Season 8, Episode 19: The Queen's Return

"The Queen's Return"
Episode 19
Air Date: September 2nd, 2000

Another action packed and story heavy episode??! O_o  Sign me up!!! What I love about this episode is it's the best the show has ever felt on it's own.  Ryan is used well, the rangers are out doing their rescue squad thing, there's major animosity between Olympius and Loki, etc.  Finally, like I said, the show is finding itself quite well and dare I say, things are feeling exciting and interesting in every aspect for once.  Like I said in my last review, the demons are preparing for a planetary alignment to bring back Queen Bansheera.  Once the rangers see the disturbance happening in the city, they return to the Aqua Base where it is revealed this alignment happens every 3,000 years and Ryan remembers about the ancient ceremony to bring back the Queen.  Meanwhile, as the other demons arrive at the ceremony's location, we introduced to Spellbinder, honestly one of the best designed monsters of the week from Sentai as well as Power Rangers.  The dude just looks awesome and very ethereal as well as ancient; fitting the role as the leader of the ceremony perfectly! :) Shame Olympius couldn't join and was told to stay at the Skull Cavern for the ceremony by Loki!  I couldn't help but chuckle as Loki has done NOTHING all season so far and has the audacity to tell their Queen's son to stay behind as punishment?! -_-  I know Olympius doesn't take Loki's crap at the end of the episode but here, he should have done the same thing! WTF!? o_o

Anyway, as the ceremony begins, lightning begins causing explosions all over the city as Captain Mitchell sends to rangers out to stop it.  While Dana clears the roads with her zord, Joel and Chad take out the fires while Carter and Kelsey save people trapped in the buildings.  Meanwhile, Ryan notices the explosions are forming some strange alignment all over the city and realizes the ceremony must be being held in the center of the chaos.  After Captain Mitchell orders him to go, Ryan goes to investigate and happens upon the ceremony before Vipra catches him and the Batlings capture him.  As the rangers finish up saving the city, Captain Mitchell tells them Ryan has been MIA since he went to the ceremony; leading Carter and Kelsey to spot the ceremony when an energy cyclone erupts at the center of the city.  As Spellbinder continues the ceremony, Vipra is blasted by the arrival of the rangers as they charge in to stop the ceremony.  Kelsey and Chad take on Loki (Yeah, he's actually doing SOMETHING for once!? WOW! o_o) while Dana and Joel take on Vipra.  After Carter saves Ryan, Ryan morphs to join the fight as they both take on Spellbinder.  After seemingly defeating him, he rises and begins to grow as the rangers head out the building to call on their zords.

As the Lightspeed Megazord and Max Solarzord arrive to attack Spellbinder, he proves to be too powerful for them as he just brushes off the Lightspeed Megazord Saber, blasts the rangers and using the saber against them.  As the ceremony continues, Olympius and Jinxer watch from the Skull Cavern as the sky begins to darken as Queen Bansheera appears in the sky.  All the demons are overjoyed to see her...except Vipra who looks about as excited as a liberal at a Trump convention! Anyway, Queen Bansheera wastes no time, as she summons a tidal wave to destroy the city. As Captain Mitchell orders the entire Aqua Base to prepare for impact, Ryan quickly heads back to the ceremony's location to try to stop the energy flow.  He succeeds but is blasted away as the rangers think he was destroyed by the explosion.  The disruption of the ceremony stops Queen Bansheera and her tidal wave as well as severely weakens Spellbinder to the point where the Lightspeed Solarzord is able to finish him off with its weapons.

Meanwhile, Olympius is pissed because the demons failed and when Loki gets in his face again, he finally just kicks him aside and asserts his authority! Thank you! :) But it turns out, Queen Bansheera isn't completely gone as the disruption of the ceremony gave her enough strength to return with half of her body.  An overjoyed Olympius swears the rangers will pay as they all teleport away.  Soon Ryan, overhearing all of this, rises from the rumble as the rangers return to bring him back to the base.  Back at Lightspeed, Ryan makes a decision to try and find a way to capture the demons like they were before.  Kelsey tries to go with him but Ryan tells them they are needed to defend Mariner Bay in his absence.  As Captain Mitchell shakes his son's hand, he soon after hugs Dana one last time and tells her he'll be back as the episode concludes.  Very awesome plot movement and an all around strong episode!  I like where things are going this season for once and I'm not bored by anything, especially this episode! Nice! One of the best episodes thus far! :)

Final Morph: A+