Season 14, Episode 12: The Gatekeeper, Part 2

"The Gatekeeper, Part 2"
Episode 12
Air Date: May 15, 2006

Well, well, I was scared for a moment that Part 2 would end up like Part 2 of "Stranger Within", but fortunately, "The Gatekeeper, Part 2" every bit as eventful, epic and even emotionally power as its predecessor.  Where we left off, the Gate to The Underworld has just reason as Claire and the rangers watched in horror,  Suddenly, a enormous Gargoyle statue from the Gate awakens and begins attacking the rangers while Koragg makes away with Claire as the rangers are too late to save her.  Jesus!!! O_o The Gargoyle continues to attack the rangers as they quickly transform into their Mystic Titans in a nice transition into a zord battle.  Unfortunately, even with the Titan Megazord, the Gargoyle is too powerful for the rangers as it sends flying hard to the Gate itself, where it is damaged enough that Morticon can force himself through.  Damn, the rangers are literally countered by two overpowered enemies and it looks like they're about to get destroyed...NOT GOOD.  Meanwhile, in the underworld, Koragg begins draining Claire of all of her Gatekeeper powers with a magical lock when down will force the Gates open without her consent.  I feel really bad for Clare and Udonna here, Claire in agonizing pain and Udonna captured in that bubble next to Koragg unable to help.  I really love that Udonna had a moment to share with Clare again about protecting her but Clare reassuring her not to worry, it what her mother would have wanted.  :( Wow!

Back in the city, the rangers are getting their a$$ kicked something fierce until Morticon uses a dark magic strike that demorphs until they fall to the ground.  As the rangers are shocked by the overwhelming odds, the sky blackens as dark magic is released as the Gate will soon open and bring forth the Master's army to rule the surface world.  Seriously, WOW! This episode has a very strong finale vibe to it with these incredible stakes at hand and you really feel like the rangers are fighting a hopeless battle.  I love how Nick quickly rallies up the other rangers to continue fighting as they morph and transform back into Mystic Titans to form the Dragon formation to continue the fight against Morticon and the Gargoyle while Nick morphs and uses his Mystic Speeder to head toward the Gate to make his way to the underworld to save Udonna and Claire but meets some Hidiacs on the way.  They manage to stop Nick; leaving him no choice but to fight and once again, the fight sequence is impressive as hell and looks like the stunt team/fight coordinators really pushed the show to it's limits with these action scenes. Bravo! :)

As the magical seal is about to unlock the Gates to the Underworld, Nick suddenly appears to save his mentor and Clare....of course, he has to summons those magical bosing gloves...oh they're called Mystic Force Fighters....sigh....-_-  But honestly, once again, I'm too engrossed in the action and story to care as after Nick challenges Koragg to a fight to free them, we get a relentless fight sequence between them that is excellently edited between Sentai fight footage and American scenes.  Luckily, we have little to no Kalishplosions outside one or two which is just awesome! :) After Nick unleashes an even more powerful attack and seemingly destroys Koragg, Clare is freed from his trap...but Koragg is revived and even tho Nick destroyed his sword, he can't be that easily....DAMMMNNN!!! o_O With the rangers continuing to struggle hard against Morticon and Gargoyle, Nick gets the idea to use Catastros as the Centaurus Phoneix is the only thing powerful enough to defeat Mortcon.  Both Clare and Nick combine their magic to summon the legendary horse and Nick transforms into his Mystic Titan and rides Catastros back to the city.  Even with only a little bit of her mother's magic, Clare channels all her power one last time to close the Gates of the Underworld.  While Clare looks seemingly destroyed because of it (*GASP* o_o) , she succeeds as the Gates lower back to the Underworld to Morticon's shock and frustration.

Nick soon arrives with Catasros to the other rangers' excitement and surprise as he combines with Catastros once more to form the Centaurus Phoenix Megazord to destroy the Gargoyle.  With Morticon left, the rangers combine to form the Titan Megazord (Why not continue to use Catastros since it's A LOT stronger? O_o), Morticon is still too strong for them to defeat as he even blocks their newest attack and knocks them back.  Luckily, Udonna sees her snow staff despite being trapped in her bubble (seriously, someone should have been watching her! O_o) and performs the spell that helps her channel her White Ranger powers to give the rangers enough power to destroy Morticon.  I really have to say, it's one of the most glorious ranger moments of the series with that epic  instrumental music I might add just bringing you chills as they defeat their strongest opponent yet.  Now if only the theme song....-_-...more on that later!  Anyway, as Udonna uses her Snow Staff to break free, Koragg comes out of no where and tells her to leave before she can get it back.  Back in the woods, Clare is safe and awakens to Udonna as well as the rangers greeting her.  While Udonna is proud of her, her mother's magic is unfortunately gone forever.  But I'm sure Clare will grow into a a just as powerful or even more powerful sorceress cause of her experience as the Gatekeeper.  Of course, she still has a ways to go as the episode ends with her fumbling yet another spell, lol.  Also, Udonna has a odd flashback to a man holding a baby while she watches with love and pride.  Hmmmm. didn't Nick have a red cloth like the baby is in with him a few episodes ago and also had a vision of the same baby...hmmmmm...:P Anyway, these two parters are the height of the season thus far in exceptional fashion as the writers focus the apocalyptic story at hand heavily without needing to shoehorn the worst aspects of the show so far.  Now...can they keep it up??? That is the question! O_o

Final Morph: A+