Season 4, Episode 40: The Joke's On Blue

"The Joke's On Blue"
Episode 40
Air Date: November 5th, 1996

Finally!!! Competent villains this season again!!! And it couldn't have come at a better time! God, I hated Louie Kaboom, so it's nice that this episode satisfying saw his end in favor of the debut of two new villains: King Mondo's exiled first born son (or should I say first built son), Prince Gasket and his wife, Archerina. I immediately love these two and their deliciously evil dynamic. Right off the bat, they appear with a plan to not only get rid of Louie Kaboom to seize back the throne of the Machine Empire but destroy the rangers as well. I love the love spell Archerina puts on Louie, turning him in a homeless idiot who causes havoc in Angel Grove after being sent by Gasket and Archerina to destroy the Power Rangers.

The final fight between Louie Kaboom and all 6 rangers is pretty awesome. It features the Super Zeo Zords, then the Super Zeo Megazord, as well as Pyramidas. I really feel Loue Kaboom should have been just a one off monster of the week as he seems like a tough opponent needing the Zeo Ultrazord to defeat him because honestly, his plans were horrible and embarrassing. I am so happy to see him gone and will never return as he seriously was one of the weakest aspects of this season.

Meanwhile, the main plot of the episode outside of the monster of the day plot was a duo of practical jokers wrecking havoc in Angel Grove with their childish pranks.  I find it funny how predictable the plot was as it was obviously the two new detectives in town out to make Bulk and Skull look like fools. Then again, it really isn't that hard to make them look like fools as they are doing fine continuing to look stupid on their own. Also there's some new kid in school the teens show around but he's not worth mentioning because he becomes completely irrelevant after this episode. "The Joke's On Blue" (I kinda wish this episode had a better title like "The Prodigal Son" or something!) is a very straight forward episode as it's about setting up the final arc of the season with new villains and getting rid of the bad ones. Also Rita and Zedd are still around plotting two which is making things a bit more interesting. The best episode since "Mondo's Last Stand" by far! :)

Final Morph: B+