1505: Dogged
The episode opens at the SPD Academy. Z is reading, but is interrupted by Bridge eating his toast over her shoulder. Bridge: “Toast, you want some? It’s buttery. *wiggles fingers*” Z: “Buttery? *wiggles fingers*” Bridge: “Buttery. *wiggles fingers*” :p Syd walks into the room, wondering where Peanuts, her stuffed animal, went to (last seen in “Confronted”). Bridge misunderstands. “We’re all out of peanuts, but I have some toast. Want some? It’s buttery. *wiggles fingers*” Syd explains that Peanuts is the stuffed animal she’s had since she was five (*snickers @ his closed captions saying ‘stuffed anal’ instead*). Z jokes that she’s only had it for a year. Haha. The door reopens behind Syd and she sees her missing stuffed animal in R.I.C.’s robotic mouth. Z enjoys Syd’s predicament.. On Gruumm’s ship, Mora is being mora-nnoying. Hahaha. *ahem* Anyway, Gruumm walks in on her playing ‘tea party’ and asks her for a plan of action. She comes up with something, but he must play ‘tea party’ with her to get it. -_- But Gruumm refuses just as Broodwing shows up. How convenient. Gruumm convinces him to have tea with Mora. He sits and Mora begins to explain a plan to bring together all of Broodwing’s monsters. She stops when she notices Broodwing isn’t drinking his tea. After some refusing, he raises the empty cup up to his mouth.. that he can’t reach through the glass cylinder over his head.. Back on Earth, Piggy is being forced to hand over some kind of formula to menacing-looking rhino-like alien. The alien puts the formula into his weapon and fires at Piggy. He’s almost instantly turned into green slime, then almost instantly returned to normal. They argue a little more. The alien offers him a dozen rotten eggs for the correct formula. They trade successfully. A policeman sees them and comes running. Piggy scrambles into the nearby dumpster, as the alien places the new formula in his weapon. He fires at the policeman, and he turns to green slime. And this time, he doesn’t turn back. The alien collects the slime triumphantly..
Back at SPD Academy, Syd walks into Bridge’s quarters to find his computer counting down. Bridge walks in and Syd pushes him down just as the computer reaches zero. But instead of an explosion, a piece of toast flies into the air. “Toast done.” They stand up, and Bridge explains that he upgrades his computer to make toast. Syd hands him the new issue of “Extreme Upgrade”, just as R.I.C. walks into the room. Syd tries to shoo him away. Bridge gets excited. He and Boom plan to upgrade his computer with a super processor. “…maybe even a waffle iron.” Syd sarcastically shows interest in the magazine, and it takes a while for Bridge to notice. R.I.C. tries to get Syd’s attention again. She attempts to shoo him away again. Bridge comments that he thought she liked dogs. She replies that she does, but that R.I.C. is more of a “glorified appliance”. Just then, a woman says a somewhat-nostalgic line over the intercom. “Power Rangers, report to the command center immediately.” The Rangers meet with Cruger in the command center. Cruger explains that there have been many missing persons reports in the industrial district. R.I.C. tries to get Cruger’s attention, but he simply says “not now”. Syd volunteers to check out the area, while the others stay to monitor signs of alien activity. R.I.C. walks up to Syd and he tries to get her attention again. She tries to shoo him away again. But he spits up some liquid onto her leg. Syd complains about what he did to her suit. Cruger tells R.I.C. to get away from her. He replies by backing up right next to Cruger and lifting he leg. He drains some of his blue “coolant” on Cruger’s foot. Haha. A couple of the Rangers try to hold back laughter. Syd wonders why they even keep R.I.C. around. Cruger says that he’s obsolete and will most likely be deactivated any day now. Syd comments that R.I.C. should have been taken care of already, and that he should be replaced. She even offers some of her daddy’s money to help solve it.. She then walks off to do her job.
Syd drives the SPD jeep into the industrial district. Only when parks does she take notice that R.I.C. is in the back seat. Syd tells him to stay in the car.. Somewhere else, humans run from the alien menace. An unlucky couple get tripped up and are turned into slime. He collects the slime just as the four remaining SPD Rangers show up. They do their poses, which are starting to get old by now. The alien creates a force of Krybots, and the Rangers ready their weapons. Then, they attack. But they take them out pretty quickly. They all attack the alien criminal next. But they don’t do so well, and the alien gets away.. Syd visits the site of the first missing person, and Piggy’s dumpster home. Syd asks if he saw anything out of the ordinary ‘last night’ (didn’t look much like night to me). He says no.. until Syd threatens him with deodorant. Piggy points her in the direction where the skirmish went down. Syd finds a small puddle of green slime. She collects a sample. But Broodwing just happens to be there as well. He releases a group of Krybots on her. She tries to take them out herself, but she is no match. A Krybot fires upon her, but R.I.C. jumps in the way of the laser blast. She then touches some bricks and her hand becomes rock hard. She knocks a metal drum in the Krybots’ direction.. and they’re all taken out at once. >_> She then comes to R.I.C.’s side with worry on her face..
