Season 17, Episode 31: Danger and Destiny, Part 1

 

"Danger and Destiny, Part 1"

Episode 31

Air Episode: December 26th, 2009

Here we are!!! Finally at the....finale of RPM! And while I wasn't completely blown away by Part 1 (Trust me I'll go over what I was disappointed by!), it still was a great first chapter to the end all be all between the rangers and Venjix.  Now one of the things was disappointed by the fact that the citizens of Corinth....or at least have the population is under Venjix's control now but he doesn't do anything with them, making last episode's terrifying reveal of 50% of Corinth's population being hybrids not used to its full advantage at all.  I still think Venjix could have used the citizens against the rangers, forcing them to give up and being surround by the hybrids....only to be captured and prepared to be turned into hybrids themselves.  Could you imagine how awesome the finale would be if the rangers were sent to a Venjix factory as Venjix takes over Corinth and having to figure out how to fight their way back to Corinth??! But I'm getting ahead of myself as Part 1 still ups the stakes enough where we have some truly best moments from the show like Dr. K locking herself in her lab only to be confront by Venjix's forces and Venjix himself.  I loved the dialogue between them here and Olivia Tennet once again delivers a hell of an emotional punch as Dr. K comes face to face with her creation and making her realize that humanity will always be far greater than technology. Wow! :)  

What also helps is that the team is split for a good chunk of the episode given how urgent the situation is with Ziggy going after Dr. K to save her from getting captured, Dillon some how fighting his virus so he can head over to take Dr. K's cure and the other 5 rangers having to confront one of the last of Venjix's Attackbot in a huge battle. After Ziggy fails to save Dr. K and they both get captured, Dillon manages to make it back to the lab....after Venjix brutally destroys it.  With the virus getting stronger in him, he goes for Dr. K's anti-dote...which managed to survive all that destruction???  Luckily for him, the anti-dote instantly works....which is the other thing that bothered me about the episode.  It just seemed waaaayyy too easy of a resolution for Dillon's virus.  Like all that tension and dread that let up all season is grinded to a sudden abrupt halt.  It's a true shame and I'll more into it when I write my overview.  But with Dillon virus free, he goes after his sister of course, just the other rangers have just defeated Venjix's last Attackbot.  But soon Venjix arrives and begins deleting the rangers' zords connection to the bio-field; seemingly destroying them for good.  To make matters far worse, Gem and Gemma sacrifice themselves out of nowhere to save the other three rangers from being destroyed by Venjix.....as they all demorph and the rest of their zords are destroyed...as well as Gem and Gemma themselves.  It truly is a gut wrenching moment watching Gem and Gemma essential die like this as the main trio look on; Summer just crying in Flynn's arms at the sight of their friends dying.  It just makes it sooooo much more devastating considering how innocent and child-like they always were. :_(

Meanwhile, as Ziggy manages to find a way for free Dr. K and him from Venjix's forces, Dillon has track down Tenaya who is guarding them and preparing to send them to be manufactured like the other hybrids when the main trio reach him and tell him about Gem and Gemma's deaths.  After telling him where he is and to get there, Tenaya is suddenly attacked by Kilobyte who has began deleting herself as he plans to take over her position once again as head general.  As the two fight, Tenaya is eventually over powered before Kilobyte plans to destroy her for good until Dillon jumps in to save her.  After an awesome brief fight between the two and hilarious exchange about Tenaya uses Dillon as a shield, Ziggy manages to get his hands on the antidote that Dillon dropped and gives it to him in time to cure Tenaya with it.  But Kilobyte has unfortunately shoot at Dillon; leaving him unconscious.  But before he can finish him off, the main trio arrive out of nowhere to destroy kilobyte with their Road Blaster in a pretty badass moment.  As Tenaya awakes machine free, the rangers take her and Dillon back to the lab to find out their next plan against Venjix since they have no way of using their powers and weapons since Venjix has downloaded the coding for their bio-field connection as morphing with just make him delete them like Gem and Gemma.  With all hope lost, Scott forces Dr. K to come up with a way to fight him without their powers as she suggest they fight Venjix with a virus as well.  Summer gets an idea to use Tenaya to get themselves close to Venjix to use it but she is hesitant given all she's done.  After some powerful and passionate words from Flynn, Tenaya agrees to do it, especially for her brother as Dillon's life hangs in the balance before Part 1 concludes. 

Final Morph: B+