Season 8, Episode 17: Olympius Ascends

"Olympius Ascends"
Episode 17
Air Date: August 19th, 2000

You know, I will NEVER understand why Linkara skipped this episode during his Lightspeed Rescue HOPR review!!!  Outside the Titanium Ranger arc, this is probably the most plot heavy episode so far....arguably even more so than those episodes were. Continuing right where the mid-season finale ended, the rangers chase after Impus in the large cocoon while Ryan is told by Carter to help some innocent workers caught in the crossfire.  After the main 5 rangers morph, they are intercepted by Loki, Vipra, Jinxer and Batlings but ignore them to fire at the cocoon to destroy it.  Despite Dana's hesitation, the rangers fire and believe they destroyed him, only for Impus' powerful new adult demon form, Olympius to rises from a massive explosion and crater.  I gotta say, I LOVE Olympius right off the bat!!! O_O  He comes out of no where, demanding the rangers serve him and when they refuses, he just proceeds to kick the living crap out of them.  Carter especially gets beat down hard as he tries to tackle Olympius (This guy has such balls!!! :) but ultimately Olympius brushes it off and even blasts him with his own blaster, DAMMMNN!!! O_O Olympius manages to capture 4 of the other rangers and prepares to take Carter as well but falls down in pain from not being use to his new star power.  Jinxer goes to his side as they teleport away.  Vipra and the rest of the demons do them as Ryan comes to Carter's side.  As Carter tries to look for the whereabouts of the others, the demons are impressed by Olympius' new power as he shows them he needs the rangers to transform into each of them to infiltrate the Aqua Base.

Back at the Aqua Base, Ryan tells Captain Mitchell and Carter about Queen Bansheera but knows nothing about Olympius.  Meanwhile, one of the base's crew members detects Chad, Carter goes after him.  Of course it's Olympius and he makes himself look banged up before revealing himself to Carter.  As they head back to the Aqua Base, Carter begins getting suspicious as Olympius begins roaming around as Chad.  He transforms into Kelsey to through Captain Mitchell, Ryan and Carter from going to search for the others; making Carter suspicious again.  When Olympius must get a pass key to open the main door, he goes into Captain Mitchell's office to find it...but not before turning into Dana to throw him off.  As Vipra and the others approach the main entrance, Dana transforms into Joel and uses the pass key to begin opening it.  When Ryan notices, Carter alerts Ms. Fairweather, who tries to stop "Joel".  When Carter gets his hands on the pass key, Olympius pretty much blows his cover and holds Ms. Fairweather hostage until Carter gives him back the pass key.  Luckily, Ryan helps him by getting Ms. Fairweather to safety and Carter able to fight Olympius until they fall into the water.  As Ms. Fairweather and Ryan wonder where they are, they both wash up on shore where a weakened Olympius is forced to release the rangers.

Meanwhile, Vipra arrives with Thunderclaw as she orders her minions to take Olympius away while Thunderclaw handles to rangers.  Carter rejoins the rangers by morphing and they begin to fight until they defeat Thunderclaw with the V-Lancerss.  Jinxer makes him grow and they have to finish him off with the Lightspeed Megazord.  I like how the demons give Olympius such a hard time when he was closer to defeating the rangers than ANY of the villains so shut up Vipra in particular!!! -_- Also, the rangers giving Carter a hard time for not recognizing them when Olympius was impersonating them is stupid because he's the ONLY one who actually did notice something was up!! -_-  Joking or not, but forced comedic ending was FORCED!!! -_-  This was by far the best episode this season with a fantastic villain introduction and a very well thought out plan for once by the demons.  I just the season can pick it up from here!!! :)

Final Morph: A+