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21: Once A Ranger, Part Two

There's an outer space shot that establishes the green room Thrax teleported the villains to is on another planet. Huh. Alright. I thought it was just on Earth somewhere.
Adam takes the veteran Ranger team to Angel Grove, which looks an awful lot like a random warehouse in New Zealand.
There's some nice character moments as Bridge uses his pyschic scan ability to detect Chillers, and Xander decides to try out "plan Xander" and talk the Chillers out of a fight. It doesn't work of course, and a fight breaks out.
Kira uses her sonic scream ability, which including her Dino Thunder and SPD appearances, I think is only it's fourth or fifth use.
Xander uses his Morpher to once again summon vines out of the ground to get rid of some Chillers.
Tori fires a blast of water at attacking Chillers.
Adam uses "old school" martial arts to take out the last of them.
He then leads the Rangers to a crate. There's a crudely drawn lightning bolt on the side.
At the mansion, Sentinel Knight appears to Mack. He tells Mack that he's glad to see him still taking part in their mission. Mack is only sweeping the floor, and doesn't feel like he's making much of a difference. Sentinel Knight assures him that even without power, he's still a Ranger. Mack questions the Knight about something he overheard Thrax say. Thrax said he knew of something that could defeat him. Sentinel Knight explains to Mack that there's a magic sword, Excelsior, that can defeat him.
Elsewhere, Ronny has won a race, she looks down at the cup she's won, it's empty, symbolizing how she feels about this accomplishment.
Dax is back to working as a stuntman, and also back to being neglected and disrespected. He needs to contact his union.
Will has successfully recovered a stolen painting for a museum, but suddenly thinks back to Operation Overdrive, because the plot needs him to.
Tyzonn wanders around a field. Um. Alright. It's a nicely shot scene. Don't know what it's supposed to mean or how I'm supposed to feel about it. What does this scene say about what he's feeling or thinking? I have no idea.
Rose is teaching a class at a university. Mack comes to see her, he asks her about the sword Excelsior, and she directs him to a book in the library.
We immediately jump forward in time to Mack exploring a jungle searching for the sword. No idea how long it's been.
Mack finds the sword on a statue that's just standing there. What is the statue? Why is it there? Who made it? How can this sword defeat Sentinel Knight? Why was it even made? Whatever, moving on.
Thrax pops in and attacks Mack, but Dax jumps in to save him. The others show up, and then jarringly we cut back to the mansion.
Adam and Mr Hartford activate Alpha 6! He's got a new voice. No explanation of why Alpha 6 was deactivated in a crate, or back on Earth... Then we jump back to Thrax and the Overdrive Rangers. This episode is way more schizophrenic than the last. The last episode took it's time, this one keeps jumping around and can't hold on anything for too long.
Thrax tries to take the sword, but can't get near it. Mack info dumps that the sword can only be picked up by the "Warrior Goddess". Who the hell is that? Dulcea? Does she exist in the show's continuity now?
Thrax gets fed up with all this nonsense and leaves.
Back at the mansion, Adam tells Alpha that he needs his help in restoring the Morphin Grid, and then teleports him inside of it... What?
Thrax unleashes his monster Vulturus, Adam and the veteran Rangers go to deal with it.
The Overdrive Rangers are fiddling around with the statue. They're about to give up, but then they all try to take the sword at once. The statue suddenly comes to life! She explains that the unity of their friendship proves their worthiness to take the sword. She hands it over and turns back into a statue.
...Alright, that was weird.
Wait, wouldn't it have been safer to leave the sword with the statue? Now Thrax could potentially steal it.
The veteran Rangers are piloting a Megazord against Vulturus. It's too tough, but then, Mack runs in and leaps at Vulturus, and slices him in half with Excelsior!
The Rangers all return to the mansion, Mack gives Sentinel Knight Excelsior, and it transforms him into a new form, with a physical body! Sentinel Knight didn't know it could do that.
The Rangers tell Mr Hartford they want to reform the team. Just then, Alpha 6 teleports back. Adam introduces him to everyone.
Thrax and the villains gather around Vulturus, who's now alive for some reason. Flurious powers him up with one of his gyro thingies.
Alpha 6 has successfully restored the Morphin Grid, and the Rangers all go out together to face Thrax and his alliance.
Sentinel Knight joins the battle, and together they destroy Thrax and Vulturus, and the evil alliance disbands.
They head back to the mansion, and say their goodbyes. Adam tells Alpha 6 he'll take him back to his dojo.

The first part of this teamup was decent, but with a pretty weak ending.
This part is mostly just weird. Way weirder than I remembered. So much stuff just being thrown at the audience all at once with no context.
For years, fans have said Thrax's green room was on the planet Onyx. Maybe? Onyx doesn't have a consistent look, so all that's established in the episode is that it's on another planet.
