A Wasp With a Heart

Power Rangers in Space, Episode 10

Original Airdate: 4-4-1998

Last Time: After Data easily solves an ordinary Sherlock Holmes holodeck mystery, Geordi asks the computer to make a Holmes villain capable of defeating Data. The resultant Professor Moriarty soon becomes far more powerful than expected.

At the park, a wasp monster is picking flowers and smelling them. She dances around some. Another wasp monster shows up with some Quantrons and is displeased with this turn of events. The evil wasp demands that the good wasp act evil and blow stuff up and whatnot. The good wasp is persuaded by the Sting King's (the evil wasp) arguments and agrees to try and destroy the Rangers. Credits!

Phenomenus is also in the park, and is sure that a nearby beehive is an alien pod. Skull is pretty sure it isn't, probably because he knows that this investigation is about to go horribly, horribly wrong if he doesn't speak up. Phenomenus scoffs at such a notion, and does his little crazy laugh as he approaches the beehive. They are all attacked by bees. Skull has had enough and angrily confronts the old man. They're interrupted by the good wasp monster. The trio runs, but is pursued by the (allegedly) good wasp. Up on the Astro Megaship, Cassie sees this all play out, and decides to intervene. Back in the park, the comic trio's plan to evade the monster involves them taking their pants off. It's not a very good plan. Cassie finally shows up to confront the wasp. The wasp ends up knocking Cassie to the ground and stealing her blaster, but the wasp can't finish Cassie off. Cassie realizes that it's a monster with a heart. The rest of the Rangers show up to tear that heart out. Cassie stops them, and the good wasp cannot understand this world of non-Manichaean morality, and flees.

Elsewhere, the wasp monster is determined to prove his evil bonafides. He fantasizes about mildly frightening a man in a hat, and then decides to make fantasy a reality. He can't go through with it once he sees that his quarry is an elderly man who isn't named Phenomenus. He feels bad about attacking an old man, er....didn't he successfully do that about two minutes ago? The wasp monster, however, decides to give evil another go and stakes out a birthday party that Cassie is coincidentally attending. The wasp monster once more loses his nerve. You know who's getting tired of this shit? Ecliptor! He shows up and demands to know what the hell is going on. The wasp monster claims to be planning to attack the Pink Ranger. Ecliptor shows him a different kind of plan by hitting him in the thorax with the butt of his sword. The wasp monster gets the hint and goes off to attack. Ecliptor sends his Quantrons in too. The Quantrons wreck the birthday party as the wasp monsters angsts in the background. A Quantron releases some helium balloons into the sky and Ecliptor compliments the wasp monster on a job well done.

Cassie fights off some Quantrons as the wasp monster angsts even more. Frankly, I'm kind of convinced at this point that a good monster needs to be destroyed even more than an evil monster. Cassie gets overwhelmed, and Ecliptor orders the wasp monster to destroy her. The wasp monster still can't blast her, but he can blast the Quantrons surrounding her, once and for all proving that treason is good! Ecliptor has had enough, pushes the wasp monster to the ground, and decides to kill Cassie himself. He get interrupted by Astronema and Sting King. Ecliptor allows Sting King to take the killing blow. The good wasp takes the shot for Cassie and the Pink Ranger is able to get free. The other Rangers show up, and Ecliptor and Astronema decide to leave Sting King to deal with them. Sting King's plan involves flying into space and then blowing up building from orbit. The Rangers quickly blast him back down to Earth. Sting King responds by launcing bees at the Rangers, but it doesn't work. Astronema calls in the satellilasers. That prolongs the fight another minute and a half before Rangers blast him with the Astro Megazord's giant gun.

Up in Dark Fortress, Astronema has a new plan for dealing with the Rangers! But not until next episode. On Earth, Cassie comforts the good wasp who is angsting some more, because apparently that's what having a heart is all about. The wasp monster flies off and retrieves the balloons that the Quantron had released earlier. The Rangers are delighted. So am I. Why? Because Show Over!

Next Time: We see some old friends in what turns out to be only the second-most agonizing callback to Turbo this season.