Dr. K presents the Rangers with a chance to asks any and all questions regarding the Ranger Bio Series suits, vehicles, and hardware. The Rangers are hesitant at first, but quickly all of them except Dillon raise their hands.
Scott is up first and asks about the strange eyes on the front of the zords. Dr. K says they are optical field scanning sensors for their cockpits’ ATD display. Scott says they still look like eyes, “big googly anime eyes” Ziggy adds.
Next up is Ziggy. He asks about the huge explosions whenever he morphs. Dr. K says they are residual energy runoffs necessary for when they morph.
Finally, Flynn’s turn. He asks if it is necessary for them to scream out “RPM Get in Gear” at the top of their lungs. The vocal call out is a vocal recognition safety and security measure, Dr. K says. He suggests something like “Ranger Justice Unleashed.” She responds by saying “justice” is only an abstract ideological concept. They deal with tangible realities, not justice. If he wants justice, he should read a comic book.
Flashback to Flynn’s childhood. He’s reading the comic book Rebel Justice Unleashed at school. Feeling heroic, he attempts to save a girl from bullies but is unsuccessful and gets the girl’s lunch dumped on him… by the girl.
He heads home and his father basically tells him to be practical. There’s no such thing as super heroes.
Back to the present, there’s a shield breach and the Rangers head out. Col. Truman’s troops get thrown around until the Rangers arrive and Tenaya 7 sends out her own troops and the Venjix generals.
They morph, but the attack bot grows and begins attack the rest of the city.
Tenaya runs down the Ranger color stereotypes: Red is the perfect one, Black is the brooding bad boy, Green’s the clown, and Yellow is… the girl.
She then asks Flynn what he’s supposed to be. He replies “I’m Scottish.”
They continue fighting, but Scott needs time to recharge so Flynn tries to use his power to slow down time but there is a malfunction. He’s frozen and flashes back to his graduation day. Now that he’s done with school, his father asks what he wants to do with his life. Flynn wants to help people.
First, he becomes a police officer and is about to take a man into custody. His partner says he can’t because it’s the Mayor’s son, but he’ll do it anyway. He gets fired.
Second, he’s a firefighter, who’s just saved an elderly woman’s goldfish and is now going to save the plants. He’s fired again.
Third, he’s an International Aid Volunteer. He doesn’t agree with the corporate take over the indigenous land and turns into Braveheart. Another job gone.
He’s back at home, it’s the day of the Venjix attacks.
Flynn and his father have just arrived in Corinth with dozens of other survivors. A woman is in distress because her five year old daughter is still outside the dome. The soldiers say they can’t save her.
Back to present, Summer and Scott find out what the attack bot wants. Two major fault lines run under Corinth City and the attack bot is set to use them to lay the city to ruin. They head out, Flynn stays behind.
Corinth, day of the attacks… The distressed woman is begging for help. Flynn tells his father sorry and takes a school bus to head out of the dome.
He picks up human survivors in the midst of explosions and grinders and is about to leave but sees something outside. He gets out of the bus, fights off the grinders and returns carrying a little girl.
“Are we going to die?” she asks. “Not today” Flynn says.
Back in Corinth, the little girl reunites with her mother and Flynn reunites with his father.
He thinks his father is going to let him have it, but he instead tells his him how proud he is. How he thought superheroes weren’t real, but he’d been looking at one all along.
Back to the present, Scott and Summer are fighting the grinders while Dillon and Ziggy are trying to stop the attack bot. Flynn can’t help but watch from the lab with Dr. K.
Dr. K tells him she’s sorry he can’t do anything, but she can’t let him go out there when his suit is malfunctioning. She turns around and Flynn is gone.
Flynn has gone to help Summer and Scott. He tells Dr. K that he might have figured out a way to release the energy causing the malfunction, using the runoff explosions Ziggy had complained about when morphing.
It works and Flynn morphs as Tenaya and the grinders flip in the air. Dr. K is dumbfounded.
She asks where he learned to be a mechanic. Cut to evening and Flynn is at home at his father’s garage. He’s sleeping and Flynn sets down the bag of groceries he’s brought. He sees a scrapbook of all the news clippings featuring Flynn as the Blue Ranger and is touched.
And crash… POWER RANGERS — RPM
Overall
These flashback episodes have been great. We have really gotten to see what their lives were like, not only before they became Rangers, but before the Venjix attacks which is really the jumping off point for everything in the series it appears.
All the backstories pointed to where each of them were at the time of the first Venjix attacks. And Scott, Summer and Flynn’s specifically got us to the point when we first met them in the premiere.
I honestly can’t remember the last time Power Rangers (if ever) connected stories and scenes 10 episodes into the season.
And in a sign of what RPM is to the Power Rangers franchise, we’ve had two on-screen deaths and two utterances of the word “die” in this episode alone! A once taboo topic is right here, faced head on. And that says a lot about what EP Eddie Guzelian and the rest of the team had planned and their vision for this season.
It’s nothing like I’ve ever seen on Power Rangers, and I must say I love it.
Episode Caps
