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 308- Redemption Day

So I was told I should recap this episode tonight, because it is relevant to my interests. Those being the Magna Defender being dramatic and having a dramatically swishy cape. And seeing as those are my pretty much all things holding my interest right now, yes, yes this is a good episode for me to recap.

So something BAD is going down on Scorpius' ship. They're leaking fuel and it's bad. Trakeena doesn't want to drift and freeze. She is so melodramatic. It's okay though because they know where Terra Venture is and they can totes go steal the fuel there.

Speaking of, Maya and Leo are traipsing around "the mountain dome" in the happiest little car ever (seriously, it's SMILING. I want one now.) This makes Maya think of home and be happy, and then she's suddenly vaguely telepathic again. Just in time to see Scorpius' ship approach. Leo shoves her away from the "window" just as they're attacked. They manage to outrun the fireball instead of being SUCKED INTO SPACE WHICH IS WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED HAD SOMETHING PUNCHED A BIG GIANT HOLE IN THE SHIP. Leo and Maya dash through the airlock just in time to be saved.

Scorpius is draining the power from the mountain dome. The rangers are going to stop him because they are pretty. The Magna Defender overhears and it totally going to get his revenge. So he goes to the volcano in an attempt to blow it up and he's all dramatically emotive. He doesn't care that it will take out the colony as well as Scorpius' ship. Dude has some drama issues.

Then we meet Freaky Tiki and I really... have no words for that. I think I'd rather focus on the Magna Defender being dramatic with his dramatically swishy cape and theme music. He is damaged and injured and has a sad, and then Leo fights off sting wingers to help him and nearly dies defending him. Magna Defender is sort of confused, but brings up Mike, how well he knows him, and how they met at the bottom of the crevice. After 3,000 years, Magna Defender finally had somebody to talk to! He stole Mike's spirit (huh?) and escaped (again... huh?). Basically it boils down to Mike is alive for now but he'll die unless the Magna Defender is destroyed and Leo has to do it. But he doesn't want to because somewhere down inside Magna Defender, the honourable man still exists and Leo only destroys evil, not good guys.

(And this is where I am REALLY confused. How did they switch spirits? How will destroying Dramatic MD save Mike? Won't they both die if Mike only lives in him? What about Mike's body? It's still trapped in the Crevice of Doom. This is super fishy, even for this season)

Magna Defender has honour. He remembers his Tiny Child WHO FOR SOME REASON MUST DIE ON SCREEN AGAIN. REALLY SHOW???? At least it means we get more dramatic swishy cape and Super Sad Dramatic Theme Music? But anyway, Leo won't destroy him and then they go fight the monster-I-refuse-to-talk-about.

Scorpius runs away. The volcano is about to blow. There is lots of dramatic music and fire and falling down. Leo refuses to give up. But they can't make it and force demorph and still try. So Dramatic Magna Defender MONOLOGUES AND IT IS BRILLIANT AND OH MY GOD I LOVE HIM SO. I love him so much I can even deal with seeing Tiny Child die AGAIN. Which is triggery, by the way, so that should tell you just how much I love this storyline that I'm willing to risk watching it.

Magna Defender sees the spirit of his Tiny Child and he convinces him to be the hero. Because to Tiny Child, his father always was and always will be the warrior hero. With pretty flowers to save his father's soul. AND OH MY HEART. So Magna Defender pulls himself together, picks up the pretty soul-saving flowers his Spirit Tiny Child dropped for him, and DRAMATICALLY STUMBLES HIS WAY TO THE TOP OF THE VOLCANO. And saves the day. Because he is the most dramatic ever and it's wonderful. Leo tries to stop him, but he puts them in a bubble and does it anyway. I LOVE THIS GUY SO FREAKING MUCH, YOU GUYS HAVE NO IDEA. He only makes it because Spirit Tiny Child appears and takes his hand, and together they go the rest of the way, until he goes into the volcano and stops it erupting. With his life. It is AMAZING.

Leo assures them he's not gone, that he'll live forever, and the temperature stabilizes. And out of the dust comes Mike. Stumbling dramatically. Too bad he doesn't have a cape. He does have dramatically floppy hair, though, so it's okay.

