Episode 269 - Invasion of the Body Switcher

And we're back! Look, real life sucks (see both grad school and computer issues) but it is RECAP TIME. And we have some amazing episodes to recap.

Or at least I remember them being amazing. The last time I watched them. LIVE UP TO MY EXPECTATIONS, SHOW.

We open with Ashley's birthday. TJ tries to steal some of her cake, and Carlos asks her what she wished for, clearly hoping she's wishing for him. Cassie, meanwhile, is assuming Ashley is wishing for Andros. Of course, since Carlos gave her a fire extinguisher.... um. I can think of a few things they could do with that. Yeah.

Andros tells Ashley that they don't celebrate birthdays on KO-35 but he got her a necklace anyway. WAY TO UPSTAGE CARLOS'S POSSIBLY KINKY GIFT, ANDROS. Cassie is clearly jealous that Andros is going overboard with the gift.

Dark Spectre is yelling at Astronema for failing, so she summons a body switcher to make her into a Ranger, and he turns her into Ashley. EVIL ASHLEY IS SO GREAT, YOU GUYS. (Tracy Lynn Cruz said at Morphicon that this is her favorite episode. I am not surprised.)

Ashley and Cassie are debating over whether or not Andros likes her, and Cassie is doing the supportive best friend thing, until she TOTALLY FAILS to notice that Ashley was just kidnapped right there. Ashley tries to escape, but Astronema/Ashley summons some Pirahnatrons to fake!attack her while real!Ashley is dragged off, and wow, we were getting pretty close to some panty shots there.

Astronema!Ashley fake fighting the Pirahnatrons is AMAZING, by the way. She's so annoyed when one of them actually hurts her! Astronema!Ashley then decides they should go back to the Megaship, where DECA helpfully tells her where the engine is, so Astronema!Ashley blows her up.

Cassie asks Astronema!Ashley for some help but Astronema!Ashley is bad at things. She's about to blast Cassie when they cut away.

Astronema!Ashley then has sex with Carlos adds more weight to Carlos's weightlifting and then blasts him, and then they have more sex.

Meanwhile, real!Ashley convinces the monster to turn her into Astronema. Ashley!Astronema convinces Elgar that she's the real Astronema and he lets her go. BECAUSE SHE IS GREAT.

Astronema!Ashley runs into Alpha who is giving her a birthday present, just because they're friends, and she is so confused. It's a tiny little figurine that plays music, and Alpha could clearly turn Astronema good. Astronema!Ashley is so confused and needs SO MANY HUGS. And then she dumps the figure in the trash. :(

TJ and Andros are getting worried about the surveillance issue so TJ goes looking for everyone while Astronema!Ashley is dragging Carlos' unconscious form around the ship. Then she beats them both up. EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS IS GLORIOUS.

Anyway, TJ, Carlos and Cassie are all tied up and Astronema!Ashley nearly zaps Andros but he turns around. Instead she convinces him that there's a battle down on earth and she ends up falling on her face. She's about to shoot him in the back where Ashley!Astronema shows up but Astronema!Ashley convinces Andros that it's a trap and they both attack Ashley!Astronema.

Andros, you are not very good at figuring out when your friends are evil. Meanwhile, Alpha is saving the day by untying the other Rangers.

Ashley!Astronema convinces Andros of the truth by asking Astronema!Ashley what Andros got her for her birthday. When she can't answer, Ashley!Astronema tells the truth causing Andros to believe her. Astronema!Ashley demorphs and turns back into regular!Astronema, and the two Astronemas fight each other. The Rangers (including the freed ones) try to figure out which one is the real Ashley, so they ask her to do the Morph call. Only the real!Ashley knows it, which makes me wonder if Astronema just doesn't pay any attention to their fights.

Astronema says she wouldn't want to be a Power Ranger anyway. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA. UM.

Elgar tries to attack the real!Astronema and for some reason she doesn't kill him. Instead she makes the monster grow and there's a fight scene. It is luckily a very brief fight scene because so much of this episode was taken over by AWESOME. (Seriously, phallic toys, sword, missile, destruction.)

Astronema says the monster was useless anyway, and then she blasts Elgar. Yay!

Back on the Megaship, Ashley is scared to take her helmet off because she's afraid of what she'll look like. But she's Ashley again! Everyone is happy. Cassie exposits that when the monster was destroyed it switched her back. Ashley tries to thank Andros, but he has wandered off somewhere to have the saddest sad that was ever sad. Because there is someone FROZEN in a tube.

DUN DUN DUN.

QR: WELL HELLO THERE MYSTERIOUS FROZEN MAN! Complete with penis.

Fish: ONE. EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS IS GLORIOUS. WAY TO LIVE UP TO MY EXPECTATIONS, SHOW.

Fic we want: Seriously, what was Astronema!Ashley doing with the Rangers when she had them tied up? And what exactly did she do while she was in Ashley's body?

Episode 8 - Switching Places

Before we begin, I need to admit that I was really not looking forward to this episode. It isn't that I don't like body switching episodes - Out of Their Minds is one of my favorite Farscape episodes ever - it's that I remembered this episode as being bad and cringeworthy, and would probably set off my embarrassment squick. QueenRiley even offered to watch this by herself, but I made the effort. I only covered my eyes briefly, I swear.

