Awesome / Power Rangers RPM

The Show

"The Road to Corinth"

• The introduction. A lone female voice narrates a montage that sets up the main conflict of the season, along with its tone: RPM was not going to be another ordinary Power Rangers season. The montage then transitions into the Battle of Corinth. Soldiers battle it out with Grinders and Venjix attack drones as Colonel Mason Truman stands there observing the battle with explosions being reflected by his sunglasses. Corporal Hicks comes up to him in a panic, and he tells the soldier to calm down. His entrance alone defines him as a Colonel Badass, and a Memetic Badass at that, as fans have rightly called him Mason Effin' Truman from then on.
  Corporal Hicks: Colonel Truman! Colonel Truman.
  Colonel Truman: Easy, son. Get yourself together, and give me a proper report.
  Cpl. Hicks: Yes, sir. They've broken through the west corridor into Zone Delta, sir. We can't hold them off.
  Col. Truman: And Eagle Squad?
  Cpl. Hicks: We lost contact with air support over an hour ago, sir. What should I do, sir?
  Col. Truman: Go shoot at something.
  Cpl. Hicks: Sir, yes, sir.
  • Eagle Squad? His two sons are part of it.
  • This gets augmented with Flynn's, Scott's, and Summer's introductions, which get expanded in their Day in the Limelight episodes.
• Dillon's mostly offscreen battle with the first batch of Grinders as the camera focuses on the flower he watered earlier, though that's more for the production team than him.
• Dillon and Ziggy's run through the Venjix Barricade. Complete with yellow lollipops.

"Fade to Black"

• Dillon helps out Summer as she's about to be ambushed by Grinders with a giant laser cannon. Just as they prepare to fire on her Zord, he knocks it away using his car, with Ziggy still inside, and it fires on Venjix attack drones instead.
• Dillon starts a prison fight by taking the head prisoner's special Jell-O and ends up taking on every single prisoner there—and wins. This moment convinces Scott to let him join the team.

"Rain"

• Dr. K's explanation of how the Ranger Series technology came into being, along with the discovery of a "universal bio-electric field" which may well be the Morphing Grid alluded to in several Power Rangers seasons. Of course, this also contains a moment of serious Lampshade Hanging which has become subject to Memetic Mutation.
  Dillon: Right, because nothing says "covert" like bright red, yellow, and blue spandex.
  Dr. K: THAT IS NOT SPANDEX!
• Dillon's first moments as Ranger Black? He tells the rest of the Rangers to take care of the giant sized MOTW while he fights the Grinders. Flynn then says "there must be hundreds of them." Dillon's response? "I know. Venjix should have sent more." Dillon spends the rest of the episode defeating the army of "hundreds of grinders." By the end of the episode, he made a pile of scrap metal leftovers from the Grinders.
• So far, Ziggy has been introduced as a bumbling ex-criminal who on occasion provides comic relief. However, he gets his first moment to shine when, with Dr. K's help, he reroutes the comm transmissions so that Dillon, who by then found his way out of Corinth and back to the wastes to resume his search, could hear his new teammates struggling to even stand on their feet as they fight a large swarm of Grinders. Dillon then turns the car back around and races to where Scott, Flynn, and Summer have been fighting the Grinders, leading to his own awesome moment described above.

"Go for the Green"

• Ziggy might not be book smart, but he's quick on his feet. He lures Tenaya 7 to Fresno Bob by making it look like he's giving the Series Green morpher to his former boss in payment of his debt. It takes both enemies a few moments to realize that Ziggy duped them both.
• Although mostly played for laughs, the fact that Ziggy followed Dr. K's instructions to guard the morpher with his life (by bonding with it, thus becoming Ranger Operator Series Green) is awesome in and of itself.

