Season 12, Episode 17: The Missing Bone

"The Missing Bone"
Episode 17
Air Date: May 22nd, 2004

As you can tell by that very disturbing and eerie picture of Kira looking all possessed this episode was quite unforeseen in how creepy it was.  I mean it starts off with relative normality as the three teens are heading to class and talking about keeping a eye on Trent...since you know...he's growing more evil by the day and is their worst enemy at the moment.  We even see Trent phasing out of the wall after overhearing them and being all evil about  being one step ahead of his "friends" before Principal Randell calls him to her office.  God, I love this scene.  There are not many tense scenes like this on this show with characters just talking and I love how Trent has become so evil he is so cold yet charmingly subtle when Principal Randell, who we know is Elsa, is trying to manipulate him to Mesagog's side but Trent inadvertently calling Mesagog and his forces "losers" to her utter fear and irritation. Ha! :) Also, with Tommy out of the picture as the school's sceince teacher, Principal Randell introduces Anton Mercer to the class as he will be Tommy's substitute for the moment.  Honestly, I'm just realizing how frightening it is to have a group of villains so close to our heroes and them not knowing who they really are. Seriously, chills!!!  Of course, the three teens, especially Kira are suspicious of Anton's intentions as the new sub for science class as they witness him and Trent arguing after school but soon they go their separate ways as Kira needs to help Dr. Oliver with some inventory back at the lab.  While Kira is shocked by Tommy being ok with Mercer temporarily replacing him, we notice a dinosaur bone that Tommy is very protective of as he locks it in a brief case. Hmmmmm...???

The next day as Anton Mercer takes the science class on a field trip to his museum, I love how Kira is so uneasy around that T-Rex statue outside as Ethan makes fun of the fact that dinosaurs are extinct before remembering they are dino powered superheroes who are saving the world from lizard man who wants to force the world back into the prehistoric age.  It's also a nice and hilarious nod back to the premiere, tho once wonders if it was Anton who repaired it and put it back....hmmmm??? Inside as Anton gives the class a thorough tour of the museum, Kira spots a Tyrannodrone moving around in the back.  After Cassidy can't mind her own business and gets caught by Mercer, Kira makes her way to the storage room where she is ambushed by a group of Tryannodrones and forced into some mind control by a fossil glowing and speaking to her.  Aka Yikes! As Ethan and Connor look for Kira, she runs into them as they ask what happened to her.  Kira is really mean and dismissive; wanting to leave and continues to act so at Hayley at the Cyberspace as well as blows Ethan and Connor off when they want to hang out with her.  Meanwhile, Kira tricks Tommy into going after a Dino Egg while she sneaks into his lab and uses her Ptera cry to steal the fossil he put into the briefcase.  After Kira reassures him everything is ok and she made a mistake, she heads back to the museum and attaches the missing bone to the fossil which awakens some terrifying looking dinosaur fossil monster named Fossilador.  Apparently, Tommy and Anton were working on creating a dinosaur who can mind control people but luckily, he kept that piece locked away since it would prove tooo dangerous.  Honestly, I can't help but go back to why Tommy would do these kinds of experiments in the first place?? I know he has all this experience with dinosaurs but these experiments seem more sinister than just research at this point! Dude! O_o

Anyway, as Fossilador is brought to life, he painfully blasts Kira unconscious and grows to destroy Reefside.  As Hayley meets up with the guys, they witness Fossilador on a rampage in the city as Tommy leads Connor and Ethan there to stop him while telling Hayley to find Kira at the museum.  Riding toward Fossilador on their Raptor Riders (we the Dino Cycles not ready??? O_o), Zeltrax intervenes and unleashes the Triptoids on them.  Tommy tells Ethan and Connor to go off while he handles them; leading to them using their T-Rex and Triceratops to fend the city until Kira can meet them.  Luckily, Hayley is able to find Kira and she's ok after a dimwitted Security Guard helps her before they leave so Kira can meet up with the others to pay Fossilador back for controlling her mind.  Oh and Ethan and Conner form this weird combination of their zords which doesn't make sense but whatever.  Kira soon arrives on her zord, morphs and forms the Thundersaurus Megazord to finally finish Fossilador.  But he is clearly too powerful and even their strongest attacks aren't even strong enough to stop him from regenerating.  Yikes! Gulp! O_O While Tommy finishes off Zeltrax and Triptoids in an awesome fight sequence, he quickly orders the struggling rangers to aim for the piece that gave him life and they use the megazord's drill attack to finally do so and destroy him.  While the rangers have saved the day, Kira wonders with them back at the Dino Lab why Anton Mercer would have pieces of Fossilador at his museum in the first place before cutting away to a horrifying scene of Mercer working on curing himself from Mesagog but Mesagog is too strong and morphs back in the creature as Mesagog destroys his cure and continues toward his plan of prehistoric victory. All and All, "The Missing Bone" is fun and often times disturbing in imagery for a kids show. O_o  I like Fossilador as the episode's one off monster of the week and his backstory once again gave us insight on Tommy's past with Mercer.  Not to mention, evil Trent is kind of....anyway! Great episode! O_O :)

Final Morph: A-