Enter, Darkonda: PRiS 13 - 16
Grandma Matchmaker (Judd Lynn/Worth Keeter): Previously on PRiS: Mostly filler, but the Rangers gain the Delta Megazord, which can combine with the Astro Megazord; Andros also gets a useful new tool called the Battlizer; and Astronema is stepping up her game (and acting) and proving she's a serious threat.
Ashley is reading in the park when a cab drives up, carrying a garishly dressed old woman, who is spying on her. The woman tosses an envelope, which Ashley catches easily, thanks to her Ranger reflexes. Which, in retrospect, is kind of terrifying: Between this and Kendrix's accidental co-star asskicking while filming the movie in next season's "Double Duty," you've got young people who are constantly on guard in case of a threat and react as if every little touch or toss is an attack. In any case, Ashley relaxes when she sees who it is-or rather, gets very excited and runs up to hug her: her grandmother. Grandma Hammond has come for a visit, and the envelope contains pictures of young men she's determined to get her granddaughter married to. Hoo boy.
Meanwhile on the Dark Fortress, Astronema's forces are trying for subtlety. Mama Mite has laid millions of eggs beneath Angel Grove, which will hatch into extremely hungry termites that will devour the city. Unfortunately, Astronema's taken a step backwards in development, whining that the eggs need to hatch now, forcing Mama Mite to rush her plans.
Ashley is irritated with her grandmother's well-meaning matchmaking, and she insists that she's too young to get married right now. But nothing dissuades Grandma, forcing Ashley to grab the nearest male-Carlos-and tell Grandma that they've been dating for a year. Insert elephant in the room.
Again, I'm not the best source for Power Rangers history, but back in Turbo, the writers were trying to push an Ashley/Carlos ship. This was apparently dropped early in their run as Turbo Rangers, and it never came up as an issue when Ashley started showing interest in Andros-it simply may have been that they realized they were better as friends, or Ashley just wasn't as interested in Carlos. Which makes it kind of uncomfortable that they go back to this ship and try to settle it here and now in a very awkward way. Even Adelle calls bullshit on the plot and leaves.
With Grandma's meddling delaying Ashley and Carlos, when Mama Mite appears, the other three Rangers are forced to fight her alone. It's an original footage fight, and once again, the American suit actors seem to be enjoying the chance to show off their skills, for all the Rangers have to lose until Carlos and Ashley arrive. When they do, they finish off Mama Mite with the Quadroblaster and the Spiral Saber Booster. And in a nice show of characterization, Astronema shows a flash of regret when Ecliptor gives her the bad news-it's clear that she recognizes that her uncharacteristic impatience cost her a very good monster. She still hates having to wait for the eggs to hatch, but she takes comfort knowing how hungry the babies will be when they do.
The Rangers get together to discuss Carlos and Ashley's plight, and to be honest, they're not very sympathetic. Carlos just wants a break-up, since he doesn't want to live his entire life pretending to be Ashley's boyfriend, so Andros suggests they just tell Grandma Hammond the truth. That works for all of a minute, before Grandma decides that because Ashley and Carlos like each other as friends, of course they'll fall in love. She gives them matching ugly Hawaiian shirts and spies on them as they go on their "first date," with the Rangers following along for laughs. Grandma tells Ashley to hold his hand on the carousel, and she has Adelle give them a single milkshake at lunch so they'll be forced to share it. Fortunately for them, that shake is interrupted by the ground shaking instead, and their communicators going off; the termites have hatched, and they begin devouring lamps, cars, and even entire buildings-you know, the kind of bloodless massacre you won't see again until probably Super Megaforce. Ashley tries to evacuate Grandma while the others fight, but the termites even eat through their weapons, which Andros claims are made of "hardened universal steel."
The termites join together into a single monster, which easily hands them their asses. Ashley knows she has to head back to help the others, but Grandma doesn't want to let her go alone. Finally, Ashley has to stand up to her and beg her to stop smothering her and to let her live her own life. A police officer comes in to help try to get Grandma to safety while Ashley runs off, but Grandma is so determined to protect her granddaughter that she throws the officer to the ground and steals his patrol car...which actually kind of makes up for the earlier half of the episode. Ashley arrives to the battle as the Yellow Ranger, but she stands just as little a chance as the others. But despite not knowing who the Yellow Ranger is, Grandma immediately takes to action and runs down the monster with the patrol car, telling him that she's going to help protect the Rangers. Then she goes to do it again, but he wises up and attacks her, causing her to lose control of the car and struggle to find the brakes. Andros offers to rescue her, but Ashley insists on saving her grandmother herself, so she leaps and clings to the car while digging in her heels, trying to slow it down. Finally, Grandma finds the brakes, and after that long sequence, I just wonder why they didn't write it that the brake line had been cut from all of those attacks? It would have made more sense and made Grandma not look that senile. Ashley checks on her, but she's more embarrassed than anything, worried she messed everything up by charging in recklessly, just as she's done with her granddaughter's life. Ashley insists that what she did saved them, rather than made a mess of everything, and when Grandma wishes that her granddaughter felt the same, she says that she has a grandmother very similar to her, and she loves her just the way she is. Grandma tells her that her grandmother must be lucky and sends her on her way, but Ashley realizes that she's the lucky one instead.
She charges on the monster, firing her Star Slinger before leaping into the air and activating her Blade Arm, an energy blade that runs from her hand down her forearm, allowing her to make a devastating chop attack. She then takes the driver's seat in the Astro Megazord, but the termites swarm it, forcing Andros to call the Delta and use precise aim to shoot them off. The monster re-forms, but Ashley forms the Astro Delta and freezes it solid before taking it out with the Flying Power Punch.
The Rangers pack up Grandma, and Ashley feels like she might have let her down by not finding a husband. But Grandma is eagerly offering her matchmaking services to Adelle, and to the cab driver, so all's well that ends well.
