to throw them away. Meanwhile Leo passes out. And then there is fighting IN THE SNOW! I approve. Because I like snow. How there is snow on a space ship, we're not sure, but considering there is also rain, mountains, an ocean, and earthquakes? Well, snow isn't too far fetched. Mike is currently the only one awake. He manages to stay awake by just walking around. I'm still wondering what happened to that important evacuation from earlier. It's like they just forgot about it. But then, the footage splicing is terrible this episode, so I guess a forgotten evacuation isn't much to complain about. Mike eventually stumbles to where the flower shop was supposed to be but it's not there. He gets zapped to the room with the monster of the week, who is using a crystal ball to control the dreams. I really think Crystal of Nightmares handled this MUCH better. Plus it fed my little shippy heart way better than this episode has done. Mike saves the day by turning the monster's electricity back on her crystal ball and breaking it. The dream spell is broken and suddenly the rangers can call all the toys and beat the monster they were fighting. It really doesn't look like the spell is broken, but whatever. I really want them all to get kissed to wake up. That would make this episode way more enjoyable. And hey, if we could have Jason and Zack kiss in the first season of MMPR, interracial and same gender, in 1993, surely they could have managed to have a few kisses here, in 1999. But no. They beat the monster, the spell is over, and they all wake up on their own. Alas, this is not the Sleeping Beauty story I had hoped for. Meanwhile, the girl Damon helped out earlier stops by to bring him flowers. He reacts by throwing them in the sink and offending her. She doesn't buy Maya's excuse that he's allergic. It is sad, but it's adorable that Maya and Karone tried to help poor traumatized Damon save face. 3 fish. It wasn't bad, it was just boring, and not the story I had hoped for.

Episode 331 - Until Sunset

is going to Power Morphicon! Or at least I am! (Seriously, California, why so far away?) The point is, I will be at Power Morphicon, and you should come say hello to me! This will also be our last recap until after Morphicon. So. Right. I'm recapping a recap episode. As far as I'm concerned, there's only one thing to say about this episode - Leo and Damon are tied up. They've been beaten up. And for some reason, there is a SAD LACK of hurt/comfort fic that takes place after this episode. People taking care of them! Dehydration! SERIOUSLY, FANDOM. HURT/COMFORT FIC. They could take care of each other! The other Rangers could take care of them! They could assure the other Rangers that it isn't there fault! The point is, there should be some cradling and hugs and ridiculous hurt/comfort. (See also my feelings about canon slavery, and why is there no ridiculous AU? I AM JUST SAYING, FANDOM. WHERE IS THE FIC?) I mean. The rest of it is... okay, it's a clip show. Let's go over all of their adventures. I get that they need to save the budget or whatever to stretch this out another episode, but it's pretty dull. Anyway, we open with Leo and Damon being chased by the pirate mooks and Deviot. After the excessive fight scenes of the last episode, I couldn't care less. But somehow we manage to SKIP OVER them being captured, which would have been a GREAT FIGHT SCENE, and instead we skip directly to Leo and Damon being chained up in the hot desert sun, and seriously, will the villains please get out of the way of the camera blocking the very pretty men who are chained up? Deviot is all "I want to kill them now" but for some reason they're waiting until Captain Mutiny gets there in a few hours (at sunset, hence the title) so instead they leave them all alone and tied up. That is a FAIL PLAN. However, I can't express in words how much I approve of the framing device of this episode. Leo is all "we shouldn't have come" and Damon is like "shouldn't you have said that before?" Except it turns out that both Leo and Damon forgot to tell the others which planet they were going to end up on, because they are totally failbots. Damon is mocking Leo for always getting in trouble, which Leo denies, so we get a recap of how Leo ended up on Terra Venture. Then Damon makes fun of Kai for being crazy. Seriously, I love them all. More recaps follow, with them getting the swords, the "death" of Mike, and Leo getting the last saber. We get more shots of Leo and Damon all sweaty and chained up, and then we recap the Magna Defender and his epic cape. This leads into the Mike Defender recap, and Damon mocks the Magna Defender, which is always A+ in my book. Also, his swishy dramatic cape is great. The next set of recaps is just a montage showing how great they are, before the camera lovingly lingers all over the chained up Damon and Leo. The boys are starting to get seriously dehydrated, and now they discuss the villains. The best part of this entire sequence is when they talk about how cute Trakeena is (WHY isn't there more Trakeena/Damon in the world??? Why?) Then we go on to the Psycho Rangers and team-up episode, and the death of Kendrix, which is very sad. :( Leo says its the worst thing that ever happened to them, although five minutes earlier he said losing his brother was the worst. I guess the heat is getting to him. Then we get the Karone is awesome montage, and then we get to the Lost Galaxy part. We finally get to sunset, and Captain Mutiny shows up to gawk at the chained up Rangers. I approve of how their shirts are artfully torn. Both boys try to sacrifice themselves in exchange for the other, but at that point the other Rangers finally show. Damon and Leo morph, and they fight one of the monsters. Leo's fugly armor is still fugly. Leo and Damon argue over which of them is responsible for not telling the others, and Leo claims that the lesson he learned is to wear sunscreen. Then Damon and Leo have a moment about sacrificing themselves for each other and blaming it on delirium. This entire episode was a waste of time, and the only good part was the hurt/comfort fic that should exist because of this. Fish: 2. It was just a clip show, and we did get chained up Leo and Damon, so points for that. Fic we want: GEE, I WONDER. CAN YOU TELL?

