Scott and Dillon are racing on the beach, Ziggy calls it a male bonding ritual.
Summer and Flynn double their bet. Summer for Dillon, Flynn for Scott.
Suddenly, Dillon and Scott stop right before the finish line and walk past the other three. They all turn to see Tenaya 7. She prefers battles that have a more “permanent outcome.” Grinders emerge from behind the rocks and the fight begins.
A visored Tenaya 7 spars with Dillon with this exchange:
Tenaya: “For a human, you’re pretty fast.”
Dillon: “For a robot, you’re pretty human.”
Tenaya: “Don’t EVER call me that. Again.”
An attack bot appears on top of the hill and begins turning his gears that sets off some sort of blast that hits Dillon on his back. He morphs.
Flynn and Summer meet up and they morph.
Scott fights grinders and everything freezes when one of them leaves a scratch. That is all Scott needs to set him off and he lets loose. He and Ziggy morph.
After the Rangers take care of the grinders, Tenaya 7 tells Venjix, “mission accomplished.” And we see something’s been activated in Dillon, red eyes and all.
Darkness in Corinth City, Summer’s getting a glass of milk before bed and sees Scott and Dillon’s profiles on Dr. K’s screens. Dr. K, doggy slippers and all, pops up from behind the fridge door.
She says she understands Summer’s dilemma, to Summer’s confusion and they have some girl talk.
Dr. K says Summer finds Ranger Series Red attractive because he represents the guy who can give her solid security. The boy next door, trustworthy and responsible. The kind you take home to mother.
At the same time, she’s hopelessly drawn to the excitement and danger of Ranger Series Black. The tortured and mysterious bad boy, she thinks she can save.
Comparing the raw data on a cuteness scale is difficult, says Dr. K. One scoring a solid 9 but the other registering the maximum cuteness score of 10.
“Which one do you think is the 10?” Summer asks. To which Dr. K replies, “Why? Which one do you think is the 10?”
The alarms sound before she can answer. The Rangers run down from their quarters. The city’s shield levels are decreasing. Something is manually overriding the shield controls. Col. Turman comes on to say the shields are being shut down from within her lair. (Lair?)
They all run into her lab to find Dillon pulling out wires. Summer says he doesn’t know what he’s doing, but Scott can see what he’s doing and he’s going to stop him.
They all take their turns to try and stop him, but he swats them away like its nothing. Dr. K begins to scan him and thinks he’s being controlled by a remote flash device. Dillon snaps the scanner in half and pushes her away only to be caught by Ziggy.
A few seconds of awkwardness between the two before Ziggy goes to hug Dillon’s waist. He thinks their friendship is so meaningful that its overridden whatever is controlling him, but he’s wrong and Dillon swats him away again.
Scott goes at him from behind, but Dillon crushes him into the wall, though not before Scott sees the device attached to the back of his neck. Scott grabs a hold of Dillon long enough for Summer to literally kick the device off his neck.
Dillon falls to the floor in Scott arms and Dr. K raises the shields.
Dillon seems to be back, asks Scott why he’s hugging him and then asks Dr. K what with her doggy slippers.
They strap him to the chair and the other Rangers ask if it’s really necessary. Dr. K says the latest readouts of “Ranger Operator Series Black“… and before she can finish, Flynn “woman”s Dr. K and tells her to just call him Dillon.
Ziggy asks if there’s a reason she doesn’t call them by their real names to which Dr. K responds, “There’s a reason for everything.”
Dr. K explains the device was accelerating the virus activating the Venjix hardware is overtaking his biological being.
Flynn and Summer say they should get the circuit board of the attack bot from that morning so they can get the acceleration code.
Ziggy suggests they lower the shields and lure the attack bot back, but Scott (reasonably) points out that they’d be taking a huge risk. Dr. K says they’d be putting the entire city and the fate of the entire human race at stake all for Ranger Operator Series Black. Summer says “Dillon. All for Dillon” and takes the key to unlock Dillon’s straps.
Dr. K says “I guess that pretty much answers the statistical question regarding the number 10 we were discussing earlier, does it not?”
Summer is speechless.
