Season 8, Episode 9: Go Volcanic

"Go Volcanic"
Episode 9
Air Date: April 8th, 2000

You know, I get it!!! This episode was a story about redemption, I honestly think it was a nice sentiment and I liked how the story overall concluded on a happy note.  But my goodness, is this episode FILLED with glaring plotholes like 1) Dana wants to go to a volcano and study it by using a device that will track the intensity of it.  That's great and all but for some reason, when the rangers are using the Rescue Rover and Ms. Fairweather can't give her a ride, she decides to take a bus there!!! Ummmm, so you're telling me she can't take her Lightspeed cycle to the mountain instead of taking a public bus there??? O_o Huh!?? But ok, we'll just follow her on this journey of random plot convenience because what would have made sense doesn't fit the Sentai footage right!!!  Long story short, Dana catches the bus and runs into some very shady looking thug on the bus (So seriously, how did this guy get on the bus in the first place looking like an obvious criminal??? -_-)

Meanwhile, Queen Bansheera, the official leader of the demons, returns but is upset that her palace has yet to be rebuilt.  Diabolico tells her about the situation and how humans have taken over their land.  She orders them to destroy the city as well as rangers as Jinxer comes up with an idea to summon a monster named Trifire to heat up the lava of a volcano so it can erupt and destroy the city.  Trifire immediately goes into the cave of the volcano and begins heating it up.  As Ms. Fairweather is alerted to the critical condition of the volcano and Captain Mitchell tells the rangers to get on it without Dana.  Speaking of Dana, she's fighting the thug who has a gun and wants the bus to keep going even when the bus driver tells him they are in danger if they keep moving forward with the volcano about to erupt!!! Ummmmm...2) Why didn't Dana morph??? -_-  It's not like those people don't know who she is!!! The rangers' identities are publicly known, not to mention, it even seems like they don't know who she is which doesn't make ANY sense!!! -_- Anyway, because of the volcano beginning to erupt, the bus nearly falls off a bridge at the front of it goes over and the thug must be saved by the combined efforts of Dana, the bus driver and another passenger.  Once they save him, the other rangers arrive with the Rail Rescues to save the bus.  Joel comes in with his Aero Rescue and brings the bus to safety.  As the ranger arrive, they realize the bus driver is injured and ask if anyone else knows how to drive a bus....to which the thug says he use to be a bus driver....oh boy!!! -_- All the passengers of course say no at first since...you know....he almost got them killed and is a criminal.  But after Dana makes a quick speech about trusting him now, they decide to let him drive them while the rest of the rangers head out to deal with Trifire.

While the rangers battle Trifire, we get a moment of the bus driver and the thug bonding about people trusting them being drivers, blah, blah, blah!!! How nice!!! -_-  Anyway, after destroying the monster with the Rescue Bird, Jinxer brings Trifire back to life and makes him grow as the rangers call on their individual zords to form the Lightspeed Megazord.  After a quick battle and the thug managing to drive the bus to safety, the police arrive in time to arrest him.  I love how everyone defends him and shows compassion for him for saving their lives as the police take him away.  Like I said, it's not a bad lesson despite it's forced moments but the plot holes in the story just don't make sense.  Not a great episode by any means. Sorry! :(

Final Morph: C-