This episode takes what could be a really awesome premise - Squat messes up one of Billy's inventions, and then Billy and Kimberly end up switching bodies - and... well, fails on the execution. Both of us would desperately like to read fanfic dealing with the fallout of this episode, or fic that handles it better. We're just saying.

Anyway. Billy has apparently invented a mind reading device, and apparently if you just switch some wires around it will make you switch bodies instead. Billy demonstrates this with Kimberly, and then Bulk and Skull who were spying on them end up switching bodies as well. For some reason the cutouts (yes, cutouts) are sized exactly to Kimberly and Billy's bodies, making me wonder if Billy came up with this invention so he could read Kimberly's mind and find out if Trini liked him or something, since they're the only ones who would fit.

There is some fairly decent acting in this for Power Rangers, and David Yost's valley girl impression is never going to stop being funny. EVER. Speaking of the actor, he looks so much better without his glasses, and because for some reason the writers of this episode decided that if they switch bodies, apparently the eyesight switches as well, so BillyinKimberly needs glasses while KimberlyinBilly's eyes are totally fine. (We also think that there should be a scene where Kimberly takes Billy for a makeover after this episode, possibly because of this episode.) Of course, we don't watch Power Rangers for the science, so we probably shouldn't complain, but pointing it out was important.

Kimberly and Billy have clearly never heard of a minor concept called 'calling in sick' when something like this happens, because they both go to school the next day. In fact, they apparently never even bothered to call Zordon or the other Rangers to tell them what happened. It makes you wonder what they did in the hours between the body switch and school the next day. There's some seriously stereotypical problems in the school scenes - BillyinKimberly can't put on makeup or cook! KimberlyinBilly makes a computer explode! (Why BillyinKimberly even tried wearing makeup is beyond us.) There's a lot of unnecessary yelling and Jason wears possibly the most ridiculous outfit so far! (Disclaimer: We are torn on the outfit. I love it, QueenRiley does not. Have a picture.)



We also need to point out that KimberlyinBilly somehow managed to find some snazzy clothes to wear while she's in Billy. These things are also important.

While the body switching hijinks are going on, Rita apparently has a very cunning plan! She's going to send down a genie in a bottle and have Squat rub it the right way, because that is totally thematically relevant with this episode, and somehow this monster is going to destroy the Morphin Grid. Or something. We aren't really sure. It was handwaved in about two seconds.

Zordon has clearly been paying even less attention than usual, because he first sends the Rangers to fight one group, and then teleports them to fight the actual Genie, and then brings them right back to the Command Center. Why? Because he's the worst mentor ever, clearly. (This isn't true, but we'll talk about Dimitria MUCH later.)

Anyway, they go back to the fight, and Rita makes the Genie grow, and then the giant!Genie attacks the megazord with a really phallic hand-powered drill, and then Zordon and Alpha destroy the lamp which destroys the Genie, so the Rangers don't actually even win the battle. Massive fail!

BillyinKimberly figures out how to switch them back, and then has to ask Trini whether he should switch Bulk and Skull back or just leave them like that. Which is just incredibly mean, and the Rangers are still going for the Worst Rolemodels Ever award. He does agree to switch them back, and Skull immediately asks Billy if he's willing to switch places for the math test on Monday. Oh, Skull. Don't worry, you'll get some actual character development soon!


Lists!
Important things of note that didn't quite make the recap: Skull's crush on Kimberly is totally adorable and in a not-sketchy way this episode! We have 87,000 fic bunnies that we would like people to write! Trini's concern over KimberlyinBilly is really sweet. And KimberlyinBilly not being sure which name to answer to during the megazord calling sequence is pretty funny. The home-ec teacher really should have stopped BillyinKimberly as soon as it showed signs of being a disaster. BillyinKimberly refused to wear pink! And most importantly - KimberlyinBilly still felt the need to wear makeup. Oh, Kim. *adores*

Covered in food: BillyinKimberly's entire home-ec class, because apparently BillyinKimberly is that talented at ruining cheese soufle! (It is also neon orange. We suspect silly string was involved.)

Billy speak:
-Facilitate direct thought transfer.
-Parameters are within the specified range.
-Are you feeling nominal?
-The generator experience diothermic overload.
-We've undergone spatial personality displacement.
-I trusted you with an elementary processing tutorial and you turned my transmission decoders into a synaptic nightmare.
-my synaptic interlock generators malfunctioned and I'm unable to reverse the personality displacement until I can rebuild it
-By networking our maximum energy linkage.
-I appear to have regained control over my synaptic neurons.

KimberlyinBilly speak:
-Like, I think so (response to "Are you feeling nominal?")
-Like, what happened?
-Will you please, like, speak English?
-Push shift F4, then this grungy button
-No, no, I think we can get this (computer tutoring)
-Like, what's the big deal?
-People think I've gone totally [?]. My hair, my make up, YUCK (We can't figure this one out. Any takers?)
-Obviously somebody who doesn't know how to put on make up
-'Fraid so (response to "Kimberly, are you in there?")
-You're right. Like, major muscle.
-For sure. Like, that genie's done for, okay?
-Kimberly, I mean, like, Billy, I mean...
-Are you, like, sure this is going to work?

Appearances: The Radbug. Briefly. We do love the Radbug.

Rating: 4 fish. From Billy trying to invent a mind reading device to the fail total embarrassment and Rita's genie having absolutely nothing to do with the theme of this episode.... 4 fish. Yes.