Episode 330 - Grunchor on the Loose

Today on Power Rangers... I have no clue what I just watched. We start off with the Starship Troopers opening a big wooden crate. The Rangers rush in to tell them not to open it, that it's a trick. They are too late and there is an explosion and then a weird plant/bug/creature thing that shoots LASERS FROM IT'S EYEBALLS. It burrows underground because... well... I don't know why. It just does. It tears up roads and underground tunnels and... why does a spaceship have ground again? The rangers report that they saw slaves and the big pirate ship has no plans to help them, he just wants to enslave them all too. I had actually forgotten about that. Oh well. The military is running around telling people to evacuate and don't go underground and AGAIN I ASK. WHY DOES A SPACESHIP HAVE AN UNDERGROUND???? AND WHERE THE HECK ARE THESE PEOPLE EVEN EVACUATING TO? Whatever, the monster is in the underground highway. He apparently also spits purple poison on top of his laser eyes and I really hope he eats Nedry. Mutiny's goombas wear kilts. Well, skirts, but I think they're supposed to look like kilts. Or awkward pantaloons. Doesn't matter, I'm impressed either way! Deviot oversees them moving... something... and the rangers stop them and wonder how he managed to get to the Lost Galaxy as well. Because the show finally remembered it's title. I am still less than impressed with these space pirates. TSB and I agree that they aren't nearly as great as the Gokaigers. Maya has a chance to destroy Deviot and Leo stops her because... reasons? He thinks they can get information out of Deviot (oh Leo) and Maya really knew better. But of course nobody listens to her. Deviot feeds them false information and then runs away. The rangers then encounter Grunchor. Apparently we get two monsters this week? Or is the big guy Grunchor? It's really not clear to me. This is a lot of fighting. I'm trying to care about it, I really am, but I just can't be bothered. Grunchor shows up and the rangers combine powers to throw fire at him which really just serves to piss him off. Really guys? Did you actually think Deviot gave you reliable information on how to beat his side? REALLY? They have to call the fugzords. Nobody bothers to get this guys motive either. He could just be cranky. Maybe he has a cold. Maybe he wasn't allowed to get a good night's sleep. Heck, maybe he's confused and thinks he's helping. They just assume he's evil and wants to destroy them, so they fight him. The fight is not going well so the rangers have pulled out alllll the toys. Literally, all of them. Some I don't even remember seeing, but I'm sure were introduced at some point over this past season. Honestly, it's been kind of a rambly season to me, like it never really knew what it wanted to say or where it stood. It... meandered. And so not a lot of it stuck with me. Anyway, All-the-Toys seem to be doing the trick until Captain Mutiny decides to join the fight. Then they start to lose again. It's still pretty boring. I just... I don't quite get why this episode had so much fighting? I really would have liked to get some kind of back story for Grunchor or explanation for why there were two monsters this week or... something. Leo keeps trying to sacrifice himself. Then Mike keeps trying to sacrifice himself. Then Leo does it again. We keep expecting the Dragonzord to show up because this is such a Tommy episode. Tommy, this is not your season! Get out of this episode! Suddenly the others decide to jump in and sacrifice themselves too and this is apparently enough to destroy the poor unexplained monster. Later, the rangers discover Captain Mutiny's planet can just vanish off the radar. Because... reasons? They're in a lost galaxy I guess? Science still does not work that way. And never will. (random note: Curiosity lands tonight. I am incredibly excited about this) 5 fish. Because I don't know what I just watched. And I felt really bad for the poor unexplained monster.

