Wednesday, July 7, 2010

The Secret of the Locket

Power Rangers in Space, Episode 26

Original Airdate: 10-21-1998

Last Time: Adam showed up again, and that was pretty cool. If I make it ten more seasons, I suppose I'll see him again. Also, the Miami Heat and Lebron James teamed up to destroy pro basketball for the next ten years, as every pro basketball fan who didn't follow the Heat (so every basketball fan) realized that there was nothing that they could do to defeat this super-team.

Andros is fighting Darkonda in forest, finally remembering that Darkonda knows exactly where his sister is. Ecliptor watches as the two fight, hoping for mutual destruction. Andros ends up getting the upper hand and demands to know where his sister is. Ecliptor accidentally draws Andros' attention for a second, and Darkonda is able to escape. Credits!

Andros vows to hunt Darkonda down, and teleports back to the ship. Darkonda comes out of his hiding place and realizes that he probably has to kill Andros to get him to leave the monster alone. He decides to set up a trap in the forest consisting of lasers rigged to go off when Adnros steps on a certain spot. Ecliptor ponders this plan, and goes off to do some scheming of his own.

On the Megaship, Andros is brooding even more about his sister, which he apparently does even when he's asleep. He wakes up and broods some more. The episode, having no concept of subtlety crossfades from Andros' picture of his sister to Astronema. She looking at her locket when Ecliptor explains that their latest monster is ready to attack Earth. Astronema asks Ecliptor about her past, and Ecliptor explains that she was left on his doorstep as a little girl. He also explains that her entire family was destroyed by the Power Rangers, who are known for murdering whole families. Astronema says that she can feel that her brother is alive. Ecliptor manages to refocus her, and she orders an attack on Earth.

The monster of the week is some sort of bat monster, and the Rangers move in to fight him. Astronema decides to witness the fight personally, and brings in some Quantrons she had laying around. She witnesses her troops harassing some fleeing civilians and looks conflicted. Andros moves to rescue a family and Astronema blasts a Quantron that was about to carve up the Red Ranger. That is not going to be good for Quantron morale. Everyone's a bit confused by what just happened, including Astronema, who decides to leave the battlefield. Ecliptor, realizing that it's probably not a good thing for a leader to kill her troops that are on the verge of success tries to stop her. Darkonda shows up to lure Andros into his trap, and succeeds.

The monster manages to get Andros right next to the trap, and they fight some more. Darkonda offers to tell Andros where his sister is if the Red Ranger can beat him in a fight. Andros refuses, because that's really not much of a deal anyway. Ecliptor shows up just in time for Darkonda to make some more cryptic hints about Andros' sister's identity. This manages to enrage Andros into charging right into Darkonda's trap, until Ecliptor shows up to interrupt him, which causes Darkonda to accidently blunder into his booby trap and blow himself up. Ecliptor explains that he decided to save Andros this one time for reasons that he'd prefer not to discuss, and teleports off.

Andros makes it back to the monster fight just in time to be shot in the back by Astronema. Andros fights her off, and manages to knock off the titular locket from her neck. The other Rangers prevent her from retrieving it, and her monster has managed to get beaten. Astronema decides to fire the satellilasers. Astronema then teleports out and Andros starts looking for the locket. Then he remembers the oncoming giant monster and calls the Astro Megazord. The bat monster momentarily paralyzes the megazord with some sort of sonic wave, but it doesn't last and the Rangers send the bat monster far beyond the sea.

Later, Andros searches for the locket again. He finds it just as Astronema arrives. Andros, however, has already pieced together what this new information means, and finally realizes that Astronema is, in fact, his sister Karone. Andros tries to explain the situation to Astronema, but she isn't buying it. She teleports out. Andros has something new to brood about!

Elsewhere, Darkonda, who is still alive, explains to Dark Specter that now that Andros knows, it's only a matter of time before Astronema accepts the truth, and that could be trouble. Dark Specter doesn't believe it. Darkonda uses the opportunity to explain his theory of evil. Ecliptor, you see, had shown caring to Astronema in raising her, and "caring and evil don't mix," thus Astronema's evil is not pure enough to be relied on.

On the Dark Fortress, Astronema vows to get revenge for Andros' scurrilous claims, and Ecliptor supports her, even though it's pretty clear that he himself is pretty sure that Andros is telling the truth. Up in space, Andros informs the other Rangers of the situation and vows to convince Astronema of the truth.

Next Time: The Problem of Evil!

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