SUMMARY:
At the Juice Bar, Bulk & Skull come walking in dressed as tennis pros. Lt. Stone complains he hired them to run the ball machine and tape the lesson as regular ball boys, but the bumbling duo go all out. Justin asks if they even know how to play tennis, and they state they'll be playing Wimbelton in no time, Skull accidentally knocking Jerome's plate of smoothies up into the air with his racket. Instead of hitting the usual target, they splash all over Ashley! She's slightly soaked, but unhurt (unfortunately for the boys and the viewers at home, her outfit is too thick for the shakes to... err nevermind) walking over to the counter to dry off with a towel. She starts to wipe off her left arm, Justin sitting a few feet away notices as Ashley opens up her wrist and begins to adjust the wires within! Justin comes to the sudden realization that Ashley's not real, but a robot!
[Opening credits, featuring new montage scenes of Blue Senturion driving near a warehouse on his Senturion Cycle; Phantom Ranger against a black background; Rescuezords High Stance modes; Rescue Megazord.]
Justin stares at Ashley, as she gives him a goofy smile and finishes wiping off her arm, the wristplate back in place as if it was never opened. Bulk stands near her and asks if she's ready, apparently she & Cassie are taking tennis lessons (hence the outfits, why the hell couldn't they have just said this to begin with?) and on their way out, Ash asks Justin if he wants to come with them. Justin gives frantic no, trying to play it off like he knows nothing. Once the girls leave with Bulk & Skull, TJ comes and sits down next to Justin, laughing at the tennis situation. Justin grabs his arm and says they need to go, knocking Teej's walkman off the counter and smashing it on the ground. They pick up the pieces quickly, Justin promising to fix it later but for now they've got to follow Ashley! At the tennis court, Skull runs the ball machine & camera while Bulk shows the girls where to stand, supposedly videotaping the lesson to show them what they do wrong (although I suspect B&S will keep a copy for themselves, what with the skirts Ashley & Cassie have on and all). Skull's first launched ball flies off the court, and lands in the woods behind it, where TJ & Justin are hiding. Justin tells Teej of the wires, TJ acting like she broke her Communicator. He isn't buying that, telling his Ranger pal something has happened to Ashley! Bulk tells the girls it's okay if they're not strong, trying to show them how a real master plays tennis. Skull shoots off a few slow ones, but Bulk misses them anyway. Ashley tries her hand at it, Skull calling her a 'little girl' as he one fires off, she hits it back with such force it gets caught in the chain link fence on the other side of the court! Skull's camera accidentally catches onto the speed controls of the ball machine, setting it to 'very fast' and causing ball after ball to come blasting toward Ashley. She hits every one rapidly, some knocking Skull to the ground as Cassie acts like it's showing Bulk just what a real woman can do. Justin is shocked, pointing out to TJ that she's never had a tennis lesson before. Teej says she's just a natural at it but it doesn't make her a robot, the balls finally cease firing at Ashley, and she hands Bulk the now trashed racket. Both Bulk & Skull are stunned at the sight of the mangled racket, Ashley acting innocent to the whole thing.
Nearby in an ice cooler, the Periscope pops up and watches the scene, Divatox notices they're putting themselves on film and asks Porto to bring her Flash Head. The monster Flash Head enters from the space balcony, spouting off Hollywood cliches like 'let's do lunch' and 'love ya babe'. Porto explains his specialty is wrapping his victims in film and turning them into a reel of film like they use in movie projectors. He demonstrates on a Piranahtron, Divatox finds 'monster movies' wonderful, picking up the reel and telling Elgar to go with the monster to bring back every reel. Elgar teleports down to the tennis court, carrying a bucket of popcorn as he's accompanied by Flash Head and a few Piranahtrons. Bulk & Skull follow Flash Head's instructions to run when he says 'action', fleeing from the scene as quick as they can. TJ is about to rush in to help, but Justin stops him, saying if that's not the real Ashley she won't be able to Morph and that'll prove she's a robot. He tells him they can't wait to help the girls, running to their aid while Justin remains suspicious of the Yellow Ranger.
[Commercial bumper Mountain Blaster]
[Commercial bumper Red Lightning]
TJ enters the tennis court and joins Cassie & Ashley's side as they face the crew of evil, Flash Head about to send the Rangers reeling when a Piranahtrons rushes ahead and ends up put on film. Elgar complains of him ruining a perfectly good P-Tron, Flash Head saying not to worry he'll fix it in editing. Teej takes the brief pause of confusion to contact Alpha and tell him to get a hold of Carlos, right before the three Shift Into Turbo, Ashley leading the Morph. Yellow, Pink & Red Rangers begin to battle the Piranahtrons on the court, but no rackets or balls are involved. Carlos teleports in the woods near Justin, who says he's glad to see him, mentioning Ashley can indeed Morph! Carlos tells him of course she can, as they both proceed to do the same by Shifting Into Turbo. Blue & Green Rangers get in on the action, Elgar the only one there not involved in fighting so he decides to head to the ball machine and do things his way. He starts it up, sending wave after wave of tennis balls smacking against not only the Rangers, but the Piranahtrons as well! Our heroes use some of the P-Trons as body shields to prevent begin hit by the balls, Blue Ranger finally hopping he net and turning the thing off. The Piranahtrons exit stage right while four of the Turbo Rangers corner Elgar, who teleports away while Flash Head is left to get knocked into the fence by Red Ranger. The monster manages to get away from his abuse contract and escape, our heroes giving chase and ending up in a pretty desolate area where Flash Head uses all kinds of flash blast attacks, EXCEPT the turning them into reels of film thing! The hell was the point of having that attack if he only uses it on Piranahtrons?! He does wrap them all in film negatives, squeezing them tight together, but surprise surprise, three Piranahtrons approach them and when the Rangers escape their confines guess who actually ends up turning into film reels? Sigh.
