Season 17, Episode 16: In or Out

 

"In Or Out"

Episode 16

Air Date: July 4th, 2009

Now I know with the official introductions of Gem and Gemma as the Gold and Silver rangers that most fans find the two.....how can I say...obnoxiously annoying because of their excruciatingly child-like behavior as well as finishing off each others' sentences EVERY TIME they speak.  Honestly, yes, while the two can be a bit grating since they are always overly excitable and don't lesson to orders right away like kids being told to stop running repeatedly but it honestly, makes sense considering they were also children when they were abducted by Alphabet Soup and considering they only had each other to connect to, it makes sense that their social skills would be remarkable odd and irritating to viewers but it's the same thing as Doc K.  The two are clearly geniuses but are heavily traumatized by never being able to grow up doing to their lost of childhood and being forced to be test subjects for an experiment that Doc K was doing.  Anyway, I'll give a more thorough examination of them during my overview.  But clearly, the two bring out the softer, more vulnerable side of Dr. K as we see during a hilarious opening scene of her expressing her appreciation and affection toward the rangers.  Tho my favorite part is when she heavily insults Dillon for being "highly psychologically unstable" before complimenting him and hugging him awkwardly like the others. lol  Of course, Ziggy gets a bit shafted which will be the FAAAARRR too drawn out joke of the episode.  Like I said, I know Gem and Gemma get a bad rap for being annoying but I honestly found Ziggy unusually irritating throughout this episode in that regard.  I mean I get their trying to build up more on the comedic relationship between Ziggy and Dr. K that will turn into a romance but I just couldn't stand him desperately quipping about her wanting to say nice things about him when Ziggy is usually charming and endearing despite the weasel traits of his personality.

Anyway, the plot of the episode revolves around the city's air supply as Tenaya, General Crunch and General Shifter manage to destroy the control console for the air supply factory so now the city will be unable to sustain air for the city.  After defeating the rangers but getting chased off by Gem and Gemma, the rangers and Dr. K talk about the air supply for the city being in danger as Gem and Gemma playfully devise a plan to stop Venjix's forces from the tunnel where the air supply goes through despite Colonel Truman's order to not do so.  Turns out there is far more to Venjix's plan as he knows the city's shield will be closed for hours to stop the air flow from decreasing thanks to his generals interfering with the air supply controls.  But with everyone trapped in Corinth with his latest VaccumBot sucking out all the air left in the city, the people of the city will have no way out when they run out of air.  All things considered, they are screwed, even when Scott tries to inform his father not to close the shields.  Scott decides to go after Gem and Gemma anyway despite his father's frantic calls as the shields close until they open again in a few hours.  As Colonel finds out that Scott was right, Dr. K speaks with the other rangers who want to join the others in the wasteland after Dr. K informs the Colonel about the drastic air loss in the upper atmosphere of the dome.  Ziggy brings up that fire wall that they can use to escape but they need to morph and use their individual suit powers to avoid the raging inferno.  Seriously, why don't more ranger teams have individual suit powers like this: teleportation, invincibility shield, time manipulation, etc. It's really badass.  

Anyway, Scott catches up with Gem and Gemma when they are at the tunnel watching Venjix's forces.  He comes up with a strategy to have Gem distract the Grinders while he and Gemma head in to stop the bot from sucking all the air.  Despite Gemma's overzealous nature to fight first and not listen to Scott's plan of attack, they manage to stop the bot and bring the fight outside as the tunnel caves in.  As all 7 rangers regroup, the generals retreat while Venjix makes his Vaccumbot grow.  They summon the ValveMax Megazord and High Octane Megazord to fight it but its suction power is too strong, leading to Dr. K using Gem and Gemma's zords to create a new configuration for the High Octane Megazord which adds them as new arm attachments aka a box and arrow finisher! Hey it works and the bot is no more, you should know by now how this show works! Like I said, not a bad episode, it's just the constant stretching out of the Ziggy/Dr. K joke got way too gratuitous for my liking.  But I enjoyed Venjix's plan and I already like Gem and Gemma despite the hate so...lol

Final Morph: C+