Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 1

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Episode #16: "Switching Places"

Plot:
Billy's working on a new invention and Squat sees it requires a helmet attached to his head. So he figures that by messing with the wires when Billy's away, the machine will scramble his brain- providing a distraction that will leave Rita time to come up with a special new monster. What happens instead is he's rewired the machine so Billy and the other person in the helmet next to his end up switching brains. He tests the machine out on Kimberly and the two switch places- leading to all sorts of chaos the next day at school. Rita's minions release a monster Genie from its' magic lamp and tell it to destroy the Power Rangers. When the Rangers go to fight him, they find he's the most powerful monster they've fought yet. In fact, there's nothing they can do. It's all on Alpha and Zordon's shoulders to save the Rangers when the Genie nearly demolishes their zords.

So, there's another pattern this show's developed: Billy plus acting evil or anything to do with women equals = trippin' the gaydar. Big time. In case this is news to anyone here, David Yost came out in a YouTube interview last year. That's right, children. You probably knew it all along, but our beloved Blue Ranger is a fairy. So, this episode definitely won't be going down in homeboy's finest moments scrapbook, as he is forced to talk like a woman and already has one of the least masculine voices for an actor who's ever donned one of the Ranger suits. And that's nothing compared to the implications that Billy is straight and has been left alone in Kimberly's body long enough for his character to get curious as to what she looks like naked. Or, were we meant to believe that the reason he's never adopted leering behaviors is because he's either too intelligent or too much of an upstanding, clean-minded type? The show tries to cover its' ass in hopes of diverting your attention from such things by watching Kimberly put on makeup- only, it's Billy, so since he's a boy he doesn't know anything about makeup. (Don't tell Tom Savini I said that.)

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The "Green with Evil" Saga

Episode #17: Part 1

Plot:
While at a martial arts' expo that Jason has entered in, Rita sees one teenager, Tommy, in the competition who she thinks might have the strength and skill to destroy the Power Rangers. She plans to make him a Power Ranger of her own design, an evil one with his own morpher and zord- everything they've got. She sends the putties to attack him as a test. When he beats them, she casts a spell over him to make him mean and evil. After he undergoes the transformation, she gives him his first orders: use his power coin to teleport into the Command Center, disable Zordon and Alpha-Five, and then attack the Power Rangers. With Zordon out of the way, Rita sends Goldar to attack the city and makes him grow. When the Rangers notice that their communicators aren't working- they Rad Bug it to the Command Center to find that someone's ripped out the control panels and fed a virus into Alpha's system. However, the viewing globe is still functional and the Rangers see Goldar attacking and morph into action. But during a battle in the Megazord, an evil Green Ranger leaps into their control booth and attacks them. The battle continues on the ground until the Rangers have to retreat. Back at the Command Center, Zordon is still gone and Alpha begins to overload.

Episode #18: Part 2

Plot:
At the Command Center, the control panels are still ripped out and Zordon's still missing but Billy and Trini are able to get Alpha back up and running. Rita sends Tommy back to Earth and instructs him to keep his identity a secret and blend in until she decides to send him into battle again. But Kimberly's suspicious of his sudden change in behavior- since when she met him at school before, she invited him to meet her at The Youth Center and he didn't show up. She confronts him with a kind attitude and he treats her with hostility. Meanwhile, Jason is boiling over with anger- spending most of his time in the gym, pounding his considerable frustration on a punching bag but it isn't alleviating his wrath. He wants to tear the Green Ranger apart. Rita continues to scheme on how to increase the Green Ranger's powers and plans to give him the Sword of Darkness which as well as being a dangerous weapon also has the power to recycle the evil energy Rita poured into Tommy to keep him under her spell. Rita and her minions force Tommy to undergo a series of tests to prove his skills worthy of handling the Sword and all its' powers. After he succeeds, it's time for phase 2 of his initiation: destroy the Power Rangers one by one. He starts with Jason. In school, when no one else is around, Tommy zaps him into an alternate dimension where Goldar is waiting to attack him. All alone, and without his powers or weapons. Back at the Command Center, the other Rangers see the Green Ranger alone and decide to morph and battle him. Things don't go well, so they call on their zords for help. Luckily, it turns out the Green Ranger can't beat the zords with his power alone. So this time, it's he who retreats. Things aren't going so well for Jason who's trapped with Goldar. Goldar taunts Jason by holding his power morpher in his hand and waving his sword in front of him, threaning to "finish" Jason off once and for all.