Later, Dillon loads up his car for supplies and is about to set off until Scott, sitting in his car, stops him. Dillon won’t let them lower the city shields. Scott says he’s team leader and makes the decisions, plus he can outrun him.
Scott finds Dillon has emptied his gas tank. Dillon says he’s heading out to the wasteland where he won’t be a danger to anybody.
Scott won’t allow it, “You’ve got to be the most stubborn person I’ve ever met… next to me that is.” And he hooks a chain onto Dillon’s wrist.
Dillon tells him to unlock the chain, otherwise he’s pulling out and he’s taking Scott’s arm with him. Scott stands firm, throws the key away into the drain and the other Rangers look on in shock.
Dillon revs up his car and starts for the garage door but steps on the brake and gets out. “I really hate you, you know that?” he says to Scott. Scott says he knows.
Ziggy apparently swallowed the original key, so “It’s just you and me Dil!” Scott laughs.
Dr. K lowers the shields, and Venjix, Tenaya and the generals believe it’s Dillon’s work. Venjix tells them to send in the Lightning bot once the shields hit 40%.
Back at the base, Summer asks how the happy couple are doing which transitions to Scott messing with Dillon as he eats his sandwich, plays pool and becomes Scott’s personal shower assistant.
Night falls in Corinth once again and the guys are sitting in their respective cars. Dillon asks Scott why he chained them up. “I don’t know, I guess I’m a saint,” Scott says.
Dillon replies “Nobody is a saint. Nobody.”
“Oh, and Dillon? You’re welcome.” Scott responds.
The next day, with the shields down, the Lightning bot attacks the city.
The alarm sounds and Dillon and Scott get out of their cars only to have some chained together follies. The other three Rangers head out without them.
Watching from the garage, Dillon and Scott can’t take not being able to help and Dr. K tells them to just go, but decide which car to use first.
They end up using a Corinth scooter and, still chained together, help their teammates and fight off the grinders.
They eventually morph, which breaks the chain and they fight the lightning bot.
It grows, the megazord finishes it off and Summer grabs the circuit board.
Back in Dr. K’s lab, Summer and Flynn try to get the circuit board to work, but Dillon changes back into evilDillon. Venjix and Co. are excited, Tenaya 7 says he’ll be under their control in seconds.
Flynn says the device is encrypted and without the original base code of the Venjix virus, they can’t do anything. Ziggy, Summer, and Scott try to control Dillon.
Dr. K looks on in horror and begins entering the code into the computer. She presses enter and Dillon falls to the floor, the acceleration device seemingly deactivated.
The Rangers gather around Dillon who asks what happened.
Dr. K responds, “What just happened is that I entered the base code for the Venjix virus. I know it because I wrote it. I’m the one who released it. Everything that’s happened. Everything that you’ve all been through, it’s all my fault.”
SMASH… POWER RANGERS — RPM
And the last one for three weeks!
Overall
Well, compared to “Blitz” last week, “Brother’s Keeper” was 10x better, but then it’s hard to compare two very different types of episodes.
Before it aired, “Brother’s Keeper” as an episode title could’ve meant so many things, the least of which and probably not what most expected was actually Dillon and Scott’s brotherly bond (or developing one at least).
It is great to see how they really making an effort in making RPM a complete story. There are no throw away plots, everything comes back almost full circle, Scott and Dillon’s relationship being one of them.
Then we get more of what is turning out to be a Dillon/Summer/Scott triangle. Though we’ve seen Dillon/Summer develop from episode 1, there have been hints of that yellow/red combo as well and I hope they do keep this storyline going. It is something fresh and it reminds me of how amazing a similar kind of story would’ve been if they had pursued the Conner/Kira/Trent angle in DinoThunder.
Dr. K’s analysis of Summer’s “dilemma” was one of the best scenes of the season so far.
The beginning of the episode was pretty awesome. And the Scott/Tenaya battle just adds even more fuel to the speculation fire about their true identities.
I know the PR fandom absolutely loves Ziggy, but they could certainly tone down his comedy. He doesn’t need to crack a joke in every scene he’s in.
Dr. K’s reveal in the final seconds of the episode could’ve been handled better, but it was well done nonetheless. I’m just annoyed we have to wait three weeks! to see the Rangers’ reactions to her revelation.
Episode Caps
