We open with the Rangers walking among the ruins of their Zords, and I know I poked fun at the Zord footage a lot, but…ouch.
Kimberly is hopeful that Alpha will be able to fix things, but Billy replies that it isn’t that simple. Tommy then delivers the bad news: They haven’t just lost their Zords, but their powers. Completely.
The teens start their long trek back to the Command Center, which is a little odd given teleportation isn’t actually part of their power sets, but given it’s controlled by the Command Center, it’s presumably offline for the time being.
Once they finally arrive, Billy is unable to give the others even a shred of good news, as the Command Center’s power core has entirely gone out and he wouldn’t even know where to begin trying to repair it.
Aisha thinks there must be something they can do, and Adam asks Zordon where their powers came from to begin with. Zordon replies:
“Legend has it that there is a lost temple hidden beneath the Desert of Despair. The keeper of the temple is named Ninjor. He forged the original Power Coins to be used by those battling the evil forces of the universe. But this may only be a myth.”
Alpha whips out a map they found alongside the Power Coins, but Zordon insists that the Desert of Despair is far too dangerous for the Rangers to traverse in their current state. Tommy replies that they’ve faced danger before, and that they have to take any chance they can get.
The Rangers put their hands together as Alpha gathers the last remaining traces of energy left in the Command Center to teleport them to the Desert of Despair.
The Rangers arrive in the desert and are instantly creeped out by the howling wind, while back in Angel Grove, Bulk and Skull arrive at the Angel Grove Police Academy and announce they want to sign up. Skull accidentally lets it slip that they’re in it to impress the girls, but Bulk quickly amends this to say that they want to protect the girls.
The bullies keep smacking into people running laps, because I guess the Angel Grove PD are the military, now?
They realize that Junior PD Patrollers are required to be in top physical condition (what exactly are their responsibilities, anyway?), and are predictably horrified by all the people exercising around them.
Surprisingly, Bulk is the one who sticks to his guns and drags Skull kicking and screaming to register.
On the moon, the eggs are finally beginning to hatch, and Rita threatens her brother to tell her what’s in them or else. There’s a drawn-out scene in which he can’t remember until finally he proclaims that they’re Tenga Warriors, which are exactly like the Tengu Warriors from the movie except for that one letter.
We get a delightful glimpse into Rita’s background as Rito reflects on how difficult it is to buy gifts for her:
“Remember when Mom and Dad got you that little fire breathing dragon, but you really wanted that cute little planet, so you used the dragon to burn the house down?”
Rita notices that one of the eggs hasn’t hatched yet, and Rito assures her that there’s something very special about that particular egg, but he can’t remember what at this present time.
Zordon spots the Rangers’ path through the Desert of Despair and immediately suspects they’re after the Ninja Powers. Rito finally remembers that the last egg is a Vampirus monster, which Rita suggests sending down with the Tengas to stop the Rangers.
In the desert, Kimberly vows to never take teleporting for granted again, and Tommy agrees. Billy thinks they’re getting close, and when they round a bend, Kimberly spots a perfectly smooth stone on the ground and picks it up curiously.
She shrieks and drops it when it burns her, and it raises a wall of fire that each of the Rangers jump over in turn to get away from the explosions emanating from it.
It turns out I was right on one front, as Billy accidentally leaves the map behind in his leap to freedom, and the others hold him back from diving straight at it as it burns to a crisp.
Disheartened, the Rangers set out in the direction of what Billy can remember of the map, but they quickly encounter another obstacle as Aisha is swallowed by quicksand.
The Rangers form a human chain with Tommy at the end and manage to yank her free, but it rattles them nonetheless.
After another long stretch, Billy finally spots the rock formation from the map.
They investigate the rock, but to their dismay, they can’t find any hint of an opening where the map listed one. Rocky worries that the temple is a myth, after all, and to make matters worse, a Tenga leaps down at them at that exact moment.
Billy gets knocked down by a Tenga almost immediately, but Aisha manages to shove her attacker away because she’s a badass. Kimberly ducks into a crevice in the rock and kicks at the ones chasing after her, and Billy yanks them off of her and pulls her to safety.
Tommy spots another opening in the rocks, this one too small for the Tengas to get through but wide enough for them, and they all hurry through it. Resting his hand on a rock, Adam accidentally triggers the mechanism to open the path further, and without anywhere else to go, the Rangers follow it as ghostly figures emerge from the ground.
The path leads to an underground tunnel, which Billy is convinced without evidence will ferry them to safety. Adam’s still hopeful they’re on the right path to the temple, because he’s not one to give up.
The Tengas bury the Vampirus egg at the path entrance in the hopes of ambushing the Rangers when they emerge. Meanwhile, the Rangers reach the end of the path to discover it’s a dead end. Rocky and Tommy are furious, but when Tommy storms toward the cave wall in anger, he vanishes through it like it’s Platform 9 3/4.
Billy tosses a rock at the wall and watches it go through, as well, and all five remaining Rangers pass through after their leader.
The credits scene this time around is of the Tengas screaming and jumping around, so…don’t worry too much about that.
