Episode 350 - Truth Discovered

Today on Power Rangers, Dana discovers her brother is still alive and we get a fine piece of Titanium Ass.

It's exposition time! Captain Mitchell flashes back to the car accident that supposedly took his son's life. He was driving them home from his mother's house, both children in the backseat, when a big rig runs them off the road. The children were playing with new toys in the backseat DISTURBINGLY UNRESTRAINED. Seriously, not a seatbelt in sight and frankly, both were small enough to be in boosters, even for that time period. Baby!Dana could even have been in a harness (by today's standards). Captain Mitchel manages to make it out of the car as it plummets over the cliff, and he's got both children clinging to him. He's holding tightly to a root and Dana is holding him tightly. Baby!Ryan is slipping, unable to hold to his leg. Ryan is about to fall and Spirit!Diabolico shows up, says he'll save the boys life, but the boy will belong to him. Captain Mitchell initially says no, but then Ryan lets go and falls, and Captain Mitchell cries out for Diabolico to save his son. He does so, but takes Ryan with him, promising Ryan will vanish until his twentieth birthday.

Back in present time, everybody has a sad over the heartbreaking story and really, poor Dana, what a way to find out your brother is still alive.

Meanwhile, Diabolico tells Ryan all about that night and how his father was going to let him die and Diabolico saved him. How Captain Mitchell only loved Dana and tossed Ryan away like trash. AND OMG THIS WHOLE STORY IS THE BEST THING EVER. MAJOR DADDY ISSUES FOR THE MOTHERFUCKING WIIIIINNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!

So it's Ryan's twentieth birthday and that means he's back with a vengeance and a super nice Titanium Ass. Captain Mitchell is understandably distracted. He won't look at reports. Barely acknowledges his subordinates. Then disappears to look for Ryan. Ryan is super focused though, because he crumples up a picture he had of himself, Dana, and their father, then says Captain Mitchell will live to regret being such a crummy father. Oh Ryan! OH I LOVE YOU ALREADY YOU ANGRY, MISGUIDED HOT ASS!

Dana decides to go find them and leaves the other rangers behind. They are understandably not happy about it. She finds her brother and confronts him, surprised to discover his anger and misconceptions about their childhood. There is a pretty epic fight between the siblings and okay, so maybe I only care about it because of the awesome childhood angsty dialogue, but whatever. It's amazeballs.

Dana refuses to hurt him. She insists her father loved Ryan, tells him about their childhood and how he wanted to grow up to be a firefighter just like their dad, and then the others show up just as Ryan starts to remember. He runs off, unable to continue fighting his sister.

Monster of the week shows up and I don't care because HE doesn't have sibling angst and is therefor irrelevant to this episode (as far as I'm concerned). Fight fight, monster grows, all the toys, yada yada, you know how this plays out.

Back to Ryan! Just as it should be! He's having angst at the edge of the cliff where the car crashed. Captain Mitchell shows up and realizes Ryan doesn't remember. He tells him exactly what happened and Ryan struggles with the fuzzy memory he has of that night and what he's been told all these past twelve(ish) years by Diabolico. IT IS FULL OF ANGST AND WIN AND I LOVE IT SO VERY MUCH.

HE PUSHES HIS FATHER OVER THE EDGE. Because he is sure his father let him fall. They both go tumbling and Captain Mitchell grabs hold of that same root. Ryan clings to his hand and Captain Mitchell cries for him to hold on, that he can save him, and Ryan REMEMBERS. HE FINALLY REMEMBERS! And then he pulls himself up to grasp the root, too, but it can't support them both, so Captain Mitchell smiles and lets go. Ryan just got his Daddy back and he's having none of this sacrificial heroic shit, so he falls, morphs, and catches his father on the way down.

SHOW I LOVE YOU SO MUCH HOW CAN YOU BE SO PERFECT??????

Captain Mitchell apologizes. He would have given his life to save Ryan's, and that's true, that's so totally true, because I GET IT. I DO. He doesn't want to lose him, and it's all tearful and heartfelt and the others are there and THIS IS SO HARD GUYS. Ryan drops the Titanium Morpher and runs away. Because he's scared and hurt and so very very confused. But he'll be back. Because he's Sixth Ranger Titanium Ass.

He has to go confront Diabolico, because he remembers what happened. He knows how it all went down. It's glorious. And his revenge will be epicly sweet. Oh yes.

2 fish. And okay, so there is the off-the-fish-scale question of how Diabolico was able to save Ryan, what with being all IMPRISONED and all, but frankly, I really don't care about that big gaping school of fish. Because the rest of this episode is GOLD.