The Rangers sneak around Flash Head, fire Auto Blasters at him, he smacks into some garbage, Divatox is watching and orders the Torpedoes launched. Rygog's hand is seen doing the deed, but he never speaks. Poor guy. Torpedoes stream towards Earth, Flash Head grows in size to become a blockbuster and the Rangers call on the Rescue Megazord. Flash Head says he's the director and he calls the shots, the Rangers playing egotistical actor with the Rescue Megazord. Flashy goes for a close-up, but whenever the Megazord tries to hit him, he teleports out of reach to laugh at them and kick back. After a few go rounds like this (once again, some flash attacks but no turning into film reels?!), the Rangers are ready to send him to the cutting room floor, calling on Artillery Power, the cannons attaching themselves to the Rescue Megazord and firing in a flash against Flash Head. He doesn't recognize this from the script, as he explodes in a flame, one big box office bomb. On the Space Base, Divatox complains of Flash Head being panned, telling Porto she needs a monster who can give the Rangers a real charge. S'more head thinks he knows just the monster. Meanwhile in the Juice Bar, Justin asks to speak to Ashley alone for a minute, leaving Cassie & Lt. Stone to examine the mangled racket of Ashley's. Justin walks with Ash, apologizing for thinking pretty crazy things about her earlier. She asks what he was thinking but he declines to tell her, Carlos calling for his help on a math problem a few feet away. Justin heads over to him, as Cassie asks Ashley if Justin suspects anything. She says she thinks he saw the wires, TJ agrees that the boy knows too much and they better keep an eye on him. All three Ranger teens give the unaware Justin a long mysterious glare.
[Commercial bumper Red Lightning]
[Commercial bumper Mountain Blaster]
The next day in Angel Grove High School, Justin walks through the halls with Ashley. He finished fixing like he said, but when he goes to return it to his big strapping pal, he finds TJ at his locker with some weird flashing lights inside of it. Justin slowly heads towards him to get a better look, spotting his wrist open and the wires connected to some kind of power globe, Teej acting strangely robotic (perfect place to recharge, right in the middle of a public school!) and when Justin gets close enough, he shuts the locker and turns around. TJ gives the freakiest of smiles, acting like nothing is wrong and calling out Justin's name to him in a happy manner! Justin begins to back away when he realizes he's a robot, but bumps into Cassie & Ashley standing behind him, surrounding him with eerie smiles! He screams that they're all robots, but nobody in the school pays attention as Justin goes running for his life from the school grounds as the three Robot Rangers shuffle slowly after him.
On the Space Base, Porto presents a monster with the right spark for his queen, the Volt Meister! Resembling Planter's Mr. Peanut with a bad case of the mumps, he carries an Electro Whip that can short out any Ranger with one quick lash. He demonstrates by whipping a Piranahtron good, into shape, shape it up, get straight, go forward, move ahead, it's not too late, to whip it, into a puddle of water! Devotox likes this idea, taking the whip for herself and doing her cowgirl impression with it. Justin runs all the way to the Juice Bar, accidentally smacking Carlos in the face with the large metal door as he hurriedly rushes in. Forget as to why Carlos is there instead of in school (or why Justin is cutting class, either works), Justin is happy to see the bruised & whining Carlos for pain means he cannot be a robot (wonderfully stupid logic there) Carlos rubs his broken nose as Justin drags him outside, explaining about Ashley, TJ & Cassie being replaced by Robot Rangers to which Carlos thinks he's not serious. Their Communicators go off, it's TJ saying they need them to meet them in the park, Justin telling Carlos it's a trap but the monster alert siren proves otherwise. Justin reluctantly agrees to go but as long as he promises to stick together, once Carlos agrees they both Shift Into Turbo and teleport to the park.
Once there, all three Robot Rangers are Morphed as well, taking on several Piranahtrons while Volt Meister ambushes Green Ranger, separating him from the paranoid Blue Ranger. Justin can't understand why the robots would be fighting evil, this distraction leads to Volt Meister turning to attack him, sending Blue Ranger falling into a regroup with his uneasy teammates. With all five Rangers together, this makes Volt Meister's Electro Whipping all the more deadly, sending every one of the Turbo Rangers flying with an electric zap rolling down the hill behind them. The strain causes them to demorph once they reach the bottom, and as each of the weary Rangers recovers from the defeat, Justin staggers to the one person he can trust among the bunch. Carlos stands up and turns around, to reveal his face has come off and underneath he's nothing but a gearful robot himself (explains some of his acting, err sorry!)! Justin backs away as Carlos picks up his face and reattaches it to his head as he gives his little pal a creepy grin.