Episode #19: Part 3

Plot:
Since the Green Ranger failed to destroy the other Rangers, Rita decides to call on the services of another of her old friends- Scorpina. The other Rangers search for a still missing Jason and come up with nothing until Tommy gives Kimberly a story Zack insists is bogus. The two go after Tommy and are attacked by putties. Meanwhile, Jason is being held captive by Goldar who is having a tough time with Jason until the Green Ranger shows up and dismisses him, saying Rita has given him orders to be the one to destroy the Red Ranger. When they are alone, Jason tries to convince the Green Ranger that he shouldn't side with Rita but he doesn't listen. Back at the Command Center, Billy is able to find Jason's signal and teleports him out of harm's way. Goldar finds out about this and punishes the Green Ranger by keeping him hostage in the alternate dimension until Rita decides to let him out. The Rangers are then alerted to Scorpina's attack and morph into action. Goldar, however, convinces Rita that not only Green Ranger should be held back from fighting- but Scorpina as well. She begins to hatch a special plan to defeat the Rangers' Megazord by cutting off its' power supply. Since it's solar-powered, she'll fix an eclipse and then send Goldar to battle them. Back at the Command Center, the Rangers and Alpha continue to work at finding Zordon but instead of locking onto him, they start losing power. Suddenly, the viewing globe lights up. Rita's plan is underway and Goldar is rampaging through Angel Grove. They're going to have to fight him- without Zordon and without full power.

Episode #20: Part 4

Plot:
Although Goldar is causing a crisis in Angel Grove, the Rangers have an even bigger problem- apparently, the reason they're losing power is that they've been slowly bringing on a surge by putting so much energy into finding Zordon. Now they can't morph or call upon their zords to fight off Rita's attack. At least, not until they can get things fixed. As Goldar smashes buildings and structures to bits, Billy comes up with a plan to hook up the computer - which has completely gone under - to a rewired power source. He's successful, which allows them to morph and fight. As the battle rages on, various explosions cause a huge earthquake which travels to The Youth Center and forces everyone to flee in fear. Bulk and Skull steal the Youth Center bus and Goldar grabs it- using them as bait to get the Rangers to bring out the Megazord. They do, and Rita's plan is executed perfectly: the Rangers lose full power to the Megazord and in a 3-on-1 battle between Megazord, Goldar, Scorpina, and Green Ranger- the zords are thrown out of commission. Back at the Command Center, the Rangers are ready to give up when Alpha and the computer insist they have a way of figuring out the identity of the mysterious Green Ranger. The viewing globe gives them the answer... It's Tommy.

Episode #21: Part 5

Plot:
Upon learning the Green Ranger's true identity, they can't believe it. But they must face facts. After all, it's not hard to believe that Rita could or would control someone else's mind. Now they have to save Tommy and break Rita's spell. Kimberly hurries to find Tommy and try reasoning with him. but there's just no getting through. As for Rita, the last part of her plan includes giving Tommy his own zord. The Dragonzord is then given free range to begin trampling all over the city- terrorizing the people in it. Meanwhile, back at the Command Center, Alpha is still hard at work trying to bring Zordon back. The Rangers however, don't have any time to wait. They're forced to leap into the final battle without their zords. Jason this time is filled with deep compassion for Tommy's situation. Finally, Zordon returns and knows just what to do. He even knows a way to get the Rangers their zords back. But during the battle, even though the Rangers are winning, Jason decides to abandon the fight to break Rita's spell over Tommy. This requires him to go into a one-on-one battle with Tommy's Green Ranger and destroy his Sword of Darkness. If he is victorious, hopefully he can convince Tommy to join with the Power Rangers.

