Season 8, Episode 37: Wrath of the Queen

"Wrath of the Queen"
Episode 37
Air Date: November 15th, 2000

Hmmm, not a bad episode to tell you the truth!!! Finally Queen Bansheera gets off her as and confronts the rangers herself as she kills Vipra to complete her transformation.  Ahhhh, Vipra's death, I could watch over and over and over and over....:_)  Such a beautiful moment of good riddance to that awful character because her actress couldn't deliver her lines without looking confused! -_- Honestly, my only real problem...or problems with this episode is 1) Suddenly, Loki and Diabolico are the best of friends??? Uhhh...since when?? O_o  You knew this had to be a last minute decision as the writers had no choice but to because the sentai footage.  But my goodness, its sad because this sudden friendship between the characters gave the villains some much needed depth.  Its a shame the writers didn't try to play this up in hindsight but at this point, you could tell they were REALLY trying to make the demons more interesting at the tail end of the season considering they've been grossly underwhelming.  I mean, I never liked Loki and he has been useless ALL season but watching Queen Bansheera manipulate him because all her servants are expendable is downright cruel! WOW!!! No wonder Diabolico tries to stop Loki from going after the rangers for the Queen because she literally doesn't care for anyone working for her! Not surprising considering she left her son to literally rot in hell! Yikes!

Meanwhile, as Carter goes for a run, he spots Jinxer heading toward Olympius and follows him.  At Aqua Base, Captain Mitchell is informing the other rangers about a bizarre energy flux at Mariner Stadium and tries to contact Carter to join them.  But he is discovered by Olympius and is shocked that he is alive.  Anyway, at the stadium, the 4 rangers check things out as Loki reveals himself and attacks them.  When the rangers once again trick him with the old "lying dead" routine, Diabolico arrives to help him but stop him from attacking the rangers because of the Queen's treachery.  But it's too late, as the Queen transports all 6 of them to the Skull Cavern's realm.  As the rangers wonder how to get out of there, Diabolico once again tries to stop Loki by telling him about the Queen's true intentions but he's a fool by not believing him and continues to attack the rangers.  When all 4 rangers attack and charge him, Queen Bansheera forces Diabolico to use Loki's weapon to destroy all them including Loki.  He refuses but Queen Bansheera uses her power to make him do it anyway as Loki is destroyed in the crossfire.  We get a touching farewell between both demons before Loki explodes.  Enraged, Diabolico swears vengeance on the Queen but she simply responds she will use his powers to destroy the rangers herself.  As she blasts Diabolico from her lair, a huge gulf of fire surrounds the rangers as it begins to slowly burn them to death.

Meanwhile, Carter faces off with Olympius but soon calls on his Mobile Armor Vehicle to help him escape Olympius' attacks.  After morphing and jumping on the vehicle, Carter heads to the vortex on top of the stadium to save his friends.  Once inside, Carter notices the circle of fire and tries to save the rangers but the flames are too powerful.  Diabolico quickly tells Carter how to save his friends in exchange for defeating Queen Bansheera.  Carter is in disbelief of course by Diabolico's help but does so by entering the Cavern, fighting off some Batlings and heading into her throne room.  As Carter and the Queen Bansheera met for the first time, the two attack each other as the Queen proves she's more than a match of him.  But as time runs out for his friends, Carter uses his Battle Booster to knock out the Queen.....Carter is so BOSSS!!! :) As the Skull Cavern is seemingly destroyed, the 4 rangers are transported back to Mariner Bay.  Luckily, Carter made it out to BUT the Queen did as well as she grows and begins to destroy the city.  Carter calls on the Rescue zords and form the Lightspeed Megazord.  It's a decent fight and looks like the Queen might actually win...until she just vanishes....ok, 2) Why??? -_-  You could have just killed them there and won but ok, Queen Bad Villain! -_-  Anyway, as the episode concludes, Olympius hears the horrifying laughs of his mother and is overjoyed that she's alive (No kidding! -_-) and Diabolico puts his next plan into motion to rid the world of his treacherous queen! Overall, it was a good episode like I said, it's just the sudden friendship with Loki and Diabolico was really head scratching! O_o  But hey Vipra died and we got some wonderful, tense action despite the Queen not just finishing off the rangers. Not bad but not great either.

Final Morph: B