Rangers Gone Psycho

Power Rangers in Space, Episode 31

Original Airdate: 10-30-1998

Last Time: Astronema got reprogrammed to be more evil than ever before and Zhane came back. It was a pretty depressing episode.

The Rangers fight an owl monster, and manage to beat in within thirty seconds. It goes giant-size, the Astro Megazord takes another thirty seconds to finish it off again. The moral of today's episode is to work smarter, not harder. Show Over! er....Credits!

On the Megaship, Andros decides to use his new, more powerful brooding to ruminate on the fate of his sister. Ashley shows up and decides to cheer him up. They go down to the Surf Spot, because nothing will take your mind off of your brainwashed sister planning to murder you and your friends like $2.99 onion rings. Some nearby girl apparently has a computer that makes the exact same sound as the Rangers' communicators, and it throws them off. They all seem to be impressed with the late-90s PDA, which probably was impressive at the time, but well, it isn't now.

Carlos and Cassie get some drinks from the bar area, despite they're being a waitress three minutes ago, and see a news report that several building have been destroyed downtown. Um...isn't this the sort of thing that Rangers should really be monitoring? They get even more confused as the Power Rangers seemingly show up and start shooting at civilians. The real Rangers head down and confront their evil dopplegangers. The real Rangers get their asses kicked for a while, and then the evil Rangers reveal themselves to be the Psycho Rangers, complete with evil costumes. They give a speech about how they're better than the Power Rangers, and then prove it by beating them up again. The Psychos then proceed to drain some sort of information from the Rangers in order to learn how to defeat them even more comprehensively. Zhane shows up and drives the Psychos away with a combination of lasers and his personality.

On the Dark Fortress, Astronema is debriefing the Psychos and orders them to finish the job. Back on Earth, the Psychos scan the city for the Rangers. Elsewhere, Andros and Ashley are concerned about their new nemeses. They decide to head back to the ship. Nearby, some kid is using one of those PDAs from earlier, and manages to inadvertently draws the Psychos to use location with the communicator sound. Similar scenes occur throughout the city. On the Megaship, the Rangers note the seemingly random attacks, and call Zhane to warn him. Predictably, this draws in the Psychos, who swiftly capture Zhane.

Up in space, Andros has figured out that the Psychos are tracking them by the sound of their communicators, which they, therefore, can no longer use. T.J. realizes that he may have accidentally gotten Zhane captured. He and Andros head down to Earth and find Zhane's morpher. They head back up to the ship, and find that he's been taken to an abandoned mansion, and the Rangers make haste to rescue him.

At the mansion, the Rangers accidentally run into an invisible wall surrounding the house, and decide to morph, but realize that the Psychos will hear them. They come up with a plan to distract the Psychos that involves the oft-ignored Megatank. It works, and the Rangers move in, only for the much faster Psychos to catch up to them and stand in their way. They fight again. Inside, Zhane escapes by knocking over a pot and using a rather dull-looking piece of pottery to cut his ropes. I guess the network was a bit leery of Zhane playing with broken glass, and decided that broken pottery was okay, though. Outside, the Rangers get blasted some more. Fortunately, the Psychos are mysteriously teleported away just as the Rangers are defeated. Zhane comes out of the house, and they decide to retreat back to the ship.

On the Dark Fortress, the Psychos complain about not being allowed to finish the job, but Astronema will have none of it, and blasts them with some sort of electricity for their insolence. Ecliptor comes in and asks what's going on. Astronema explains that the Psychos are fueled by Dark Specter, and she plans to use them to drain her boss's power and take his job. It's not the worst idea she's ever had. Show Over!

Next Time: We learn an important lesson about blackmailing...well, another important lesson, I guess.