"Ranger Green"

• Ziggy takes the black market medicine and gives it to the orphanage filled with sick children. This moment is followed by Ziggy standing up to Fresno Bob and the cartels. This is the moment the viewer realises that Ziggy, the Plucky Comic Relief, is the perfect person to be a Power Ranger.
  Fresno Bob (Scorpion Cartel Boss): Did you know how much the contents of that truck was worth? Millions, Ziggy, millions.
  Ziggy: And to some people, a lot more.
  Fresno Bob: Ziggy, you knew you wouldn't get away with it. You knew we would get to you eventually. So, just between us, old friend: Why did you do it?
  Ziggy: All you need to know, Bob, is that I would do it again.
• Dr. K also gets one by coming to Ziggy's rescue, armed with her oversized sound cannon that had been untested at that point. The mob goons go from laughing at her and her weapon to downright fearing her. Never, ever mess with Dr. K.

"Ranger Red"

• Scott fights off a group of Grinders whilst using a pram (with the baby still inside) as a weapon.
• The baby in question did not cry throughout the fight.
• Scott, disobeying his father's orders, goes off to retrieve a piece of equipment from his brother's crashed fighter jet that was needed by Dr. K in order to get the Croc Carrier Zord working.

"Ranger Yellow"

• Part 1:
  • Summer using her Energy Ball against Attack Bot 08's sound attacks in a Beam-O-War, and winning!
• Summer showing up to fight Tenaya 7 one-on-one after the other Rangers have fallen. While Tenaya ends up using one of the Nitro Blasters against her, Summer fights her throughout the entire construction site and getting the upper hand off of Venjix's litenaunt. When 7 uses said arm to attack her from behind, Summer immediately catches on from the reflection in her visor, dodging at the perfect time for Tenaya to blast herself instead.
  Summer: You need some new upgrades.
• Part 2:
  • Three beautiful moments from the wedding fight. The first was Summer in a wedding dress, grabbing the ceremonial sword that belonged to her groom-to-be, and using that to fight her way through a horde of mooks. The second was Ziggy, fighting the monster of the day to a standstill armed only with a tuxedo jacket. The third was Flynn fighting mooks while wearing a ceremonial kilt, when one of the grinders lifts his kilt mid-fight (!). On Power Rangers. I'm not kidding. This was, for the record, the first appearance of Gay Grinder, who appeared in several other episodes since.
  • This little moment in the fight between Tenaya 7 and Summer:
    Tenaya 7 (as she gets up after being knocked down by Summer): You do not want to get in between me and anything that's big and sparkles!
    Summer (defiant as she holds up the Landsdown Diamond): Come get some.
  • Summer got two in her flashbacks. First, when her butler Andrews was fatally shot by grinders, Summer (who throughout her flashbacks was shown as a spoiled rich kid who depended on money) stepped up to the plate and kicked metal butt to avenge her butler's sacrifice while wearing a red dress. And I'll point out again a normal person was killed onscreen on Power Rangers, and a Disney Power Rangers at that. The ending of that scene is a Heartwarming Moment with Summer and Andrews' goodbye. Moving forward, the second flashback Moment of Awesome is when Summer hopped on a motorcycle, gave up her pampered lifestyle for good, and went out of the safety of Corinth to rescue Scott, who she didn't even know at the time. And she did this even after being told that there was no way to help him as he was too far out for anyone to rescue him.
  • Dr. K gets one as well. Tenaya 7 confronts her while the Rangers fight the camera attack bot. She then proceeds to pick up a violin that had been plugged into an amp. In an Oh, Crap! moment, Tenaya 7 realizes that she's standing right in front of a large array of speakers. Dr. K plays a loud chord, knocking her from the platform.
    Tenaya: Dr. K, I presume? If you're smart as they say you are, then I'm expecting some pretty profound last words here.
    Doctor K: Then I'll speak in the universal language of music. (K picks up a violin and cranks up the amplifier.)
    Tenaya (noticing she's standing in front of floor-to-ceiling speakers): You are smart.
• Summer takes Kicking Ass in All Her Finery to a new level, by mopping the floor with Tenaya 7 and her robots while wearing her wedding dress. She even uses the veil as a weapon!
• Summer's parents standing up to their would-be in-laws when they try to complain about her fighting, pointing out that she's a hero who just saved them all. And these two middle-aged Idle Rich are inspired enough by Summer's heroics that they tell them to eff off, and they'll happily try and make it on their own.
  Mrs Winchester: You need our money. What would you do without it? How will you live?
  Mrs Lansdowne: I believe it's called a job.