Episode 329 - Beware the Mutiny

Previously on Lost Galaxy - FISH FISH FISH FISH FISH.

Or, in other words, the writers remembered the title of the season and were like "SHIT, we need to actually have the title be relevant to what's going on. Um. Crap."

So somehow they're in some lost galaxy, which doesn't actually make any sense, because how do you LOSE AN ENTIRE GALAXY especially when a) people can get in with a book and b) people are already living there. What the hell, writers. Just send Daniel Jackson and SG-1 to investigate, okay?

Trakeena is all "they've entered the lost galaxy" which apparently a) everyone knows about and b) is the most mysterious place. Trakeena doesn't want to enter the galaxy, and I've decided that the galaxy is secretly inside the M'Kraan Crystal, mostly because I feel like linking to X-Men stuff.

Apparently there are no stars to navigate by or something, and I'm pretty sure this means that there are no FAMILIAR stars to navigate by, because we can clearly see stars. Also, apparently everyone can breathe in space or whatever. The commander and Mike get a vision of some old man warning them never to look back, except it seems Mike and the Commander never left the ship, and the fish are strong with this one. Even the clocks are wrong, and it seems like time is moving backwards. I'm sure that the MMPR kids can sympathize, but at least it doesn't seem like we're getting baby!Galaxy Rangers, although I would be totally in favor of that.

Somewhere else, we meet Captain Mutiny and his ship of Pirates. I approve of Space Pirates, and I'm already shipping him with Divatox on general principle. For some reason they're referring to their own galaxy as lost, but they live there and clearly know where they are, so I don't know why they're calling it that. I'll give Mutiny credit, his ship is pretty damn cool. And we get a bunch of pirate jokes.

The Commander and the executive board of the ship are talking about how to get out of there, when Mike is all "um, there's a castle on a dinosaur coming towards us" which may be the greatest sentence ever said in the history of this show. Seriously, that is why I watch Power Rangers, because we get castles on the backs of Dinosaurs. Anyway, the pirates are rowing in space and apparently they can breathe in space, The Starship Trooper armor is out in full force, which is nice.

Mutiny is all "I come in peace" which is clearly bullshit, but he gives them a gift of sparkling coins. Stanton tells everyone to be at ease, because he's a moron.

Seriously, why are they still calling it the Lost Galaxy. THEY KNOW WHERE THEY ARE. Mutiny offers a way to send them home, but they have to go to his planet. BECAUSE IT IS CLEARLY A TRAP, but Stanton is all "we have no other choice" so he sends Mike to go retrieve the machine.

Karone is all "everyone is an idiot, this is too easy" because she is the greatest. The Rangers go to spy as Mike picks up the package, and they decide to investigate. And we find out that Mutiny keeps slaves. You guys, canon slavery. I will totally take all the bad and wrong fic where the Rangers are slaves. They figure out that whatever is in the box will make Terra Venture slaves. However, they get spotted by another slave, who begs them for help, giving away their position.

Cue monster attack. Fight, Zords, etc. The amount that I don't care can't be expressed in words. Could we instead talk about the AU where the Rangers get captured as slaves? WAY more interesting and if anyone wants to write a bad and wrong fic that would be great.

Oh, and Deviot shows up and drains the energy from the nearly defeated monster or whatever.

On Terra Venture, they open the box that was given to them by Mutiny even though they know NOTHING ABOUT IT, because they are idiots and even as the Rangers are running and yelling them not to open it, it is too late and a GIANT UGLY MONSTER that somehow fit in a box that is clearly smaller then him shows up and burrowed underground. WORST SECURITY EVER.

I guess that's supposed to be a cliffhanger or something. Whatever.

Fish: FIVE. LOGIC DOES NOT WORK LIKE THAT.

