Season 12, Episode 32: Thunder Storm, Part 2

"Thunder Storm, Part 2"
Episode 32
Air Date: October 9th, 2004

You know what I'm noticing about this team up episodes??? Both parts, especially this one, feel more like a continuation of last season aka Ninja Storm episodes featuring supporting characters from Dino Thunder.  Which isn't a bad thing at all just to let you know! We're absolutely NOT talking about "Trakeena's Revenge" type blasphemy as the Lost Galaxy cast get severely shoehorned into a story centered around Carter and some dumb child actor! -_-  It's just the Dino Thunder cast, especially our main trio of rangers are mostly sidelined since the Wind Rangers are too powerful for them and they are on the defensive.  It kind of reminds me of Linkara's critic of these episodes with the Dino Thunder Rangers not really getting a chance to shine until the final battle where both teams finally team up against the villains together.  Just look at the In Space/Lost Galaxy team up episodes or more effectively, the Time Force/Wild Force team up 2 parter that continued both the last season and current season's storylines so seamlessly as they are intertwined to strengthen both the epic epilogue of the former season and climatic showdown of the later season.  But I'm getting ahead of myself as Part 2 kicks A$$ regardless; featuring some excellent fight sequences between both sets of rangers once again!  After the Dino Rangers, Tommy and Hayley pardon the terrifying possibility of Lothor and Mesagog teaming up on top of their new evil counterparts, we switch over to seeing a gleeful Lothor confronting Mesagog at his castle to do that very thing. I just find the scene so fascinating as the truly horrifying Mesagog interacting with the incredibly laughable Lothor is just....PRICELESS.

Meanwhile, Cam leads Hunter and Blake through the wreckage of the rangers' last battle and tells them they have to go down to the Abyss of evil themselves to retrieve their stolen powers to help the Dino Rangers defeat Lothor.  Of course, Hunter and especially Blake are against it since they could very well die going down there, we hilariously switch over to a terrifed Blake ready to climb down there with them.  Well, that didn't take much convincing.  Lol :)  Anyway, the Wind Rangers soon storm (Ha! :P) into Hayley's Cyberspace to confront the Dino Rangers and challenge them to a face off under the bridge in the city.  I love the exchange's here from Ethan's fear of Shane's being hyper to Ethan and Connor hitting on Tori briefly for Kira to snap them out of it to Ethan's excitement over their Ninja powers! Lol awesome! :)  Meanwhile, at the Abyss of the....the abyss, the three former rangers arrive and see Cam's Samurai Amulet that has all of their powers.  Of course, Hunter speaks to soon about being surprised it isn't guarded when Zurgane appears with an army of monsters and Kelzacks to attack them.  This, once again, is a great action sequence that really utilizes the set so well as well as the Ninja Storm rangers' natural ninja fighting skills.  But when Blake accidentally falls to his death, Hunter manages to save him by hanging on to a nearby cliff.  While Cam tries to reach the Samurai morpher but decides to save them instead, Zurgane leaves them there to die.  Things aren't looking good until hand reaches over to help Cam...to his surprise! Gasp! O_o So Connor, Ethan and Kira soon arrive under the bridge as Shane, Dustin and Tori attack.  What follows is probably my most favorite fight scene of these two episodes as the Dino Rangers utilize their individual dino gem powers to fight off the Ninja Storm Rangers' specific element powers.  Even after all these years, it's STILL an impressive feat of fight choreography and special effects as we see both styles of both sets of ranger teams being so well handled in this situation.  Makes the civilian powers side effect of the dino gems more unique and essential then some random addition to the show to make it more cool and ultimately pointless.  Anyway, luckily, Blake, Hunter and Cam made it out of the Abyss in time to stop their friends from finishing off the Dino Rangers by tricking them to activate their old powers so they can turn good again.  As the six Ninja Storm rangers catch up, the Dino Rangers understandably want an explanation on what exactly's going on.

As Lothor prepares to fight off both teams with his forces, Elsa warns Mesagog not to trust Lothor but Mesagog being the mastermind of menace and being two steps ahead knows they can't trust them and has already prepared for when Lothor fails him! Ha! Loving Mesagog even more! Back at the Dino Lab, both ranger teams and their mentors prepare for the final battle against Lothor as all 11 rangers make their way to a large quarry (of course! -_-) where the massive villain army awaits.  You know the drill at this point as they all morph and do a roll call, individually as well as a team, before enormous explosions of color erupt multiple times behind them.  The final battle itself is good, nice to see the rangers using their cycles together as well as their Super Dino modes, Super Samurai mode and battlizers.  It's just....those Kalshplosions man!!!! Jesus!!! -_-  They just kind of ruin the momentum of the fight sequence as they literally slow everything down so we can watch the same explosions like 3 more times after the first one!  But I digress, this isn't even the worst of them as the Disney Era would hammer this effect to point of aggravation and self parody to the point of absurdity....yes, even for Power Rangers.  Anyway, the next fight tho, it truly masterful tho as Mesagog and Lothor finally give into their distrust of each other and beat the living crap out of each other.  As much as IU hate Lothor, he was still one of the most vicious main villain fighters on this show.  It's just his motivations, personality, not to mention, inability to be a competent villain that destroyed anything likeable about him.  Gotta love Mesagog coming out on top tho, forcing Lothor in a lab tube forever with his powerful psionic abilities.  Wish I could say I'll miss Lothor but he's already more usual as some hideous doll in a jar full of a strange chemical than he ever was in his own season! Yup! I said it! :P  As the episode concludes, we get an inside joke of Cassidy and Marah thinking each other are pretty but prettier than the other since the actress, Katrina Devine, is playing both characters,  Hardy harr, horse....anyway! :) The epsiode wraps with the Ninja Storm rangers' powers being gone forever after one last battle (HA! Not on this show! Who are you kidding!?) and the entire team, minus Sensei, going to Blake's big race to watch his victorious win.  All and All, "Thunder Storm" is probably the funniest of the team up episodes in a long while. They managed to do something different with the two teams fighting each other first but still, I wished the Dino Rangers and their respective cast had more time to shine.  But this is easily in the Top 3 of the annual team up for the show behind "Reinforcements From the Future" and "To The Tenth Power/The Power of Pink". :)

Final Morph: A