Season 8, Episode 3: Trial By Fire

"Trial By Fire"
Episode 3
Air Date: February 26th, 2000

It's always cool seeing the rangers training in between missions.  As a rescue squad like I said, we see Captain Mitchell running drills where the rangers must learn to maneuver and get innocent bystanders out of harm's way as quick as possible. Hence the name, Lightspeed Rescue....nice!!! :) But unlike the other 4 rangers, Carter finishes the fastest...but gets the lowest score after Captain Mitchell checks on the area Carter was training in.  Immediately, I find Captain Mitchell to be a complete and utter douche....why not just tell Carter how he messed up instead of talking down to him and expecting him to know what he did wrong.  I'm sure that's not gonna be a plot point soon where he rather not listen to you and almost make another mistake on the field or anything?!? -_- *Groan*  Anyway, as the demons analyze  the Lightspeed Megazord's capabilities, they believe the next monster they send out should be strong enough to destroy.  But Vipra has her own idea as she holds a spike in her hands.  As the Aqua Base begins to quake, Captain Mitchell immediately can tell it must be the demons and sends the rangers out to stop them. As the Batlings dig and hammer in the spikes that continue to shake the city.  Soon the rangers arrive and Vipra introduces herself:

Vipra: "I am Vipra, my acting capabilities will put children to sleep!!! Fear me!!!"

Anyway, they fight as she orders her minions to attack.  Carter goes one on one with her until she runs off and he chases after her.  When she runs into come innocent civilians, she begins blasting them until Carter arrives to protect them.  They continue to fight until Carter corners her with her blaster but as he orders her to drop her weapon, Vipra spots some flammable gases and just creates a wall of fire before she teleports away.  As the building becomes more unstable, Carter decides to save the people but Captain Mitchell keeps telling Carter to put out the fire inside.  Uhhhh, how is it that Captain Mitchell sees this but NOT Carter? O_o  But like I said, Carter keeps hesitating because....you know....of what happened earlier because of his training session but finally heeds the Captain's orders and puts out the fire.  SEE!!! -_-  Anyway, the ceiling begins to collapse as Carter tries to save the mother and her son but he gets hurt.  As the other rangers arrive to help him, Carter is pissed and runs off.  He heads straight to the Aqua Base to confront Captain Mitchell and naturally he just keeps saying he was right and Carter was wrong instead of just telling him why his choice would have been wrong! -_-

Luckily, Carter is smart enough to figure out the Captain Mitchell's bizarre form of teaching him a lesson when he checks out the training area he failed in.  He notices the flammable gases there as well as when he returns to the area he fought Vipra.  Suddenly, Captain Mitchell arrives and tells him the same crap he said before about "the obvious choice is sometimes the wrong choice" blah, blah, blah.  Listen, I get this was all because of Carter's personal arc and character development but this was not the way to do it! Also, Carter visiting the boy and telling him his backstory about wanting to be a firefighter as he lies unconscious was kind of forced.  I know the writers are laying down seeds of this backstory to have some major payoff in future episodes down the line but I just didn't like how they put Carter through Captain Mitchell's bullsh!t mentoring to kick start it! Of course Carter doubts his abilities as ranger but Captain Mitchell believes he is the leader the team needs.  That's great but why not have told Carter his mistake before, have him make it again and learn from his mistakes from there.  It would make Carter look a little overzealous and overconfident but from there he would learn to be more humble and grow as a leader immediately but whatever Judd Lynn!!! o_o

Anyway, Carter aids the other rangers in destroying Vipra's spikes before he quakes destroy the city as Diabolico and Loki order Jinxer to summon a monster to help her.  Yes, they use large trading cards to make the monsters this season, moving on! After creating the giant monster, the rangers call on their Rescue zords and form the Lightspeed Megazord.  They destroy the monster with the megazord Saber....why would a rescue megazord made of rescue vehicles need a sword as a finisher??? O_o Anyway, they finish the monster off and we get a touching resolution of the little boy thanking Carter and calling him his hero when he visits him again as Captain Mitchell creepily looks after them. Awwwww!!! Anyway, a better episode than the last two but it's kind of infuriating that Carter had to get character development this way! Ehhhhhh!! -_-

Final Morph: B-