Episode 328 - Enter the Lost Galaxy

Oh hey! The show FINALLY remembered it's title! We start off with some guys wearing glasses, clearly meant to be scientist/geeks, analyzing a bit of the book. They translate some text and start chanting, but it sparks some blue energy that wipes out ALL power in the entire colony. ALL OF IT. You'd think once they realized they were causing the pretty blue sparks with the chanting, they'd STOP SAYING IT. But no, they had to cut off power instead. Mike says they're replacing transformers as fast as they possibly can and OH SHOW! OH SHOW! Space travel does NOT work like that. At one of the sites of the transformer, an ancient dude wakes up from a cave. He morphs into one of the power workers and manages to pull a yellow hard hat out of his ass (not literally, but it came out of NOWHERE and he just nonchalantly puts it on his head). The Head Honchos are discussing Plans. Ancient Shapeshifter Guy is wandering around and nobody questions why he's poking in the science area and not out fixing transformers (oh show... transformers... really?). He goes to take the book, but Kai and the Space Colony Police stop him. Worst. Security. EVER. Seriously. They take him to the Head Honchos instead of straight to a holding cell and I have NO IDEA why. Because they are clearly vying for that golden Worst Security award, I guess. They eventually take him to a holding cell and he tells Kai that he needs help to recover the book, because it doesn't belong. Kai is all "Uh, dude? Really?" and the guys is all "Cause you're the blue ranger, duh". Apparently the guards standing RIGHT THERE didn't hear. Whatever. Clearly they had their training in Angel Grove. Kai learns it is his destiny to help return the Galaxy Book to where it belongs and he takes that information to the other rangers. They think it's a Trakeena plot. Kai believes him. Especially when he takes him breakfast and finds him sweating thick blue... something. Question. Why is NOBODY wondering where this guy came from? How did this ancient guy get awoken from a long hibernation ON A NEWLY BUILT SPACE COLONY????? Clearly I am throwing too much logic into this. Kai leaves with the guy in R.A.L.F.. The guy gives him some protection trinket things and runs away. Kai STEALS THE FREAKING BOOK AND NOBODY NOTICES. This really is the worst security ever. Geez. And of course, Kai gets attacked. Because Deviot knows everything? Or something. But it's okay! Because Ancient Guy gives Deviot an intense smack down. Except he really can't live long outside of his galaxy/book/wherever the heck he came from, and dies in Kai's arms. The job of guarding the book has now passed to Kai. And he fails in his first two seconds, because Deviot has the book and starts calling forth all manner of dark things. His plan is to lose the galaxy? Except there is already a lost galaxy so... is this a second galaxy he wants to lose? Can you really lose two galaxies? Or is he trying to make sure the first lost galaxy stays lost? And how does one even go about losing a galaxy in the first place? It's not like your car keys or spare change or that darned coupon that you know is about to expire and you want to use but can't remember where you put it. It's a freaking GALAXY. And can it really be lost if there is both a book giving directions to said galaxy (and people know where this book is) AND there are people living in this galaxy? I mean, clearly it's not lost to THEM. They know right where they are. Anyway Deviot is now really powerful and strong and looks kind of creepy and Predator like. There is a boring fight where the rangers basically get their asses handed to them, even with all the shiny toys. And I really don't care about the fight, okay? They do manage to take him out in the end, but the book is going all kinds of crazy with the wind and the blue lightning and it's kind of weird. When it all dies down, the book is intact, but there are black scorch marks all over the ground. Kai picks it up and starts to read it but had to be pulled away by Leo. He hears voices. They start to take the book back, when they are suddenly surrounded by space and galaxies they don't know and nobody knows what's going on. So Kai recites a poem. Because he knows where they are, now that he has all that super book knowledge. They're in the lost galaxy. Oh hey look! The lost galaxy! Guess it isn't lost anymore! Or is it? Can they still call it lost if they are there? Existential questions of life, brought to you by Power Rangers. 5 fish. OMG SO MANY FISH. How did the guy get on Terra Venture? How did the guards not hear that Kai is the blue ranger? How did nobody see Kai steal the book? Why continue chanting when it's clearly blowing out your power? WHY DOES A SPACESHIP RUN ON TRANSFORMERS? THE FISH, YOU GUYS, I COULD NOT SEE MOST OF THIS EPISODE BECAUSE THE FISH JUST KEPT GETTING IN THE WAY.