"Ranger Blue"

• The opening has the Q&A session with Dr. K involving Zords with "big, googly anime eyes," unnecessary morphing explosions (one in particular which becomes an actual plot point), and the necessity of shouting morph calls. It's serious Lampshade Hanging on things typically taken for granted in the Rangerverse.
• Of course, there's this little exchange:
  Tenaya: Red is the perfect one, Black is the brooding bad boy, Green is the clown, and Yellow, well, she's the girl. So, who are you supposed to be?
  Flynn (after a brief pause, simply tosses her aside): Ah'm Scottish! (continues fighting Tenaya)
• One of Flynn's previous jobs involved building a tennis factory on the land of some natives, but when ordered to evacuate, he stays behind to lead them in a charge, armed with said tennis rackets, and implied to have won!
• In the final flashback, Flynn takes a bus to rescue a little girl and anyone he could and fighting a few grinders barehanded, and slapping the bus door on one, cutting it in half.
• Flynn's ingenious way of fixing his suit's time freeze malfunction — something that not even Dr. K could resolve — with the effect of taking out a whole platoon of Mecha-Mooks with a morphing explosion turned up a notch. This may be the first time in the history of either Super Sentai or Power Rangers that a henshin explosion is actually useful aside from Rule of Cool.
  • Also goes into Funny Moment territory due to how simple his solution was: he basically just put the battery in backwards.
  • This bears repeating. Flynn. WEAPONISES. The morphing explosion.

"Doctor K"

• The episode itself is a CMoA for the series, as well as for Power Rangers as a whole. It gets some top-notch writing and production — especially the butterfly chase scene and the episode's climax — along with beautiful acting from Olivia Tennet throughout. And Dr. K herself gets some of the most unique character development in the franchise. Ever. Plenty of viewers can't help but want to give her a hug after watching it, in spite of the decisions the character made.
• Gem and Gemma coming to Dr. K's rescue as her handlers attempt to assassinate her, thus letting her escape Alphabet Soup once and for all.
  • Am offscreen moment of awesome for Gem and Gemma when they recover the Gold and Silver series morphers and escape from a building that was last scene actively exploding around them.
• The climax of the episode has these moments:
  • Dr. K's plan for getting the new Zenith Megazord configuration to work. She gets Tenaya 7 to open the Reflex Bot's mirror, which replicates the part she needed to power the Megazord.
  • The Rangers form the Zenith Megazord for the first time. After so much tragedy, it provided a much-needed triumphant moment for the Rangers and for Dr. K.
  • Then, Dr. K fends off Tenaya 7 with her violin revving up the lab's ventilation systems. The music she plays provides the soundtrack to the Zenith Megazord's finishing attack instead of the standard rock music typically used in a battle sequence. This falls under Awesome Music.
    Tenaya 7 [pointing blaster at Dr. K]: Be honest: Leading me in here, tricking me into using the mirror—how much of it was your doing?
    Dr. K [picking up violin]: All of it. [Begins playing violin.]
    Tenaya 7 [covering ears]: Not the violin again!
    • The piece she's playing is Paganini's "Caprice #24" in A-Minor, one of the most difficult violin pieces for a solo violinist.
• This episode garnered a lot of praise from Linkara in his History of Power Rangers review of RPM, even having this to say about Olivia Tennet's performance:
  Linkara: And a lot of the credit definitely goes to Olivia Tennet for her acting in the episode, carefully balancing the serious nature of her character in front of the Rangers, the raw feelings of betrayal and guilt, and the quiet dignity and pain she’s had to go through with her entire life pretty much stolen from her, first by the government, and then by Venjix. And she was only 17 years old at the time.
• And this episode recently made WatchMojo's list of top 10 ''Power Rangers'' episodes, alongside fan-favorites like "Green With Evil" from Mighty Morphin' and "Countdown To Destruction" from In Space. And, again, Olivia Tennet gets praise for her performance.