The Barillian Sting (John Fletcher/Judd Lynn): TJ, Carlos, and Cassie are searching for Zordon on a jungle planet when Cassie discovers Pirhanatron footprints and TJ picks up a distress signal. However, this is all a trap set by Ecliptor, who plans to ambush them. But the best laid plans of monsters and men end up going awry when an old associate of Ecliptor's decides to warp in-the bounty hunter Darkonda. Ladies and gentlemen: You are now meeting one of the best villains Power Rangers has ever had to offer. Ecliptor and Darkonda have bad blood between them, with Ecliptor warning Darkonda to stay away from Astronema and keeping him out of the fight. But Darkonda calls his plan stupid and improvises by unleashing a large insect that stings Carlos. Carlos has an immediate, painful reaction to the sting, and the Rangers are forced to retreat. So too does Darkonda, leaving Ecliptor to return furious in disgrace to the Dark Fortress. He picks a fight with every Quantron in his path, which tips off Astronema that something went terribly wrong if it's rattled him of all people. However, Darkonda strolls right into the Fortress, and nicely, Astronema's the one to shove Ecliptor back and prove ready to fight. But Darkonda is all charm with her, kneeling and kissing her hand in respect before the Princess of Evil and claiming to have met her years ago, though she can't remember. THIS IS HOW YOU FORESHADOW. Ecliptor claims he's a traitor and a cheat prone to double-crosses, but Astronema gets suspicious that he knows so much about him. Darkonda insists that as a show of trust, he will deliver the Rangers to her, as he's already taken out one. Once he's warped out, Ecliptor confesses that Darkonda released a Barillian Bug on Carlos, a move that Astronema thinks is brilliant, much to his disgust.
On the Megaship, Carlos's condition rapidly gets worse, with his blood vessels popping out and him shaking. Andros watches a screen showing the deterioration of Carlos's DNA and realizes that the shaking is actually shivering, and the others realize he recognizes the sting. But he admits he's not sure and privately asks TJ to take him down to the planet to find the bug so he can be positive. Unfortunately for them, Darkonda has retrieved the dead insect and leads them on a high-speed chase, where Judd Lynn gives into his inner Star Wars fanboy and tries to emulate the speeder chase on Endor. Darkonda releases a second bug, which targets TJ and makes him panic as he tries to evade it and control his Glider. Andros instructs him to circle around so he can expertly shoot it out of the air. Once TJ's safe, he investigates and grimly confirms that it is indeed a Barillian Bug, which KO-35 encountered years ago. Among the other shit that's happened in his past, his planet was once attacked by a massive swarm of the Bugs, which stung many of the people. Within hours, the victims mutated into Barillian Bugs themselves, perpetuating the cycle. But Karovan scientists created an antidote, and Andros theorizes there may be some left behind on the abandoned colony-god, KO-35 is the angstiest place in the universe until Sirius and Andrasia, isn't it? He orders Cassie and Ashley to restrain Carlos, but too much time has passed, and they find him mutated and dripping green slime. Andros and TJ return to find Carlos has escaped and is loose somewhere on the ship, with only slime as a trail to where he's gone.
They set their blasters to the lowest setting and split up, with Andros warning that the Bug has none of Carlos left in him. TJ and Cassie manage to find him on Megadeck 6, and the rest of the team unites to chase him into the engine room, where we finally get our reveal. And it is a beautiful design, one of the best the dual franchises of Power Rangers and Super Sentai have ever created: A red and blue exoskeleton, in concept almost a monstrous twist on Spider-Man, a stinger in place of a left hand, and a head modeled off of a scorpion (as had been the original monster idea in Megaranger). And the suspense building to the reveal is wonderful-Judd Lynn might not have written it, but he clearly drew on horror movies like John Carpenter's The Thing for inspiration in direction. While Carlos is no longer present in soul, the Bug is still intelligent enough to hide behind the engines, where they're too cautious to shoot, and he takes out TJ and Andros by throwing a barrel while Ashley and Cassie hit the floor. But Cassie grapples with him briefly before he runs off, and TJ and Andros recover in time to learn the horrible news: Cassie got stung.
With the Megaship now in orbit around KO-35, the team restrains Cassie in the infirmary and splits up. Andros and TJ will retrieve the antidote planetside, and Ashley will protect the bridge at all costs, with Andros warning her to shoot if necessary. But Carlos's movements are audible through the ventilation ducts, and he ambushes them in the work bay. TJ and Andros manage to evade him and leap into the jump tubes, racing to a blue pyramid near the main city, which is the hospital that developed the antidote. As another nice touch, they actually made a medical logo for KO-35, based off the Star of Life. They find a storage cabinet in the basement, which strikes me as an odd place to put medicine, but hey, I'm not an alien doctor, and they shoot the lock off. Inside is a case containing a dart gun and two vials of antidote. But Darkonda attacks them on Astronema's orders, so Andros gives TJ the case and orders him back to the ship while he fights. Darkonda is a much dirtier fighter than he's used to, however-throwing him around, kneeing him in the ribs, attacking him from all sides via warp, and that's all before he pulls his sword. Andros forces him out into the open and summons the Battlizer, using the first setting to power up his fist with red energy and punch him a couple of times...except it really doesn't do all that much other than piss Darkonda off.
Cassie, now fully mutated, escapes the infirmary, and it isn't long before she and Carlos try to break into the bridge. Despite Andros's warnings, Ashley can't bring herself to shoot, and they corner her and Alpha. But TJ arrives just in time and coolly shoots them with the antidote, quickly reverting them to normal. He promises to explain everything to them as he drags them down to KO-35 to save Andros. Once everyone's gathered, Darkonda destroys the final vial of antidote...which indicates he had access to all of it at some point, so why didn't he just destroy it all and save himself the trouble? He releases a third and final Barillian Bug, which takes on monster form, then he supersizes the thing himself. They summon the Astro Megazord, and Andros focuses on trying to evade attacks before he finally throws it back and finishes it off with the saber.
Ecliptor tries to convince Astronema that Darkonda's failure should get him kicked out and that he would love to personally do it. But Darkonda argues that he's gained a more important victory-knowledge. By his observations, Andros is the only true Space Ranger and carrying the team. They can't hold it together without him...which, in a way, is right. They are not a cohesive team, and Andros is quite honestly doing most of the work on his own. But this leads into a development and a divide midseason and during the finale, which I'll discuss more in-depth during Andros's and TJ's portions of the Endpoint Analysis. But now that he knows this weakness, Darkonda has the perfect plan to exploit it.
