Power Rangers RPM – 18: Belly of the Beast


^^Yes, that is a cap from Power Rangers and yes, it is from this episode, but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. 😉 Let’s start from the beginning…

Dr. K is briefing the Rangers with Col. Truman and Cpl. Hicks about Venjix’s doomsday weapon and the possible plan for an aerial attack on the city, which could be within 41 hours.

In the midst of Ziggy’s interjections about where’s the good news, Dr. K says they won’t have enough fire power to bring it down once it’s airborne. Scott suggests they blow the factory before it can launch, Gem and Gemma get excited but Summer reminds them that Dillon’s sister could still be in there.

Col. Truman suggests they figure a plan to evacuate the workers and then blow up the factory.

Meanwhile, Venjix is revealing a souped-up sawbot. Tenaya 7 questions why use it again after its easy defeat, “It’s like asking a girl out on a date after she’s just totally rejected you.” The generals laugh but Venjix says the sawbot’s goal was to study every single move of the Rangers and is now invincible.

The alarm sounds alerting them about a human raiding party heading for the factory.

The Rangers and Col. Truman with troops arrive to prepare to save the prisoners before blowing up the factory. But Dr. K brings up the What If? of there coming a time when they must decide between the fate of the prisoners including Dillon’s sister and the fate of the last human city on Earth.

Flynn speaks up, “I’ve never been one for debating ethics or making complicated moral judgment calls. I prefer things simple you know, good vs. evil. Us vs. them.”

But suddenly the sawbot comes with grinders and the Rangers morph. Scott tells the soldiers to fall back but not before they and Col. Truman get a piece of a couple of grinders.

Unmorphed, Gem and Gemma, holding the explosive charges in a small carrying case fight off a group on their own when Dr. K tells them to use one of those charges. She doesn’t finish her sentence and the twins go to the sawbot, attach a charge and happily set it off. It’s gone.

Col. Truman and the soldiers will hold their position as the Rangers head into the factory. A patrol of grinders are waiting outside but the Rangers make easy work of them all, Gem and Gemma remaining unmorphed.

They split up. The twins hand Scott the charges. He puts Summer in charge of detonating the explosives. Flynn and Ziggy go search for prisoners. He and Dillon will plant the chargers around the perimeter, but Dillon is only concerned about finding his sister. Before he can tell the twins to help Scott, they are off on a special assignment from Dr. K, they call out and run off.

They are greeted by more grinders as well as the sawbot, but Summer tells Scott to go plant the charges while she and Dillon hold them off.
Summer takes on the sawbot by herself, but Dillon comes to her rescue even though she says she is fine.

Gem and Gemma are in the control room and connect a flash drive. They ask Dr. K if this will really work and she says this is their only hope at facing the doomsday bot head-on.
Tenaya 7 tells Venjix a foreign DNA base code is being uploaded into the factory mainframe. Venjix says to activate launch now.

Fighting off the sawbot drains Dillon and Summer’s energy and they dimorph. Summer goes to a hurt Dillon just as they hear the doomsday bot ready to launch. He tells Summer she isn’t going to detonate before they find his sister, but she hands him the detonating device and tells him he will decide when to use it.

Scott finishes planting the charges and the ship is about to launch. Dillon asks Summer what he needs to do, but she tells him whatever he thinks is right. She goes to keep the sawbot busy as Dillon holds the device not knowing what to do.

Dillon hesitates, Summer tells him there is no time, but Dr. K says to hold off detonation until the doomsday ship is airborne and clears a safe distance before setting off the explosives. “Trust me, I know what I’m doing,” Dr. K tells Dillon. “More or less,” she tells herself.

Flynn and Ziggy get all the prisoners out of the factory and the doomsday bot is now out of range. Dr. K gives the all clear for detonation. The factory goes up in flames. (Not much of an explosion though!)

The prisoners are getting on the military transports but Dillon doesn’t see his sister. (Does he know what she looks like?) Flynn says there is no one left in there but Dillon runs back anyway. Summer goes after him. Scott calls Gem and Gemma to get them to stop Dillon and Summer from going back into the factory, but they’re kind of busy.

They morph (we get a glimpse of their morphing sequence for the first time, very awesome) and fight off the sawbot only to have Venjix, in his own ship, order Tenaya to proceed with the embiggening download.
Venjix orders the sawbot and the doomsday ship towards Corinth and they begin battering the dome as Col. Truman and the military convoy head towards the city.

“Dr. K! I hope you know what you’re doing!” Col. Truman tells Dr. K.
“Why does everyone keep saying that?!?” Dr. K responds, “Of course I am aware of what I am doing. I just have absolutely no idea whether or not it will work.”

Col. Truman and the convoy arrive in the city and they look up to see the dome shields ready to give out. Cpl. Hicks says the shields will experience total system failure in 5 seconds as he begins counting down but just at 1, Dr. K gets what she was hoping for.

