“The Monster Among Us” is where the villain actually exhibits some real brainpower. Usually, the bad guys in these mid-’90s tokusatsu clones just send down a rubber creature to smash things, but here we get a classic espionage plot. After an initial skirmish where the monster Octoid (or Octodroid) successfully snatches a DNA sample from Gordon, Gorganus clones him. He deploys a look-alike android to infiltrate the Galactic Sentinels, and it completely disrupts the team’s dynamic.
What makes this episode so entertaining from a narrative standpoint is how the show handles the identity theft. The fake Gordon starts off as an empty vessel with no memories, but he has this fascinating touch-telepathy quirk. He accidentally absorbs the memories of Gordon’s date, Lindsay, and uses them to flawlessly play the role of an attentive, dorky boyfriend. Gordon’s character is usually written as a bit of a self-absorbed jock, so watching his clone effortlessly charm his girlfriend while the real Gordon is stuck missing out on the date of a lifetime is pure daytime sitcom gold.
The tension spikes when the android successfully infiltrates Nimbar’s cave and begins extracting sensitive data directly from the central computer. It leads to one of the best-choreographed action sequences of the season: a high-stakes, base-level brawl featuring the imposter Taurus throwing down against his own teammates. It actually carries some genuine dramatic weight because the other Sentinels are forced to fight their own friend’s face, all while knowing their entire operation’s security has been completely compromised.
By the time the real Gordon breaks free and the team pieces everything together, they do the standard ritual, combining into Knightron to crush Octoid and save Earth’s water supply. The pacing gets a little clunky at the tail end, and the final giant robot fight is pretty brief, but the ride getting there is fantastic. “The Monster Among Us” earns a solid 4 out of 5 for injecting a genuine sci-fi mystery vibe into a show that usually coasted entirely on cheap spandex and teenage bickering.
