The Silver Secret

Power Rangers in Space, Episode 22

Original Airdate: 10-14-1998

Last Time: We all learned an important lesson that I can't remember at the moment. Also, Zhane learned that his powers weren't working right.

On the Dark Fortress, Astronema is reviewing last week's episode, and realizes that Zhane can't stay morphed for more than a couple of minutes. She summons a monster to exploit this weakness. Credits!

Onboard the Megaship, Alpha is giving Zhane the results of her tests on him. Andros and Cassie are walking by and overhear Alpha saying that "Zhane doesn't have much time" which they assume means that Zhane is suffering from some sort of terminal illness. To be fair, that makes more sense than assuming that Alpha is talking about how long Zhane can remain morphed. They decide to tell the others. On the bridge, Andros and Cassie are about to tell the others of Zhane's plight when the seemingly-doomed man appears. This leads to a "comical" scene where Andros and Cassie are trying to make Zhane as comfortable as possible while everyone else is confused by their actions. A monster attacks Earth to put a merciful end to the scene. Andros orders Zhane to stay behind out of compassion, which I suppose is better than last week.

The fight goes poorly for the Rangers, including a sequence where they manage to surround the monster and end up running into each other as the Praying Mantis leaps out of the way. Astronema notes that the Silver Ranger isn't there, and is displeased. Up on the Megaship, Zhane fiddles around with an apple and asks DECA to display that Rangers' fight with the monster. He sees the Rangers losing and decides to help out. Zhane attacks as his power remaining helpfully counts down on a clock in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. He can't quite manage it and has to run off to demorph in private. The other Rangers are able to drive the monster off.

Zhane re-enters the scene, already de-morphed. Andros and Cassie decide to redouble their efforts to tell the other Rangers that Zhane is totally dying. Later, over dinner, Andros and Cassie explain that according to the private conversation they overhead, Zhane has some sort of terminal illness. Because the writers feel compelled to show a bunch of kids how clever they are, Zhane overhears this conversation, and correctly intuits that the other Rangers assume he's dying. This news brings a smile to his face because Zhane is, at heart, a douche. Zhane being Zhane, he decides to take advantage of this misunderstanding, and scams the Rangers into acting as his servants. Ashley and Cassie debate over whether Zhane should be eating pie, and Zhane looks on, pleased at what he has wrought.

On the Dark Fortress, Astronema debriefs the monster, and explains that all the monster has to do is what out the damn clock, and Zhane will run out of power. Meanwhile, Alpha explains that Zhane's problems are due to his powers slowly leaking out while he was frozen, but he can recharge them with a high-voltage dose of electricity. Zhane explains to Alpha that the other Rangers think he's dying. Alpha tells him that he probably shouldn't be misleading them like that, but Zhane decides to use the situation to his advantage.

A monster attacks again, and the Rangers decide to face it without Zhane. Zhane wants to help, but the Rangers aren't keen on hastening his death, so refuse to let him join. On the bridge, Zhane broods about his uselessness. He's already made peace with his inner douchery. Zhane decides to solve his problem the only way he knows how, getting struck by lightning. Meanwhile, the Rangers get beaten up by the monster.

Elsewhere, on a mountaintop where a thunderstorm rages, Zhane puts his get-struck-by-lightning plan into action. He manages to almost fall off of a cliff, but does get his morpher struck by lightning. Zhane shows up at the monster fight and starts fighting the monster. Some Quantrons appear to distract the other Rangers, all as part of Astronema's plan. The monster manages to tie Zhane up and decides to wait until Zhane's power run out. The other Rangers rush into save him, but are too late as a bomb designed to go off the second Zhane demorphed goes off, leaving behind no trace of the Silver Ranger. Andros immediately goes into brooding revenge mode, which does him no good as he's immediately blasted into the ground. But then Zhane, still morphed, shows up to save the day. The monster is incredulous and quickly gets dispatched by the Rangers. Astronema orders the satellilasers fired, but even Elgar knows how it's not going to work.

The monster's giant-sized, but so is the Mega Voyager, and the monster gets missiled to oblivion. In the Dark Fortress, Astronema makes some empty threats. On the Megaship, the other Rangers are having a conversation as Zhane walks in, and they pretend to continue to think that he's dying. Zhane figures out that they know, and claims it was all a joke. The other Rangers are less than pleased. They make him clean the Megaship as punishment. I guess the moral of today's episode is that you shouldn't pretend to be dying, or, if you do, make sure that no robots know of your deceptions, for robots will always ultimately betray you. Show Over!

Next Time: If you thought that pretending to be dying for fun and profit was the douchiest thing that Zhane could do, then you don't know Zhane!