Kat scans the sample of green slime back in her lab and finds it to be a petroleum-based energy fluid with traces of human DNA. Cruger thinks it could help find the missing people. Syd enters the room and Cruger thanks her for her work. Syd said she wouldn’t have been able to bring it back if it weren’t for R.I.C., and asks how he’s doing. Kat and Cruger tell her that the damage was extensive and the parts are no longer being made, so they had to deactivate him. Syd then finds R.I.C. among computer parts being sent to be recycled. She outsmarts the cadet doing this job and takes R.I.C. to Boom and Bridge. They ask them if they would like to do the “ultimate extreme upgrade”, and their eyes light up. They then get to work.. The monsters have gathered on Gruumm’s ship for a “tryout”. The first one we see has a very familiar head (Deviot from Lost Galaxy). He explains his power, but Mora dismisses him. And so does Gruumm. All the way across the room, in fact. π The next one mentions his power as “alien hand puppets”. Gruumm destroys him right afterward. Then the alien after that explains how he can change humans into green slime / energy fluid. More comments “nice”..
The B-Squad Rangers meet in the command center and are briefed by Cruger that more people have gone missing and that it’s really getting serious. Then Cruger sees that Bridge isn’t there and asks where he is. Just then, Bridge and Boom walk in and introduce R.I.C. Version 2.0. R.I.C. runs in happily (yay.. he actually barks now). They point out his new features: “We’ve got your basic CD/DVD player, a projector, a refrigerator..” Cruger comments that he would be great at a party, but not to S.P.D. Boom disagrees and points out that they’ve upgraded his weapons systems, surveillance capabilities, and installed new tracking software. Syd tries out said new tracking software for the first time, using a sample of the green slime she collected. R.I.C. sniffs the slime then runs through the door, leaving a hole behind. Cruger growls at the sight of the damage. The Rangers follow R.I.C. in their jeep. The robotic dog leads them to a field and stops. Syd grabs a shovel and starts digging all by herself. None of the others believe in R.I.C.. π¦ The robot and the others leave as Syd continues to dig. Soon, it begins to rain. Jack enjoys a soft drink from R.I.C.’s fridge as they all believe him to still be buggy. Sadness shows on R.I.C.’s face. Meanwhile, Syd continues digging. The hole begins to fill with muddy water, but she continues nonetheless. Soon, the earth beneath her gives way and she falls into an underground cave of some kind. Inside, Syd finds lots and lots of green slime in vials.
She manages to climb out of the hole (oh it stopped raining too), and is about to report in when the rhino-like alien shows up. “Okay, I’m filthy, cranky, and my new shoes are trashed. Do you really wanna mess with me?” Syd morphs into the Pink Ranger and attacks. But she gets kicked aside, then attacked before having a chance to call for backup. Her morpher falls into some muddy puddle, making contact impossible.. R.I.C. somehow hears Syd in trouble or something. Then the alarm blares, letting them know Syd is in trouble. R.I.C. runs to her rescue, leaving another hole in the exact same spot as before. Cruger: “I just had that fixed.” Meanwhile, Syd gets newfound confidence from R.I.C. and attacks.. but is not that successful. Just as the alien was to take care of her, R.I.C. zooms in and knocks him down. Then he grabs onto the alien’s arm with his mouth. The monster waves him around, trying to get him off. While he’s not paying attention, Syd attacks with her Delta Max Blaster. She then flies by and cuts off one of the alien’s rhino-like horns.. The rest of the Rangers join them, and discover that R.I.C. sensed she was in danger. Jack stops Syd from firing her weapon at the criminal, and instead gets R.I.C. to take over. Jack throws a metallic bone into the air. R.I.C. jumps up and catches it, transforming into the Canine Cannon. Syd uses her morpher (that’s.. suddenly fine.. somehow) to judge the criminal. In seconds, the judgment scanner finds the criminal guilty. The Rangers group around the cannon, aim.. and fire! The monster is..!! ..contained in a card.. Just then, the vials of green slime in the cave turn back into their original people (and aliens). Syd goes over to R.I.C. and pets him..
Jack: “Another case solved by the brilliant B Squad.” Syd comments how R.I.C. came through for them all, then Z says that Syd came through for R.I.C. too. Once again, a woman over the intercom says: “Power Rangers, report to the command center immediately.”. They meet there to find that R.I.C. is getting a special commendation for his extraordinary service in the line of duty. Syd then says that R.I.C. Version 2.0 is great, but misses the old R.I.C.. Bridge says they didn’t completely change his programming and that some old R.I.C. is still in there somewhere. Cruger: “I can verify that to be true, cadets.” Camera pans down to a fresh puddle of coolant near Cruger’s foot. Everyone laughs. The end.. for this week, anyway.. :p
Next week — “Abridged”: The B-Squad must track down a bank robber. Jack: “We have a bank that was sliced into, money taken, and a very beautiful eyewitness.” Bridge: “I would like to follow some of my own leads.” *Bridge sniffs eyewitness’ dog* Eyewitness: “Um, am I under suspicion?” Jack: “We would’ve had the bank robber if Bridge wasn’t off on some wild goose chase.” Will they find who they’re looking for? Will Bridge’s own investigation come up with anything? Find out next week! π