Thrax has a monster, Vulturus, he thinks it's invincible for some reason.
Thrax is such an odd character. He just comes out of nowhere, has a bunch of weird resources and abilities, but then gets taken out in two episodes by the Sentinel Knight, who only just got his body back this episode.
Personally, I think Thrax should've been one of the main villains of the season. Like maybe he could be the biggest baddest bad guy all the others listen to, even if they don't cooperate with each other, similar to Dark Spectre.
Thrax is a really cool concept, that very little was done with here. Even outside this two-parter, he doesn't have much of a legacy. He was featured in Hyperforce, he cameoed in a comic, and that's it. He had alot of potential, and it was completely wasted. Even now, there's opportunities for him, but he gets brushed aside and forgotten. Dino Fury resurrected an old villain, it could've been Thrax, but no, they went with Zedd, despite him possibly still existing as a human in the universe, and his voice actor passing away.
Once and Always was an anniversary that brought back Rita, maybe Thrax could work with her, no we're going to have two random old MMPR monsters as her henchmen.
Cosmic Fury was a big space adventure, Thrax could work there, nah, Zedd again.
The comic MMPR: The Return centers around Rita and Zedd's child...Selena. Okay this is getting ridiculous, is there a legal complication keeping Thrax out of everything?
Thrax was played by Glen Levy, he's an accomplished stuntman who's worked on several Power Rangers seasons as well as Hercules and Xena. He's also an actor and writer, and still active today.
Angel Grove's "inclusion" is so forced and unnecessary I wonder why they bothered. It's not like it serves any relevant purpose to the story.
Why would Alpha 6 be deactivated in a crate in a warehouse in Angel Grove anyway? Maybe he hitched a ride with Bulk back to Earth after Lost Galaxy. Still not sure why he was deactivated...
I'm not sure why the crew or writer or whoever wanted Alpha 6. Was that the only suit available? Why does his voice sound completely different from any other Alpha we've had? Why does he keep waving one of his arms around in circles?
Why does Adam know Alpha 6 is in a crate anyway? Why did the crate have a crappy lightning bolt drawn on it? I guess I'd wonder the same thing if it was a well drawn lightning bolt too, so whatever.
The Morphin Grid is now a physical place you can go inside of. Okay...
When it appeared last episode I assumed it was just a visual representation of it, but this episode confirms it. The show has never been clear about the rules of how the Grid works, even now it's pretty messy. Only RPM seems to have simplified it in a way that makes sense, it's invisible waves of energy that form a grid around the planet.
Not a big deal, but definitely an odd choice to depict it this way. Visually, it reminds me of those dvd games on the Disney SPD dvds.
The Rangers all back to their "normal" lives scenes are confusing. Some I get the intention, I think the story reason and motivations are stupid, but I understand. Others, like Will and Tyzonn, I really don't get at all. I really think there could've been a better way to temporarily keep the Overdrive Rangers out of the action.
Maybe instead of wallowing in self pity last episode and dicking around this one they could've been looking for the magic sword.
Excelsior! Stan Lee's thing he says. Was this a roundabout reference to him? He was involved in some earlier Sentai productions. He tried to bring some series over back in the 70s and 80s.
The Excelsior sword is definitely one of the strangest elements of this teamup. There's not much teamup aspect to it or retrieving it. It could be been it's own episode. Maybe it has a "jewel signature". It's got enough lore around it that it could've easily been its own episode. Sentinel Knight tells Mack about it, Mack goes to Rose, she directs him to a book, Mack finds the sword, Thrax can't get it because reasons, and then teamwork is what finally gets it.
Then there's the whole Warrior Goddess thing. What the hell is that?! Who is she?! What connection does she have to Sentinel Knight?! This is Dino Thunder levels of just throwing out a bunch of random weirdness and not explaining any of it.
Once all the Rangers are together with all their powers, we get the big dumb battle we've been waiting for.
It's quite a glorious show of skills for the stunt crew.
This episode also has the weird music issue last episode did. Everyone gets bits of their theme music, but not Adam. He gets the new weird rock thing.
Adam also gets a new Morphing sequence for some reason. I guess they wanted something longer than just "It's Morphin Time, Mastodon!" The new sequence is fine. I think if more old MMPR Rangers returned more often this would be a nice thing to keep around.
There's some nice bits with the Rangers interacting, but nothing too deep. Bridge gets some buttery toast from Spencer, Kira mentions having a cd, stuff like that. It's cute. Xander, Bridge and Adam should've talked about how they were all Green Rangers at one point or another.
While not perfect, Once A Ranger was a fun ride. At the very least, the old Rangers aren't forced to lose their powers or memories like every other Disney Era teamup.

