Secrets and Lies

Power Rangers: Wild Force, Episode 18

Original Airdate: 6-8-2002

Last Time: Merrick hung out at the Double Deuce and got a new motorcycle.

In the evil lair of evil, Jindrax catches Master Org interrogating Toxica with the help of some force electricity. Jindrax steps in to save them, and Master Org sends them out to get a new Org.

In town, Alyssa sees Cole looking for his parents....by talking to local dogs. Now that seems stupid, but when you consider that given Cole's age as well as the fact that he was a baby when his parents died, it turns out that the dogs weren't even alive when Cole's parents were murdered. Of course, then again, he was talking to dogs, which isn't the sort of plan that really needs nit-picking.

Alyssa decides to help out the moron by using the power of microfiche to find Cole's parents. She finds something in about ten seconds but has to wait for the printer to print it out before reading the information because....er, I have no idea. But it has to be printed, and since the writers are just putting up all sorts of arbitrary roadblocks to finding out the truth, the printer is apparently from roughly 1985 and therefore takes forever to print. And yet, that's not enough for the writers, so an Org attacks before the printing is completed and Alyssa and Cole have to deal with that.

The Org of the week is Signal Org, who has all of the mighty power of a traffic signal. Now, you probably didn't know this, but traffic signals have specials beams that can cause amnesia and thus Cole loses his memory. The monster then decides to ensure that the revelation about Cole's parents' fate is delayed even further by knocking him into a river.

The rest of the Rangers eventually find Alyssa, but Cole is still missing. The missing Ranger turns up on a farm where he wakes up to find that he's in the home of some Real Americans. The kind who work hard on their family farms, but worry about the future because of the terrible burden that the estate tax will put on their daughter. Won't you write your Congressman about making sure that the death tax stays dead?

Wait, where was I? Oh, yeah, Cole is an amnesiac on a farm. Ma and Pa Whitebread let him stay and work on the farm.

On the Animarium, Alyssa is still depressed and the Rangers search for Cole in the least helpful ways imaginable, including Max and Danny standing out in the middle of nowhere yelling 'Cole.' Alyssa gets the phone call that the article about Cole's parent has finally finished printing, and that took, what, like a day and a half or something? Alyssa looks at paper and sees an unpleasant truth about Cole's parents.

Somehow, Max and Danny's wandering have led them right to Cole. On the farm, Cole's ability to talk to the animals has allowed him to be super-efficient at cow management. The Rangers show up and Taylor has no patience for this nonsense and wants to get Cole back to work. Alyssa disagrees because she's knows the truth about Coles' parents...and it's not pleasant. She shows the Rangers the article, which manages to have a typo in the headline. Anyway, it turns out that Cole's parents, another scientist, and Cole himself are all presumed dead. So, Cole's a zombie? Taylor isn't particularly concerned, and still wants to drag Cole back into the fight against the Orgs. The other Rangers, having but .56 of a spine between the three of them, cave instantly.

They introduce themselves to Cole and the hot farmer chick that he's been hanging out with, and try to take him back. The farmer girl wants him to stay, but Cole, despite not remembering these people at all, instantly decides to go. But enough of that, it's time for another fight with Signal Org. Cole doesn't remember how to fight, so he can't help, and the Rangers gets beaten, and Cole insist the he can help. Taylor, realizing that the worst that could happen is Cole getting killed and her becoming leader of the Rangers again, gives Cole his morpher back. Lamentably, Cole doesn't die and instead leads the Rangers to victory over Signal Org.

And this somehow causes Cole's memory to come back. Eh, I guess that plot thread did need to get disposed of. Okay, time for the megazord battle. Come on, no soccer, no soccer, no soccer....and yes, the Rangers go with the Giraffe Spear! Signal Org dies again and is sent to perdition.

Later, Toxica, having learned nothing from Master Org frying her at the beginning of the episode, decides to investigate Master Org further. She finds a picture of a human-looking Master Org hanging out with Cole's parents....just in time for Master Org to come in. Toxica knocks off Master Org's horn and...yep, he's human. Unfortunately, that revelation does them no good as Master Org entwines the pair in vines and places them under his mental control.

At the local graveyard, Shayla and the Rangers find Cole's parents' graves....also, Cole's grave. He's on the verge of tears, although since the graves are empty, and they mistakenly put up a grave for Cole himself, I don't know that this proves that they're actually dead. Then again, Cole probably thinks that finding his own grave means that he's dead and is sad that he died without getting a chance to say goodbye to himself. Taylor points out this obvious discrepancy, which cheers Cole up, albeit not enough to get him to dance on his own grave, which would have been funny. Show Over!

Next Time: Hey, remember that episode of Turbo where T.J. had to learn to hit a curveball or else everyone would die? No? Well, it happened. Anyway, it took the producers five years, but they finally managed to figure out a way to make that plot even dumber.