Season 12, Episode 38: Thunder Struck, Part 2

"Thunder Struck, Part 2"
Episode 38
Air Episode: November 20th, 2004

Well, I guess that was a somewhat satisfying farewell to Dino Thunder as a whole.  I don't know, I guess I just expected MUCH more after Part 1 was such a stunning first half and the cliffhanger left A LOT of possibilities for the final half hour of the show but the episode doesn't quite stick the landing as graceful as you want it to be.  I'd say "Thunder Struck, Part 2" rushes toward it's conclusion instead of building on the immense foundation that Part 1 brought to it. We immediately start the episode off where the left off where the rangers, Hayley and Anton return to the destroyed Dino Lab where luckily, Elsa kept a blackbox which shows footage of Zeltrax taking Elsa away in the wreckage of their homebase.  While Anton begins whining and blaming himself for all of this, Tommy quickly shuts him up and tells them they can't change the pass as well as need to focus on finding Elsa and Zeltrax.  Meanwhile, Elsa tries to plead with Zeltrax to stop all this as Mesagog is gone and he doesn't have to continue his battle against the rangers but Zeltrax is so consumed with his revenge against Tommy that he continues his plan to unleashes his powerful new zord on the city.  Oh and Devin finally tells a poorly haired Cassidy about the rangers' identity.  yeah! O_o  So while Ethan seemingly heads back to his double feature/geekathon by running to that blonde girl again, a massive invisi-portal opens and Zeltrax's zord lands in the middle of the city where Elsa is tied inside.  Soon Tommy contacts Ethan to morph and heads to the city where the others meet him.  Zeltrax soon appears with an army of Triptords who the rangers begin battling as Zeltrax's zord begins destroying the city.  After Tommy orders Trent to stay behind and handle the rest of Zeltrax's forces,. he tells the main trio to summon their zords while he goes after Elsa himself.

While the rangers try to contend with the zord with the Thundersaurus Megazord, Tommy begins to battle his way to Elsa through more Triptords guarding the zord from inside; leading Kira to go off and help him while Ethan and Connor contend with zord on their own.  While Kira arrives just in time to help Tommy free Elsa and fight off Zeltrax, Ethan pilots the Mezodon Megazord so he and Connor can use both megazords to finish off Zeltrax's zord.  While Ethan holds off the zord, Connor uses the drill of the Thundersaurus to open a hole into the zord so Kira, Tommy and Elsa can escape.  Soon Zeltrax follows in his final form but Kira and Tommy manage to destroy him pretty easily while Trent takes Elsa off to safety. O_o  Anyway, Tommy orders Connor to summon all the artillery zords so Ethan and Connor can use all the power of zords to destroy Zeltrax's zord for good.  But it turns out is waaayyy more powerful than previously thought as it not only come back from destruction but begins sucking everything into it; leading Tommy to tell him in ranger tradition to sacrifice all the zords to finally destroy it for good.  Jesus, cause that worked so well last time with the Thunderzords right Tommy??? O_O So Ethan and Connor sacrifice all the zords, including the Thundersaurus Megazord and Mezodon Megazord as they all explode in a massive blast! As the rest of the team and Elsa check the wreckage to see if they survived, Connor and Ethan make themselves seen to let everyone know that they are ok....only things aren't over yet as Mesagog soon appears for the face of the rangers last battle!!! And....I gotta say...Mesagog's mutated form looks too bulky and heavy for such a battle ahead.

Anyway, as the rangers tell Elsa to get out of the way for cover, she soon spots Cassidy and Devon filming the rangers once again as they morph one last time to summon their Super Dino Mode as well as weapons to charge into one last fight against Mesagog.  The fight itself is...alright!? O_o  I mean as far as final battles go, Turbo-Wild Force has MUCH better final battles against the main villain, especially that epic and vicious final encounter between the Time Force Rangers and Ransik.  Hell, even the Ninja Storm's final fight with the all 6 rangers against Lothor felt grander and more climatic than the rapid explosion fest and over the top wirework that is displayed here.  Anyway, Connor can somehow summon his Triassic mode without Kira and Ethan's added power to go into the battlizer mode and blast Mesagog seemingly into nothing.  But Mesagog survives and begins to multiple in front of them into 3 more forms.  As the rangers realize four Mesagogs would be wayyy too powerful to defeat, they decide to combine all the power of their dino gems to finally defeat him with a massive CGI Tyrannosaurus that goes for the final blow to destroy him once and for all.   Uhhhh...yay??? o_o So it turns out, their dino gems are now powerless because they used all of it to destroy Mesagog  for good.  Cassidy and Devin soon reveal themselves to the rangers and tell them they know their secret confidently. 

Of course, Cassidy has a sudden change of heart that comes out of no where and I know all season they've been building up to this extremely selfless moment with her but nope, naw....did I say HELL NO! O_O So as Cassidy and Devin finally hook up to go to the prom (No! -_-), everyone else wraps things up at the prom as Connor takes Katrina out from "The Passion of Connor", Ethan has a quick change of heart and decides to takes out that girl he met at the movies to the prom (how did she find a dress in time? O_o) , Trent is planning on going to Art School in the fall while Anton and Elsa seem to be heating things up....so what happened to that attraction to Tommy gurl??? O_o So Tommy announces the performer for the prom and it turns out to be Kira! Wow! Performing the most cliche female rock/pop song I have ever heard from that era of music! But it's capped off by a cute montage of the rangers adventures all season and the audience getting really into it while freeze framing on a shot of our OG three smiling for the camera one last time....Awwwww! I mean, while there were aspects of the finale that were weak, especially in Part 2, overall, "Thunder Struck" was a decent quota on the second incarnation of dino infused Power Rangers.  Now it's overview time! :P

Final Morph: B-