Episode 327 - Turn Up The Volume

It's a Damon episode! OMG it has been so long since we had a Damon episode! So Karone is tearing through the halls and she runs into Damon in the middle of a job and BEGS him to come with her to see something. She drags him through the halls to the job board, when really he should be working, but she wanted to point out that the Chief Mechanic spot is open. How they have unfilled jobs on a freaking SPACE STATION I don't know. Karone encourages him and some random Mean Boys tell him not to bother. One of them looks like Daniel Jackson. I wouldn't go up against Daniel Jackson either. But of course Karone says Damon will beat him, and Damon's all "Uh... I guess?" because really, he has Shit To Do. Meanwhile, Trakeena is trying to find a new monster. She found a sound thing that makes everything shake and break. She sends him to Terra Venture. Where Karone is asking Damon about what invention he's going to present and he's all "I DON'T KNOW! THIS WAS YOUR IDEA, OK?" Poor Damon. He doesn't even want to DO this. But then there is a monster and they are distracted from their angst. The monster does his Sonic Blast thingy and everybody covers their ears... through their helmets. Because that helps or something? Anyway, Damon is awesome and blows up one of the monsters woofers. Which stops him temporarily. Mean Guy is in the bar thing area trying to come up with an invention for the mechanic position. He's not having much luck. Damon and Karone walk past talking about an ultrasonic transmitter and Mean Guy overhears. He wants to steal the idea. Damon is up past 11 working on it and Karone tells him to go get some sleep, but he's determined to finish. Oh Damon, I love you and your amazing work ethic! Seriously, nothing quite as sexy as a responsible and determined man. Karone goes to investigate a noise and Damon works well past 1am, where he eventually falls asleep on his desk. Where Mean Guy steals his plans. Because Mean Guy is apparently not as sure about this job. WHY IS THERE A JOB FOR CHIEF MECHANIC I JUST... I CAN'T EVEN DEAL WITH THIS. Damon wakes up late, missing the deadline, and Karone is frustrated. Dude, he was up really really late! Can't blame him. He runs into the presentation just in time to find out Mean Guy got the job. Mr. Baxter is apparently his name. And that's when they realize he stole Damon's plans. Karone is about to call him about, but Damon is SUPER PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE and wishes him the best, says how proud he must be. Damon is not happy he cheated, but he figures Baxter wants the job way more than he does if he's willing to cheat. Damon doesn't stoop that low (mind, he shouldn't really let Baxter get away with stealing his work, but I appreciate that he realizes there is a time and a place to address the issue, and in front of a large crowd celebrating the job is probably not the best place to do so). Damon goes to warn Baxter that he didn't finish the plans. Baxter doesn't listen. Damon will be having none of this, thanks, and will find a way to save the day. I LOVE DAMON YOU GUYS. Like, seriously, best ranger. The rangers have to fight the sonic monster thingy and it's mostly boring. Baxter's device fails miserably because Damon didn't get a chance to finish his plans. Duh. Mind, it was built so fast that pretty much EVERYBODY should have known it wouldn't work. Because SCIENCE IS NOT IMMEDIATE YO. Anyway, the device overloads and Damon jumps in to save Baxter from being obliterated in the explosion. Because Damon is AMAZING GUYS. The Commander demands to know what happened and Baxter doesn't know. The Commander is all "But you designed it! You should know." and AGAIN SCIENCE DOES NOT WORK LIKE THAT. You need to analyze the wreckage, get some data, determine what doesn't match, what happened. You can't just KNOW. Baxter is about to say it was Damon's plan when Damon steps in and says Baxter needs TIME. Which is true. Although Damon should have let him own up to stealing. Either way, they work together and solve the problem and fix the machine in a matter of minutes and then the monster is defeated. DAMON IS THE BESTEST EVER. Karone is helping Damon fix stuff and she is all "I can't believe you let him get away with it! That job should be yours!" and Damon is all "He's not such a bad guy." Which is true. But still. Baxter owns up to it and steps down from the job. He nominates Damon to take his place. EXCEPT DAMON WASN'T REALLY INTO THE JOB IN THE FIRST PLACE, SHOW! He seems all excited for an office and stuff? Except he doesn't like the desk and he doesn't like that he won't be hands on fixing things and he LIKES getting dirty and he LIKES his coveralls. BECAUSE HE DOES NOT WANT THIS JOB. Karone keeps trying to talk him into it. BUT HE DOESN'T WANT IT. He insists Baxter take the job, even though Baxter stole his work, because Baxter actually wants the job. AND DAMON NEVER WANTED IT IN THE FIRST PLACE OKAY? Much as I love Karone, she is a really bad friend for a)not listening to him at all and b)trying to force him into being something he is not. He was happy where he was. There is nothing wrong with his job the way it was. He LIKES hands on manual work. LET HIM HAVE HIS HAPPY JOB PEOPLE. Karone is not happy. But Damon is, and that's the important part. 5 fish. Job searches do not work this way. Jobs do not work this way. Stealing does not work this way (except, unfortunately, when it totally does). Science does not work this way. Also, Karone is a bad friend.

