Ocean Blue

Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue, Episode 28

Original Airdate: 11-4-2000

Last Time: Kelsey found a thief and browbeat him into become a menial day-laborer. Who's the real villain here?

On the beach, Vypra frees a mermaid chained to a rock. Wait, that doesn't sound right at all! It's all part of Vypra's master plan to....I have no idea. Credits!

Later, at the local pier, some teenagers are throwing trash into the ocean, which upsets the mermaid. Chad's also there and bitches to the kids to stop it. They start throwing trash at him instead. It may be the most realistic moment in this show's history. In response, Chad kicks the pier so hard that it knocks the kids off of the dock and into the water. Verisimilitude lost! Chad notices the mermaid but only sees her top half. Kelsey calls Chad out of the water, and the mermaid vanishes.

Back at the aquabase, Captain Mitchell is abusing his power to order the Rangers around by making Chad reconnect some severed video cables. Chad fixes the cable as the mermaid watches, and a rock fall starts tumbling towards him. He eventually makes it back to the aquabase, but loses consciousness. When he wakes up, he remember being rescued by a mysterious girl who was able to breathe underwater. The other Rangers leave him to recuperate, and as soon as they do, the mermaid reappears in the window of the aquabase and Chad realizes that she's real...and a mermaid...and that he's in love with a mermaid. It's been a big day for the guy.

The mermaid returns back to her home and finds Vypra waiting for her. The mermaid spontaneously starts talking about how much she loves Chad. Vypra has somehow seen this entire thing coming and has already prepared a trap in the form of a dolphin pin that the mermaid can give to Chad in order to win his heart. I mean, I could understand thinking ahead, but I just have no idea how Vypra put this all together. I guess she saw the chained mermaid and thought, "Well, if I free her, then she'll probably hang around at the beach, and Chad'll probably head down there at some point, and, Chad being Chad, will do something ocean-friendly. This will inspire the mermaid to fall in love with Chad, and that's when I'll make my move."

Later, Chad has taken a jet ski to the middle of the ocean to look for the mermaid, but has no luck. He parks his jst ski at the dock, and only then does the mermaid reappear. The mermaid introduces herself as Marina, and gives Chad Vypra's gift. The gift forms chains around Chad and he's carted off by Vypra and some Batlings. Vypra immediately starts torturing Chad with her inability to inflect properly, and Marina manages to get captured as well. Of course, the villains not exactly being a brain trust, they decide to kill Marina by attaching an anchor to her fish tail and sinking her under the water. She's a mermaid, damn it! How the hell is that supposed to work?

Vypra then decides to delay killing Chad just long enough for him to escape his chains. Then Chad, being the brilliant man that he is, decides that he, who cannot breathe underwater, has no choice but to dive under the sea in order to save Marina. He saves her and then emerges from the water to confront Vypra. Chad fights some Batlings, and then the other Rangers show up. Vypra and Loki retreat, but not before Vypra announces that she's found the Rangers' weakness "love." Even Loki isn't buying that one.

Later, Chad waits for Marina at the pier. She shows up to explain that she wasn't complicit in Vypra's scheme and to explain that it's not going to work out between them...what with the staggering biological incompatibilities. Chad wants to work it out, but well, unless he sprout a fish tail, it ain't happening, and Marina swims away. The other Rangers have been waiting for Chad, and Kelsey comes over to talk to him. Chad declares Marina his true love. I...fine. you know what fine, let's just accept this episode and move on. What? Marina comes back a few episodes down the line? Motherfucker! Show Over!

Next Time: Speaking of things I never wanted to see again....