The End of the Power Rangers, Part II

Power Rangers: Wild Force, Episode 40

Original Airdate: 11-16-2002

Last Time: Master Org rose from the grave and destroyed all of the Rangers' power and zords, which, this season being what it was, took an entire episode.

The Animarium is plummeting to earth and the Rangers brace for impact. Surprisingly, the impact doesn't hurt anyone of anything, and only briefly knocks the Rangers down. From the surface, the Rangers see Master Org rampaging throughout the city, but aren't quite sure how the hell they're going to do anything to stop him. Cole gives the first of several speeches on the power of the human spirit and rallies the team.

In the city, Master Org is slowly smashing Turtle Cove, which doesn't seem like a particularly efficient way of conquering the Earth, but, whatever. The Rangers are forced to fight some Putrids, in a move that tells me that the story was only about thirty-five minutes long, and they couldn't cut it down to one part. Cole sees a child in danger, and reverts to his most primal instinct by ripping off his shirt, grabbing a vine and swinging over to save him. You know, looking at Cole without his shirt, I suppose it's not surprising that his actor was the only former Ranger to become a male exotic dancer. This rallies the Rangers once again, and they defeat the Putrids. Cole then decides to take it to the next level by using a vine to make a swinging kick into Master Org's giant-sized chest.....which could not have possibly worked. Get it together, Cole!

The Rangers reassemble on a rooftop that gives the Rangers a good view of Master Org's crotch. Master Org taunts them a bit, which leads to Cole giving another speech about spirit or something, and the Rangers then proceed to introduce themselves to Master Org with their code names for some reason. Master Org is unimpressed, but the skies magically clear up and some glowing orbs rain down from the heavens and destroy Master Org's army of Putrids. It turns out that in addition to the two dozen zords the Rangers had this season, there are hundreds of other Wild Zords out there. The Rangers original zords also return to give them their powers back and they morph. The Rangers then introduce themselves again in case we forgot who they were in the intervening minute and a half.

Master Org, realizing that he's probably not going to win against hundred of Wild Zords that can't be killed, freaks out a bit at this turn of events. Several hundred zords then fire on Master Org at once kills him, and the Rangers finish off the Org Heart.

Well, time to wrap things up. Cole says goodbye to the Lion Zord, and the Rangers assemble to immediately be mustered out of service by Shayla, who explains that she must leave to keep the giant animals of death safe from....I don't know, giant metal poachers. She also fires Merrick from his position as bodyguard, who doesn't seem particularly depressed about never seeing Shayla again. Shayla then asks for their morphers and team jackets back. Okay, I can see why she'd need the morphers back, but I'm not quite clear on why she needs to take the jackets away. Maybe she wants to resell the game-worn jackets on the collector's market. They then exchange some platitudes about not forgetting each other. Shayla leaves and takes the Animarium with her.

Narration time! Alyssa tells the story of what happened to the Rangers after the got dismissed. Cole decides to visit his parents' graves again and places some flowers. He also puts a flower on Dr. Adler's grave, because apparently he's forgiven the man for trying to kill roughly three dozen times. He then "helped animals" in ways Alyssa does elaborate on. Taylor rejoined the Air Force, who I guess didn't ask too many questions about where the hell she disappeared to for several years. She then flew a poorly rendered fighter alongside her old zord.

Max and Danny weren't interesting enough to get their own epilogues, so decided to travel the world together, donning many ridiculous and slightly offensively stereotypical costumes agaisnt many greenscreened monuments. Meanwhile Merrick and Zen-Aku decided to wander the Earth together in search of redemption. Christ, why couldn't I have watched that show for forty episodes? And finally, Alyssa became a kindergarten teacher, and just narrated this story to a bunch of five year-olds who don't believe her. Show Over! Season Over! Power Rangers that actually sound American Over!

Next Time: Ninjas and the mystery of the wandering accent.