Season 12, Episode 30: Strange Relations

"Strange Relations"
Episode 30
Air Episode: September 30th, 2004

I guess the greatest thing to take from this episode is that we finally get a conclusion to this too stretched out evil White Ranger clone story arc.  Like I said in my last review, the clone was generic, weak and lost all depth when the story of the White Ranger was centered on Trent and his quick descent into being consumed by the white dino gem's power,  The clone just lacked all substance and complexity; becoming just a run of the mill general for Mesagog no matter how powerful he is.  Jesus, I even think Furio made more of an impression when he inadvertently killed Mike and turned a whole freakin' planet into stone despite being rather useless very soon after.  But at least the writers try to add some needed humanity to the clone before the story kind of abruptly ends here.  Apparently, with two White Rangers existing at the same time, it has caused a serious glitch in the Morphing Gird (great to see that being brought up again! :) as only one can remain as the White Ranger begins to lose his powers.  The evil clone soon challenges the rangers on his own to own, wanting to draw out Trent in the process but only the other four rangers arrive on the beach to stop him.  While he easily overpowers them, they soon take the fight into their respective megazords and I almost forgot to mention the Triceramax Megazord that was introduced a couple of episodes ago that combines the Mezodon Megazord and all the artillery zords together.  As both sides battle, the rangers manage to defeat the White Ranger since his powers are quickly being drained and he loses control of the Stegozord (tho last episode they had complete control of him so huh??? O_o) as well as the Dragozord.  As the rangers try to help the clone, he tells them only one white Ranger can remain as he fades away to go after Trent.

Meanwhile, Mesagog has stolen one of Anton's recent experiments that won him a very prestigious award and plans to use it to create a new army of warriors more powerful than the previous generals who have failed him.  He uses his powers to turn the plant into Jade Gladiator, who grows and begins to attack the city.  After Hayley tells Tommy and the other teens about the White Ranger's power making the morphing gird imbalanced, they try to contact Trent but must contend with the monster in the city while Hayley does it instead.  The four morph once again and call on the Thundersaurus Megazord to fight him but he proves waayyy too powerful and summons two monsters to battle the rangers in the form of Deadwood and a new creature, Skortch.  Meanwhile, the evil White Ranger finally faces off with Trent and luckily he immediately goes into Super Dino Mode so we can tell the difference??? O_o  Uhhh why??? Anyway, it's a pretty awesome fight as both rangers give their all into being the surviving White Ranger but of course, Trent is able to pull off the stronger last strike and destroys the clone for good.  Gotta feel kinda bad for the clone tho.  He actually seemed very adamant about staying alive and the part where Trent mentions him having no soul was very deep and it's unfortunate the writers never decided to move forward with that type of morally gray angle of the evil clone arc.  Oh well....

Anyway, the rangers get their asses beat something fierce when both monsters knock the rangers out of their zords.  Even Tommy, who can now take control of the Dino Stegazord is unable to defeat Skortch and is knocked out even with the new formation(s) with the artillery zords.  But luckily, Trent arrives to join them as all 5 morph and form the a new megazord that combines both megazords and artillery zords to form the Valkasaurus Megazord, which finally has all 5 rangers in the same cockpit.  Awesome! With this new Ultrazord type formation, they are easily able to destroy Skortch and Jade Gladiator....to Mesagog's utter rage!  With Mesagog growing more anxious and persistent of the rangers, Elsa gets the idea to attack Mesagog while he is Anton Mercer to protect herself from his wrath now that she is the only general left.  Smart, but kind of dumb plan as well honestly! Good luck with that gurl! O_o Another thing I really enjoyed about the episode was seeing Trent and Anton's relationship grow.  Sure Trent is trying desperately to save his father and Anton is being very stubborn not to accept help,. but their scenes together are touching as well as tense.  Once again showing the tough choices, not to mention secret Trent has to keep as his father tries desperately to protect him. Sigh.  All and all, "Strange Relations" was a pretty good farewell to the overall lukewarm evil White Ranger arc as the clone only gets interesting when it started questioning it's existence and wanting to live aka be more than what he was.  Besides that, great action and awesome seeing Mesagog getting more hands on with making his own monsters and moving toward his ultimate goal. :)

Final Morph: B