Go Volcanic

Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue, Episode 9

Original Airdate: 4-8-2000

Last Time: Kelsey learned an important lesson from Chad about not running into exploding buildings.

The episode begins with a look at the stately volcano that overlooks Mariner Bay. Dana has created a device to measure volcanic activity and is heading to the volcano to get some data. Meanwhile the other Rangers are getting some hot dogs with the Humvee, and so Dana is forced to take the bus to the volcano. Apparently the aquabase has many amazing weapons in its arsenal, but only one car. Wait, why is Dana suddenly a geologist anyway, I thought she was a paramedic?

At the ziggurat o' darkness, the spirit of Queen Bansheera shows up and complains about her palace not being rebuilt yet. Diabolico explains that they need to blow up Mariner Bay first, and well, you know how that's been going. Credits!

Dana gets on the bus headed for the volcano and notices a dark-skinned man wearing all black, sunglasses and a ski cap. She racial profiles him. Meanwhile, the demons decide to ignite the volcano and thus destroy the city. Diabolico signs off on the plan, and a monster named Trifire is recruited to do the heavy lifting.

The monster heads to the volcano and starts breating fire into the volcano. In the aquabase, Captain Mitchell and Ms. Fairweather realize that a monster is screwing around with the volcano. On the bus, the driver stops because of the volcanic instability, but the suspicious guy from earlier stands up, pulls out a gun and forces the driver to continue up the mountain. Captain Mitchell calls Dana to explain the situation, but the bandit of unknown ethnicity makes her shut her communicator off. Dana decides to fight the hijacker and the earth starts quaking, leading to the criminal of non-whiteness hanging on to the open door as the bus is perched dangerous on the edge of a bridge.

The other Rangers have made it back to the aquabase in the meantime, and Captain Mitchell sends them to deal with the volcano. On the bus, Dana is trying to pull the hijacker back onto the bus, since the dude weighs about twice as much as her, it's not going well. The other riders on the bus decide to help her and the bus continues to teeter over the edge of the bridge. They manage to get the felon back on the bus, but can't stop the bus from slowly rolling off the bridge into a gorge.

However, the rest of the Rangers have now arrived, and Joel gets sent to save the bus. Joel saves the bus, but calls himself "sky cowboy" in the process, which makes the whole rescue a net negative. The other Rangers catch up to Dana, who checks her volcanic meter to learn that, yes, the volcanic activity is abnormally high...which I think everybody already knew. The bus driver's shoulder is all out of wack, however, so the bus is stuck. The armed thug reveals that he knows how to drive a bus, but no one's really thrilled with the idea. Still, there's no other option

The Rangers head off to the volcano and come face to three faces with Trifire. Back on the bus, the armed thug drives the bus and wins the trust of all of the people that he threatened with a gun. The Rangers literally blow Trifire to bits, but Jinxer manages to piece him back together in giant form. It does Trifire no good as he gets killed again.

At the bottom of the mountain, the hijacker has successfully gotten the bus to its destination. Dana calls him a hero, and the people on the bus disagree. The police show up, because of the felonies and all. Dana tries to explain that the hijacker did something good, but armed robbery and kidnapping aren't really the sort of crimes that character witnesses are going to nullify and he gets taken away.

Queen Bansheera and the demons discuss their next plan which....will be revealed next episode! Show Over!

Next Time: Supertrain!