Season 5, Episode 37: The Accident

"The Accident"
Episode 37
Air Date: November 10th, 1997

You know, it amazes how much the quality of the season changes so drastically during the course of it's superb second half.  The first half is so terrible, it's damn near unwatchable.  The writing is some of the worst of the franchise, the action sucks, the villains are horrendous and the once reliable character development is all but gone.  Yet here, Carlos, still a relatively new character gets an immense amount of character development in the second episode to have him as the focus of the episode.  Here, he accidentally injuries a fellow teammate on his soccer team, Owen; leaving some players to believe he did it on purse just so he can be team captain.  This is honestly one of the most realistic and genuinely great ranger storylines outside of their typical ranger duties as Carlos has to deal with the overwhelming guilt of hurting a teammate when the team split on the situation as half of them support him and believe he didn't do it while the rest think he did just to make team captain.  It's an interesting dilemma and you honestly feel bad for Carlos trying to make things right but his fellow player especially Owen not believing him when he say it wasn't his fault.

Meanwhile, Divatox is looking to capitalize on Carlos' pain by cleverly sending a team of Piranathron to disguise themselves as his teammates to make him feel even worse about the whole situation.  I like the whole fake out of that moment as when I first saw this episode, I was just a confused as Carlos as to why the other rangers came in morph to stop him.  It leads to a great fight scene as well as Carlos coming to the conclusion he should walk away from soccer for good! I love how the rangers, even the Blue Senturion try to give him advice on the situation but ultimately Carlos knows he must figure out what to do next on his own. John Fletcher really is an excellent writer here as this could be his finest episode he penned for the show. At the end of the episode, we get a great and sweet resolution with Owen admitting it wasn't Carlos' fault after hearing he quit the soccer team. Though other teammate is clearly a jerk and instigator; wanting the team captain position for himself when he finds out that Carlos quit.

Jesus, even the villain plot of the episode was stellar as Divatox is planning to unleash her own army of zords but has Elgar test it out in case it malfunctions just cause...well...Elgar is an idiot!!! lol The Terrorzord, while looking like some silly Transformers action figure, is actually pretty badass as it's able to take on the Robo Racer and beat the crap out of the rangers' Rescue Megazord.  This is actually the closet that Divatox has ever come to beating the rangers on her own and it looks like she was about to win...until Porto keeps reminding her that the message is missing a part and it will no doubt fall apart. Gotta love watching the Terrorzord's hand fall off and Elgar retreating.  Even the rangers can't believe it.  It really was an impressive zord fight, especially the moment Elgar uses the Robo Racer as a shield against the Rescue Megazord's artillery power and blasting the megazord into a building.  Overall, "The Accident" is a stunning episode from start to finish with excellent character development for Carlos, awesome action and great twists.  One of the best episodes of the season after "The Fall of the Phantom" and one of the best of the franchise easily! :)

Final Morph: A+