Episode 140- Master Vile and the Metallic Armour Part 1

It's Master Vile! I love Master Vile.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Episode 117 - Ninja Quest - Part 2

Previously, on Power Rangers - OHHOLYSHITTHEZORDSBLEWUP!

Wow, this is a really effective opening - the Rangers are wandering through the rubble. Flames and smoke and utter destruction... it's pretty gut wrenching. The last time the Zords were destroyed, it was awful bad, but it was nothing like this. There was no close up inspection of the damage, and just... heartbreaking. Especially when they realize they've lost their powers as well.

Billy says it's going to be a long walk back to the Command Center, but... um... Billy, honey? What happened to the radbug? I like that car! (Maybe it's just that 6 of them won't fit? Look, Aisha and Kim are tiny, they could squeeze in!) And how long does it take them to walk to the Command Center anyway? I mean, it's miles away, there's no way they can get there that quickly.

At the Command Center, Tommy wants to know if Billy has good news, but there really isn't any. Apparently the central processor has been damaged, and Billy has no idea how to fix that at all. However, Adam is smart, and he asks where their powers came from. That's a really good question! So Zordon tells us that according to legend the coins and Zords were created by this guy named Ninjor, who supposedly lives in a Hidden Temple, and may be just a legend. And then Alpha asks about the suspiciously convenient plot device map that they found, and the Rangers decide that they will go and find the temple. They get into that stance from the end of the movie from when they're bringing Zordon back to life, and we briefly take time to marvel at the fact that Aisha is almost as short as we are! (Tiny and adorable, for real.) And also to discuss how ridiculous short Kimberly's shirt is, and to ponder why she's wearing long sleeves and shorts. What the hell, wardrobe department?

Back in Angel Grove, Bulk and Skull are carrying out Bulk's plan of joining the junior police patrol. When asked for their reason for joining, Skull answers to "impress the girls." When told they need a better reason, Bulk answers instead that they meant to say "to protect the girls!" .... Well, it's a start, anyway. Skull notes that it's a lot of running, which is clearly practice for when he remembers that he's a Time Lord. But Bulk drags him off to register anyway.

Up on the moon, Rita and Zedd are celebrating their defeat of the Rangers, and Rita uses her new telescope to spy on her eggs. As much as we're going to miss the putties, I still have a soft spot for the tengas. And Rito is a pretty awesome brother! (And he calls Goldar "Goldie." I totally ship Goldar/Rito.) Rita is very excited to get her own Tengas, and Rito starts going on about how hard Rita is to shop for, and starts telling the story of how at one point she got a dragon for her birthday but she really wanted a planet, so she used the dragon to burn down the house. I feel that more details about this incident need to exist. Get on this, fandom!

Rita notices that one of the eggs didn't hatch, but Rito tells her it's a vampirus monster, which is apparently too nasty for Finster's taste. Exciting! Zedd then manages to spy on the Rangers in an alternate dimension with the desert or whatever, and somehow knows that they're headed to Ninjor's temple. ... If Zedd knows where the temple is, why hasn't he destroyed it? But Rita has a plan - wait for the Rangers to find the temple, plant the vampirus egg in front of the entrance, and then destroy the Rangers! That is... a good plan! You go, Rita!

The Rangers are wandering through the desert, and we get distracted by how damn pretty they are. Seriously, there aren't a lot of notes from this part of the episode, unless you would like to hear us discuss how it isn't fair that Adam is the only one not showing off his arms, and how adorably floppy Rocky's hair is.

But things actually happen on their quest. Kim picks up a rock, which bursts into flames and destroys their map, and then Aisha gets caught in some quick sand but the other Rangers pull her out. (... I am not going to comment on the fact that it is the two female Rangers who run into the traps, because I will just get grumpy and start sighing "OH, SHOW" and not in the good way.)

They then find a formation of rock that might lead to the temple, and then get attacked by Tengas. The Tengas promptly kick their butts, and the Rangers find an opening in the rocks, and go through. Adam leans against a rock, which opens up another hidden door. They go through, and come to a dead end. Tommy runs towards the dead end in anger (maybe he was going to punch the rock?) and disappears through it. The other Rangers decide to follow, and the to be continued flashes on the screen...

Fish: 2.5. Convenient plot device indeed.