Andros stands on the roof of a building on KO-35, overlooking a park in the distance. As he holds his locket, we flash back to Karone's kidnapping. When Ashley finds him, he admits that the park is the very one Karone was taken from, and he feels like he's close to finding her. She hopes so and coaxes him back to the ship with her arm around him.
TJ's Identity Crisis (Judd Lynn/Worth Keeter): On the way to the planet Brokaia, the Rangers play a game of basketball on the simudeck. With the game tied, TJ has Andros use a play he's been working on, where Andros throws him over Carlos's and Ashley's heads to score the winning point. But the game ends just in time, since they've just arrived to Brokaia, where they secretly install a long-range, interstellar scanner that'll aid their search for Zordon.
Unknown to them, Darkonda saw them, and he visits the sleeping Astronema to tell her, startling her into threatening to kill him if he ever sneaks up on her again. He apologizes and admits that he wanted to tell her instead of Ecliptor because he finds him less than intelligent-which again makes her very defensive, and she explains that Ecliptor has been her guardian since childhood. Preying on her fear of Dark Specter, Darkonda claims that Ecliptor made an oversight that will allow the Rangers to find Zordon and thus will bring Dark Specter's wrath down on her. When Ecliptor confronts him, he reveals the existence of the scanner, and Astronema orders them to destroy it. On Brokaia, Darkonda threatens to tell her the truth about Ecliptor-a truth Ecliptor claims will hurt her if she learns it. Darkonda promises to continue to keep the secret, so long as Ecliptor does what he says. I love the intervillain rivalry and blackmailing. It's beautiful. They destroy the scanner, just as it's picked up Dark Specter's ship, but before D.E.C.A. can pinpoint its location. The Rangers head down to the planet to battle them, with Andros taking on Ecliptor. Something that I didn't notice before is that Ecliptor warns him, "Ranger, listen!" just before Darkonda attacks him-it's muffled and hard to hear over the background music (old school Power Rangers and especially this season were bad about their sound), but it does sound like he was about to warn him about Darkonda. Darkonda shoots a tendril at him that shocks him, claiming he will make it look like Ecliptor was killed in battle, before he fuses with him to become Darkliptor. While his body is a fusion of the two, Darkonda is in complete control and takes advantage of his new powers-such as freezing Ashley and Cassie in huge blocks of ice. This pisses off Andros, who ignores TJ's plea for strategy and blindly attacks. I'm assuming this was supposed to be that plan Darkonda had last episode to separate Andros from the others. Not working out exactly as planned. Darkliptor tries to take him down with his swords, but TJ leaps in the way and is struck in the head, and the energy released from the swords shatters his...Lightstar, I guess it's called? It's that black disc on his helmet. Carlos gets Darkliptor away from them, but he's frozen before he can escape, forcing Andros to fly TJ back alone.
Darkliptor stows the ice Rangers in a cave, where Astronema confronts him. He claims that Ecliptor attacked him from behind, and to save both of their lives, he forced a fusion, promising that Ecliptor is safe within him. But he captured three Rangers, so she really can't argue with results, and she lets it go. She gives the order to destroy the helpless Rangers, but Darkliptor stops her, claiming he needs them as bait for Andros and TJ. Which is well and good and all, but why not film a ransom now and kill them before the Rangers arrive? I mean, not trying to out-evil you, but it seems like it'd be a nice backup strategy.
TJ wakes in the infirmary, startled and extremely confused. When Andros proves bad at social cues again, D.E.C.A. diagnoses TJ's amnesia. He understandably freaks out at the talking computer and runs off, pursued by Andros. And again, I love amnesia plots (as mentioned in Ryuki 11). This, unfortunately, is not a very good one. See, the B-plot of Darkonda being a manipulative, blackmailing douche is so damn compelling that it takes up a lot of time, which prevents the amnesia A-plot from developing the way it really should. Judd Lynn is good at writing suspense, and this episode is missing it-everything feels too neatly cleaned up. And most importantly, the elephant in the room isn't addressed: TJ was Red Ranger before Andros. He is no longer the leader. Andros is not good at leading and tends to take everything on himself rather than trusting his team to learn and grow. And there is a serious divide between their actors, Selwyn Ward and Christopher Khayman Lee, fueled by the divide between the characters-something I'll discuss in the Endpoint-and nothing ever is aired out and resolved.
The elephant sits there, and nothing is done about it. What really could have been a great story to ease the transition from TJ to Andros and even explain the leadership situation we wind up with down the line is wasted.
He makes his way to the bridge, where the monitor shows Brokaia, which looks exactly like KO-35. Alpha tries to explain things but just spooks him again. Andros catches up and tries to jog his memory...badly. See, with the ransom threat, I understand Andros becoming impatient. But holy shit, is he bad at people. He yells at TJ to remember and concentrate (despite TJ showing signs of, you know, the headache from a serious concussion), then morphs and gets huffy and teleports down alone when this fails to make TJ miraculously remember. I mean, honestly. Can you imagine Andros trying to help Ren in those episodes of Ryuki? Or for a Power Rangers example, the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers in "When is a Ranger Not a Ranger"? Or in Lightspeed Rescue, the brainwashed Carter, Kelsey, Chad, and Joel in "The Last Ranger"? Or literally anybody else in tokusatsu, which loves this trope more than soap operas do? Seriously, the only way TJ's condition could be any worse is if someone hit him in the head again to reverse the amnesia.
He explores the Megaship some more and finds the basketball, spurring some memories of the game and of his friends. His locker in the work bay has a photo of the team together in civilian clothes. Finally deciding to test his morpher, he presses 0 and teleports down to the surface, watching Andros get his butt kicked. Despite no idea what to do, he types in the morphing code and is stunned to see that he really is the Blue Ranger. Unfortunately, Darkliptor attacks him, ready to blast him with energy from one of his swords. Andros leaps in the way, but the energy blasts them both back, where...TJ hits his head on a rock. Goddamnit! Like an old sitcom, it restores his memory, just in time for him to Ranger Kick Darkliptor away from Andros. They reenact their basketball play, with Andros bringing their weapons down on Darkliptor, separating them and defrosting the others. But Darkonda forces the fusion again as Astronema fires the Satellasers, though he's not above breaking the fusion to use Ecliptor as a shield against the Astro Delta. He brings back the wounded Ecliptor because Astronema wanted him to, and he blackmails him again. Sure, Astronema will banish Darkonda if Ecliptor reveals that he attacked Ecliptor and not the other way around. But before that, Darkonda will reveal Ecliptor's secret, which will be bad enough for Astronema to execute them both. This threat provokes Ecliptor into attacking...all according to plan, since Astronema walks in and sees that this appears to confirm Darkonda's story. She won't hear Ecliptor's explanations and insists that from now on, they are equals.