Oh, the drama. And, hollow though it is, I don't deny it's still kind of addictive. In that bad kind of way. Or, maybe it's just that this will be the best multi-part saga of the show's long history of sagas (yes, there will be plenty of 2, 3, or more parters on our tour through the wide and wonderfully bizarre world of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. And just to continue pointing out just how freaking strange it is- how about when the Rangers find out the Green Ranger's identity. Why the hell are they so shocked? First of all, he was acting incredibly weird, cold, and distant when he was with both Jason and Zack, he was outright mean to Kimberly on multiple occasions, and Trini and Billy saw how skilled he was at martial arts and watched his whole match with Jason come down to a draw. Between the 5 of them, they should have suspected it was him all along. But, that's not all. Once they've discovered he's the Green Ranger, everyone but Billy (atta boy!) question the decision- going "no way" and "there's gotta be some mistake" and, get this one: "the computer's been under repairs" as an excuse to believe the computer is wrong. D'UH!

One observation about this show that I think is fairly important to make: notice how they never say "death," "die," or "kill" unless maybe it's in reference to someone like Zordon. Even comically ridiculous characters like Bulk and Skull won't even say, "we're gonna die." Apparently, death is bad for kids' programming of the 1990's and TV writers and producers won't even let the characters imply that anyone could die. Why? Kids in the 80's weren't treated with such kid gloves (best example I can think of is the Transformers movie- I sat through only 20-30 minutes of that thing when I was a kid and I was SHOCKED at how much death there was in it). Lastly, since all parts of the episode are called "Green with Evil," it's worth mentioning that Jason David Frank as Tommy is actually not that bad at acting evil. Well... at least, when he's being brooding and snarkish. The boy gives good attitude (especially to the bubblegummy valley girl- Kim). He should give David Yost a few pointers.

[patface1979]

Thanx NP for putting Tommy there I actually met him at Power Ranger convention one time in 2007!

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Had to wait until the episode came up.

[Deleted]

Episode #22: "The Trouble with Shellshock"

Plot:
The Rangers, in their downtime from fighting evil- and sans Tommy, are enjoying a friendly game of basketball. Mostly Jason vs. Zack in a loser-buys-lunch bet while Trini, Billy, and Kimberly cheerlead on the bench. Meanwhile, on the Moon, Baboo has hatched a plan to create a secret monster all his own which he makes at night while Rita sleeps. With the help of Squat and some toys, they run the clay mold into Finster's monster making machine and send it down to Earth along with a patrol of putties to wreak havoc. "Shellshock" destroys the Rangers' basketball to get their attention and launches his assault, first zapping Trini with the green "Go!" beam which causes her to run involuntarily and not be able to stop. Then he zaps the other Rangers with the red "Stop!" beam and freezes them all. Except Jason, who retreats to the Command Center for answers. While Zordon tells Jason and Trini, who are later joined by Tommy, how to cure the effects of Shellshock's rays, Rita praises Baboo and Squat for their win- which infuriates Goldar. She makes Shellshock grow and start trashing the city, which means now Jason's zord will have to face-off against the big baddie alone. (Until Tommy shows up.) (And, until the cure is put into motion.)

Like I could re-start off something like this and not mention the HUGE 90's kick you know I've been on since I created this project 3 years ago. How time flies, eh? Anyway, the Tommy / Green Ranger block of episodes are quite a bit less insane and eye-bulging as most of the season before (and some after). It's a minor observance, because this is an episode of odds and ends of things that the show can't seem to follow through with. As you can imagine, there's no real story here. Even for this show, we're talking slim pickings. It's sort of just a gimmick episode. The basketball episode. With some "hip-hop" background beats serenading the only-in-the-90's fashions and Zack's slick court-slang jock slams. To add spice to that, the monster turtle has a "rock 'n roll personality" which is mentioned and immediately forgotten about. Although, Baboo ain't kidding when he says his monster is better than anything Finster's ever made. This is one of those "evil plans" where you realize just how clueless Rita is because she never tries strategic attacks. She just throws the monster all-in and never pulls back. Why? Beats me. The most interesting thing about the episode is its WTF? moment. Which here is Bulk and Skull apparently crippling the business of a mobile hot dog vender (as mysteriously as he came, he was gone). Seriously, the mess they make could be cleaned up in 2 minutes. There's no way the total of their "rampage" exceeded $8.00. Let's be generous here: 1 bottle ketchup, 1 bottle mustard, 10 pickles, and 1 dog and bun each. It'll take them 2 weeks to work off what they owe you? That must be some gourmet shit you're hockin' or you're overcharging worse than All That's girl running the lemonade stand!

Oh, and: "Wait 'til those Teenage Mutants see what a full-grown Turtle can do." Ha ha.

