Astronema gives the Rangers their toughest challenge yet.
Tropes
- Badass Boast:Psycho Red: We're the Psycho Rangers.
Psycho Black: We're faster than you.
Psycho Blue: Smarter than you.
Psycho Yellow: Stronger than you.
Psycho Pink: But we're evil. - Batman Cold Open: The Rangers take on Hoothead and destroy him with the Astro Megazord.
- Chekhov's Gun: The new device released that makes the same sound as the Rangers' communicators. The Psycho Rangers eventually scan the town, listening for the sound of their communicators to determine who is a Ranger, but end up mistaking innocent civilians for Rangers due to the device making the exact same sound. The Rangers eventually use this against them to cause a distraction.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The two fights with the Psycho Rangers don't go in the rangers' favour. In fact, the Psycho Rangers nearly killed the rangers in the second fight.
- Deadpan Snarker: Psycho Red has a go at this, when he and his team return to the old library faster than the Rangers expected.Andros: It's them.Psycho Red: What were you expecting? Santa Claus, maybe?
- Didn't Think This Through: When Dark Specter turned Astronema to pure evil, he failed to consider that the reason she joined him in the first place was out of loyalty and belief he was aiding her quest for revenge. With that crushed, Astronema no longer feels any loyalty to Dark Specter and now out to crush him and take over.
- Evil Twin: Before revealing their true selves, the Psychos pretend to be carbon copies of the Rangers and go on a rampage to draw them out.
- Foreshadowing: Astronema already knows who the Rangers are and where they live, so her having the Psycho Rangers waste time and energy searching the city hint at the larger plan she has in the works.
- Gone Horribly Right: The brainwashing that Karone was subjected to in the previous two-parter was meant to strip away any goodness and revert her to Astronema. It worked, but this episode's ending reveals it to be this trope. For all her evil acts, Astronema was genuinely loyal to the cause and knew her place; now, she's scheming to use the Psycho Rangers as a part of a plan to eliminate Dark Specter. This also applies to Ecliptor, who was also subjected to a similar procedure to keep him loyal; he is absolutely loyal to Astronema, which means he is fully onboard with her plan.
- Hypocrite: Psycho Blue calls the Rangers pathetic for thinking their distraction with the MegaTank would fool the Psychos, but it did fool them, as they chased after it. The distraction just didn't work as planned because of the Psychos' Super-Speed.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: With all their adventures lately, the Rangers haven't been to the Surf Spot in a while. Adelle remarks she thought they fell off the edge of the Earth.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: After Andros informs the team that the Psycho Rangers are hunting for them by listening out for the sound of their communicators, TJ reacts with horror as he has only just contacted Zhane to tell him to watch out for the psychos.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Astronema created the Psycho Rangers from the powers of Dark Spectre himself, so the longer the Psychos take to destroy the Power Rangers, the more power gets drained away from Dark Spectre, which Astronema plans to utilise in the future to usurp him as the monarch of the United Alliance of Evil. Because of this, she allows the Power Rangers to live. For now.
- The Psycho Rangers: The Trope Namers are introduced here. While the concept had been used before, these were the first characters to really do justice to the concept of a team of evil rangers.
- Super-Speed: The Psychos get around this way and can easily catch up to the MegaTank.
- Undying Loyalty: After she pulls the Psycho Rangers out at the last moment, Ecliptor can tell Astronema is up to something and immediately offers to do whatever he can to help her.
- We Need a Distraction: To get past a force field and rescue Zhane, the Rangers would need to morph, but that would immediately alert the Psychos. They try to buy time by rigging the MegaTank to run on autopilot through the city while emitting the communicator sound. This ultimately buys very little time, as the Psychos realize the trick and get back to the building mere moments after the Rangers breach the force field.
- Wham Episode: The Power Rangers are utterly defeated within an inch of their lives, but are saved by Astronema's ulterior motives related to the Psycho Rangers.