TJ, Cassie, and Andros try to repair the scanner with no luck. Ashley and Carlos suggest continuing the game, confident that they'll win when TJ still appears confused. But once they leave, TJ reveals it was a ruse to get them to lower their guard, and he's back to normal.
Flashes of Darkonda (Lynn/Tzachor): Andros has a nightmare where he meets Darkonda for the first time in battle. Darkonda claims they met long ago, but Andros doesn't remember him. He wakes in a panic, holding his locket before finally going to the bridge, where the others are already awake and ready to head to the Dagobah System to search for Zordon. No, really. Sometimes, these guys are shameless fanboys. Andros stays behind to run a scan for Zordon, and since he's alone, he plays his traumatic home movie. He's barely able to watch the kidnapping portion, but he forces himself to turn when he suddenly recognizes the kidnapper's laugh. In horror, he confirms what his dream was trying to warn him: Darkonda was the one who kidnapped Karone. Furious, he storms to the work boy and checks the star chart, selecting a planet...that he doesn't actually go to. There's this bit in the outtakes where he actually selects the right planet, and they "correct" him for some reason into this take, but whatever. D.E.C.A. warns him that the planet, Onyx, is in a prohibited sector, but Andros gives precisely zero fucks and tells her not to tell the others where he's gone.
Onyx, as it turns out, looks like Mars surrounded by Saturn's rings badly photoshopped on, but when you get down there, it's basically an Old West set with an RPM-style filter on the camera. Andros hides himself under his cloak and enters a saloon, where there are various species of monsters-some of which (for example, the Battarax and Neji Sophia/Psycho Yellow monster form) will later be used in the series. Darkonda's there too, going upstairs to buy a strength potion from a shady dealer with a thick Asian accent dubbed in. I'm not even going to plaster the elephant in the room here; even he's ashamed. Unknown to Darkonda, Ecliptor has tampered with the potion and threatened the dealer to give it to him. That's...surprisingly dark, even for this season. Darkonda is suspicious when he hears the dealer talking to someone, but Ecliptor has retreated into the shadows. Despite his misgivings, he buys the drug.
Darkonda joins a card game, and once he sees him, Andros joins as well. He excuses himself to the suspicious bad guys that he's simply a traveler, and Darkonda accepts it. Which makes sense-a lot of these guys might have some dealings they can't talk about. And what good guy is going to be stupid enough to sneak into a hive of scum and villainy in a prohibited sector? Anyway, speaking of said idiot, he adds some of his crystals to the pot, which becomes increasingly more expensive, especially with Darkonda dropping in strands of beads. Realizing that his few crystals aren't enough to bet, a warrior adds a set of keycards onto the pile. When another player protests, he explains he was part of the group that attacked Eltar, and he stole the cards from Zordon, expecting them to be valuable. Darkonda agrees, and they accept the wager. The warrior puts down his cards, apparently with a decent suit, but Darkonda has one better-five zanabatars, which we'd learn next season are a form of currency on Onyx. But Andros has a zinta, a much better set, and the warrior accuses him of cheating and pulls a blaster on him. Barely breaking a sweat, Andros kicks the guy's knee out from under him and holds the blaster on him, claiming to show mercy on him because he's in a good mood.
Intriuged and impressed by Andros's skills at cards and fighting, Darkonda buys him a drink, offering to buy the keycards off him. Andros claims to need them to buy information about something valuable on KO-35, and Darkonda claims to be an expert on the planet, so Andros agrees to the deal. He describes the planet's geography and claims that he looted everything of value after the colony was deserted. But he brags about a "job" he did, kidnapping Karone, not noticing that Andros crushes his cup in rage when he hears this. Andros starts to walk away and asks him what happened to her, and Darkonda affirms she's alive and swears he'd never believe where she ended up...before spotting the morpher sticking out of Andros's sleeve. Once again, we see that Andros + anyplace that serves alcohol = awesome fight scene as they give into their inner swashbucklers and have an awesome fight scene. Seriously, this isn't even a Koichi episode, but the action is insane. Andros steals a sword from some guy, jumps onto the bar, throws back Darkonda, then flips down to continue the swordfight, and they fight their way up the stairs. Once they're on the balcony, Darkonda rips off Andros's hood, giving him the opportunity to steal the keycards. That's two now, Andros-what was that about hating thieves again? He throws his sword as a diversion, then channels the Three Musketeers and leaps off the balcony and catches himself on the chandelier to break his fall. Outside, he morphs, gets on his Galaxy Glider, and evades Velocifighters and tricks them into colliding. Note that this is all original footage. It is awesome.
He returns to the Megaship, where everyone's wondered where he's been. He asks Alpha to check and see if the keycards really are Zordon's, and Darkonda sends a transmission from Earth, ransoming information on Karone for the keycards. Andros has to explain to the others that Darkonda kidnapped her, impressing on everyone just how personal this has become. Alpha confirms that the keycards are Eltaran, and Andros heads down with them, followed by the others. The Rangers aren't willing to give up the keycards without a fight, but Darkonda's happy to oblige, taking his strength potion and becoming even faster and more powerful. He almost has them beat when Ecliptor's poison takes effect, causing immense pain and making him bleed out green slime. He retreats, leaving the Rangers confused but not really surprised that someone tried to assassinate him. He staggers away and finds Ecliptor, who takes just a moment to gloat before teleporting away. Darkonda thrashes in pain, raging against Ecliptor before becoming giant-sized and mutated. He fires on the Rangers and on the city in an arc. The Rangers take to battle in the Astro Delta Megazord, but he's completely out of control. Astronema learns of the battle and watches, demanding to know what the fuck is going on, and Ecliptor claims it's proof that Darkonda is untrustworthy.
Darkonda deflects the Flying Power Punch back at the Astro Delta and causes significant damage. With their defenses going offline and their power levels dropping, Andros suggests converting their energy into a cyclone and drill right through him. They try, but it's not enough. Darkonda regains his faculties, though injured enough to drop a chunk of flesh that mutates into a squid monster. Both monsters attack, and the Megazord goes down in defeat...
