Rookie in Red

Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy, Episode 4

Original Airdate: 2-27-1999

Last Time: The Rangers found the Galactabeasts, and I realized that I still had forty episodes of recapping Leo the Cosmic Asshole left.

We focus in on said asshole, as he runs around in an open field....which space colonies are well known for having, waving his sword in the air, and reflecting on how he's trying to live up to Mike's legacy. He angsts about Mike some more. You know, it's shit like this that probably drove Mike to dive into that chasm in the first place. Furio decides to show up, just because. They fight, and Furio decides to run away. Credits!

On the command carrier, Trakeena is mocking Furio for being a failure. She agrees to cover for him with her father for reasons that will never be adequately explaining. Furio meets with a new monster who claims to be an expert at stealing weapons. To prove it, he has acquired five suspiciously color-coded "Transdaggers." That's good enough for Furio, who sends him to steal the Quasar Sabers.

On Terra Venture, Commander Stanton pulls Kai aside for a special assignment, training a new recruit with "great leadership potential." It turns out that the recruit in question is Leo, and Kai is visibly disgusted. As are we all. Kai takes him on a tour of the facilities, and Leo manages to get distracted by Kendrix, as the shows tries to push a romance between them. Hard. Leo then proceeds to bring a sandwich into a computer room, getting Kai in trouble in the process. Leo feels no remorse, naturally. Kai then decides to trust Leo to secure Terra Venture's arsenal, which the monster of the week promptly breaks into because Leo didn't lock the door.

Later, Kai doesn't want to train Leo anymore, but Kendrix accuses him of being jealous. A thunderstorm starts up, and Kai realizes that that wasn't scheduled. He immediately blames Leo, and a quick trip to the bridge confirms his suspicions that Leo has decided to hijack the senstive climate control functions of the colony because thunderstorms look cool. Kai starts laying into him when an alarm goes off that the arsenal is being looting. Apparently Leo is so incompetent that people are too busy dealing with the mayhem he causes to discipline him.

By the time Kai gets to the arsenal, it's completely empty. Kai starts yelling at Leo, who decides that only he can save the day. Kai meets up with the other Rangers and figure out that the weapons are at the power plant. They arrive to find Leo's defeat already in progress. This leads to a Sting Winger fight, which ends in a Ranger victory. They move on to the monster. He steals everyone's Quasar Saber except for....Leo's. Great. Fortunately, the monster shares my way of thinking and manages to kidnap Leo and his saber. Having done all this, the monster leaves.

Later, Kai feels bad about letting Leo get captured. He decides to find him. Elsewhere, the monster has Leo chained up and is destroying all of Terra Venture's weapons. Furio decides to melt down te Quasar Sabers. Wait, I thought he wanted them captured, not destroyed. The monster, however, wants to keep them, and the two monster fight. This somehow leads to Leo getting free. He escapes with the swords in tow. Furio sends the monsters and Sting Wingers after him. Leo eventually runs into the monster, and the two fight once again, with the monster once more coming out the victor and taking the swords. He gives them to Furio, when promptly dumps them in a pool of molten metal. Furio, recognizing the toyetic wherever he sees it, also plunges the Transdaggers into the superheated mixture, or at least tries, as he's interrupted by the Rangers, who also inform Furio that the Quasar Sabers he destroyed were fake. Wait....what? Leo explains that apparently the other Rangers, upon Leo's capture, had concocted a plan to recover the Transdaggers that involved the creation of a fake set of Quasar Sabers. I feel like I missed about ten scenes there. How did they even know about the Transdaggers anyway?

The Rangers fold out their new toys into profoundly stupid-looking weapons. A number of Sting Wingers are sacrificed to show off the power of Transdaggers. The Rangers then finish off the monster by forming a "star" of sorts with their Transdaggers which kills it. The monster drinks the giant-size potion, and it's time for mo' merchandizing. Leo finishes it off with his lion zord.

Later, Commander Stanton informs Leo that Kai has given him a good progress report. Leo, however, explains that he's not good at following a schedule or rules, and so cannot hold a job. Kai runs up to apologize for yelling at Leo when he let all of the weapons be destroyed and conjured a thunderstorm to amuse himself. Um...I don't think you need to be sorry for that, Kai. Leo responds by swindling Kai out of ten bucks. God, I hate Leo. I mean, sure T.J. wasn't great, but there was something charming about his ability to come up with terrible plan after terrible plan, and Andros could be a bit emo, but Leo's smugness is something else. Damn it all. Show Over!

Next Time: O, Megazord, Where Art Thou?