Season 10, Episode 14: Identity Crisis

"Identity Crisis"
Episode 14
Air Date: May 4, 2002

In what could possibly be the pick of the Zen-Aku arc, the writers give us more glimpses into the humanity that lives within the cold blooded Wolf Org.  I LOVE the discussions in this episode behind Zen-Aku's strangely compassionate behavior.  It's just awesome seeing the rangers having to work out what's going on with this seemingly unstoppable enemy and instead of using that as a weakness to stop him, they use it as a way of reaching out to man behind the Wolf Mask (Oops...spoilers!)  Anyway, Zen-Aku's personal pursuit of the rangers of the rangers becomes more complicated when the rangers realize Zen-Aku has emotions and feelings for a small pup aka a half dog/half wolf that he looks after.  During a fight, when the pup gets attacked by Toxica, Zen-Aku goes out of his way to attack her and protect it from both opposing Duke Orgs and the rangers, which makes the rangers start putting the clues together behind Zen-Aku's conception.  We also get more flashbacks of Zen-Aku being trapped by the 5 ancient warriors 3,000 years ago which continue to have him wonder what forced his containment in the first place.  It's little drops of story throughout this episode that helps the plot move forward surprisingly as it keeps the audience even more invested in who Zen-Aku truly is.

Also, the episode features the first appearance of Animus, who appears vaguely in a vision of Zen-Aku's as well as personally to both the rangers and Zen-Aku during an intense zord battle.  It turns out Animus is the ancestor of the Wild Force Megazord and fought in the great battle 3,000 years ago.  Nice of Shayla to tell the rangers this as it helps give more questions are to who Zen-Aku could be..BUT....I like how she just casually mentions there were SIX warriors out of five all of a sudden! Thanks, Shayla for bringing that helpful information out of no where all of a sudden. Maybe sleeping for 3,000 years straight damaged her memory or something??? O_o  Luckily, Shayla finally brings up Zen-Aku bleeding when the rangers bring up the fact he can control Wild Zords despite being an Org and has a heart which we confirm way back in "Darkness Awakening" by Cole that Orgs don't have.  Nice callback with that! :)  When Taylor mentions "He's human".  The rangers soon confront Zen-Aku as Shayla begins wondering if this sudden revelation can be true.

Also, I LOVE the villains coming together against Zen-Aku to force their control over him by deeply suppressing his memory.  When Master Org tells General Nyzar to stop him from remembering the truth, he joins forces with Jindrax and Toxica to trap Zen-Aku and implant an insect in his head that forces him to not remember.  I just love the moral ambiguity with Zen-Aku from his vague history with Animus (Who will break this season during the second half unfortunately! -_-) to him destroying a fellow Org (That horrendous and rather dumb Lawnmower Org), this arc continues to have me transfixed on how much progress the show has made by now.  It's not a huge leap in quality like between Turbo's first and second halves but the season is improving nicely.  I really enjoyed the climax of the episode as the rangers confront Zen-Aku as allies instead of enemies but it ultimately leading into yet another intense battle.  From the little moments like Max painfully defending Danny (Awwww! :() to Animus once again trying to get through to Zen-Aku only for the bug in his head to sway him back, "Identity Crisis" is the undoubtedly the strongest outing of the season that pushes the arc forward in very intriguing ways by introducing past allies, double crossing twists and the rangers putting their heads together for once instead of their fists to figure out how to confront their enemy. Nice! :)

Final Morph: A