"Blitz"

• After Dillon gets thrown from a building, without a moment's hesitation, Ziggy jumps off the building after him, morphs in mid-air, and uses his teleportation ability to first catch up to Dillon & then get them to the ground without dying.
• As the Rangers battle the Sat Bot, Dillon is torn between helping his friends and getting his memories back. He's even strong enough to override Dr. K's commands to remotely de-morph. But realizing that he now has his friends beside him, he resolves to fight back against the Sat Bot and finish it off.
  Sat Bot (staring down the RPM Enforcer): You won't do it! You said it yourself: these old memories are all you have.
  Dillon: I have something else: new ones! (The other Rangers celebrate.)

"Brother's Keeper"

• As the other Rangers and Dr. K figure out what to do with Dillon, after finding out that the virus inside his robotic implants is growing now at an accelerated rate, Ziggy actually comes up with the plan to lure the attack bot which helped accelerate the virus back into Corinth's dome. They are shocked at his suggestion at first, but they agree to it, even as Dr. K raises her objections.

"Embodied"

• The Ginjiro van from RPM's Sentai source series Engine Sentai Go-onger makes an appearance. It stands out as a nod to Super Sentai, the source material for Power Rangers.
• Venjix's plan to lure the Rangers out of the safety of Corinth and into the wastes is pretty brilliant. In his bodily form, Venjix shows how dangerous he can be as he wipes the floor with the Rangers, only stopping when they find a momentary shelter.
  Venjix (fighting against Scott): Yes, I am Venjix! The one, immortal me! You should have stayed in your dome, Rangers!

"Ghosts"

• After Colonel Truman refuses to open up a communications channel so that Dr. K can get in touch with her Series Operators, she tells him a story about her life growing up in Alphabet Soup, mentioning that she created, at eleven years old, "a colorless and odorless substance, that when added to a person's beverage, it would instantaneously stricken the recipient with diarrhea a thousand times more extreme than the worst case of dysentery ever recorded" — as the Colonel sips on his coffee mug. After this, he opens up the communications channel so that she can get in touch with them. Proof that Dr. K is awesome.
• Gem and Gemma's fight with Dynabot was pretty awesome, especially considering that Gem ripped out the mechanism which would have otherwise allowed it to grow to giant size after being blown up the first time.

"In Or Out"

• Colonel Truman has overcharged the city's shields, preventing the Rangers from reaching Scott, Gem, and Gemma, who are out in the wastes to stop Venjix's plan to suck the oxygen out of Corinth's dome. Ziggy brings up Station 19—the same route Dillon found in his attempt to escape Corinth in "Rain"—which gives the Rangers their way out into the wastelands to help their friends, though the flames' burst rate is exponentially faster than normal. Even so, the Rangers use their suit abilities to survive the flames and make their way through the wastelands, eventually meeting up with their teammates and stopping Venjix's latest plans.

"Belly of the Beast"

• Dr. K captures the Venjix doomsday weapon by reprogramming it with whale DNA, thus becoming a weapon on Corinth's side. Of course, this defies all logic, but the MST3K Mantra applies.
• In reality, the concept of this episode is awesome in and of itself. Instead of the typical "stay inside the dome and defend the city" approach usually taken by Colonel Truman, he and Dr. K organize a counter-offensive to both (a) defeat the Venjix doomsday weapon (which Dr. K does by reprogramming it to work as a Zord on their side) and (b) rescue the factory's prisoners.

"Three's A Crowd"

• Scott and Ziggy (well, mostly Scott) stopping the thugs who robbed a grocery store.
• A minor one, but it's clear from General Crunch being left in charge (Tenaya and Shifter have their own plot and Venjix is somewhere else) he hasn't forgotten Venjix blasting him for asking why they don't grow the attack bots immediately; once the Balloon-bot gets to Corinth, he immediately begins the download. It's rare for a Power Rangers villain to start learning and/or subverting the formula, so kudos to Crunch.
• Tenaya using her lightning arm-gun to shoot down the Mach Megazord, enabling the Textile-Bot to wrap it up.
• The formation of the SkyRev Megazord and the destruction of Venjix's attack ship.