[Deleted]

Episode #23: "Itsy Bitsy Spider"

Plot:
Trini and Billy are fielding signatures for a petition to save a historical statue in Angel Grove park of a goddess with a flower in her hair which the city council wants to tear down so they can put in a barbecue pit. (Isn't the dock / wharf / waterside bench / picnic area near the beach, which we see in a later episode, a better place for that?) Turns out, the statue is supposed to stay erect so the spirit of the goddess can protect the park-goers from "bad bugs." All this talk spurs Zack to admit that he has a paralyzing fear of bugs and spiders, inspiring Bulk and Skull to start up trouble by letting all of Trini and Kimberly's bugs (which they have set up in a display to present to their fellow students) loose into the school. This leaves the girls in need of replacing the lost bugs for their project, but no worry as Jason and Billy are more than happy to accompany them on a woodland bug hunt. Meanwhile, Rita uses these recent events to hatch a plan. She orders her minions to steal the statue so they can hide her latest monster in it when they trade it out for the flower in the goddess's hair. She also surrounds it with moths that dust anyone nearby with sleeping powder, then has the statue sent back to Earth to wreak havoc. The next day, Zack goes off to teach an outdoor hip-hop kido class for children while the other Rangers collect more bugs. Rita's moths put the children to sleep and he can't wake them. Then they set their sights on Zack, who in a panic, runs to the statue he was told would protect people against bugs but he sees the statue is actually what is attracting the pests. And also has a strange abnormality about it- the flower from the goddess's head is gone, replaced with snakes. He morphs and uses his ax-blaster weapon to crack the statue which releases Rita's monster.

Did you make it through that plot? Congratulations are in order then, it's definitely one of the show's most loaded and contrived. Another interesting thing to note about the Tommy block of episodes... well, 2 things, the first being that the monsters are given a very heavy leg up on Rita's old clunkers. Many of the episodes' plots revolve around needing to fight them in multiple modes and trying a lot of tricks which the monsters seem to beat easily. The other interesting thing is that Tommy himself so far has been relegated to backup. Like... he only enters each episode itself in the last 5-6 minutes. This happened last episode and it happens here as well. And every time they call him, he's off somewhere nondescript practicing martial arts. Seriously- how much practice does any one teenager need? This guy has no life. At all. Same goes with Zack and his hip-hop dancing. I guess you could call this another "special skills" episode, it's just an excuse for the actors to show off. The show doesn't even try to assign any deep, meaningful lessons to watching the Rangers put on a show. Which might be for the better, but considering things like how the childhood obesity rates have only swelled since this show came out... it's pretty clear watching cool people be cool doesn't exactly do the job of getting children involved in things that would boost their health. Also on the downbeat meter is watching Billy's fighting skills continue to regress. He only gets to fight a chubby putty and the show gives him a butterfly net to fight with. Which he just puts on the putty's head and stands there, just trying to avoid being hit. I could be wrong but I think this episode might be the introduction of the MegaDragonzord, which is the combination of Tommy's, Trini's, Zack's, and Billy's zords together to make a mini-Megazord, for which we actually see only Zack, Trini, and Billy in the control booth. Which is cool, of course, because it's a rare change-up of the same old stock footage you see every single episode. This also might be the introduction of Skull's sorta Super Mario red-question-mark beret. It's awesome. I want it.

[Deleted]

Episode #24: "The Spit Flower"

Plot:
Kimberly gets an offer from a big World Peace parade coming through Angel Grove to design one of their floats, all of which are being made out of flowers. So she stays at Ernie's Youth Center Juice Bar after-hours to work on it in private without distraction from the likes of Bulk and Skull. But she didn't quite count on Rita, who's watching the Rangers from the Moon as usual. She gets an idea: send the putty patrol to wreck Kim's float. Which they do, and she's heartbroken- the model she's making is due that day and there's no time to get anymore flowers. Tommy takes the remains of Kimberly's float off to work on them, as a surprise. But Rita's not through just yet. She orders Finster to make her a monster related to flowers and he assures her he has a particularly nasty one. Zordon summons the Rangers to the Command Center where he tells them about Rita's Spitflower monster who has the power to give flowers teeth and the instinct to attack people. They spring into action but quickly and totally find themselves overpowered. And even Tommy's aid doesn't quite seem to be enough to balance the scales.