Ashley is reading in the park when a cab drives up, carrying a garishly dressed old woman, who is spying on her. The woman tosses an envelope, which Ashley catches easily, thanks to her Ranger reflexes. Which, in retrospect, is kind of terrifying: Between this and Kendrix's accidental co-star asskicking while filming the movie in next season's "Double Duty," you've got young people who are constantly on guard in case of a threat and react as if every little touch or toss is an attack. In any case, Ashley relaxes when she sees who it is-or rather, gets very excited and runs up to hug her: her grandmother. Grandma Hammond has come for a visit, and the envelope contains pictures of young men she's determined to get her granddaughter married to. Hoo boy.
Meanwhile on the Dark Fortress, Astronema's forces are trying for subtlety. Mama Mite has laid millions of eggs beneath Angel Grove, which will hatch into extremely hungry termites that will devour the city. Unfortunately, Astronema's taken a step backwards in development, whining that the eggs need to hatch now, forcing Mama Mite to rush her plans.
Ashley is irritated with her grandmother's well-meaning matchmaking, and she insists that she's too young to get married right now. But nothing dissuades Grandma, forcing Ashley to grab the nearest male-Carlos-and tell Grandma that they've been dating for a year. Insert elephant in the room.
Again, I'm not the best source for Power Rangers history, but back in Turbo, the writers were trying to push an Ashley/Carlos ship. This was apparently dropped early in their run as Turbo Rangers, and it never came up as an issue when Ashley started showing interest in Andros-it simply may have been that they realized they were better as friends, or Ashley just wasn't as interested in Carlos. Which makes it kind of uncomfortable that they go back to this ship and try to settle it here and now in a very awkward way. Even Adelle calls bullshit on the plot and leaves.
With Grandma's meddling delaying Ashley and Carlos, when Mama Mite appears, the other three Rangers are forced to fight her alone. It's an original footage fight, and once again, the American suit actors seem to be enjoying the chance to show off their skills, for all the Rangers have to lose until Carlos and Ashley arrive. When they do, they finish off Mama Mite with the Quadroblaster and the Spiral Saber Booster. And in a nice show of characterization, Astronema shows a flash of regret when Ecliptor gives her the bad news-it's clear that she recognizes that her uncharacteristic impatience cost her a very good monster. She still hates having to wait for the eggs to hatch, but she takes comfort knowing how hungry the babies will be when they do.
The Rangers get together to discuss Carlos and Ashley's plight, and to be honest, they're not very sympathetic. Carlos just wants a break-up, since he doesn't want to live his entire life pretending to be Ashley's boyfriend, so Andros suggests they just tell Grandma Hammond the truth. That works for all of a minute, before Grandma decides that because Ashley and Carlos like each other as friends, of course they'll fall in love. She gives them matching ugly Hawaiian shirts and spies on them as they go on their "first date," with the Rangers following along for laughs. Grandma tells Ashley to hold his hand on the carousel, and she has Adelle give them a single milkshake at lunch so they'll be forced to share it. Fortunately for them, that shake is interrupted by the ground shaking instead, and their communicators going off; the termites have hatched, and they begin devouring lamps, cars, and even entire buildings-you know, the kind of bloodless massacre you won't see again until probably Super Megaforce. Ashley tries to evacuate Grandma while the others fight, but the termites even eat through their weapons, which Andros claims are made of "hardened universal steel."
The termites join together into a single monster, which easily hands them their asses. Ashley knows she has to head back to help the others, but Grandma doesn't want to let her go alone. Finally, Ashley has to stand up to her and beg her to stop smothering her and to let her live her own life. A police officer comes in to help try to get Grandma to safety while Ashley runs off, but Grandma is so determined to protect her granddaughter that she throws the officer to the ground and steals his patrol car...which actually kind of makes up for the earlier half of the episode. Ashley arrives to the battle as the Yellow Ranger, but she stands just as little a chance as the others. But despite not knowing who the Yellow Ranger is, Grandma immediately takes to action and runs down the monster with the patrol car, telling him that she's going to help protect the Rangers. Then she goes to do it again, but he wises up and attacks her, causing her to lose control of the car and struggle to find the brakes. Andros offers to rescue her, but Ashley insists on saving her grandmother herself, so she leaps and clings to the car while digging in her heels, trying to slow it down. Finally, Grandma finds the brakes, and after that long sequence, I just wonder why they didn't write it that the brake line had been cut from all of those attacks? It would have made more sense and made Grandma not look that senile. Ashley checks on her, but she's more embarrassed than anything, worried she messed everything up by charging in recklessly, just as she's done with her granddaughter's life. Ashley insists that what she did saved them, rather than made a mess of everything, and when Grandma wishes that her granddaughter felt the same, she says that she has a grandmother very similar to her, and she loves her just the way she is. Grandma tells her that her grandmother must be lucky and sends her on her way, but Ashley realizes that she's the lucky one instead.
She charges on the monster, firing her Star Slinger before leaping into the air and activating her Blade Arm, an energy blade that runs from her hand down her forearm, allowing her to make a devastating chop attack. She then takes the driver's seat in the Astro Megazord, but the termites swarm it, forcing Andros to call the Delta and use precise aim to shoot them off. The monster re-forms, but Ashley forms the Astro Delta and freezes it solid before taking it out with the Flying Power Punch.
The Rangers pack up Grandma, and Ashley feels like she might have let her down by not finding a husband. But Grandma is eagerly offering her matchmaking services to Adelle, and to the cab driver, so all's well that ends well.