And there is a hug! Leo runs and hugs him! And they cling to each other and tell them how much they missed them and how they're never going away again and it's all super dramatic and lovely.

3.5 fish. The story was GREAT and I love the Magna Defender arc and it's all so dramatically delightful. Except that it makes no sense. But I love it anyway.

Episode 22 - The Trouble With Shellshock

Well, we thought about taking a week off after our Green With Evil marathon last weekend, but the Power Rangers compels us! This episode opens with a basketball game, as Zack and Tommy compete for Jason's affection. Or at least we're pretty sure that's what they're competing over. It might actually just be that the loser buys lunch, but we like our version better. We love that they're playing basketball! The boys all have really nice arms, and you know how we feel about that. And Zack's idea of trash talk is amazing.

While they play, Squatt shows up to monologue about how he and Baboo are going to make the most awesome monster ever to impress Rita. They're actually right! The monster they make is awesome. Not quite as awesome as Pudgy Pig or Terror Toad, but still great. It's a turtle with a traffic light stuck in it's neck, and it has a ton of wacky weapons, like a random hook, a baseball bat, and a cannon. They're making this monster in secret while Rita sleeps, although since she's snoring pretty loudly I don't know why they're so worried about accidentally waking her. Baboo says they should call the monster "Greta" or "Pitoush" (or at least we think that's what it says, it's unclear) but Squatt suggest Shellshock instead, and Baboo wisely listens to him.

Back at the basketball game, Bulk and Skull show up to taunt the Rangers, who have apparently decided to stop pretending to be nice to them, and instead just suggest they go back to the circus they came from. Skull wonders if the circus is actually in town, and Bulk tells him that they're being made fun of. A brief tussle ensues, and Skull and Bulk end up being thrown into the random hot dog cart and they end up covered in ketchup, mustard and relish, and even though Kimberly was the one to throw them into it, they're told that they need to pay for it, and seriously, why so mean to them? Tommy goes off to a martial arts class, and then Putties and Shellshock attack.

Really, Squatt and Baboo should make monsters more often, because Shellshock does really well. He hits Trini with a "Go Ray" which makes her run away from the battle. And then he shoots baseballs at the Rangers, before he hits Zack, Billy and Kimberly with a freeze ray, and they are turned into statues. Oddly, it looked like Jason was hit by the ray as well, but he appears to be fine. Zordon appears to actually be paying attention for once, as the team is teleported to the Command Center, where Zordon tells Jason that the only way to unfreeze the others is to get some random flower and he's already sent Trini on the quest. Wait, what? This is a brand new monster, how does Zordon know about the cure already? And when did he have time to tell Trini this at all? We call fish.

Goldar tells Squatt and Baboo that Rita will be pissed at them for creating a monster without permission, but when Rita wakes up she's proud that they managed to do so well. Jealous!Goldar is awesome. She immediately sends Shellshock back to Earth, having made it grow so that it can better trash Angel Grove. Even better, Shellshock makes a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles joke. Win.

While Jason goes to battle Shellshock on his own, Tommy is at the Youth Center showing off. Apparently "Class" was a codeword for "wanting to show off." He isn't wearing his communicator either, so he doesn't hear the cry for help. This will be consistent with Tommy's character, so we can't add fish for it.

Meanwhile, Trini is still searching for the random flower, and Zordon tells her he is sending her the Saber-Toothed Tiger Zord to help her, and all sense leaves this episode. Apparently the Zord gives her the ability to summon a flower? Or telekinesis? We really have no idea, except suddenly the flowers are in her hand. I hope it actually gives her telekinesis, that's the mutant power I would want if I could choose. Whatever it is, the Saber-Toothed Tiger Zord would be really useful around Mother's Day, because finding decent flowers is hard. Tommy is finally done showing off, so he answers his communicator and goes to join the battle, but almost immediately both zords get frozen by Shellshock. He's doing pretty well for himself!

But wait, the battle isn't over yet! Trini, who still can't stop jogging, leaps to the top of Shellshock's head and... shakes the pollen on it? Apparently allergies save the day, as the Zords and the other Rangers are all unfrozen, and Trini is no longer compelled to run. Jason shoots the monster once, and it explodes. We're not sure if we should give him the credit for blowing up the monster, or Trini, for covering it with pollen. I'm inclined to say Trini, because allergies suck.

