The Lone Wolf

Power Rangers: Wild Force, Episode 16

Original Airdate: 5-18-2002

Last Time: The Rangers killed Zen-Aku when about seventeen Deus ex Machinas happened in a row. A towering victory for fans of contrivance everywhere!

The Rangers show up and find Merrick's unconscious body. He wakes up and is confused that the people he's tried to kill about a billion times now trust him unconditionally. That's....a good point. It takes him about ten seconds before he decides against joining the team because of his guilt over being Zen-Aku. In fairness, he did willingly put on a cursed mask, so it's not like he had no idea that something would go terribly wrong.

Later, on the Animarium, the Rangers are wondering how to get Merrick to join the team. They ask Shayla for advice....which gets them nothing.

Meanwhile, Toxica and Jindrax are singing and dancing along the beach about the death of Zen-Aku. Merrick shows up to freak them the hell out, and asks to see Master Org. Fortunately, Master Org shows up and Merrick offers to serve him....five seconds before trying to steal the crystals back. Yeah, the other Rangers have kind of forgotten about those. It doesn't go well, and Merrick gets blasted for a bit and tries to call on his animal powers, but they don't work. For some reason, the inspires Master Org to fuse the crystals he's stolen into a new monster.

The other Rangers notice this on their magic pool and show up to help Merrick. The Rangers continue their losing streak against the QuadraOrg, which defeats them rather convincingly. Merrick realizes that the other Rangers are useless and decides to fight the monster by himself...unmorphed. He still does better than the main team. Merrick still gets beaten, but his crystals start working again and turn into a morpher. He turns into the Wolf Ranger and beats the monster by using his crystals as billards balls and his power weapon as a pool cue. Er...I guess pool was big 3000 years ago.

Megazord time! Merrick decides to summon his zords via magical billards, and summons the Predazord, which was never evil, just misunderstood. The Rangers summon their stupid megazord with the soccer attack, which it uses, and the monster is killed. Man do I hate that damned soccer attack....it just looks so stupid.

Nayzor decides to retreat, but Merrick cuts him off and impales him against a rock. That kills the monster, and Toxica and Jindrax retreat. Merrick gets the crystals back and returns them to the Rangers. They're excited that he's part of the team....and Merrick walks off, because he has no interest in being part of this awful, awful team. Show Over!

Next Time: Merrick asks himself, "What would Dalton do?"