The doomsday ship transforms, well, turns into a plumpy blue whale and begins shooting back at the drones. Dr. K tells the Rangers about her having Gem and Gemma reprogramming the ship with the base DNA code of a blue whale. Ziggy scoffs at why a whale, but Dr. K gets snippy right back at him.

Meanwhile, the sawbot gets huge in the city, there is no way for them to stop it with its enhanced memory upgrades, but Dr. K’s got a plan, of course. She sends the new blue whale to form a new megazord configuration with Gem and Gemma’s zords that the sawbot doesn’t know and that does the trick.

Back at the factory, Scott tells Dr. K it is too hot for them to go back in to grab Dillon and Summer. She says to stand by for assistance.

Inside, Dillon and Summer are sweating it out trying to search for his sister. She tells him they need to go but he tells her to leave him.

Summer: “I’m not leaving here without you!”
Dillon: “Why are you always trying to save me!?!”
Summer: “Because you’re worth saving!”
(Expected a different answer yeah?)

Fireballs erupt and Dillon wraps Summer up in his left arm. They’re close, they’re breathing heavily. He looks at her from behind, “Looks like neither of us is leaving.”

She turns around, their lips excruciatingly close, especially for Power Rangers standards and seemingly are about to touch until they are doused with water. The big blue whale hovers over the factory showering it with water, killing the flames.

They try a 2nd attempt at a kiss but Gem and Gemma come running in excited about the flying whale. Dillon asks where his sister’s cell is and the twins tell him they’re standing in it right now.
Summer finds a key on a chain, the same one Dillon has to open his locket.
“My sister,” he smiles and…
POWER RANGERS
RPM


Episode Thoughts
First of all, that almost historic Power Rangers moment of Dillon and Summer’s kiss. For a show that’s shied away from romantic entanglements, let alone actual lip-to-lip contact since Tommy and Kimberly (Tommy and Kimberly!!!!), that moment between them at the end of the episode was pretty surprising if not refreshing.

Power Rangers has always been a series that now I feel like is held back by being classified or seen as “just a kid’s show.” There is so much potential in the basic concept that I feel there can be so much more done that can’t because it wouldn’t be okay for the kiddies. Which is one reason I am absolutely loving RPM because so far it seems like an effort to, not necessarily move away from the demographic Fox/Saban and now Disney targeted since the show began, but allowing for a wider audience than just young grade school boys.

Now the subplot of a Dillon/Summer romance has been slowly developing since the first episode, complete with the possibility of the love triangle with Scott, so this development is not surprising in that sense. Despite Jungle Fury’s finale hook up extravaganza last year and the tame love stories of past Power Ranger seasons, this RPM development takes it a step further which is definitely a nice change.

But enough about Dillon and Summer’s sexual tension, this episode was excellent. I’ve always said I enjoy the out of the dome/wasteland scenes as we get a fuller picture of the situation. It’s dire, the entire human race can fit inside a domed city and an evil computer virus has evolved into something that can create nuclear weapons.

Probably one of my favorite scenes of the season so far, Col. Truman with the military convoy rushing towards Corinth while Venjix and the doomsday ship are already hammering at the dome. Then inside the dome with Col. Truman looking up to see the explosions almost ensuring the dome shield’s imminent collapse.
Excellent stuff, and the scenes at the factory were perfectly filmed. Great cinematography this season.

This episode also marks the last under the leadership of executive producer Eddie Guzelian. Judd Lynn takes over with the next episode and the Power Rangers fandom is ready to either rejoice or start sharpening their weapons depending on whether the new regime maintains the outstanding start for RPM or resorts back to the typical, silly with flashes of greatness Power Rangers we’ve come to be used to.

We’ll have to wait and see. There is no need for doomsday predictions about the show now. But the foundation has already been laid for a great 2nd half of the season, so I really have no doubt we’ll be seeing some awesome stuff in the coming months.


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15 thoughts on “Power Rangers RPM – 18: Belly of the Beast

  1. Don’t summer and dillon look like there kissing when water is falling on them?Are the actors dating??Love the pairing of the two.Great episode.

  2. Since the 2nd episode I feel summer and dillon already are going to have a relationship.Love the scene in this episode of summer and dillon.Great job to the cast and crew.

  3. I think that dillon shows that he likes summer many times like
    1.Summer-Did you have any nice dreams?
    Dillon-Im having one right now

    2.”Summer you’re not going anywhere”

    Please list as many as you can thanks!

  4. Summer and Dillon are the only two who never part because there love for each other is so strong.

  5. They totally should have kissed. How come Disney allowed tommy and Kimberly kissed?

    1. Well, Disney actually wasn’t involved in Power Rangers during Mighty Morphin. It was under Saban Ent. Maybe in the new season under Saban and on Nickelodeon, kissing will be allowed. =]

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