Now that they've defeated the monster, Zack and Tommy still haven't figured out who gets to claim Jason for themselves, or who has to pay for lunch, so we return to the basketball game. There's some more trash talk, and Zack wins! He starts making fun of Tommy, but then Billy interferes, and QueenRiley starts squealing because Billy is going to play basketball. Billy unleashes the greatest trash talk ever ("It's time for my vernacular spectacular veracious(?) bodacious autophonic morphinomic jam") and does a slam dunk, and the episode ends.


We have to go with 3.5 fish for this one. Okay, so the monster gets beaten by a pollen allergy, but that is still amazing. Most of the fish comes from the Saber-Toothed Tiger Zord helping summon the flower.

Covered in food: Bulk and Skull get covered in various hot dog related things.

Billy speak: Billy's awesome trash talk, as quoted above.

Questions that need to be answered: If the Saber-Toothed Tiger Zord lets you summon flowers, what do the spirits of the other Zords do?

Episode 14 - Power Rangers Punks

First, a note of clarification on fish - We try not to add fish based on the inherent ridiculousness of the types of monsters or spells themselves. I mean, Power Rangers is totally ridiculous, and if we were judging it based on just that we'd have to give Pudgy Pig 5 fish just because a Pudgy Pig was trying to eat all the food in the world. We (mostly) try to judge the Fish based on how unclear the episode is, or how much the show contradicts its own continuity, which is... why we call it the fish scale in the first place. There will be capslock rage when Billy moves to the fish planet, we're just saying. Basically, it gets fish if we get thrown out of the episode, which is why some of the more ridiculous Tommy centric episodes will get high fish, or if the Rangers behavior makes us start yelling about their failure as role models.

Anyway. Power Punks is one of my favorite episodes of Power Rangers, and the Terror Toad is my favorite Monster of the week, even beating out Pudgy Pig which is QueenRiley's favorite. And considering the week I've had, I was really glad that we were watching this episode. There was actually momentary confusion, because for some reason some of the youtube videos insisted that this was actually episode 21. But we're going with it is episode 14, because that is what Rangers Central tells us, and also we like this episode.

The episode opens with a fabulous game of volleyball, and the best music we've heard on the show yet. Trini and Jason are playing against Zack and Billy, and Billy is doing really well. He falls over while trying to hit the ball, and the Rangers give him an honest compliment! (We've determined it is an honest compliment because they usually overact way more when they're being purposefully mean.) Billy and Kimberly switch places, and we discover that Baboo has created a "Punk Potion" that he will use on the Rangers. Jason and Trini win the game, and then Jason tempts fate by saying "So who do we take on next?"

The answer to that question is a squad of Putties! While the Rangers are fighting them, Baboo peddles over on Rita's amazing bicycle and spikes all the drinks with the Punk Potion. Kimberly and Billy (who, incidentally are the best dressed Rangers this episode. Trini needs to stop wearing sweaters with shorts, and we don't even know what is up with Jason's tank top) drink the water, and are immediately turned into punks, causing us to speculate that the "Punk Potion" was actually just imprints of Bulk and Skull's personality, like in Dollhouse.

The spell instantly affects Kimberly and Billy (for some reason all of the more ridiculous things seem to happen to these two - first body switching and now this) and they instantly become Power Rangers Universe versions of Punks. That... mostly means that they overact in an amazingly over the top manner and yell "YEAH" a lot and call people geeks and dorks. Which is at least consistent with Bulk and Skull. Billy calls them all dorks, and Kimberly and Billy leave, while the others just stand there. Trini suggests that maybe they just got too much sun. Look, we know that it's early in the series, but when Billy starts calling people dorks, it means he's under a spell.

The next day at school, we find out that apparently Bulk's locker is filled with garbage (seriously, show? Stop with the fatphobia. It is beginning to drive us nuts) and that the Rangers are vaguely worried about Billy and Kimberly, but they don't appear to have checked on them at all. That at least is totally consistent with everything else about their friendship. They really are the worst friends ever. And then we get the grand entrance of Billy and Kimberly, in their punk gear. We... well, we will let the fandom secret speak for itself. (And if you're the person who made this secret, hi, please come be our new BFF?) Seriously, punk!Billy is WICKED HOT. Punk!Kimberly has an awesome jacket, but her hair is insane and everything about her outfit is crazy. But OMG, Punk!Billy. Everything about him is wonderful.