Episode 326 - Facing the Past

Have I mentioned recently how much I love continuity? And angst? And figuring out your identity and your place in the universe? All thinngs I love, a lot! On the other hand, I also have opinions about the red ranger being the most special and getting all the toys. So I am a little conflicted about this.

Trakeena has a new monster, who she is training against some mooks. It's... a fight. And then somehow the monster turns them into REALLY UGLY BUGS AND JUST EWWW.

Back on Terra Venture, Karone is playing with a bunch of tiny children, including an adorable little redheaded girl, when Leo shows up, and he gets tackled by the tiny children. TINY CHILDREN HUGGING LEO. I think I wrote this in my sleep or something. (How did nobody even notice that Kendrix is gone and that Karone has joined? I mean, shouldn't people on the ship have noticed?)

Leo calls Karone a big kid, when she grabs for the ball the kids were playing with, and we get the FLASHBACK OF DOOM from PRiS when Karone was kidnapped by Darkonda. She tells Leo her history, and she has the saddest sad. I love her sad so much more then I love Andros's. Karone is sad about how she didn't have a childhood, so she's making up for it now, and I have all the feels. Then the touching moment gets interrupted by a monster attack, because occasionally I forget that we're obligated to have one or two of those an episode.

Leo morphs and gets his powers drained and he falls back, looking very pained, and his morpher is all broken. The other Rangers come to the rescue, but he's unable to morph at all. Karone calls for a retreat while Damon covers them, and the monster is very annoyed that they're all gone.

We get BEAUTIFUL shirtless Leo, while everyone is angsting about the lost powers and how nobody knows how to get the ranger energies back. Of course, Karone knows all the things, and we get a flashback to Astronema fighting some warrior, who she then turned into stone. Apparently if the warrior combines the two keys, you get a power up. Shirtless Leo is all "I will do ANYTHING." Karone and Shirtless Leo go off after the key things while the other Rangers fight the monster. Maya and Kai also lose their powers, leaving only Damon and Mike. (And look, considering what movie is out this weekend, all the shirtlessness and magic and characters named Mike is taking me to a very different place. Just saying.)

For some reason Leo has put his shirt back on, and Karone guides Leo into the cave, but a skeleton is all "ASTRONEMA, YOU WILL FACE YOUR PAST" and HOLY SHIT ASTRONEMA SHOWS UP.

The skeleton is all "if you're truly good, you will prevail" but Astronema is all "once evil, always evil" and Karone and Astronema fight and it is UNMORPHED AND THIS IS AMAZING. Karone gets the staff away from Astronema, and Astronema then threatens to kill Leo. Karone tosses aside the staff, and tells Astronema she would sacrifice herself for Leo, which proves that she's worthy to enter the cave. That was... predictable. But still awesome!

Oh, and the other Rangers are running and the monster manages to drain Mike and Damon's powers as well. Damon is awesome, and he tackles the monster unmorphed so that the others can escape, because Damon is the BEST. Seriously, he is the greatest. Maya runs back and gets him, but I remember the first time I was watching this, and it was like 2 episodes after we lose Kendrix, and for a minute I actually thought that we would lose Damon there as well.

Back to the interesting part, they find the statue, but the keys aren't there. Karone apologizes to Leo, and Leo is all defeated, and "well, we should go." Instead, Karone turns back to the statue, and she apologizes to him for all the horrible things that she did. She gives a fabulous apology, and offers to take his place, and we get some magic healing tears, and the warrior lives again. He forgives Karone, and gives the keys to LEO. Which is um, bullshit, because I'm pretty sure that KARONE JUST EARNED THE KEYS. Stupid red power ups, KARONE DID ALL THE WORK.

Stupid reds getting all the toys. BAH HUMBUG.

On Terra Venture, Karone shows up and rams the monster, while Leo shows up all morphed, and then he gets the fugly battlizer that he did not earn at ALL and seriously, I can't even get over how ridiculous this battlizer looks. So Leo shoots him and the monster blows up and everyone gets their powers restored because the red ranger is always the most special and wonderful and bullshit, etc.

Later, Karone tells Maya that she feels like her past is behind her. Meanwhile, Maya is spying on Damon's really nice arms. I don't blame her. Then the girls conspire to soak the boys, because pretty dripping wet boys. A+++++++ plan, Maya!

Fish: 3. All of the Karone stuff is awesome, the Leo getting the battlizer is BULLSHIT.

