Season 6, Episode 31: Rangers Gone Psycho

"Rangers Gone Psycho"
Episode 31
Air Date: October 30th, 1998

You know,  it amazes how much has happened this season so far: The 4 remaining Turbo Rangers becoming the new Space Rangers, Andros' search for his sister, the search for Zordon, Zhane's revival, Andros finding out Astronema was Karone all along, Astronema struggling to chose sides, Darkonda's manipulation of EVERYONE, his rivalry with Ecliptor, Astronema becoming Karone again....only for her an Ecliptor to be brainwashed and become much more evil versions of themselves. All of THIS and I almost forgot about the amazing introduction of possibly the best evil team of rangers we've have ever (and probably will ever) see!!! After an original cold opening with the rangers battling an owl monster (just go with it!) and summoning the Astro Megazord to destroy it when it grows, Andros is still heartbroken and sulking over the loss of his sister again when Ashley tries to cheer him up by going down Earth with the rest of the rangers to have lunch.  Awwww, I missed Adelle! :) When their communicators keep going off, it turns out that its the Power Rangers version of some device that came out in the 90s but I don't have enough care in me to research what it is.  All you need to know its an important plot point. As Cassie and Carlos grab some drinks, they notice a report about a random attack at a construction site when suddenly....the Power Rangers show up......WWHHHHAAATTT!!!? *Chris Griffin voice* O_O

As the new reporter and camera men approach the rangers to ask them a question, they are curiously silent and just open fire on them.....point blank range.....and they miss everytime.....-_-......MOVING ON!!! The real rangers soon arrive and are shocked by the clearly impersonating rangers.  The fake rangers threaten them as they sound EVILLLL and say they are hear for one reason only: TO DESTROY THEM!!! O_o Both sets of rangers fight their counterparts as the fake rangers have their own set of weapons.  I LOVE the transition between the American fight footage to the Sentai footage, it's actually very smooth in this episode.  As the rangers continue to fight the evil rangers, we see these evil rangers are pretty powerful able to outmatched the rangers in weapons and combat.  When the Space Rangers finally ask who they are, they transform into their real forms!!! And boy are their real form's SICK!!! :)

The introduction of the Psycho Rangers is another one of the most memorable moments from the franchise as these guys will soon prove to be the toughest group of the villains a ranger team will ever face! As the Space Rangers bum rush them the Psycho just kick their asses and begin draining their knowledge from their minds.  Soon Zhane arrives to help and blasts them; to which the Psychos retreat...for the moment.  At the Dark Fortress, the Psychos arrive to Astronema's content as they have drained enough knowledge from the rangers to know how they fight, think, etc.  She then orders them to destroy them.  As the Psychos place themselves around the the city, they begin to listen in to capture one of the rangers.  But because of that stupid 90s device that sounds like the rangers' communicators, they attack random people for no reason.  Gotta love the reaction of the old people though.  So as soon as the rangers pick up on the weird disturbances by the Psychos, T.J. contacts Zhane to be on the look for them.  Which alerts them to Zhane being a ranger and capturing him.

When Andros alerts the other rangers about it, they realize Zhane is in trouble because his communicator went off.  When Andros and T.J. investigate, they find his reading device scanner thing.  When they track him down, they find he's at the old library and go after him.  But the library is protected by some invisible barrier and realize they can't morph or they'll alert the Psychos to their presence.  Andros comes up with an idea to use the Mega Tank to distract them as we get a hilarious sequence of the Psychos running to it at superspeed.  They blast the tank and realize it was a diversion as the ranger morph.  They should have really timed that better as after they destroy the barrier and head to the library to save Zhane the Psychos make it back in time to kick their asses.  And I mean, this is intense, brutal action with Ashley get a head shot to the helmet from Psycho Yellow.  As the rangers continue to fight the Psychos combine their powers and unleash a devastating lightning attack that nearly kills them.  As the Psychos continue to practically electrocute the rangers to death, they are suddenly summoned away.  The shot of the rangers falling to the ground with sparks coming out of their suits is such a daunting and chilling moment.  Man, has a ranger team ever gotten beaten that bad!!? O_O As Zhane escapes his captivity and helps the rangers recover, the Psychos are pissed that Astronema called them back as they were about to you know, destroy them like you wanted girl! -_- But Astronema apparently had another plan in mind as when the Psychos leave, she tells Ecliptor that the Psychos' immense power comes from Dark Specter and she's using them to slowly drain his power as well as slowly kill the rangers at the same time.  Jesus, she wants to kill Dark Specter AND rangers!! Astronema 2.0 is scary evil!!! O_O  All and All, an excellent introduction into this final arc of the season with an devastatingly evil team of rangers that our heroes must face!  Nice! :)

Final Morph: A+