Yesterday Again

Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue, Episode 23

Original Airdate: 9-30-2000

Last Time: We met Chad's sensei. It....explained a lot of about Chad.

Carter tests out some sort of new flying contraption that Ms. Fairweather has put together. He fucks up, but it turns out to be a simulation. Joel walks up and has a conversation with Carter that reminds me that they should probably give the flying weapon to the guy who actually knows how to fly things. Anyway, apparently the new gadget is called the Mobile Armor Vehicle and Carter has to learn to fly it by tomorrow. Credits!

In the galley, the Rangers discuss the situation and Dana tells a truly spirit-crushing joke. Kelsey enters and crashes into somethings. As you may or may not have guess by now, this is one of those Groundhog Day-style plots, and so the writers are setting up some stuff that will theoretically pay off the next time through this scene.

But now it is time for Carter to test out the MAV. It turns out that he's does just as crappy in real life as he did in the sim, and then Olympius decides to attack Mariner Bay with a new monster. Elsewhere, Carter crash lands his new toy, and starts trying to fix it. The Rangers call for his help, and Carter blasts off. Meanwhile, the other Rangers called for the rescue-bird gun thing, but Olympius intercepts it and kills them all. Show Ov-

Oh, wait, Carter is still around and he proves to be so shitty at flying the MAV that he manages to go back in time to the beginning of the episode. Carter is rather concerned by his time travel, but Joel argues that it's all part of the simulation.

The next day, it's time for the pay off and the Rangers are once again eating breakfast. This time, Carter's able to guess the punchline to Dana's joke, and realizes that yes, he has gone back in time. He then prevents Kelsey's accident to prove that he can change the course of events. Carter probably ought to cancel the MAV test given the circumstances, but well, he doesn't. Predictably, the MAV fails again, but when he lands it, he finds the jacket he'd left behind last time through the time loop and is understandably confused. Carter thinks that the presence of the jacket proves that this isn't a simulation, but, seeing as he didn't have the jacket when he went back in time, it seems like his logic's kind of shaky.

Anyway, the Rangers have to fight Olympius again and Chad calls for the Rescue Bird gun which once again is intercepted by Olympius. This time, however, Carter arrives in the MAV and stops Olympius. Why did things turn out different this time? Er....no good reason, really. I mean, I don't think that there's much Carter did different this time that really made a difference.

Oh, and there's a perfunctory megazord battle. The Omega Megazord is summoned, and I believe that it's the first megazord to have a CGI transformation sequence. It doesn't really look very good, but it's probably cheaper. The Rangers call the other megazords they have because...well...why not?

At the ziggurat o' temporal linearity, Olympius is chewed out for not adequately preparing for the Rangers suddenly being able to travel through time in order to prevent his victory. Rookie mistake.

Down at the aquabase, Carter decides not to inquire about the magnificent power of time travel he'd inadvertently unlocked. Seems like he might be curious about that, but no, he is not. Instead Joel gives him a cowboy hat. In all honesty, it looks better on Carter. Show Over!

Next Time: The Rangers make space travel as unexciting as possible as part of Saban's longterm plan to destroy NASA!