Good, compact little episode, encapsulating all the lame but well-meaning elements which made the show what it was: working together, peace, being supportive, positive role modeling, friendship conquers all, and... well, they almost tapped into "never give up," except that Kim's boyfriend is the one who fixed her problem. Which reminds me. Tommy is starting to reveal his psychotic protective side the show wrote for him. Some people have called Tommy the show's best character and I don't know how I feel about that. Any male character who sets himself up as a woman's knight in shining armor is inherently declaring that she is having problems taking care of herself. It at least usually crosses over from chivalrous into condescending. And just watch, in future episodes, it only takes a joke to set off his absurdly intense "I'm warning you" looming "defender." But most of the episode focuses on the awesome monster and excellent Japanese fighting stock footage. Which is especially strong this episode, if you can forgive the ultra-cheap plastic vampire-teeth they added to the flower blossoms to make them look "ferocious." The American footage found a way to make this look even phonier, if you can believe it.

[Deleted]

Episode #25: "Life's a Masquerade"

Plot:
Ernie's Youth Center Juice Bar is holding a big costume party and the Rangers are hard at work helping him set up decorations and, of course, planning their own costumes. All would seem to be going smoothly except Rita is hatching another one of her devious plots on the moon and it involves distracting the Rangers at the party by sending a monster who will seem like any other party-goer since lots of people at the party will be dressed as monsters. Festivities are underway as Rita and her minions toil in a cave on Earth, creating a race of extremely tough putties she hopes will finally beat them where her minions have failed. Meanwhile, the monster shows up at the party looking like Frankenstein's creation and immediately begins swatting at the guests. He/it quickly bolts soon after making a scene and causing suspicion- and Billy follows it/him. Right to the cave where Rita is. Tripping off an alarm puts the monster on his tracks so he morphs and a fight ensues. But that is cut short when Rita causes an Earthquake with a rock-ball of evil clay and flies above the city, taunting scared citizens as they flee in a panic. Billy runs to tell the other Rangers back at the party, as they begin picking up the tremors shaking the ground. At the Command Center, Zordon informs them about Rita's new Super-Putties. But they're still in development. The monster on the other hand is already in the city and ready to wreak havoc.

I guess I forgot to mention in the last episode that finally Tommy was given some more to do. Here, it's pretty much back to business-as-usual. We don't see him onscreen until about 12 minutes in. Although, really, what's the difference? He likes Kim, he knows martial arts, he wears green all the time (that should have tipped someone off, seriously). He's no different than the other Rangers. Except he's very "how dare you talk to or about Kim like that?!" When he gets to be involved in the human storylines. Angela is back and bitchy as ever. Joy. And we are never told what her problem is, why she rejects Zack on-sight. Doesn't she know how laidback this guy is compared to Will Smith's character on Fresh Prince? Seriously- now THAT was obnoxious. I really want to know her reasons. Is he "poor"? Is it the martial arts, he's too "rough"? She doesn't like his friends? (And why would he want to date her if that's the reason?) She has a boyfriend? (We find out later that she's always single, so I guess that's not it.) She's into white guys, Latin guys, Asian guys, middle Eastern guys, native American guys, women- what? I of course don't feel as though every woman needs a reason but the show makes a big deal out of it. So, the show should cough up an answer. I am more than a little bit curious. Surprisingly, someone else in the episode wins the Bigger Jerk award though. And, it's Alpha-5. Who shows up to the costume party and wins 1st Prize... even though he's not wearing a costume. That is literally stealing from the other partygoers, some of whom probably worked hard on their costumes. Ridiculously unfair. Also, some of the Japanese footage is littered with strings, wires, and cords attached to the putties in the cave for some reason. And the footage of the 2 Frankenstein's - American and Japanese - don't match up at all. Despite the unfair-ities, this might be one of the show's all-time decent episodes. Not for any reasons of depth but rather because it's incredibly hyper, wastes zero time with moral lessons, and drowns us in tacky 90's trends. Which is amusing because this is a costume party, but, we finally get to see inside Skull's bedroom and the guy is a lot... less punky than you'd expect. Also, look at the freaky decorations outside the Juice Bar. I attached a pic below. Some of those things border on nightmare fuel.