"Heroes Among Us"

• Scott gets another one when engaging Venjix one-on-one for the second time. The other rangers have been knocked down and Scott is dueling Venjix with the Street Saber. Gem throws his dagger to Scott. Normally, one would expect that Scott proceeds to dual-wield, but instead he jumps onto the Street Saber and uses it as a surfboard to win the battle. And people say that RPM doesn't feel like Power Rangers.

"Not So Simple"

• After receiving an unusually sharp rebuke by Dr. K, Flynn loses his confidence and throws his gadgets away. Gemma sees one of his trashed creations and then decides to work on it with him, calling it the Road Attack Zord. In the heat of battle, Flynn convinces Dr. K to down-morph the new weapon, though it backfires as it attacks both Venjix's Hammer Bot and the Rangers. Gemma confesses to Flynn that she may have had given it too much power. Flynn then decides to use this to their advantage by having Dr. K draw the Road Attack Zord's excess energy to repair the other Zords. It's an awesome moment for Flynn and Gemma since they created a Zord almost entirely on their own, without Dr. K's help (or even approval at first). Dr. K even comments to Colonel Truman that the idea to reroute the Zord's excess energy was Flynn's idea, thus showing that she has developed as a character by allowing others to contribute weapons and technical expertise to the team.

"The Dome Dolls"

• General Kilobyte, Venjix's new right-hand man, makes his first appearance and proves that being an underhanded bastard can be awesome too. "No one likes a cheap shot," indeed.

"Ancient History"

• Colonel Truman has found out that Dr. K created Venjix. He then goes to her lab to arrest her for treason. The Rangers—Ziggy and Scott in particular—stick up for her, with Scott reminding his dad that though she created Venjix, she also created the Ranger Series technology used to defend Corinth every time Venjix attacks. He also reminds the Colonel that arresting her wouldn't bring anyone back.
• Out for blood, Colonel Truman sends out his entire military force after Dr. K, who tricks the soldiers into following multiple holograms of herself while she hides in Corinth HQ.
  Dr. K: Where am I? I'm everywhere.
• While the Colonel's soldiers scramble all over Corinth to chase after Dr. K's holograms, he makes a rather simple observation that leads him to her location.
• After the Colonel does find her, they share a Tear Jerker moment which leads to him granting her a full pardon at the end of the episode.

"Beyond A Doubt"

• Dillon and Tenaya blaze through the Venjix barricade, with Tenaya providing cover fire.
• The reveal of the RPM Ultrazord. Turns out for all the hacking Shifter did on the Paleozord, it ultimately made it compatible with the other zords and allowed them to combine all 12 of them. And it lived up to the name.
  • Not to mention the Ultrazord's finisher, which is simply awesome overkill at the same time- first, it summons up four holograms in the shape of the component Megazords (High Octane, ValveMax, Mach and PaleoMax), which all slash the monster. Then the entire Ultrazord becomes wreathed in flames, and runs through the monster at high speeds, utterly destroying it.

"Control-Alt-Delete"

• Scott single-handedly beating General Shifter with a slash from his Street Saber. Just to clear things up, let's recap: Shifter had a very powerful attack bot that had been running roughshod over the Rangers and even stole the Paleozord in the previous episode. Then he took control of Scott — not mind control, though — and nearly had the Rangers kill him. And then he had been messing with the Rangers himself. So when Scott faces him, it's pretty damn close to a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, and Scott even throws in a "The Reason You Suck" Speech before finishing him off. But what made the scene even better was when Scott's helmet came off, revealing a very badass look on his face before his dramatic pose and Shifter's explosion. It's official. Scott Truman is badass.