The four Robot Rangers stare Justin down as Robo-Teej contacts Alpha and asks him to teleport them to the Power Chamber, Justin screaming for Alpha not to do as they're not Rangers! Justin tries stopping them but gets yanked into the teleport, taking him along for the ride to the PC. Once there, Justin runs to Alpha and cries that all the other Rangers are robots, Alpha, a robot himself, asks what's wrong with that! Justin explains he means they're being invaded, when the door hatches of the Chamber open up and Ashley, Cassie, TJ & Carlos come running out to meet their Robot doubles! Justin is more confused than ever, suddenly remembering he has an omnipotent pal above and asking Dimitria what's going on. She tells him to be calm as this was an experiment, these Robot Rangers were built on Eltar by Alpha 5 & Zordon! Justin watches as the pairs of his teammates mingle with each other, when a robot version of him steps out from the hatch!
This other Justin explains it is he who is really the robot, as they needed a control subject, a robot who didn't know he was a robot to see how real they were made. Robo-Justin is shocked, but can do nothing as Justin opens his shirt and reactivates his memory chips with the flip of a switch (good thing Robo-Justin didn't take a shower the night before!). TJ mentions they wanted to know if the Robot Rangers could endure in the battle against evil, Robo-Justin coming to grips with his robotic revelation and says they appear to have a few glitches. Dimitria tries pawning off some baloney about no one being able to replace the real Rangers, but perhaps someday the Robot Rangers will assist them. The alarms sound, the five Rangers and their faces-well-hidden Robot doubles scurry towards the Viewing Screen as Alpha tells them Divatox fired Torpedoes at Volt Meister, making him grow. The real deal Rangers Shift Into Turbo, teleport below Volt Meister and Justin takes command to call on the Rescuezords. Each Ranger hops in their proper Zord, while Volty tries to rip the city apart (but failing to even lift a bridge) as Siren Blaster goes High Stance and gives him a high kick. Volty has a large handcuff (stolen from Robo Racer? Speaking of which, where is Blue Senturion in this episode? Were they afraid that robocop would end up hitting on Robo-Ashley or something and wrote him out?) which he latches onto Siren Blaster's arm and uses it to electro fry the blue Rescuezord, but luckily it breaks off or something. Siren Blaster fires some kind of sonic beam at the monster, before Justin has his teammates bring their Rescuezords (which must have been off rescuing a cat from a tree) together to make the Rescue Megazord! Within moments, Artillery Cannons are loaded and firing off a few rounds of real energy into Volt Meister's defused box. He explodes and millions of peanut lovers everywhere mourn the loss. On the Space Base, Elgar has some Piranahtrons ham it up to a camera he's carrying, filming a P-Tron Conga Line likely for Evil Space Alien's Funniest Home Videos. Divatox tells her nephew to can it, groaning over losing two monsters in one day (one day?! then why the hell did the whole cast change clothes three times?! Perhaps Divatox is merely losing track of time or something). Elgar quips it's almost like they had two sets of Rangers, but saying that would be silly, Divatox actually bemused by this idea as an explanation for the phenomenon and the possibility of a bigger burden. The look on her face is priceless, Elgar capturing it on film, possibly film that was once a Piranahtron.
[Commercial bumpers Mountain Blaster]
TJ finishes some wrist-wire adjustments in Robo-Cassie, as Justin whines to Dimitria about the Robot Rangers really having to go. Teej tells him they're needed on planet Eltar (hmm, for what reason? Find out somewhat in Chase Into Space, Part 1!), Dimitria telling him life is a long journey and their paths may cross again someday. Justin understands, going over to apologize to his robot double about scaring him with the secrecy, but Robo-Justin thinks it's okay as he feels he got to know what it was like to be a real boy. Justin really wanted to teach his doppleganger to play soccer (despite the likelihood of him sharing such memories), Robo-Justin thrilled at the thought of them doing that next time. Justin starts rambling on about going horseback riding, rollerblading and bike riding with his twin, the two TJ's shutting the motormouths up. Robo-Justin joins the side of his teammates as Alpha prepares to teleport them to Eltar, they wave good-bye to TJ & Justin as they teleport to oblivion (and although it was the perfect plot device for using Carranger Vs Megaranger footage in PRIS, the Robot Rangers are never seen nor mentioned again).
[end credits]
_END CREDITS SCENE:_
Bulk & Skull take Ashley & Cassie back to the tennis court, to have Ashley show Lt. Stone just everything the bumbling duo 'slaved to team them'. Skull breaks the arm off of the ball machine, causing an endless barrage of balls slamming against Jerome, Bulk & Skull as the girls hide behind the fence. The three stooges get beaten severely to the supposed amusement of the audience.
