In the Infirmary in the Aquabase, Ms Fairweather is examining Ryan’s cobra tattoo, and she tells him that although she's never seen anything like it before, he should be fine - as long as he doesn't morph. In Mariner Bay, a huge black cloud suddenly appears over the city, its lightning bolts destroying buildings, and the Rangers minus Ryan head into the city, confronting Diabolico in an industrial district. Diabolico beats the Rangers down, then holding out the three crystals we saw him with last episode, he brings back his three monsters - Thunderon, Demonite and Falkar - merged as one monster, Troika. Back in the Aquabase, Ryan watches helplessly as the Rangers get pummelled by the Troika monster.
Troika beats up the Rangers badly, and they quickly escape. Safely back in the Aquabase, the Rangers regroup with Mitchell, Dana telling Ryan not to worry about them, and that he should get some rest. Ryan feels useless in his present state, but overhearing someone talking about a holiday trip to a desert, he has an idea and dashes off. In the conference room, Ms Fairweather suggests that the Rangers could try using a set of new weapons, the Battle Boosters, when Dana enters and tells them that she can't find Ryan. Just then, Troika reappears in Mariner Bay, and the Rangers head back into action.
Once again, the Lightspeed Rangers initially don’t do so well against Troika, but Ms Fairweather tells the team to energise their morphers and to summon the wrist-mounted Battle Boosters, which they do. With his physical stats boosted, Carter races up to the monster and gives him a solid punch to the gut, throwing the monster to the ground. Meanwhile, Ryan has reached the ancient ruins in Egypt, and descends into the Cobra's Tomb. He realises that the cobra tattoo is connected to a cobra statue inside the tomb, and if he destroys the statue, he’ll be free of the tattoo. Confronting the cobra statue, it turns into a cobra monster. Ryan fights it unmorphed, but does not do very well, and wary of the cobra on his back, morphs.
The Titanium Ranger battles the monster, but does not do well, the monster throwing him against a wall and demorphing him. On Ryan’s back, the cobra tattoo is just about to strike, but in the nick of time, Ryan dives forward, grabs the dropped Titanium Axe and hurls it through the air - it smashes into a stone pillar, and the column falls over, crushing the cobra monster and killing it. Checking his back, Ryan happily finds the tattoo is now gone, and he races off. Back in Mariner Bay, the Rangers have defeated Troika, blasting him to death with their Battle Boosters. Suddenly Diabolico appears, and growing, tells the Rangers that he is going to finish them personally. The Rangers fight him with the Super Train, but it is blasted repeatedly and knocked over. Retreating to the Lightspeed Megazord, the Rangers again do badly against the powerful demon who absorbs all their attacks, and are easily overpowered.
Then, Ryan flies the Solarzord over the battle, and after reassuring the Rangers and Mitchell that the cobra tattoo is history, the Lightspeed Power Rangers form the Lightspeed Solarzord. Enraged, Diabolico blasts the zord with his most powerful attack, but amazingly, the zord absorbs everything Diabolico fires. Then, Carter and Ryan fire the weapons, and Diabolico falls over, defeated, and explodes. Suddenly, the red star that was on Diabolico’s chest flies up into the air, and enters the Skull Cavern, passing the grieving Loki and Vypra and attaching to Impus. As the villains watch, Impus is encased in a red coccoon. Celebrating their victory in the Aquabase, the Rangers are shocked to hear the alarm, and Mitchell sends them back out into the city. Queen Bansheera’s image in the clouds greets them, and as the giant red coccoon lowers down from out of the clouds, Ryan explains to the team what this all means, and tells them they’re in trouble. To be continued...
Dear friends, after watching 'The Cobra Strikes', the finale to the first half of 'Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue', I’m faced with a difficult dilemma - I have absolutely no idea what to say about the episode. I could say that I loved every second of it, but there were some things that just didn’t gel with me. I could also say that I thought it was terrible, but some scenes had me literally bounding around my room in excitement. With that in mind, allow me to go through some of the episode's pros and cons.
Pro - the Lightspeed Solarzord. Enough said.
Con - in a word, Troika. After all the trouble the Rangers went through trying to destroy Thunderon, Falkar and Demonite, they're merged together and return for a brief five minute appearance before being killed without a spectacular explosion. I don’t know about anyone else, but I felt cheated.
Pro - the scene in the cobra's tomb, in particular, the unmorphed fight scenes had me on the edge of my seat. And I loved how Ryan casually threw the Titanium Axe and knocked the stone pillar over, destroying the monster.
Con - things not making sense. Just how dangerous is a giant red cocoon? They certainly built up the tension beforehand (with some impressive music, it must be said). And why was the cobra climbing up Ryan’s back while he was unmorphed? Possibly, the cobra’s power was magnified while Ryan was inside the tomb, allowing it to affect him in his unmorphed state.
Pro - despite numerous problems with the zord battle (which I look at below), the climactic battle which saw the appearance of the Lightspeed Solarzord and the death of Diabolico was a heck of a fight. Man, Diabolico was powerful as heck and a lot scarier than his normal size. But whoa - is the Lightspeed Solarzord packing some serious firepower or what? Yeesh, I bet we’ll be seeing more of that zord in the future.
Oh well, all in all, I think that the positives cancelled out the negatives. It was an incredible episode, Ryan finally losing the cobra tattoo and Diabolico finally getting whooped, and I personally can’t wait to see how the Impus/Olympius angle is resolved. See you next season!
I think I have to award the best line of this episode to Captain Mitchell, for his toast in the final scene - "Here’s to Mariner Bay, as of now, the safest city in the..." Geez Mitchell, even if the demons weren’t about to make a serious comeback, you just jinxed that city for years to come.