Season 3, Episode 5: Ninja Quest, Part 2

"Ninja Quest, Part 2"
Episode 5
Air Date: September 12th, 1995

With all of their zords destroyed and realizing their powers are gone to, the rangers head back to the Command Center on foot in hopes that Zordon and Alpha can somehow help. Meanwhile, back at the Moon Palace, Lord Zedd, Rita and their forces are celebrating the rangers' epic defeat.  Turns out the eggs that Rito lay were Tenga Warriors, big black crows who will be the new foot soldiers of the season. Meanwhile, at the Command Center, as the teens look at the wreckage of the Command Center, without the rangers' powers, it will takes centuries apparently to make the repairs on the zords as well as the Command Center. When Adam asks where their powers came from, Zordon tells them that he and Alpha discovered them in the Desert of Despair where is foretold of a hidden temple where a being named Ninjor made the Power Coins. Apparently it was only a myth and it's a long shot that the temple might be there, but the rangers are willing to make the journey as they have no other options, especially when Alpha comes up with the map of the desert.

With the teens adamant about getting their new powers, Alpha uses what's left of the power in the Command Center to teleport the rangers to the Desert of Despair. Once there, Billy uses the map to direct them on where to go. The Desert of Despair itself....looks like the desert outside the Command Center....WTF??? After how impressive Edenoi looked, did they just not have enough money to make the Desert of Despair look legit??? O_o Anyway, Blob and Slob arrive at the Junior Police Academy ready to sign up, even if their motivations for doing it are stupid and vapid. Meanwhile, back at the Moon Palace, Rita is watching the Tengas hatch and notices that one egg is left. After Rito forgets what it is, he suddenly remembers it's a Vampyrus monster egg; apparently a very hideous and deadly creature. Spying on the rangers, Lord Zedd discovers that they are in the Desert of Despair looking for the lost temple to get the ninja powers and plans to have the Tenga intercept and stop them. Rita then gets the idea to let the Tengas follow the rangers into the temple and plant the Vampyrus egg outside of it, to Lord Zedd's excitement.

As the rangers continue traveling through the temple, they run into several forms of deadly traps like the wall of fire that unfortunately destroys the map and quick sand that nearly gets Aisha. As they draw closer to the temple, the Tengas surround them and for some reason instead of fighting them they just kind of shove and kick them and run away into the entrance of the Temple when they find it. So....losing your powers means you guys can't fight unmorphed anymore??? Sure Tommy makes excuses they don't know what the Tengas are capable of but my God, at least put up a better fight. This is of course was because of behind the scenes issues with parents complaining about the violence of the show and demanding less unmorphed fight scenes that kids were emulating. So what if we were??? :P Anyway, as the Tengas are too dumb to turn sideways and follow the rangers, the teens make their way inside.

As Rita and Lord Zedd are excited that the rangers have no way out of the cave, the rangers themselves find themselves at a dead end. But Tommy suddenly vanishes into, apparently, an electromagnetic field. The rest of the team soon follows as the episode concludes on a "To Be Continued..." Overall, Part 2 was good. I like the expansion of the Power Rangers with finding out more about the origins of the Power Coins. The Tengas are interesting looking new foot soldiers and I'm already liking the new dynamic with the villains with Rito. So far, this is a HUGE improvement over the first 3 episodes this season.

Final Morph: B