The other Rangers just stand there and watch as Billy and Kimberly harass some poor guy in the hallway, and then Kimberly hits on Skull. I'm personally convinced that she and Billy have already hooked up as Punks (and possibly while they were body-switched) but Skull is nearly dead of joy as Kimberly asks him out. Then Billy threatens Bulk, in karmic retribution for Bulk being mean to him. Even after all of that, the three non-affected Rangers can only say "What's with them?" Of course, at this point Zordon suddenly remembers that he has the ability to observe what's going on, so he teleports all of the Rangers to the Command Center, and imprisons Kimberly and Billy behind a force field. Good thing nobody else was in that hallway!

While the Rangers are at the Command Center, Zordon tells them that they have two problems. First, the Power Punk Spell can only be removed with juice from a Singing Squash, which is only found in other dimensions. (At this point we get a brief glimpse of Zordon in his non-warp bubble form. Exciting!) Also, Rita has unleashed the Terror Toad, which a) eats people and b) has a listing under Fetish Fuel on tvtropes. Oh, fandom. (Okay, to be fair, it is also listed under Nightmare Fuel. Anyway. The Terror Toad is still awesome because it is an amazingly creepy villain. Kimberly, in her Punk state refers to it as "Wartsville" which should be the name of a band or a song or something.

Zack, Trini and Jason go off to fight the Terror Toad, and Zack and Trini almost immediately get eaten by the Toad. Alpha goes off to find the Singing Squash, and he makes the mistake of commenting that it appears to be too easy. Of course, this means he immediately gets set upon by Putties. But wait! Apparently Alpha has internal defenses, so he takes them all down easily. Man, if Alpha was leading the Rangers, they'd have totally won by now! He pulls the Singing Squash, which turns out to basically be a mandrake and returns to the Power Chamber, where Billy and Kimberly are making fun of Zordon. They call him a "Big Green Geekoid." Seriously, if there is an award for best overacting, it totally goes to Amy Jo Johnson and David Yost for this episode.

They drink the potion that Alpha makes for them, and Kimberly is horrified by her nails (I'm personally scared for anyone who happens to be around her when she sees her hair) and Billy says "Alpha?" in this terrified voice. They morph (calling out in unison, which is adorable) and arrive to battle the Terror Toad just in time for Jason to be eaten. Billy comes up with a plan to beat the Toad, but then gets eaten as well. And unlike the other Rangers, he actually gets swallowed Terrifying! Kimberly then shoots the Terror Toad in its weak spot, right below its neck, freeing the other Rangers. She then shoots the Toad again, and I'm pretty sure she must get her arrows from the same place that Robin Hood does, because the arrow swerves around trees. The Terror Toad explodes, making this the second time that Kimberly defeats a monster on her own. She is clearly the most powerful of all the Rangers. (It's worth pointing out that Baboo showed up to join the battle briefly. He is adorable.)

Afterward, back at the Youth Center, Kimberly is helping Trini with some neat gymnastics moves, while Skull shows up for his date. At this point we both start wincing because we feel so bad for him. He dressed up! He did his hair! And she did say she'd go out with him. Kimberly is horrified by this, and Billy tells Bulk and Skull that Kimberly and Trini don't date neanderthals. This isn't true at all! Kimberly dates Tommy for a really long time. And then something happens where Billy and Zack try to defend the girls honor or something by playing volleyball. I really don't know, but we got about 19 minutes into the episode before we yelled fish!

Lists!
Fish scale: 1.5 fish. The lowest rated episode yet. Seriously, this episode is amazing, and all fandoms should have a gone punk episode.

Billy Speak: If we just transpose ourselves
Kimberly translation: You mean switch positions?

(For the record, we can totally imaging them having that conversation in bed. Possibly I've developed a Kimberly/Billy thing.)

Covered in food: Bulk and Skull get covered in... the disgusting garbage that was in Bulk's locker.

Fanfic that people should really write: Kimberly goes out with Skull. Look, don't judge me, okay?