The Barillian Sting (John Fletcher/Judd Lynn): TJ, Carlos, and Cassie are searching for Zordon on a jungle planet when Cassie discovers Pirhanatron footprints and TJ picks up a distress signal. However, this is all a trap set by Ecliptor, who plans to ambush them. But the best laid plans of monsters and men end up going awry when an old associate of Ecliptor's decides to warp in-the bounty hunter Darkonda. Ladies and gentlemen: You are now meeting one of the best villains Power Rangers has ever had to offer. Ecliptor and Darkonda have bad blood between them, with Ecliptor warning Darkonda to stay away from Astronema and keeping him out of the fight. But Darkonda calls his plan stupid and improvises by unleashing a large insect that stings Carlos. Carlos has an immediate, painful reaction to the sting, and the Rangers are forced to retreat. So too does Darkonda, leaving Ecliptor to return furious in disgrace to the Dark Fortress. He picks a fight with every Quantron in his path, which tips off Astronema that something went terribly wrong if it's rattled him of all people. However, Darkonda strolls right into the Fortress, and nicely, Astronema's the one to shove Ecliptor back and prove ready to fight. But Darkonda is all charm with her, kneeling and kissing her hand in respect before the Princess of Evil and claiming to have met her years ago, though she can't remember. THIS IS HOW YOU FORESHADOW. Ecliptor claims he's a traitor and a cheat prone to double-crosses, but Astronema gets suspicious that he knows so much about him. Darkonda insists that as a show of trust, he will deliver the Rangers to her, as he's already taken out one. Once he's warped out, Ecliptor confesses that Darkonda released a Barillian Bug on Carlos, a move that Astronema thinks is brilliant, much to his disgust.
On the Megaship, Carlos's condition rapidly gets worse, with his blood vessels popping out and him shaking. Andros watches a screen showing the deterioration of Carlos's DNA and realizes that the shaking is actually shivering, and the others realize he recognizes the sting. But he admits he's not sure and privately asks TJ to take him down to the planet to find the bug so he can be positive. Unfortunately for them, Darkonda has retrieved the dead insect and leads them on a high-speed chase, where Judd Lynn gives into his inner Star Wars fanboy and tries to emulate the speeder chase on Endor. Darkonda releases a second bug, which targets TJ and makes him panic as he tries to evade it and control his Glider. Andros instructs him to circle around so he can expertly shoot it out of the air. Once TJ's safe, he investigates and grimly confirms that it is indeed a Barillian Bug, which KO-35 encountered years ago. Among the other shit that's happened in his past, his planet was once attacked by a massive swarm of the Bugs, which stung many of the people. Within hours, the victims mutated into Barillian Bugs themselves, perpetuating the cycle. But Karovan scientists created an antidote, and Andros theorizes there may be some left behind on the abandoned colony-god, KO-35 is the angstiest place in the universe until Sirius and Andrasia, isn't it? He orders Cassie and Ashley to restrain Carlos, but too much time has passed, and they find him mutated and dripping green slime. Andros and TJ return to find Carlos has escaped and is loose somewhere on the ship, with only slime as a trail to where he's gone.
They set their blasters to the lowest setting and split up, with Andros warning that the Bug has none of Carlos left in him. TJ and Cassie manage to find him on Megadeck 6, and the rest of the team unites to chase him into the engine room, where we finally get our reveal. And it is a beautiful design, one of the best the dual franchises of Power Rangers and Super Sentai have ever created: A red and blue exoskeleton, in concept almost a monstrous twist on Spider-Man, a stinger in place of a left hand, and a head modeled off of a scorpion (as had been the original monster idea in Megaranger). And the suspense building to the reveal is wonderful-Judd Lynn might not have written it, but he clearly drew on horror movies like John Carpenter's The Thing for inspiration in direction. While Carlos is no longer present in soul, the Bug is still intelligent enough to hide behind the engines, where they're too cautious to shoot, and he takes out TJ and Andros by throwing a barrel while Ashley and Cassie hit the floor. But Cassie grapples with him briefly before he runs off, and TJ and Andros recover in time to learn the horrible news: Cassie got stung.
With the Megaship now in orbit around KO-35, the team restrains Cassie in the infirmary and splits up. Andros and TJ will retrieve the antidote planetside, and Ashley will protect the bridge at all costs, with Andros warning her to shoot if necessary. But Carlos's movements are audible through the ventilation ducts, and he ambushes them in the work bay. TJ and Andros manage to evade him and leap into the jump tubes, racing to a blue pyramid near the main city, which is the hospital that developed the antidote. As another nice touch, they actually made a medical logo for KO-35, based off the Star of Life. They find a storage cabinet in the basement, which strikes me as an odd place to put medicine, but hey, I'm not an alien doctor, and they shoot the lock off. Inside is a case containing a dart gun and two vials of antidote. But Darkonda attacks them on Astronema's orders, so Andros gives TJ the case and orders him back to the ship while he fights. Darkonda is a much dirtier fighter than he's used to, however-throwing him around, kneeing him in the ribs, attacking him from all sides via warp, and that's all before he pulls his sword. Andros forces him out into the open and summons the Battlizer, using the first setting to power up his fist with red energy and punch him a couple of times...except it really doesn't do all that much other than piss Darkonda off.
Cassie, now fully mutated, escapes the infirmary, and it isn't long before she and Carlos try to break into the bridge. Despite Andros's warnings, Ashley can't bring herself to shoot, and they corner her and Alpha. But TJ arrives just in time and coolly shoots them with the antidote, quickly reverting them to normal. He promises to explain everything to them as he drags them down to KO-35 to save Andros. Once everyone's gathered, Darkonda destroys the final vial of antidote...which indicates he had access to all of it at some point, so why didn't he just destroy it all and save himself the trouble? He releases a third and final Barillian Bug, which takes on monster form, then he supersizes the thing himself. They summon the Astro Megazord, and Andros focuses on trying to evade attacks before he finally throws it back and finishes it off with the saber.
Ecliptor tries to convince Astronema that Darkonda's failure should get him kicked out and that he would love to personally do it. But Darkonda argues that he's gained a more important victory-knowledge. By his observations, Andros is the only true Space Ranger and carrying the team. They can't hold it together without him...which, in a way, is right. They are not a cohesive team, and Andros is quite honestly doing most of the work on his own. But this leads into a development and a divide midseason and during the finale, which I'll discuss more in-depth during Andros's and TJ's portions of the Endpoint Analysis. But now that he knows this weakness, Darkonda has the perfect plan to exploit it.
Andros stands on the roof of a building on KO-35, overlooking a park in the distance. As he holds his locket, we flash back to Karone's kidnapping. When Ashley finds him, he admits that the park is the very one Karone was taken from, and he feels like he's close to finding her. She hopes so and coaxes him back to the ship with her arm around him.
