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To The Rescue Part Five
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To The Rescue Part Five
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As the last installment of “To the Rescue” begins, we find
Aldrin Klordane explaining his “Master Plan” to Detective Drake. Klordane’s
idea is to crack the foundation beneath the Global Gold Reserve and allow the
gold stored within to trickle through the fissure where his henchmen will
collect it.
Percy still has Plato, and now the heroic duo is reunited,
or as Klordane calls them, “a dope and his dog”. Then we switch to the Rangers,
who were momentarily buried in that pile of rubble from Plato smashing down the
wooden wall. They recover quickly enough and then run to find where Drake and
Plato are. What they find is something that makes even Gadget’s long “golly” an
understatement.
Here you can see for the first time a composite picture of Klordane’s operation. Did it ever strike you as strange that no one even questioned this railway being used, or how Klordane’s group was able to pile the snow up that well? Whatever the case, it was an impressive gathering of manpower and machinery, a testament to Klordane’s ability to organize such a large and complex scheme.
Meanwhile, the Rangers were busy with a different problem:
Fat Cat. He’d spied them and chased Dale so that he bumped into the others,
knock them off the precipice above the lime Jell-o contained in the huge vat.
With a ker-plunk, the Rangers fell in, and 
Dale noted with
satisfaction, “Tastes sort of limey”. This irritated Monty, as “limey” is a
derogatory term for the English—and I guess Australians as well :-)
Meanwhile, Nimnul, chef’s hat and all, whips the gelatin
into pure liquid Jell-o. The 
Rangers, aboard a makeshift
inflatable raft Gadget was carrying, try to survive the currents. Gadget has a
better idea and pops the raft, sending them flying—right into Nimnul’s laser
cannon.
Gadget gets them flying via her harpoon gun, and the others hang on for dear life.
This is the first instance where you get a sense of
Gadget’s extraordinary strength. Not only does she have the combined weight of
the Rangers to consider, but she’s handling their weight while holding on with
one hand! And then she grabs Chip and pulls him up to eye level with her,
asking if she’s a failure for her latest idea going awry. I think it’s a good
indicator that you don’t ever want this mouse mad with you!
Meanwhile, Klordane’s plan takes shape, literally. The
lime Jell-o is poured onto the snow, creating the world’s largest Jell-o
mountain—or as Nimnul lovingly calls it, “The Nimnul Fruitquake”. 
This
notion amuses Detective Drake no end, and now he’s sure that Klordane’s gone
off the deep end. However, when Klordane taps the Jell-o mountain it vibrates,
causing a small tremor. Drake 
realizes this is serious,
and then Nimnul demands to be the one to start the big earthquake. Klordane
obliges him, by throwing the kooky professor into the Jell-o. And the money
starts tumbling down.
Now the train cars are full of gold and it appears bad for
the forces of good. Chip and 
Dale manage to free Plato
from the muzzle the bad guys had put on him, and the police dog makes them
realize that they have to stop Klordane. And it’s here that Plato gives them
their group 
name, and forever after they would be known as Rescue Rangers. Note
also that here we see it’s possible to see the Rangers’ thoughts in their eyes.
This occurs again with Dale in “Chipwrecked Shipmunks”—perhaps it’s only a
phenomenon common to chipmunks…
Realizing their duty, Chip directs the Rangers to start
another earthquake, thereby bringing the Gold Reserve and its guards down to
them. Fat Cat intervenes again though, caging them this time. Monty wants to
settle his score with him now, telling the “Curtain Clawing Clown” that he sunk
his house. Fat Cat pretends to be sorry 
for a second, then yells at
him that if he’d known he “would’ve set fire to it!” That was all the
motivation Monty needed, and he threw off the cage and went for Fat Cat. Thanks
to a distraction from Zipper, Monty was able to propel the crime kitty right into
the Jell-o mountain, triggering a new earthquake.
Klordane’s plans were totally upset now. The gold reserve
came down and in a few moments police were 
everywhere. Klordane was
quick on his feet, though, and headed straight for the train. With the police
in two, Klordane lit a bunch of dynamite and the explosion blocked the way for
his pursuers—well, almost all of them. The Rangers worked 
their way through
the pile of rubble and in a minute “or 57 seconds actually” Gadget had a
makeshift rocket sled built for them and the pursuit was on!
Okay, a side note here—the writers for the show were
obviously fans of the older classic toons, evidenced by the two spectators in
the train station. “Train’s late again, Chauncey” was, as Paltiel Goldstein
noted on his “Everything Rescue Ranger” site, a running gag done on the old
Bullwinkle show. It’s great to see little inside jokes like this, because it
shows how much the writers were into this show.
Now back to the action. Gadget’s rocket sled soon catches
up with the gold train and with Plato’s help they make it aboard. Plato is
still chained for the moment, so it’s up to the Rangers to stop the master
criminal. The Rangers sport a five-pronged attack, distracting him any and
every way they can. They succeed in getting 
Klordane furious, who ends
up pushing the train to full speed. Chip and Dale reroute the train, using Dale
as a human, er chipmunk catapult. This move would lead one to think that the
chipmunks had been acrobats or something similar in the past, as neither of
them hesitated in performing such a dangerous maneuver and timed it perfectly.
Now the train’s on the wrong route and here comes Plato!
Klordane is thwarted, and the gold train comes barreling out of the subway onto
the streets where it crashes into a building. One of 
the most satisfying moments
of the five-parter is right here, watching Plato puts the “Crime Bite” on
Klordane. Due to Ironic Convenience, they all land inside of Police
Headquarters and Klordane gives up the ruby to the police commissioner. Why did
the ruby shrink in the wash?
And now the epilogue—Drake and Plato are ready to retire to
someplace nice and quiet, now that the nefarious Klordane is 
behind bars. Plato
has been awarded his own police badge for his role in stopping Klordane, but
the old canine gives the badge to Chip and Dale, who earned it. At this moment,
it appears that Monty, Gadget and Zipper might leave. After all, they were only
together for this one adventure. But then a little girl tells Spinelli that her
puppy’s been stolen and Spinelli says that’s not in their jurisdiction. So a
new case emerges, and the group decides to stay together.
And, as Chip noted so well, there’s only one more thing left to say after that:
RESCUE RANGERS, AWAY!
Evaluation: Five Acorns out of five. A great episode, bringing the whole team together to stop a master criminal against the highest of odds. The writers showed their creative wonders, and even now you have to stand back and appreciate all the nuances, inside jokes, plot twists and little bits of pleasure they put into it. This was a very solid foundation story to build the rest of the series on, and should stand for an example to anyone wanting to launch a cartoon series.
out of 5