Description
21: Once A Ranger, Part Two

There's an outer space shot that establishes the green room Thrax teleported the villains to is on another planet. Huh. Alright. I thought it was just on Earth somewhere.
Adam takes the veteran Ranger team to Angel Grove, which looks an awful lot like a random warehouse in New Zealand.
There's some nice character moments as Bridge uses his pyschic scan ability to detect Chillers, and Xander decides to try out "plan Xander" and talk the Chillers out of a fight. It doesn't work of course, and a fight breaks out.
Kira uses her sonic scream ability, which including her Dino Thunder and SPD appearances, I think is only it's fourth or fifth use.
Xander uses his Morpher to once again summon vines out of the ground to get rid of some Chillers.
Tori fires a blast of water at attacking Chillers.
Adam uses "old school" martial arts to take out the last of them.
He then leads the Rangers to a crate. There's a crudely drawn lightning bolt on the side.
At the mansion, Sentinel Knight appears to Mack. He tells Mack that he's glad to see him still taking part in their mission. Mack is only sweeping the floor, and doesn't feel like he's making much of a difference. Sentinel Knight assures him that even without power, he's still a Ranger. Mack questions the Knight about something he overheard Thrax say. Thrax said he knew of something that could defeat him. Sentinel Knight explains to Mack that there's a magic sword, Excelsior, that can defeat him.
Elsewhere, Ronny has won a race, she looks down at the cup she's won, it's empty, symbolizing how she feels about this accomplishment.
Dax is back to working as a stuntman, and also back to being neglected and disrespected. He needs to contact his union.
Will has successfully recovered a stolen painting for a museum, but suddenly thinks back to Operation Overdrive, because the plot needs him to.
Tyzonn wanders around a field. Um. Alright. It's a nicely shot scene. Don't know what it's supposed to mean or how I'm supposed to feel about it. What does this scene say about what he's feeling or thinking? I have no idea.
Rose is teaching a class at a university. Mack comes to see her, he asks her about the sword Excelsior, and she directs him to a book in the library.
We immediately jump forward in time to Mack exploring a jungle searching for the sword. No idea how long it's been.
Mack finds the sword on a statue that's just standing there. What is the statue? Why is it there? Who made it? How can this sword defeat Sentinel Knight? Why was it even made? Whatever, moving on.
Thrax pops in and attacks Mack, but Dax jumps in to save him. The others show up, and then jarringly we cut back to the mansion.
Adam and Mr Hartford activate Alpha 6! He's got a new voice. No explanation of why Alpha 6 was deactivated in a crate, or back on Earth... Then we jump back to Thrax and the Overdrive Rangers. This episode is way more schizophrenic than the last. The last episode took it's time, this one keeps jumping around and can't hold on anything for too long.
Thrax tries to take the sword, but can't get near it. Mack info dumps that the sword can only be picked up by the "Warrior Goddess". Who the hell is that? Dulcea? Does she exist in the show's continuity now?
Thrax gets fed up with all this nonsense and leaves.
Back at the mansion, Adam tells Alpha that he needs his help in restoring the Morphin Grid, and then teleports him inside of it... What?
Thrax unleashes his monster Vulturus, Adam and the veteran Rangers go to deal with it.
The Overdrive Rangers are fiddling around with the statue. They're about to give up, but then they all try to take the sword at once. The statue suddenly comes to life! She explains that the unity of their friendship proves their worthiness to take the sword. She hands it over and turns back into a statue.
...Alright, that was weird.
Wait, wouldn't it have been safer to leave the sword with the statue? Now Thrax could potentially steal it.
The veteran Rangers are piloting a Megazord against Vulturus. It's too tough, but then, Mack runs in and leaps at Vulturus, and slices him in half with Excelsior!
The Rangers all return to the mansion, Mack gives Sentinel Knight Excelsior, and it transforms him into a new form, with a physical body! Sentinel Knight didn't know it could do that.
The Rangers tell Mr Hartford they want to reform the team. Just then, Alpha 6 teleports back. Adam introduces him to everyone.
Thrax and the villains gather around Vulturus, who's now alive for some reason. Flurious powers him up with one of his gyro thingies.
Alpha 6 has successfully restored the Morphin Grid, and the Rangers all go out together to face Thrax and his alliance.
Sentinel Knight joins the battle, and together they destroy Thrax and Vulturus, and the evil alliance disbands.
They head back to the mansion, and say their goodbyes. Adam tells Alpha 6 he'll take him back to his dojo.

The first part of this teamup was decent, but with a pretty weak ending.
This part is mostly just weird. Way weirder than I remembered. So much stuff just being thrown at the audience all at once with no context.
For years, fans have said Thrax's green room was on the planet Onyx. Maybe? Onyx doesn't have a consistent look, so all that's established in the episode is that it's on another planet.
