Shift Into Turbo, Part 3

Original Air Date: 4-30-1997

Last Time: Divatox attempted to ruin the Rangers' high school graduation out of spite! She...uh...didn't succeed. Meanwhile, Zordon and Alpha planned to get the hell off of Earth.

The episode begins with Tommy still driving practice laps, I guess to really hammer home the message that Tommy is now a race car driver, as if the writers can't really believe themselves, and hope that if they repeat the lie enough, then we'll believe it too. Back at the juice bar, the writers decide to double-down on poor character development choices by having the principal show up and claim that Justin is so smart that he is going to start high school several years early. Let's just say that Justin's intelligence will mainly be an informed ability. And....theme!

Down in the space-sub, Divatox and crew are planning a full assault on Angel Grove...just because. The Rangers get called into the Power Chamber and get reacquainted with Lerigot, who looks like an demented Ewok, talks like the mentally disabled and may be the least plausible super-wizard in all of fiction. Then, finally, Zordon drops the hammer by explaining that he's leaving to go home, so that he can be with his family, and dodge an indictment by the Hague for his use of child soldiers.

Meanwhile, Divatox learns of the appearance of the Ewok-Wizard and demands that Porto figure some way to close the wormhole. At le Chamber d'Power, the Rangers are bummed that Big Z and A-Dog are leaving, but Zordon assures them that he's made "arrangements," we'll soon find out that they aren't so much arrangements as a last parting shot at out planet.

Porto shows up with a device to close the wormhole and a monster to guard said device, damn he's fast. Zordon makes his final goodbyes and then....the wormhole starts to close because of Porto's gadget. Zordon points out that he can probably get home later, and that missing this wormhole only means that he has to stay on Earth. Way to lower the stakes there, big guy.

Anyway, Elgar is also piloting some sort of war machine towards Angel Grove, so the Rangers have to head off to stop them. The Rangers respond with their Zords...which are really just cars. They have a Zord fight, but it kind of devolves to cars crashing into each other for a while, and then Justin jumps a cliff for no reason.

Eventually they decide to form the Megazord, which, this season, involves crashing their cars into each other. From what I understand, Carranger, the show they culled footage from was basically a comedy, and well, one joke was that the Rangers had a tough time putting together the Turbo Megazord. Of course, in the movie they had already been shown to know exactly how to do it, but well, stock footage demands and Power Rangers writers must obey.

Anyway after a good long while, they manage to get the Turbo Megazord, and the enemies, apparently having seen Power Rangers before, know where this is going and decide to run away before they get blown the hell up. The Rangers celebrate and get back to the Power Chamber just in time to see Zordon and Alpha get out of Dodge. The wormhole continues to close, and Lerigot says something incomprehensible and the Rangers somehow figure out exactly what's happening and rush off to fight the monster, which appears to be some sort of frog man wearing jeans.

They fight him for a bit, and seeing that the episode's almost over, Divatox fires some torpedos that apparently cause the monster to grow to giant-sized. Not sure how that works, but sure. The Rangers call for the Turbo Megazord, and it appears just in time to stop the Frog-Monster from ravaging an unknown Japanese city in an unconvincing green screen effect. Anyway, the Rangers use their final attack, which involves them spinning around really fast and then running into the monster. The Rangers celebrate again and head back to the Power Chamber, completely forgetting to shut off the device that was closing the wormhole, which, being a team player, apparently shuts itself off. But Zordon and Alpha are gone, gone, gone.

But suddenly, with a "Yo, yo, yo" the streetwise Alpha 6 shows up to cheer the Rangers up. Within thirty seconds she tells Justin to "take a picture, it'll last longer." It's going to be a long season. Then, suddenly, Dimitria shows up in a flash of light and sound. Alpha 6 notes that, "she's know how ta make an entrance, don't she?" Shut up, Alpha 6. Kat asks if Dimitria knows who they are. Dimitria responds by asking Kat if she knows who they are. Shut up, Dimitria. You see, Dimitria can only talk in questions, which makes her dialogue alternately supremely awkward or stupidly unhelpful. Awesome character. Down at the space-sub, Divatox is also pissed about Dimitria being on the show and vows revenge, and honestly, I'm totally down with that.