"Run Ziggy Run"

• Ziggy gets another chance to shine. When Fresno Bob realizes that Tenaya 15 tricked him, Ziggy then decides to protect his former mob boss from her and her squad of Grinders. This act convinces Fresno Bob to forgive the $5 million debt he owes him from the earlier medicine truck incident.
• The episode also contain Kilobyte's first battle with the Rangers, which is made all the better by the fact that Kilobyte's costume actually gives his operator some freedom of movement, allowing him to dance, jump, and even backflip over the Rangers, defeating them all with ease. When the Rangers activate the Rail Sabre and finally get to hit back it's equally awesome.

"If Venjix Won"

• Ziggy's shadow puppet show in the cave. Although it's more of a heartwarming moment, it also falls under awesome because he finally got Dr. K, the most serious character in the series, to crack a grin. It's even more awesome when you consider that he did something unselfish to make someone else happy, even as they are both about to collapse from lack of oxygen.
  Ziggy [after seeing Dr. K grin]: A smile. I did it.
  Dr. K: Yeah, you did it. And just in time.

"End Game"

• Even the bad guys have awesome moments. The Rangers have found out that over half of Corinth is comprised of hybrids like Dillon. Scott finally convinces Colonel Truman to take the fight to Venjix. As they make preparations to do so, Tenaya 15 activates a magnetic wave that activates the hybrids, thus letting Venjix infiltrate Corinth with ease. As it was stated on the main page, All Your Base Are Belong to Us has never been done on Power Rangers like this before.

"Danger and Destiny"

• Part 1:
  • Part 1 opens with a pair of villainous ones as Venjix flat out defeats the Rangers, costing them all their tech and Gem and Gemma. Then as if that wasn't enough, Kilobyte takes advantage of Venjix's distraction to take out Tenaya 15, defeating her, her Grinders, and Dillon in rapid succession, in a brutal reminder of why he was Venjix's right-hand 'bot in the first place.
  • Dr. K distracting Kilobyte long enough to give Ziggy an opening to get a vial of the anti-Venjix virus into Dillon's hands, allowing him to cure Tenaya. Then Scott, Flynn and Summer arrive with the RPM Enforcer and destroy Kilobyte.
  • Much earlier in the episode, Venjix finally infiltrates the Garage and confronts Dr. K, who stands her ground against the very thing she made which destroyed nearly the entire world. They then have a brief exchange which shows just how far she has come as a character:
    Venjix: I've waited so long for this moment! You are my creator. I owe my being to you.
    Dr. K: You're not a being! You're a stream of electrons moving at light speed through a labyrinth of copper, silicon, and titanium—complete with devastating flaws.
    Venjix: If I have flaws, it is only because of your programming!
    Dr. K: I've made errors. But I've also learned that even the most flawed human is better than the most perfect machine.
• Part 2:
  • The final battle. Venjix is fighting the three core Rangers — Scott, Flynn and Summer — directly under the city's command centre, a structure suspended high above the city. Meanwhile, Tenaya 15 is inside the center, back on the Rangers' side and trying to upload another virus into the main computer (which Venjix has already infected) when she's confronted by General Crunch. She's losing the fight when Dillon arrives — unmorphed — and beats Crunch before they grab a parachute and escape.
  • Why do they need a parachute? Well, the fight on the ground is brutal and one-sided, and the Rangers get absolutely thrashed. Just when they're about to get killed, they look up to see Gem and Gemma, the Gold and Silver Rangers, Back from the Dead and using their zords to bring down the command building on top of Venjix's head. What makes the scene even more awesome is that General Crunch is inside the building as it comes down. The fact that the scene is so unexpected and so ridiculously over-the-top makes it the most awesome villain take-down in the history of the franchise. There were too many instances of the Rangers defeating a physically-superior opponent just because they're the heroes and the plot dictates that they win. Venjix doesn't even get to go out fighting, instead, the Rangers drop a million tons of concrete from high in the atmosphere on his head. It is absolutely fucking brilliant. A fitting finish to RPM and at the time, a fitting finish to the franchise.