Season 11, Episode 4: Looming Thunder

"Looming Thunder"
Episode 4
Air Date: March 1st, 2003

Well as the episode that sets upcoming battle between our main 3 heroes and a duo of evil rangers this time instead of just one, "Looming Thunder" introduces us to Blake and Hunter, two motorcross racers like Dustin who he races on the track. I like how the writers already give these two their own distant personalities with Blake being more open and friendly while Hunter is more stoic and reserve...even a little rude too as he wastes no time giving Dustin a hard time.  It makes sense that the two would try to manipulate the rangers through Dustin since he already seems like the friendliest of the core 3.  And it's nice seeing that, especially as it causes some brief friction between Dustin and Shane.  Suddenly Dustin is spending more time with Blake and Hunter when his ranger duties are clearly more important as Shane has to remind him at one point.  I also enjoyed Shane getting a glimpse of Blake and Hunter's "bad" sides as he overhears them talking sh!t about Dustin behind his back.  I think this is really natural way of introducing these evil rangers instead of a sudden direct attack from them.  It's very subtle and the teen drama fills like a more organic feel to incorporate the Thunder Rangers into the show by getting to know them as people first before becoming the main antagonists for the next few episodes.  I don't think that has been done before with the "evil ranger' angle yet and the fact they are doing this with not only one but TWO rangers is really impressive.

Meanwhile, the main 3 rangers get their own upgrade of weapons this episode with their own fighting motorcycles aka the Tsunami Cycles.  The first fight with them tho is kinda bizarre with the Kelzacks just randomly outnumbering and attacking poor Dustin in the woods.  I guess since we find out that Lothor was tracking the ranger's cycles down it makes sense, but how did Lothor even find out about them to begin with??? O_o  Anyway, of course, when Cam trusts Dustin with the CDROM (Oh the early 2000s!) for the cycles' technology, it unfortunately falls into the hands of our evil duo of rangers.  But it makes sense since clearly Dustin is the most neglectful and irresponsible of the group.

The rest of the episode aka the main plot is just your average monster of the week plot with Lothor releasing a new monster name Terramole onto the rangers.  It is quite hilarious watching the rangers battle the monster tho, especially Dustin using his specific ninja power to out fight him underground but get his ass handed to him unfortunately.  The episode concludes with the usual zord battle with the Lightning mode not getting much time to shine but really the significance of the episode getting to know the men behind the mysterious rangers working for Lothor.  The build is really nice with it being very underplayed, making the threat that more intriguing even menacing with the writers not trying to force the upcoming battle ahead.  Nice! :)  But the main monster plot is dull and pretty much a standard fight for the rangers.  So nothing special overall but enough to keep me invested for what's to come. :)

Final Morph: B-