TJ's Identity Crisis (Judd Lynn/Worth Keeter): On the way to the planet Brokaia, the Rangers play a game of basketball on the simudeck. With the game tied, TJ has Andros use a play he's been working on, where Andros throws him over Carlos's and Ashley's heads to score the winning point. But the game ends just in time, since they've just arrived to Brokaia, where they secretly install a long-range, interstellar scanner that'll aid their search for Zordon.
Unknown to them, Darkonda saw them, and he visits the sleeping Astronema to tell her, startling her into threatening to kill him if he ever sneaks up on her again. He apologizes and admits that he wanted to tell her instead of Ecliptor because he finds him less than intelligent-which again makes her very defensive, and she explains that Ecliptor has been her guardian since childhood. Preying on her fear of Dark Specter, Darkonda claims that Ecliptor made an oversight that will allow the Rangers to find Zordon and thus will bring Dark Specter's wrath down on her. When Ecliptor confronts him, he reveals the existence of the scanner, and Astronema orders them to destroy it. On Brokaia, Darkonda threatens to tell her the truth about Ecliptor-a truth Ecliptor claims will hurt her if she learns it. Darkonda promises to continue to keep the secret, so long as Ecliptor does what he says. I love the intervillain rivalry and blackmailing. It's beautiful. They destroy the scanner, just as it's picked up Dark Specter's ship, but before D.E.C.A. can pinpoint its location. The Rangers head down to the planet to battle them, with Andros taking on Ecliptor. Something that I didn't notice before is that Ecliptor warns him, "Ranger, listen!" just before Darkonda attacks him-it's muffled and hard to hear over the background music (old school Power Rangers and especially this season were bad about their sound), but it does sound like he was about to warn him about Darkonda. Darkonda shoots a tendril at him that shocks him, claiming he will make it look like Ecliptor was killed in battle, before he fuses with him to become Darkliptor. While his body is a fusion of the two, Darkonda is in complete control and takes advantage of his new powers-such as freezing Ashley and Cassie in huge blocks of ice. This pisses off Andros, who ignores TJ's plea for strategy and blindly attacks. I'm assuming this was supposed to be that plan Darkonda had last episode to separate Andros from the others. Not working out exactly as planned. Darkliptor tries to take him down with his swords, but TJ leaps in the way and is struck in the head, and the energy released from the swords shatters his...Lightstar, I guess it's called? It's that black disc on his helmet. Carlos gets Darkliptor away from them, but he's frozen before he can escape, forcing Andros to fly TJ back alone.
Darkliptor stows the ice Rangers in a cave, where Astronema confronts him. He claims that Ecliptor attacked him from behind, and to save both of their lives, he forced a fusion, promising that Ecliptor is safe within him. But he captured three Rangers, so she really can't argue with results, and she lets it go. She gives the order to destroy the helpless Rangers, but Darkliptor stops her, claiming he needs them as bait for Andros and TJ. Which is well and good and all, but why not film a ransom now and kill them before the Rangers arrive? I mean, not trying to out-evil you, but it seems like it'd be a nice backup strategy.
TJ wakes in the infirmary, startled and extremely confused. When Andros proves bad at social cues again, D.E.C.A. diagnoses TJ's amnesia. He understandably freaks out at the talking computer and runs off, pursued by Andros. And again, I love amnesia plots (as mentioned in Ryuki 11). This, unfortunately, is not a very good one. See, the B-plot of Darkonda being a manipulative, blackmailing douche is so damn compelling that it takes up a lot of time, which prevents the amnesia A-plot from developing the way it really should. Judd Lynn is good at writing suspense, and this episode is missing it-everything feels too neatly cleaned up. And most importantly, the elephant in the room isn't addressed: TJ was Red Ranger before Andros. He is no longer the leader. Andros is not good at leading and tends to take everything on himself rather than trusting his team to learn and grow. And there is a serious divide between their actors, Selwyn Ward and Christopher Khayman Lee, fueled by the divide between the characters-something I'll discuss in the Endpoint-and nothing ever is aired out and resolved.
The elephant sits there, and nothing is done about it. What really could have been a great story to ease the transition from TJ to Andros and even explain the leadership situation we wind up with down the line is wasted.
He makes his way to the bridge, where the monitor shows Brokaia, which looks exactly like KO-35. Alpha tries to explain things but just spooks him again. Andros catches up and tries to jog his memory...badly. See, with the ransom threat, I understand Andros becoming impatient. But holy shit, is he bad at people. He yells at TJ to remember and concentrate (despite TJ showing signs of, you know, the headache from a serious concussion), then morphs and gets huffy and teleports down alone when this fails to make TJ miraculously remember. I mean, honestly. Can you imagine Andros trying to help Ren in those episodes of Ryuki? Or for a Power Rangers example, the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers in "When is a Ranger Not a Ranger"? Or in Lightspeed Rescue, the brainwashed Carter, Kelsey, Chad, and Joel in "The Last Ranger"? Or literally anybody else in tokusatsu, which loves this trope more than soap operas do? Seriously, the only way TJ's condition could be any worse is if someone hit him in the head again to reverse the amnesia.
He explores the Megaship some more and finds the basketball, spurring some memories of the game and of his friends. His locker in the work bay has a photo of the team together in civilian clothes. Finally deciding to test his morpher, he presses 0 and teleports down to the surface, watching Andros get his butt kicked. Despite no idea what to do, he types in the morphing code and is stunned to see that he really is the Blue Ranger. Unfortunately, Darkliptor attacks him, ready to blast him with energy from one of his swords. Andros leaps in the way, but the energy blasts them both back, where...TJ hits his head on a rock. Goddamnit! Like an old sitcom, it restores his memory, just in time for him to Ranger Kick Darkliptor away from Andros. They reenact their basketball play, with Andros bringing their weapons down on Darkliptor, separating them and defrosting the others. But Darkonda forces the fusion again as Astronema fires the Satellasers, though he's not above breaking the fusion to use Ecliptor as a shield against the Astro Delta. He brings back the wounded Ecliptor because Astronema wanted him to, and he blackmails him again. Sure, Astronema will banish Darkonda if Ecliptor reveals that he attacked Ecliptor and not the other way around. But before that, Darkonda will reveal Ecliptor's secret, which will be bad enough for Astronema to execute them both. This threat provokes Ecliptor into attacking...all according to plan, since Astronema walks in and sees that this appears to confirm Darkonda's story. She won't hear Ecliptor's explanations and insists that from now on, they are equals.
