In the Aquabase, Kesley roller-blades into the meeting room (after knocking over several technicians. Heh) to find the over five Rangers waiting for her. Captain Mitchell enters the room, and tells the Rangers they've worked so hard lately that he's giving them the day off. The teens head down to the beach for some fun in the sun, where Chad and Kelsey go surfing, Dana buries Ryan in the sand, and Joel happily signs autographs. However, Carter is spending his day off training in the park, performing a kata, when Captain Mitchell arrives and asks if he can join him. Carter accepts his invitation and the two spar, Mitchell besting Carter and throwing him to the ground, before gleefully asking, "What's next?"
Meanwhile, Vypra and Loki plan to destroy Mariner Bay's two power stations and leave the Aquabase powerless, and they send Shockatron into the city. At one of the power stations, a teacher leads a group of students on a field trip into the power plant. Mitchell jogs with Carter to the top of a hill overlooking the city, and comments that he's never seen anyone so driven. Carter tells the Captain that he trains so much to be just like his hero - the fireman who saved his life as a boy - and explains the story to Mitchell. Just then, the two see Shockatron land at the power station, and run down to investigate. The monster blasts his way through the power plant, setting the building on fire and trapping the teacher and students inside, and leaves just as firetrucks arrive.
Captain Mitchell and Carter arrive on the scene. As Carter morphs, Mitchell grabs some fire-fighting gear and puts it on, and they both charge into the building, rescuing injured workers. As they carry the people outside, the Rescue Rover arrives, and Captain Mitchell sends the six Rangers over to the second power plant to stop the monster. The Rangers race through the city on their Lightspeed Cycles, blasting their way through a road-block set up by the batlings. Mitchell heads back into the building and rescues the children, but of course, one of them goes back for a dropped teddy bear and is trapped. The Rangers enter the second power plant, fighting their way through a hoard of batlings before taking on Shockatron with their V-Lancers. The Rangers easily fight the monster, and after a final slash from Carter which destroys him, they head back.
At the power plant, the Rangers discover that Mitchell went back in for the lost girl, and Carter goes in after him. Mitchell finds the girl, and holds up a falling pipe, allowing her to escape. Watching, Carter gets a flashback to the fireman who saved his own life. Mitchell urges Carter to lead the girl to safety, and just as Carter and the girl leave, the building goes up in smoke. The Rangers think they’ve lost the Captain, but Mitchell emerges from a second storey window, climbing down a firehose to safety. Carter begins to ask the Captain something, but in a shocking turn of events (sorry, double pun) Jinxer enlarges Shockatron, and the Rangers are forced to call out the Lightspeed zords. The Megazord (no Solarzord. You can’t win them all) fights the monster, and a slash from the Lightspeed Sabre destroys him once and for all.
In the Aquabase infirmary, Ms Fairweather is patching up Captain Mitchell when Carter enters, and sees a scar on Mitchell's right shoulder, remembering how the fireman who saved him wounded his right shoulder. He talks to the Captain, and Mitchell responds that yes, it was him who saved Carter as a boy. Carter is thunderstruck, and is more determined than ever to train even harder, but Mitchell tells him he already trains hard enough, and he should take the day off and enjoy himself.
Back down on the beach, Carter joins the others, saying that it’s his day off too. Proving to them that he does know how to have fun, he grabs a water pistol and chases them around, as Mitchell happily watches the laughing teens from the Rescue Rover.
Just so you know, my review of this episode is going to be rather one-sided. The reason - I absolutely loved this episode. Every second of footage was worth it. There was not a single scene where I thought, "you know, they could have done that better." 'A Face From the Past' is classic Power Rangers, containing everything that I love about the show, with awesome fight scenes, a groovy zord battle and some healthy character development intermixed. Quite frankly, this episode is my pick for the best of the season, and I have nothing but praise for it.
We finally find out that, yes, it was Captain Mitchell who saved Carter as a boy. Okay, so we all saw it coming a mile away, but it was handled excellently, and major kudos to all cast members involved. The scene at the end with Mitchell and Carter was very touching, and really emphasised Mitchell's role as a father figure. And the final scene on the beach with all the teens enjoying the heck out of themselves as Mitchell watched from the Rescue Rover was an absolute gem. The Hawaiian music was a great touch too.
All the fight scenes were really great too. The Rangers destroying the monster with their V-Lancers was awesome, and the Batling fight (which interspersed sentai and American footage in order to show the Titanium Ranger) was well done. The zord battle was excellent, a definite improvement from last week. And finally - well, what can I say? No hormone was left untouched, with Kelsey and Dana in bikini tops, both Carter and Ryan shirtless, and even Captain Mitchell getting a bare-chested shot.
Wow. I'm going to go watch the episode a few more times, come back to me next week :-).
A couple of cast members got some great lines in this episode. Ginny's line, "Jeremy says that next time we should go on a field trip to the cookie factory," had me laughing, and kudos to Captain Mitchell for, "What I had, I think I left it at the bottom of the hill." And I have to say, Mitchell's cheerful line after sparring with Carter, "Well that was fun. What’s next?" had me laughing all the way into the next commercial break.