Monitoring Earth

Power Rangers: Wild Force, Episode 32

Original Airdate: 9-28-2002

Last Time: The Rangers summoned every single zord at their disposal for what's in all likelihood the longest megazord battle in the show's history.

In the evil base o' Orgs, Mandilok realizes that something's up with Kite, and decides to convince him to be on the Org's side.

Back on the Animarium, Kite has woken up early and is watching TV. Unfortunately, the TV appears to be tuned to the 24-hours Environmental Disaster Network. This makes Kite angry, and the Rangers explain that destroying the environment is the price of progress. Kite wants the Rangers to take a more militant stand in regards to protecting the environment, and Taylor takes umbrage at the budding eco-terrorist's rant. Kite runs off. The Rangers except for Taylor go after him, while Taylor really can't be bothered. The Rangers have no luck, and Taylor is reasonably sure that Kite will be back.

Down at the nearest Superfund site, Kite laments how much man has destroyed his own planet. Mandilok and his two goons show up to make a pitch to Kite about killing all the humans.

At Willie's Roadhouse, Merrick is playing some pool while Cole complains about not finding Cole. I'm kind of surprised that Merrick didn't beat Cole with a pool cue the minute he stepped foot in Merrick's homebase. Merrick explains that Kite is no ordinary boy, and that he's definitely someone from Merrick's past.

Meanwile, Mandilok has taken Kite to some sort of hellish trashyard, and convinces Kite that the humans totally deserve to be killed by the Orgs. We see the birth of the Television Org, which comes complete with Goldar's voice. The TV Org starts its assault by sucking people into television screens or monitors or really anything of the sort. This includes an unrealistically large crowd that appears to have come to see a youth soccer game.

The Rangers move in to deal with the new monster at the soccer stadium. They see the people trapped in the Jumbotron. Mandilok shows up to announce the defection of Kite to the Orgs. Apparently he's so upset with the Rangers for not stopping the humans from polluting that he's decided to throw in with the group who want to kill everyone and everything on the planet. We'll learn later that this is even dumber than it appears. The Rangers make an abortive attempt to rescue Kite, which becomes quite unnecessary when Kite stops an SUV coming at him with his mind...and then drops it on the Rangers. Merrick and Cole manage to recover enough to kill the TV Org dead, though.

This frees the people trapped in the monitors, but that doesn't mean that the Rangers can skip the megazord leg of the fight. The Rangers call out the Wild Force Megazord ominously early. Mandilok convinces Kite that the Wild Zords are being used as weapons by the evil, evil humans. Merrick, who's fighting Toxica and Jindrax, tells him not to listen to Mandilok, who could not look and sound more obviously villainous if he tried.

The TV Org makes a bunch of copies of itself...which proves a useful tactic for roughly five seconds before the Rangers kill them all. A bug lands on the Wild Force Megazord and the villains take control of it for the second episode in a row. Kite decides to reveal his true form....Animus. No, I don't believe it! The Rangers realize that this might be a problem.

Animus declares that he's taking his Wild Zords and going home, leaving the Rangers and Orgs to kill each other without their support. Mandilok decides to use the Wild Force Megazord to kill Animus before things get out of hand, but Animus defuses the bug in about five seconds. The villains flee in a panic.

The Rangers, meanwhile, try to reason with Animus, but he's decided to take away the Wild Zords from the Rangers. Taylor points out that that leaves the Rangers at a rather crippling strategic disadvantage, but Animus doesn't really care. The Wild Zords all vanish, and Shayla collapses. The narrator comes back to inform us that the writers ran out of running time to explain what her deal is, but that she's in a coma until the Wild Zords return. Thanks, Mr. Narrator! To Be Continued!

Next Time: The Rangers teach Animus a lesson about the human spirit...or something!