TJ, Cassie, and Andros try to repair the scanner with no luck. Ashley and Carlos suggest continuing the game, confident that they'll win when TJ still appears confused. But once they leave, TJ reveals it was a ruse to get them to lower their guard, and he's back to normal.
Flashes of Darkonda (Lynn/Tzachor): Andros has a nightmare where he meets Darkonda for the first time in battle. Darkonda claims they met long ago, but Andros doesn't remember him. He wakes in a panic, holding his locket before finally going to the bridge, where the others are already awake and ready to head to the Dagobah System to search for Zordon. No, really. Sometimes, these guys are shameless fanboys. Andros stays behind to run a scan for Zordon, and since he's alone, he plays his traumatic home movie. He's barely able to watch the kidnapping portion, but he forces himself to turn when he suddenly recognizes the kidnapper's laugh. In horror, he confirms what his dream was trying to warn him: Darkonda was the one who kidnapped Karone. Furious, he storms to the work boy and checks the star chart, selecting a planet...that he doesn't actually go to. There's this bit in the outtakes where he actually selects the right planet, and they "correct" him for some reason into this take, but whatever. D.E.C.A. warns him that the planet, Onyx, is in a prohibited sector, but Andros gives precisely zero fucks and tells her not to tell the others where he's gone.
Onyx, as it turns out, looks like Mars surrounded by Saturn's rings badly photoshopped on, but when you get down there, it's basically an Old West set with an RPM-style filter on the camera. Andros hides himself under his cloak and enters a saloon, where there are various species of monsters-some of which (for example, the Battarax and Neji Sophia/Psycho Yellow monster form) will later be used in the series. Darkonda's there too, going upstairs to buy a strength potion from a shady dealer with a thick Asian accent dubbed in. I'm not even going to plaster the elephant in the room here; even he's ashamed. Unknown to Darkonda, Ecliptor has tampered with the potion and threatened the dealer to give it to him. That's...surprisingly dark, even for this season. Darkonda is suspicious when he hears the dealer talking to someone, but Ecliptor has retreated into the shadows. Despite his misgivings, he buys the drug.
Darkonda joins a card game, and once he sees him, Andros joins as well. He excuses himself to the suspicious bad guys that he's simply a traveler, and Darkonda accepts it. Which makes sense-a lot of these guys might have some dealings they can't talk about. And what good guy is going to be stupid enough to sneak into a hive of scum and villainy in a prohibited sector? Anyway, speaking of said idiot, he adds some of his crystals to the pot, which becomes increasingly more expensive, especially with Darkonda dropping in strands of beads. Realizing that his few crystals aren't enough to bet, a warrior adds a set of keycards onto the pile. When another player protests, he explains he was part of the group that attacked Eltar, and he stole the cards from Zordon, expecting them to be valuable. Darkonda agrees, and they accept the wager. The warrior puts down his cards, apparently with a decent suit, but Darkonda has one better-five zanabatars, which we'd learn next season are a form of currency on Onyx. But Andros has a zinta, a much better set, and the warrior accuses him of cheating and pulls a blaster on him. Barely breaking a sweat, Andros kicks the guy's knee out from under him and holds the blaster on him, claiming to show mercy on him because he's in a good mood.
Intriuged and impressed by Andros's skills at cards and fighting, Darkonda buys him a drink, offering to buy the keycards off him. Andros claims to need them to buy information about something valuable on KO-35, and Darkonda claims to be an expert on the planet, so Andros agrees to the deal. He describes the planet's geography and claims that he looted everything of value after the colony was deserted. But he brags about a "job" he did, kidnapping Karone, not noticing that Andros crushes his cup in rage when he hears this. Andros starts to walk away and asks him what happened to her, and Darkonda affirms she's alive and swears he'd never believe where she ended up...before spotting the morpher sticking out of Andros's sleeve. Once again, we see that Andros + anyplace that serves alcohol = awesome fight scene as they give into their inner swashbucklers and have an awesome fight scene. Seriously, this isn't even a Koichi episode, but the action is insane. Andros steals a sword from some guy, jumps onto the bar, throws back Darkonda, then flips down to continue the swordfight, and they fight their way up the stairs. Once they're on the balcony, Darkonda rips off Andros's hood, giving him the opportunity to steal the keycards. That's two now, Andros-what was that about hating thieves again? He throws his sword as a diversion, then channels the Three Musketeers and leaps off the balcony and catches himself on the chandelier to break his fall. Outside, he morphs, gets on his Galaxy Glider, and evades Velocifighters and tricks them into colliding. Note that this is all original footage. It is awesome.
He returns to the Megaship, where everyone's wondered where he's been. He asks Alpha to check and see if the keycards really are Zordon's, and Darkonda sends a transmission from Earth, ransoming information on Karone for the keycards. Andros has to explain to the others that Darkonda kidnapped her, impressing on everyone just how personal this has become. Alpha confirms that the keycards are Eltaran, and Andros heads down with them, followed by the others. The Rangers aren't willing to give up the keycards without a fight, but Darkonda's happy to oblige, taking his strength potion and becoming even faster and more powerful. He almost has them beat when Ecliptor's poison takes effect, causing immense pain and making him bleed out green slime. He retreats, leaving the Rangers confused but not really surprised that someone tried to assassinate him. He staggers away and finds Ecliptor, who takes just a moment to gloat before teleporting away. Darkonda thrashes in pain, raging against Ecliptor before becoming giant-sized and mutated. He fires on the Rangers and on the city in an arc. The Rangers take to battle in the Astro Delta Megazord, but he's completely out of control. Astronema learns of the battle and watches, demanding to know what the fuck is going on, and Ecliptor claims it's proof that Darkonda is untrustworthy.
Darkonda deflects the Flying Power Punch back at the Astro Delta and causes significant damage. With their defenses going offline and their power levels dropping, Andros suggests converting their energy into a cyclone and drill right through him. They try, but it's not enough. Darkonda regains his faculties, though injured enough to drop a chunk of flesh that mutates into a squid monster. Both monsters attack, and the Megazord goes down in defeat...