Fic we want: Karone has angst! Leo is shirtless! Maya wants Damon to be soaking wet! All the strippers!

Episode 325 - Protect the Quasar Saber

Well that last episode was fucking hard. So we start out with a Little Person finding Kendrix's Quasar Saber. He's very excited. Kendrix comes to Maya in a (conveniently psychic) dream and warns her that her saber needs protecting, and then comforts Maya by telling her she's in a good place and she's happy and it's okay. It's... sad. And hard to watch. Trakeena wants the saber so she goes after the Little Person. Monsters stand outside him home and Kai and Damon show up. They make a bird call and somehow both monsters felt the need to go investigate. Leo and Maya break into the home and demand the Quasar Saber. They even threaten the guy. He pulls a Han Solo and has a gun hiding under the table though and shoots them. Kai and Damon get the truth, though, and the Little Person goes back inside. But then he turns into Deviot so they're on the wrong path. The real Little Person who found it is bound and gagged in another part of the house. He tells Deviot where he hid the Quasar Saber and they go looking for it. Luckily all this was overheard by a mysterious figure in the bushes. Back at our favourite tavern, there is a weapons auction going on. The Quasar Saber is up for auction and, of course, everybody wants it. Really though, who brings something like that out in an auction surrounded by crooks and thieves! That was probably a bad idea. But that's okay because Astronema is there! And she is bidding on the saber. She wants it. She placed a bid but then she backs out and says "How about I just take it and everybody gets to live? Good plan?" and they're all "For Astronema? Excellent plan. Yes, we like this plan." and just hand over the saber. Trakeena is there too, though, and she totally knows what's up. She points out that Astronema went good and this is really Karone, lying. She's pretty great. Heck, they both are. I can't decide if I want an epic Karone vs Trakeena fight or them to just be bffs and hang out all the time. Either way, it'd be awesome. The trap is set and Karone knows. She needs to warn the rangers. Somehow the Little Person's fire is still burning? Or at least still smoking. Makes no sense, as he found the saber what is probably a day or two ago. Whatever. They fell for the trap and Deviot is ready to destroy them all when Karone comes in with her super tight leather gear and saves the day. Because she's cool like that. And she brought them the saber. We highly approve of the leather. It looks good and is sensible for battle, as opposed to being like a bikini with bangles or something. She is awesome. She fights Trakeena with the rangers, unmorphed and without powers because she is not a ranger, and she is AMAZING. Like, this is seriously BADASS AND I WANT MORE OF IT. She is just a human, just a regular person, and she takes on Trakeena. ON HER OWN. And holds her own. Because clearly she is the best. She does get tossed off a cliff at the end, but you know what? That was a really long fight for a normal person to hold against the biggest bad in all the galaxies. She is falling while the others fight and Trakeena walks away with Kendrix's Quasar Saber, but she is caught in mid-air by a spirit Kendrix. Spirit!Kendrix gives Karone her morpher, tells her she will be the pink ranger, and takes her to safety with a promise to be there if Karone needs her. And I start to get all teary eyed again. Trakeena is about to destroy Leo when Karone stops her and takes the saber back. She morphs and everybody is shocked and she beats up all the bad guys and wins all the things. They are all really happy to have her and she's just in shock that she gets to be a Power Ranger. Back on Terra Venture, the monster is destroying things. Damon has to teach Karone how to call the galactabeasts and it's all kinds of adorable. She leads them into victory using all the toys. Battle over, Maya shows her around the place. She gets a bunk for her in the girls room. Karone sees a picture of Kendrix and says she may not be as good as Kendrix, but she'll do the best she can. Maya assures her that they're happy to have her and she'll be great and it's what Kendrix would have wanted and damn there are those onion-cutting ninjas again. Kai has made her a feast and it's just. It's just. OH SHOW! 1.5 fish. It was just. Just. I. Yeah.

