Shift Into Turbo, Part 2

Original Air Date: 4-26-1997

Last Time: The Rangers reminisced, and Divatox planned to ruin a graduation ceremony. So, uh, nothing really.

Anyway, Kat, Tanya and Adam are all at their graduation ceremony where the principal is giving a speech about something. For some reason, everyone's concerned about where Justin is, because the writers figure that if the other Rangers care about Justin, then you, the viewer will too. There are incorrect.

Justin, surrounded by Piranhatrons, morphs, or rather, "Shifts into Turbo," and becomes the Blue Ranger, and since the Japanese had no intention of springing for abnormally short stuntman when making their version of the show, that means Justin is now an adult, which will lead to roughly 1000 moments where the interplay between the full-size body and the child-voiced voiceover sounds rather awkward. Back at the ceremony, Adam has had enough, and needs to know where Justin is right now! Zordon tells him that he sent a lone tween to prevent a power plant explosion. Adam decides it might be wise to give Justin some help.

As the Rangers are running towards somewhere they can teleport from, Divatox shows up with her goon squad, and gives the following speech, "Hello Rangers, I just wanted to extend my congratulations. (to Piranhatrons) Get them!" Now that's economy of speech! It's worth noting that Kat gets to fight unmorphed....which is unfortunate, because Catherine Sutherland is really not so good at it, and isn't helped by the fact that Adam is played by a professional stuntman.

Kat and Tanya morph, and are instantly at the power plant, while Adam also morphs and gets beaten up by the Piranhatrons. Zordon finally decides that he has no choice but to call in Tommy who is still racing around an empty track. Tommy morphs and then beats all of the Piranhatrons with his super-speed...somehow. Divatox taunts them and then retreats. Tommy and Adam head to the Power Plant where Elgar further taunts them and then retreats.

The Rangers run around the plant for a while, but decide that only some piece of equipment back at the Power Chamber can help them. Meanwhile, Divatox stands around on her sub and taunts the Rangers some more. Justin shows up at the Power Chamber, and it's worth noting that for obvious reasons, when his helmet is off, he looks incredibly dorky in his kid-sized Ranger outfit. Anyway, he sees Alpha staring at a mysterious wormhole, takes the gadget and leaves. Alpha and Zordon discuss how no one must know of their secret plan, but that the time is near. FORESHADOWING!

Divatox notes that her taunting strategem has apparently not beaten the Rangers into submission, so she decides to send more Piranhatrons. They show up, but not before the Rangers locate the device. With only second to spare, the Rangers call the mighty Rapid Arsenal Mobilizer....which is essentially a souped-up RC car, which then drives about fifty feet away before the bomb explodes. I guess it wasn't a very good bomb. Back at the Power Chamber, Zordon and Alpha continue their mysterious scheming.

The principal, being the true hero in all of this, has apparently been holding up the entire ceremony so Kat could have the opportunity to give a speech. And she does, and they graduate, and we see Rocky for last time, silently lamenting his fate. They then head immediately to the juice bar, where they run into Lt. Stone and the Bulk and Skull chimps. Inevitably, this leads to Lt. Stone get covered in an ice cream sundae.

Down at the ol' Power Chamber, the weird-Ewok thing from the movie shows up to help Alpha and Zordon with their mysterious plan that involves a wormhole, and that it is almost time to tell the Rangers what is going on. In her sub, Divatox also sees the wormhole and instantly susses out that Zordon intends to use it to go to his home on Eltar, which is the kind of amazing insight you don't expect to see from a woman who was just defeated by a twelve year-old and a remote-controlled toy car. So she totally has a plan to stop him from going home and keep him on Earth where he can continue to assist and advise her enemies. Divatox doesn't really think these things through.