Curse of the Cobra

Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue, Episode 14

Original Airdate: 5-13-2000

Last Time: Ryan impulsively went down to Tijuana to get a cobra tattoo, and then claimed that Diabolico had magically branded him with it to cover his embarrassment.

At the ziggurat o' sin, Diabolico is in a bind because his last three monsters failed in their mission to kill the Rangers. However, the monsters are still alive, so he sends them out with some sort of magical trinket and hopes for the best.

Down on the aquabase, Ryan wonders who the hell built all of the shit the Rangers use. It turns out that it's just some anonymous techs. Captain Mitchell bonds with his son, and then Ryan goes off to get another look at this cobra tattoo. You know the worst part about Diabolico's curse? That the cobra tattoo looks so very, very lame. Credits!

Ryan remembers that the cobra will move up his back every time he morphs, and Carter comes up and sees the tattoo from a distance. And...wouldn't you know it, Ryan needs to morph almost immediately as the three monsters attack Mariner Bay again. I do appreciate that they don't fuck around this season and try and fight before morphing. Anyway, there's a bit of a tussle and Ryan's back tattoo starts hurting him as it moves up his back. Carter notices what's happening and is understandably concerned. One of the monsters uses the trinket given to him by Diabolico and clones himself.

This bodes poorly for the Rangers until Carter shoots one of the doubled monsters and realizes that hurting one hurts both. Okay, this was not one of Diabolico's better efforts. The monsters get bored fighting the Rangers, and decide to run to find some fresh scenery. Yeah, that's right, this fight scene is so tedious that even the characters on-screen are bored. Ryan goes down due to his cobra tattoo, but the other Rangers pursue the monsters and get blown up. It's kind of awkward because the Titanium Ranger is an American creation, so doesn't appear in any of the Sentai footage.

Anyway, the Rangers decide to run away to "help Ryan." Ryan get forcibly de-morpher by the monster he's fighting, which is a problem, what with the curse and all. Elsewhere, the other Rangers continue to bravely run away. Everyone but Carter gets blasted, but Carter sneaks up behind the monsters and threatens them with the Rescue Bird gun and his V-Lancer, ordering them to call off the monster attacking Ryan. The monsters are pretty sure that Carter will end up killing himself if he fires both guns at the same time, and call his bluff. Carter pusses out, but the cloned monster forces the issue and is blown to bits for his trouble, and as per the rules of the cloning, the monster fighting Ryan dies too.

However, it appears that Carter is also dead. But, Carter emerges from the wreckage with only a few smoking holes in his uniform. Diabolico decides to make the dead monster grow for pacing reasons. Supertrain time? No! The Rangers call out the Lightspeed Megazord instead. It doesn't work, so Carter decides that he might as well give the Supertrain a try. The two megazords team up and kill the monster.

Later, Diabolico is rather frustrated by his rapidly dwindling supply of monsters. Back at the aquabase, Ryan is still checking out his tattoo, which kind of looks more like some sort of body paint than a real tattoo. Of course, I'm reasonably sure that's because it is body paint. Carter stops by to reveal that he knows about the tattoo, and saw it move during the fight. Ryan decides to admit that he's totally going to die if he keeps morphing, but that he's going to keep doing it to impress his father.

And, in fact, Captain Mitchell himself walks in, as he hears all and sees all....or because he happened to overhear it as he was passing by the room. Captain Mitchell demands to see the tattoo, and having looked at its rather banal design, decides to ban Ryan from further Ranger activities as a protest against his son's lack of taste. Or maybe because he'd prefer not to send his son to his certain death. Or both....it could be both. Show Over!

Next Time: Ryan complies with his dad's directive and refrains from becoming the Titanium Ranger....for roughly three minutes.