Truth Discovered

Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue, Episode 12

Original Airdate: 4-29-2000

Last Time: Captain Mitchell revealed he had a dead son, and there was a mysterious Titanium Ranger. The inevitable happened and they turned out to be one and the same.

The piano music of tragic revelation plays as Captain Mitchell explains the circumstances of how his son who was killed in a car crash turned up as the Titanium Ranger. The night of the crash, it was raining and Captain Mitchell lost sight of the road, sending his car flying off the road and leaving him holding onto both children on the side of a cliff face. Um...Credits? Here? Seems like an odd choice from a pacing perspective.

Anyway, back to that night, the Captain is still hanging on with Ryan dangling from his legs. Diabolico shows up to offer Captain Mitchell a deal with the devil. The demon will save Ryan in exchange for owning the boy. That's....not a compelling offer. Ryan slips and Captain Mitchell is forced to accept the terms of the bargain, but immediately regrets the deal. Diabolico informs the captain that he won't see Ryan again until the boy is twenty years old, which, as you might recall from last episode, just happened.

At the ziggurat o' Miami Heat fans, Diabolico explains to Ryan that his father didn't care about him. Well, he did sell the boy to a demon. Ryan's memory of the event is hazy, and Diabolico explains that Captain Mitchell liked Dana better. Ryan vows to kill Captain Mitchell, but Diabolico holds him back for purposes of drawing out the episode.

In the aquabase, Captain Mitchell illustrates that even the writers don't care about this story by explaining that he's been waiting to see Ryan "for twenty years." Er...no, Ryan seemed to be about six or seven, so I'd say it's closer to fourteen years, but sure, go ahead. Dana asks why Captain Mitchell didn't tell her, and well, it's hard to explain why you sold your child into demon slavery.

The next day, the Titanium Ranger makes his move, all the while angsting about his father. Meanwhile, Captain Mitchell storms off the base. This leaves the Rangers in a quandry, until they realize that Dana is also missing, presumably to confront the Titanium Ranger.

Dana finds Ryan, and Ryan decides that he'd also like to kill his sister. Dana refuses to believe that her brother could be so evil, and Ryan counters with his resentment about being the sibling sold into slavery. Dana decides to try and reason with him, but it doesn't work, because it never works. The other Rangers show up and drive Ryan off. Vypra shows up with a new monster to fill the time, and the Rangers have to fight it. They kill him in the most perfunctory fight that ever was. Jinxer pops in so as to force a megazord fight. Fuck you, Jinxer! So, is it time for the Supertrain? Oh, yeah! The monster dies in a hail of gunfire and missiles.

Elsewhere, Ryan reaches the spot where the fateful car accident took place, and Captain Mitchell shows up to try and reason with his son. Remember, trying to reason with people never, ever works. Captain Mitchell asks Ryan to remember what really happened. This inspires Ryan to tackle Captain Mitchell over the side of the cliff, leading to Ryan holding onto Captain Mitchell's legs for dear life, just like the first accident. That stirs Ryan's memory, and he remembers what really happened...just in time for the branch they were both holding onto to break. Captain Mitchell, in an act of self-sacrifice, or perhaps because he's despondent with the way his fuck-up of a son turned out, decides to let go so that Ryan can live.

This inspires Ryan to jump off of the branch, morph and catch Captain Mitchell. Of course, he can't fly, so I don't know exactly how that was supposed to work, but it does and they both survive. The other Rangers arrive, and Captain Mitchell asks Ryan to stay. He decides against it, but gives up the Titanium morpher.

Later, Ryan has decided to confront Diabolico....that's a bad plan. Fortunately for Ryan, Diabolico is a rather impotent villain and lets Ryan walk away from Diabolico in disgust....and that about reaches the theoretical limit for how many times a person can walk away from a father and/or father figure in one episode. Show Over!

Next Time: Ryan's abstention for being the Titanium Ranger turns out to last for all of fifteen minutes!