Episode 320 - Loyax's Last Battle

This episode recap is dedicated to a dear friend who we lost this last weekend. RIP, Kim. We love you, and we lost you way too soon. And you will always be remembered for the good you did, and the wonderful friend that you were. We didn't plan the timing of this episode, but in some ways it ended up being oddly appropriate. Maya and Damon are sparring in the forest dome, and it's great and is clearly leading up to some sparring sex. Maya knocks Damon down, and then Leo makes the mistake of saying "pretty well for a girl" and raaaaaaaaaaaaaaage. Meanwhile, the assorted villains are talking about an honorable old warrior named Loyax. Loyax is all "I'm old, but I want to go out in battle against a worthy opponent." Basically. Clearly going up against the Power Rangers would be a glorious ending, and well, that is true. (Of course, if he defeats them, then how is that an ending? I mean. Really. Logic. Use some.) Loyax starts smashing things in the ocean dome, and I'm not even sure why we still bother to comment on things like an ocean dome, because um, look, Terra Venture makes no sense at all. I could ALMOST buy the forest and mountains, but OCEAN. I guess the fish need somewhere to live. Anyway, Maya is taking the lead in the fight, and Leo is all "no, fight me instead" but Maya is all "Hell no." Loyax and Maya end up falling off a cliff into the ocean. And again. OCEAN. ON A SPACE SHIP. None of the Rangers are able to find Maya, and Trakeena also assumes that Loyax has been destroyed. Meanwhile, Loyax and Maya are in a cave. Maya has a cut on her leg, and as we know from the Turbo movie, that is fatal. Loyax is rambling all of his emo at Maya, and going on about what a horrible ending this is. Loyax then offers to heal Maya, even though they're enemies. Loyax is all "to survive, we must work together" since he can't see as well as she can in the dark, and she can't walk. So he carries her out of the cave, with her giving directions, and I don't understand how they ended up in the cave in the first place, considering they FELL INTO THE OCEAN. As soon as they're out of the cave, Loyax drops her and is all "going to defeat you now, girl." Deviot is all "I'm going to make sure you win" and Loyax is pissed because his last battle will be an honorable one. Of course, Maya is having a harder time of it since she's injured, but she manages to impress Loyax anyway. When Deviot is about to destroy Loyax over his honor, Maya rescues him, and Ranger and "villain" go off together. Loyax once again is all "ready to battle? It will be a fair fight." Maya is meanwhile trying to convince him that they don't need to fight, but instead Loyax tells her his life story. Apparently at one point he fought on the side of good, but at some point he ended up serving the same evil he once sought to destroy. And now he feels that all that is left is one last battle - with Maya. The other four Rangers go up against Deviot, while Maya continues to argue with Loyax. She initially refuses to fight, but ends up morphing. The two separate fights are actually pretty entertaining, I'll give them that. While the four Rangers are busy, Deviot sneaks off to deal with Loyax, who is still fighting with Maya. Maya is doing pretty great - I love episodes where the female Rangers get to be awesome. Maya keeps on arguing with Loyax that they can end the battle, but he continues to refuse. She beats him, but refuses to kill him, because he can be good again. Just when Loyax is about to take her hand and agree, Deviot attacks Loyax and forces him to grow. Deviot is also controlling Loyax via remote control. This obviously gets the other Rangers attention, and its time to summon the fugly zords. Since they need more help, they summon even more Zords, although there is no sign of the Emo Defender. The Rangers manage to destroy the control device, and Loyax snaps that nobody will ever make him be evil again. He starts to attack Deviot, but one last control is activated, and Loyax is destroyed right after thanking Maya for showing him the truth. Back on the beach of the ocean dome, Maya finds Loyax's sword. She tells the sword that Loyax won the last battle - by providing that he was still good. She plants the sword in the sand, and the five Rangers go off together. Fish: 2. And really, only because OCEAN DOME? REALLY?

Episode 305 - Orion Rising

So, Leo is wrapping presents, and Kendrix is making a cake, because it's Damon's birthday! Awww! They are throwing him a surprise party.

Leo tries to eat the cake, but Kendrix smacks him. They leave, only for Maya to return. She's really hungry, but she soon finds the delicious cake. Which she eats. Because CAKE. (Also, I really love that she's not having body issues at all with this - she's hungry, she eats cake. Compare that to some of the other episodes.)

Kendrix comes back and sees that Maya has eaten allllllllll the cake. Maya is so confused when Kendrix asks her about eating it "why do I need permission to eat?" Kendrix is all "ASK FIRST." There's a giant culture clash and to be fair, neither of them is really in the wrong.

(And Leo and Kai get covered in cake. I guess we're bringing that back.)

So, the monster is placing a forcefield over an already domed city? Sure? But Kendrix and Maya were out grocery shopping (and bickering over the fridge) when they come across it. I also love that they instantly forget their problems when they realize this is a monster thing. (That was a really lackluster morph, you guys. You have no enthusiasm there.)

The two girls are all super awesome and attack and basically, I love them. I am all in favor of this. Of course, then the boys show up on new toys, which apparently the girls don't get? Pfft. Whatever. Of course, the guys can't get into the forcefield, so they have to go and dig under it.

Apparently the monster is draining all the air? Kendrix is all "to save the colony we need to go fix this" but Maya wants to attack the monster first. Kendrix forces them to retreat, but Maya is NOT PLEASED and she runs off to go fight the monster.

I would buy this no air thing a lot more, if a) we didn't see trees moving and b) Kendrix and Maya seem fine.

