Always a Chance

Power Rangers in Space, Episode 25

Original Airdate: 10-17-1998

Last Time: The writers, in a rare act of mercy, gave us all a respite from Zhane. But for how long?

At some sort of secret installation, a frog monster is draining power or something with his tongue. The Rangers show up, and Andros explains that the monster is actually stealing knowledge from the nearby scientists. The Rangers bust in, and the monster, named Liz-Wizard shows off his ability to trade places with anyone he hits with his tongue. Credits! Er...that was an underwhelming cold opening, especially given the guest star that this episode is going to trot out.

The Rangers continue their fight, and Liz-Wizard manages to grab Cassie with his tongue. Carlos, having learned nothing, immediately charges the monster. Predictably, Liz-Wizard switches places and creams Cassie. Liz-Wizard decides to leave on a high note and teleports out. Carlos immediately starts brooding. On the Megaship, Cassie's arm is now on a sling but otherwise seems okay. Carlos, however, is overcome with guilt. He never wanted to become captain of the soccer team this way! Wait....that was last season. Okay, this time he feels bad about accidently hurting Cassie. Anyway, Cassie instantly forgives him, but Carlos is too caught up in angsting. They're going to have to call in an angst specialist to help him deal with this problem.

On the Dark Fortress, Liz-Wizard is regurgitating the information for Astronema, who declares that she will use the information to conquer Earth. Apparently Earth technology is way more effective than whatever Astronema has on hand in terms of conquering planets. Well, whatever, I hope she starts by destroying Miami. It turns out they still need another piece of information.

On Earth, Bulk, Skull and Phenomenus are screwing around with some hoses. Wait, they're still on this show? It turns out that Phenomenus holds the last piece of information needed to destroy the Earth. That sounds about right. On a nearby rooftop, Carlos is brooding some more about hurting Ashley. He notices the comic trio being pursued by Liz-Wizard and decides to help, but hesitates because of his angst. Carlos wrestles with his emotions some more. He finally manages to morph. They struggle, and Liz-Wizard uses his power of invisibility, that he apparently has, to attack Carlos from behind. Carlos gets beaten down. Meanwhile, sensing that his successor has gone all emo once again, Adam flies out of nowhere to save the day. It soon becomes apparent that Adam unmorphed is actually more effective than Carlos morphed, confirming a suspicion I think we all had about Carlos' relative competence. Adam basically fights off the monster by himself.

Carlos explains to Adam about his recent sucking, and Adam agrees to help him out. Adam tells him to basically get over it. Carlos is unreceptive to the message, so Adam decides to go to phase 2 of his plan to help Carlos. Adam decides to actually train him, which beats his previous strategy of basically saying "Yeah, I know this guy on the soccer team I coach, he'll probably be fine at being a Power Ranger." He then decides to teach Carlos to fight blindfolded. Unsurprisingly, he's able to beat Carlos pretty handily when the latter is blind, although he'd probably win even if Carlos weren't blindfolded. Hell, he'd probably win if Carlos were allowed to use the megazord against him. Carlos gives up and decides to quit the Power Rangers. So...there's a vacancy and Adam's already there? I'm just saying, I wish that had been how the episode went. Anyway, Carlos runs off.

Adam turns to talk to Alpha, who had been watching the fight. He wishes he were still a Ranger. I do too. He shows Alpha his busted up morpher from way back when he still had those Mastodon powers. Alpha explains that if Adam uses that morpher, he might die. Adam ponders Chekov's morpher.

On the Megaship, Carlos turns in his morpher and communicator. The other Rangers are incredulous at his decision. On the Dark Fortress, Astronema decides to give the Liz-Wizard one last chance, and orders him to destroy the Black Ranger. Carlos goes back to Earth to tell Adam that he's quit. Adam wonders how long it would take him to get a copy of his resume to the other Rangers. Unfortunately, he'll never have the chance, as the two are suddenly attacked by Liz-Wizard and some Quatrons. Adam realizes that he and Carlos don't have enough power to beat both the Quantrons and the monster and grabs his morpher. Alpha warns him it's too dangerous, but Adam spent all episode telling Carlos that he has the accept some risk, and as a believer in Bayesian risk assessment himself, decides to go for it. "It's Morphin' Time! Mastodon" and Adam is back in the original Black Ranger gear. He sends Carlos away and proceeds to fight the monster.

Unfortunately, the morpher was broken, so Adam's powers are unstable. Carlos decides that he probably shouldn't leave his friend to die and goes back to help. The other Rangers also show up and give Carlos his morpher back. Liz-Wizard gets Adam with his tongue, and Carlos is confronted with a repeat of the situation from earlier in the episode. This time, Carlos manages to hit the monster instead. Up in the Dark Fortress, Astronema is displeased at yet another nostalgic episode and fires the satellilasers. Adam's powers finally run out. The other Rangers call for the Astro Megazord, and it actually manages to finish the monster by itself in about five seconds.

The Rangers rush back to the park to make sure Adam's okay. He is, and they all celebrate. Show Over!

Next Time: We all learn the whereabouts of Andros' sister! More accurately, Andros' learns what we've all known for some time now.