Episode 324 - The Power of Pink

Sorry about the long delay - we've moved to only recapping once a week due to work schedules, and yesterday was filled with technical difficulties. So, previously on Power Rangers Lost Galaxy - Andros shows up in his ridiculous cloak, Carlos has ruined his hair, and Psycho Pink is freaking awesome. The Galaxy Rangers are showing off the Fugzords to the Space Rangers, and for some reason they are really impressed. Cassie is dancing on top of the Pink Galactabeast, who does not seem very amused, as she gets thrown off. Maybe next time don't try surfing on a Fugzord, Cassie! Trakeena seems to be under the impression that Psycho Pink can destroy all the Rangers, but um, considering that the Psychos got their asses kicked, I'm not really sure how they think that will work. Psycho Pink is all "only going after the pink rangers because they are the best, deal with it" and Trakeena is all "No, do what I say!" but Psycho Pink escapes and breaks the control to go after the Pink Rangers. Back on Terra Venture, Kendrix is still studying the Galaxy Book and appears to have located the Savage Sword. Meanwhile, someone is making an announcement about underwater navigation classes, and we also find out that all of the computers on Terra Venture are linked, which seems like a stupid idea. Have they never heard of firewalls? Anyway, Psycho Pink travels through the internet to track the Pink Rangers Kendrix has just discovered that the Savage Sword is on Planet Rashon, but Psycho Pink reaches through the computer to grab her and apparently reads her mind, before leaving to go after the Sword. Kendrix begins chasing after her and runs into Cassie, who joins with her to go after Psycho Pink. instead of calling for backup, the two Pink Rangers fight together. Which, frankly, is amazing, because I think I have made my feelings on Pink Rangers perfectly clear. Kendrix explains that the Savage Sword is more powerful than all the other swords put together, and the two girls decide to go after it together, although at least they finally do call and let everyone know what's going on. Unfortunately, the other Rangers are all attacked, leaving the Pink Rangers on their own. Psycho Pink manages to find the Sword in the Stone, and the two other Pinks get there just as she pulls it from the stone. We get a three Pink Ranger fight (if we're counting Psycho Pink, which I totally am) and it is amazing. Apparently each time they use the sword it gets more powerful, so its like that stupid awful rollout move in Pokemon Gen 2 that always killed me. Plus, apparently getting hit with it drains your energy to heal, so Psycho Pink is getting more powerful as it goes, and the sword is really turning into a BFS. Cassie gets hurt badly enough that she's forced to demorph, and her morpher is knocked off her wrist. For some reason, Psycho Pink decides that if she stabs the morpher she'll gain all the power, and it seems that she's right, since somehow it happening on ANOTHER PLANET manages to screw with Terra Venture itself, causing the sky of Terra Venture to go bright red. Cassie's morpher being stabbed appears to be hurting Cassie as well, so its down to Kendrix to fight. However, just when things are going badly, the other Rangers show up in the Fugzord to fight the grown Psycho Pink. Energy is still being drained from Cassie and the Morpher, and Kendrix sits by her, trying to provide her strength. Then the rest of the Space Rangers show up in their AWESOME Zord, and seriously, teamups are the BEST. I even care about the Zord fights! That almost never happens! Kendrix appears to have figured out how to save the day, and while Cassie is rolling around the ground in pain, Kendrix tries to force her way into the force field being created by the sword and morpher combination. Cassie shouts at her to stop, as the power of the two zords manage to destroy Psycho Pink once and for all. However, the field from the sword is still affecting Terra Venture, and Kendrix is still fighting her way through. She makes it through the field, yelling that it is the only way to save Cassie, and she has to do this. Cassie and the others yell at her to stop, that she shouldn't do this, but Kendrix is determined, and she destroys the Savage Sword, and the blowback kills her. This... was not something I ever thought I would actually see on Power Rangers. For one of them to actual die. But the whole sequence is so well done, and Kendrix being willing to sacrifice herself for others fits so well in with the character, and considering the behind the scenes reason, it's a fitting sendoff for an amazing Ranger. We see Kendrix's ghost float there, and she tells them that she's okay, and she'll always be here, before she vanishes, and the Quasar Sabre floats off, Cassie's morpher being repaired in the process. The episode ends with the Rangers all saying goodbye, although for some reason, all the Space Rangers are morphed. Cassie is clearly blaming herself for what happened, and the Space Rangers are all going off on their own mission, whatever the hell that is. The episode ends with the Galaxy Rangers asking what they should do now. Fish: Honestly, we were too busy crying through most of it to even see the fish, so we're giving it a 1. Fic we want: The aftermath. Seriously, Cassie is pretty clearly blaming herself, and losing a friend is hard. Aftermath fic. Personal Note: After everything that happened, and us losing Kim a few weeks ago, this episode was actually what I needed. I know this isn't exactly my personal blog, but hearing a Pink Ranger, a color that Kim identified so heavily with, say that she'll always be here... well, she always will be in our memories. ♥