Season 17, Episode 8: Ranger Yellow, Part 1

"Ranger Yellow, Part 1"

Episode 8

Air Date: April 18th, 2009

This series is really giving me a Joss Whedon type of originality and flare when it comes to terrific execution of such dark material and deeply dramatic stakes juxtaposed to some of the funniest writing for the show thus far.  Like while Tenaya is leading a brutal attack on the city of Corinth with a new Boombot and Grinders, the rangers and Dr. K are doing a Q&A for a school of children eager to meet their heroes but it turning to an outrageous riot of laughter as the children get to know the team through hilarious rebuttals, clumsy hijinks and Dr. K nearly attacking a child after her work is once again called "spandex".  Ha!!! But its when a young boy asks Summer to marry her and she says yes, he also asks, "Have you always been this nice???"  .......NOPE!!! O_O Hard to believe it, but are sweet, sincere and noble Yellow Ranger was an obnoxiously spoiled heiress who treated her butler lower than SH!T...and that's not an exaggeration as she uses him as furniture and drives off in her motorcycle; spraying mud all over her face.  It's her birthday apparently and her butler, Andrews, has gotten everything ready for the party as Summer's friends arrive and they're just as awful......again WOW!!! Talk about a miracle of character development before we even met her! Back in the present, Summer is taken out of her flashbacking when the rangers must confront the Boombot monster and Grinders, the four guy fight off some Grinders and then morph, but it takes Summer arriving like Trinity in the Matrix Reloaded to get the job done.  She morphs and fights the monster.  When she uses her energy blast power, she is at a stand off with the Boombot since it have incredibly piercing soundwaves. As the rangers manage to defeat it and congratulate Summer, the monster grows thanks to Venjix's "preparing the download"......

The rangers summon their zords and form the High Octane Megazord but it takes Dillon's Wolf Cruiser to attach as a new arm and blast the monster until it is finally destroyed.  Meanwhile, back at the garage, there are some extremely prudish, annoying rich couple waiting there when the rangers arrive...who think their Summer's help before Dillon provides to break a pool stick out of anger.  Before Scott can officially throw them the hell out, Summer arrives and confirms they are in fact her parents.  While her parents explain she still has "a promise to keep", we flashback to how her parents didn't even make it to her birthday party and were stuck in London, but Andrews manage to give her their present, the Lansdown Black Diamond...which we see in the present that Tenaya is looking for since it's a rarity that can be used for one of Venjix's latest Attackbot.  Back at the garage, Dr. K learns that Boombot and Grinders were just a distraction while Tenaya went after the rare diamond.  After Dr. K finds out her whereabouts in the city, the rangers head out there except Summer who's parents stop her from going.  During one last flashback for the episode, Summer is crying after learning his parents can't make it...just as Venjix is beginning his massive attack on humanity as her friend tells her about it while holding a radio.  We even see that while she and her friends are trying to get to Corinth, a military truck finally stops to bring them on but unfortunately there is no space for Summer as one of her friends to pushes her off the truck; wishing her the best of luck....Jesus!!! O_O Can't wait to see where this backstory goes from here......

Back in the present, the guy rangers catch up to Tenaya who taunts them before kicking their a$$es.  Luckily, Summer once again arrives to be a badass femme fatale and we get a really awesome extended fight between Summer and Tenaya, first in unmorphed form and then in morphed form.  We even get a nice fake out of Summer dodging Tenaya's hand from blasting her.  Also, it seems Tenaya didn't get her hands on the diamond as the box she stole is empty....tho one wonders why the rangers just let her get away when they could at least captured her! -_-  Anyway, back at the Garage, while Summer's parents continue to remind her about owing them because of her promise, Dillon suddenly starts acting like her man and wants to intervene but Scott stops him as no matter what Summer promised it can't be that serious......Oh.......she promised to get married???  And her father's has the diamond.......Yeah, cue  To Be Continued is right!!! Part 1 is an amazing start, showcasing Summer at her most heroic and badass while also giving us a glimpse of the spoiled princess she use to be before leaving us with a definitely promising cliffhanger! :)  On to Part 2....

Final Morph: A+