Thrax has a monster, Vulturus, he thinks it's invincible for some reason.
Thrax is such an odd character. He just comes out of nowhere, has a bunch of weird resources and abilities, but then gets taken out in two episodes by the Sentinel Knight, who only just got his body back this episode.
Personally, I think Thrax should've been one of the main villains of the season. Like maybe he could be the biggest baddest bad guy all the others listen to, even if they don't cooperate with each other, similar to Dark Spectre.
Thrax is a really cool concept, that very little was done with here. Even outside this two-parter, he doesn't have much of a legacy. He was featured in Hyperforce, he cameoed in a comic, and that's it. He had alot of potential, and it was completely wasted. Even now, there's opportunities for him, but he gets brushed aside and forgotten. Dino Fury resurrected an old villain, it could've been Thrax, but no, they went with Zedd, despite him possibly still existing as a human in the universe, and his voice actor passing away.
Once and Always was an anniversary that brought back Rita, maybe Thrax could work with her, no we're going to have two random old MMPR monsters as her henchmen.
Cosmic Fury was a big space adventure, Thrax could work there, nah, Zedd again.
The comic MMPR: The Return centers around Rita and Zedd's child...Selena. Okay this is getting ridiculous, is there a legal complication keeping Thrax out of everything?
Thrax was played by Glen Levy, he's an accomplished stuntman who's worked on several Power Rangers seasons as well as Hercules and Xena. He's also an actor and writer, and still active today.
Angel Grove's "inclusion" is so forced and unnecessary I wonder why they bothered. It's not like it serves any relevant purpose to the story.
Why would Alpha 6 be deactivated in a crate in a warehouse in Angel Grove anyway? Maybe he hitched a ride with Bulk back to Earth after Lost Galaxy. Still not sure why he was deactivated...
I'm not sure why the crew or writer or whoever wanted Alpha 6. Was that the only suit available? Why does his voice sound completely different from any other Alpha we've had? Why does he keep waving one of his arms around in circles?
Why does Adam know Alpha 6 is in a crate anyway? Why did the crate have a crappy lightning bolt drawn on it? I guess I'd wonder the same thing if it was a well drawn lightning bolt too, so whatever.
The Morphin Grid is now a physical place you can go inside of. Okay...
When it appeared last episode I assumed it was just a visual representation of it, but this episode confirms it. The show has never been clear about the rules of how the Grid works, even now it's pretty messy. Only RPM seems to have simplified it in a way that makes sense, it's invisible waves of energy that form a grid around the planet.
Not a big deal, but definitely an odd choice to depict it this way. Visually, it reminds me of those dvd games on the Disney SPD dvds.
The Rangers all back to their "normal" lives scenes are confusing. Some I get the intention, I think the story reason and motivations are stupid, but I understand. Others, like Will and Tyzonn, I really don't get at all. I really think there could've been a better way to temporarily keep the Overdrive Rangers out of the action.
Maybe instead of wallowing in self pity last episode and dicking around this one they could've been looking for the magic sword.
Excelsior! Stan Lee's thing he says. Was this a roundabout reference to him? He was involved in some earlier Sentai productions. He tried to bring some series over back in the 70s and 80s.
The Excelsior sword is definitely one of the strangest elements of this teamup. There's not much teamup aspect to it or retrieving it. It could be been it's own episode. Maybe it has a "jewel signature". It's got enough lore around it that it could've easily been its own episode. Sentinel Knight tells Mack about it, Mack goes to Rose, she directs him to a book, Mack finds the sword, Thrax can't get it because reasons, and then teamwork is what finally gets it.
Then there's the whole Warrior Goddess thing. What the hell is that?! Who is she?! What connection does she have to Sentinel Knight?! This is Dino Thunder levels of just throwing out a bunch of random weirdness and not explaining any of it.
Once all the Rangers are together with all their powers, we get the big dumb battle we've been waiting for.
It's quite a glorious show of skills for the stunt crew.
This episode also has the weird music issue last episode did. Everyone gets bits of their theme music, but not Adam. He gets the new weird rock thing.
Adam also gets a new Morphing sequence for some reason. I guess they wanted something longer than just "It's Morphin Time, Mastodon!" The new sequence is fine. I think if more old MMPR Rangers returned more often this would be a nice thing to keep around.
There's some nice bits with the Rangers interacting, but nothing too deep. Bridge gets some buttery toast from Spencer, Kira mentions having a cd, stuff like that. It's cute. Xander, Bridge and Adam should've talked about how they were all Green Rangers at one point or another.
While not perfect, Once A Ranger was a fun ride. At the very least, the old Rangers aren't forced to lose their powers or memories like every other Disney Era teamup.