The boys find that they can't get through because the forcefield extends underground. While that's going on, Kendrix runs into tiny lookalike children who tell her it will be okay because they have each other. And Maya discovers the concept of birthday cakes. Just as she's attacked, Kendrix comes to her rescue. The two girls make up (and later, make out) and they are super adorable. Maya promises when this is over she will help Kendrix make a new cake.

Magna Defender and his swirling cape of awesome show up to break open the force field even though Leo tells him this is a bad idea and it will rip them apart? I... sure. Look, I'm going to vaguely question it, but I don't have anything other than a "that sounds stupid." Of course, it means that they can also summon Zords and fight the Magna Defender, which I am in favor of.

Maya and Kendrix fight the monster on their own. Suddenly, the Magna Defender falls apart and starts clutching his chest and running away. Everyone is confused. Kendrix and Maya figure out that together they are awesome and they team up (again) to destroy the forcefield which instantly returns the air to the city.

The other Rangers show up just in time for them to shoot at the monster. Suddenly, the Fish of Orion show up. The Magna Defender tries to claim them, and also EVERYONE chases after the lights. But they've left Terra Venture (and the fact that they were there at ALL makes no sense.) Then the monster just... leaves. Sure.

At the end, Damon gets his surprise party. Damon is sleepy and exhausted, but he loves his friends, and is super happy that they remembered his birthday. Everyone loves everyone else, and then there's an orgy.

I love that a) this episode was not about either Damon being sad that everyone forgot his birthday or people criticizing Maya for what she eats and b) that nobody was really in the wrong for the fight.

Fish: 4. NO NO. SO YOU PUT A FORCEFIELD AROUND A CITY THAT'S ALREADY IN A DOME? WHAT? Also, the air? Really? THERE ARE PLANTS THERE, HOW WERE THEY DRAINING EVERYTHING? None of this makes any sense.

Covered in food: Cake!

Fic we want: Kendrix/Maya. SO MUCH.

Episode 296- Race to the Rescue

Today on Power Rangers, we start the episode off with CHAINS! YES! I like chains. This could be good. There are also red glowing eyes and henchmen running around doing their thing, but I'm all about the chains.

On Terra Venture, Leo is spraying the plants with something. Maya wanders around entering information on a Pre-iPad. She's suddenly telepathic. She knows somebody is in trouble. Dunno who and dunno what or why or anything. Just... how is she suddenly telepathic? Whatever, I'm going to go with it, because I know nothing about this season.

Leo and Maya convince Damon they need to go rescue whatever is in trouble. They have to use the Megaship, which Young Hot Not!Miles O'Brien insists isn't ready. Except it totally is because Damon can make anything work with bubble gum, duct tape, and a flashy blinky light. Kai is concerned about procedures and doesn't want to let them go. Leo ignores him. So it's going to be THAT kind of relationship. I'm okay with that. Maya points out the obvious and is vaguely telepathic again. She clearly needs to have dessert with Deanna.

They find the things in trouble and Maya rushes in to help. She just orders the boys around and I adore it. Damon wants more of a plan, because clearly he is the smart one this season, but they rush in anyway. The chains are as big as Leo's head. I LOVE THIS. Maya does jungle girl stuff and distracts the bad guys. The big monster thing is a big red Elvis lobster. No, really. I... don't even know what to say about that other than it's awful. His sword kind of looks like a big penis? That's kind of neat?

Suddenly Kai and Kendrix are there! Somehow! That is not explained! There is fighting. They are somehow going to cut the chains. Y'know, the ones AS BIG AS LEO'S HEAD. That magically cut super easily, as if made of butter and Maya's sword is a hot knife. Door swing open and out come five creatures. They are colour coded for the rangers. Gee, I wonder what they could be? Could they be the super ugly zords? Surely not! Or, y'know, this show really is THAT predictable.

Damon, once again proving to be the smart one, wonders if they'll be eaten. Maya is all telepathically carrying on a conversation and says they won't eat the Rangers (except they totally would) and they are grateful for being rescued.

Meanwhile, the big bad is a bed ridden tick looking bug thing. It's gross and weird and tentacle-y. It orders a general to go destroy the rangers. As if it would be that easy. It approaches Terra Ventura which calls an "alien ship warning". Makes sense. This leads the Starship Troopers to come out of hiding and start firing weapons willy nilly. Since the rangers aren't back yet and all. Because Kai and Leo are fighting over who gets to control the ship. Damon just shoves them out of the way, because he is the best and should always drive.

They make it back to the station and attack weird Lobster Elvis. It is boring. Leo takes him on one-on-one. It is still boring. Then he grows and they don't know what to do because they don't have zords, except they totally do! Duh! They just rescued five colour coded beasts. Clearly their brains took a holiday during this fight. Because they are AMAZED to see the fish let the five creatures into the space station and now they are defending them. Really guys?

These are some seriously ugly zords. The only one I kind of like is the red lion. But the pink thing? Looks like a traumatized kitten left in a gutter and covered in mange. The green thing looks like his scales are falling off. The blue ape thing? Just looks... weird. The yellow... I don't even know what it's supposed to BE. The red lion tells Leo to jump on so they can fight together. They win. Are we surprised? No, of course not.

Weird Big Bad Bug Guy has a human/bug hybrid daughter. She is... I have no clue.

Leo can't find the queen in a deck of cards in which he and Damon are playing, and now he has to do the dishes because Damon is brilliant. Maya misses her home planet and Kendrix comforts her. It is adorable and clearly needs to happen more often. Leo then pulls the queen out of Damon's ear and makes him do the dishes. Poor Damon. Leo challenges Kai. Kai is going to wipe the floor with him. Or something.

4 fish.