Season 6, Episode 14: The Barillian Sting

"The Barillian Sting"
Episode 14
Air Date: May 2nd, 1998

Ahhhhh, yes, this is the point of the season where the tone indefinitely shifts from brief glimpse of serious storytelling to much dark forms of plotting.  It all began with the introduction of Darkonda!!! :)  A merciless bounty hunter who finds complete and utter delight in doing evil.  Like many of the villains this season, Darkonda is SOOOO refreshing and inventive!!! Never have we had a villain who so double crossing, calculating and creepy as hell in design.  Seriously, if you saw this guy in an alley way, you'd immediately start running the other way.  I think what makes Darkonda so impressive and immensely entertaining as a villain is how unpredictable he is.  He's evil sure, but he plays by his own rules, only out to gain power and success for himself.  I love how he plays with Astronema here, clearly having a past with her but but the writers not yet spelling it out what that past is.  Also, his rivalry with Ecliptor is awesome and for the first time shows the very protective side Ecliptor had for Astronema...awwwwww!!! :)

But Darkonda is just a straight badass and knows how to come up with strategies despite Astronema and Ecliptor already putting their plan into motion.  I love how they sent out a false distress signal by interfering with their search for Zordon to ambush them.  But Darkonda coming in with his own plan to manipulate both sides was just awesome to watch.  The Barillian Bug plot was just downright disturbing and freaked me out.  Seeing Carlos get bite, not to mention the eventual transformation of him into the Barillian Bug was seriously frightening.  I never thought this show would get that serious and experiment with a more mature style of visuals but they did it so well in this episode.  As Andros begins to figure out what might have stung Carlos, he and T.J. investigate; running into Darkonda who immediately releases another Barillian Bug to sting another one of the rangers.  After Andros shots down the bug, he recalls when the Barillian Bug plagued KO-35 and how doctors found a antidote for it; leading them to have to go back there for the antidote.

Meanwhile, Carlos had escaped and is roaming around the Megaship.  I love how the rangers arm themselves with blasters and go after him.  Too bad Cassie gets bitten too....DAMMMMNNN!!! With two rangers now effected, Andros and T.J. hurry to KO-35 to get the antidote but of course, Darkonda is there too to intercept them and make sure it doesn't get back to the others.  Andros stays to fight Darkonda while T.J. heads back to the ship to stop Carlos and Cassie.  This is all very intense and awesome by the way.  I mean Darkonda has pretty much taken two rangers out of the picture, is beating the crap out of Andros while the other two must fend them off by themselves.  Poor Ashley and Alpha are countered by both Barillian Bugs before T.J. shoots them with the antidote; curing them. While the Andros and Darkonda continue the fight; the others arrive to help just as Darkonda destroys the last of the antidote and unleashes another Barillian Bug.  Jesus, Darkona has NO CHILL!!! o_O  Darkonda makes it grow and the rangers call on the Astron Megazord to finish it off.

The funny is, while Darkonda may have failed, he came so much closer to destroying the rangers than the other villains did and he just uses his failure as an opportunity to continue to manipulate Astronema and make Ecliptor look like he can't do his job adequately.  God, Darkonda is AWEESSSOMMME!!! :)  I also love how the episode ends with more plot movement with Andros searching for his sister.  I'm glad the writers were able to balance both main storylines this season while also introducing a very intimidating and excellent new villain! Wow! This season is exactly how I remembered it now! :)

Final Morph: A+