S-9.04 "Echo"

If you think I loved this episode, you'd just be reading my mind. ^_^

Great to see Toyman again. Christopher Gauthier pulls it off brilliantly. It's like having Smallville's own William O' Leary.

Seeing Clark super-speed the people outta the factory and leave his trademark was pretty nifty.

Clark hearing Lois's thoughts was cute. Liked how it was a temporary gift from Jor-El and how it tied into the plot.

Ace of Clubs... of course. Might as well use it for all its worth since it means no pad for Oliver. :\

I like that Oliver is still being haunted by Lex's image.

Awesome how Tess is having Schott figure out how the krypto-heart works.

S-9.03 "Rabid"

I went into this episode with low expectations, mostly looking forward to Lois and Clark moving forward a bit. I'm not a big fan of "xx hours earlier" eps that we get every year, but overall this was actually pretty good. The makeup, lighting and camera effects were done very nicely, making it look really creepy.

I always appreciate references to past characters... well usually. Davis sure, Lana notsomuch.

Guess that means Green Arrow is dead. :(

Love how Zod has no idea about Clark and is thinking it's Jor-El. Gonna make things really interesting later.

RPM #27 "CONTROL-ALT-DELETE": General Deception | #28 "RUN ZIGGY RUN": Green Courage

Liked how Tenaya 15 was intro'd, with Venjix referring to her as his new weapon, before they actually showed her.

At first I thought the key quickly falling outta Scott happened too soon, but I liked how the plotline turned into Dillon/Tenaya.

So Shifter really was smart. I suspect Crunch really isn't.

Scott's helmet falling off was weird, but the posing was cool. I really liked how he just owned Shifter. The whole fight with Dumbbell-Bot was pretty cool as well. I enjoy when they mix it up by having solo morphs than everyone just getting in a group and morphing.

5/5. Sorta fitting how Garber's last episode was excellent, much like his first ("IDOL").


"RUN ZIGGY RUN" turned out better than I thought. I didn't think I'd wanna give this a 5 also, but it was a pretty good wrap-up to Ziggy's past with the mafia. Even tying in to the main story by sending Tenaya to get something for Venjix from Fresno Bob was pretty cool. That's exactly what the show should do -- start to piece together Venjix' final plan, now that there's not much time left. And using Shifter's upgrade for himself -- awesome.

Love the Ziggy/K stuff.

Another fun battle, this time with Kilobyte.

Liked how Ziggy/Gemma and Dillon/Gem teamed up during the zord battle and how all the MZs fought individually for a bit before forming Ultrazord.

I could careless about Go-On's comedic antics, but there's some great stuff coming from it.

RPM #25-26 "KEY TO THE PAST"/"BEYOND A DOUBT": Truth Discovered

Nice to see Tenaya 7 follow up on her threat to Shifter. Didn't really like how Venjix banished him so quickly. I do like that he's no longer a dumbbell and is becoming a big threat to the Rangers. The suddenness of it could've been handled better though.

Dillon finally realizing the truth was nicely done. I thought Tenaya's visor would break and he'd recognize her. I like that he used the "tire spin" on her. Tenaya having to face who she really is was done well also. Best part had to be when she flashbacked while hanging on.

The screeching tires effect hasn't been used for Tenaya much I don't think, so I liked that they did that too.

Always nice to see a semi-demorph.

Surprised to see actual blood on the show -- and not from some guy in a suit.

Nice continuing right where we left off with"BEYOND A DOUBT." The zord action was handled pretty well -- from evil PaeloMax to the big combination. More great story with Tenaya and Dillon as well.

I like how Judd went with a bunch of their own cockpit scenes, which obviously makes life easier when the mecha battles getting edited to death as it is.

Loved the shot of all the zords and how the Ultrazord uses holograms of the Megazords with their finishers.

And the happy ending is ruined. :( Next time: "Venjix' Revenge"

Also, there's just something about editing Hellgaille Palace onto the wasteland that I always get a kick out of.

5/5 for both eps.