Episode 3 - Teamwork

Trini and Kim start a petition to get a local waste dumping site closed. Why do they want it closed? We’re not sure. Cleaned up makes sense, but to close it altogether? Where would the waste go? I mean, sure, if it’s toxic waste, of course it ought to be cleaned up. Nobody wants toxic waste. But if it’s just a dump? It’s never really made clear what exactly the girls are trying to get closed down. Who knows. I don’t think they thought this through very well.

Trini’s pants are atrocious. They are seriously hideous. I don’t think even Billy would wear that blue. They’re distressingly tight in all the wrong places. These pants set the tone for the entire rest of the episode. Need a visual? Just look at this!

Let me also take a moment to comment on Mr. Caplan’s suit. Wow. Just… there are no words. It’s… well just look at it!

Zack spends some time showing us his lack of covert operations skills and talks about Alpha in the middle of the hallway. Loudly. Good job, Zack! Thank goodness the teenagers and staff at Angel Grove High appear to be either deaf or completely oblivious.

Teamwork should come into play at some point in this episode, it being the title and all, but thus far it’s in short supply. Billy, Jason, and Zack all manage to worm their way out of helping the girls with their noble (or misguided) cause. Good job, guys. Way to be supportive.

Bulk and Skull make a brief appearance and we get our first glimpse of the female bullies. They were awesome, though short lived. Bulk and Skull make a mess in the hallway and then manage to get themselves stuck in the trash cans. Instead of picking up the mess, however, the girls just walk away and leave the hallway strewn with litter. There doesn’t seem to be much cleaning up in this episode about, well, cleaning up. Or teamwork for that matter.

And so we transition out of the school and witness the girls wandering around the dumping site they are attempting to get closed. Apparently they’re looking for the owners to deliver the petition, but instead all they find is gross trash. It’s a dump site. I’m not entirely sure what they expected to find. We get a shot of some sludgy green pond and Kim can’t help but expound on the gross factor. *GASP* It’s POND SCUM! OH NOES!

Instead of the owners, Kim and Trini are confronted with a group of putties. Putties are awesome, even when fighting in a dump full of rusty metal drums and pond scum. The girls seem to be fighting MUCH better in this episode than the previous two. They’re more than holding their own and they don’t even feel the need to rely on the boys to help them! You go, girls!

So much for the Girl Power as we’re then treated with a shot of Zack teaching Alpha how to dance. There is just something wrong with that. We’re also introduced to Hip Hop Kido, Zack’s trademark style. As annoying as it could be at times, it was overall pretty cool, and at least that’s one thing that was consistent. We must give major credit to Zack for creating his own style of martial arts.

We then get to see the Monster of the Episode. Alas, he doesn’t seem to do much. Billy, in a fit of average language, calls it the “most menacing minotaur”. We have to wonder what happened to Billy here. Did he get a brain transplant? Was it an invasion of body snatchers? Did he have a temporary flash of desire to fit in? The world may never know.

I’d like to take a moment to point out that this episode has A LOT of fighting. I mean, a whole lot. It seems the more fighting, the less plot. We can’t complain too much about the particular fighting in this episode, however, as it really showcases Kim’s abilities and growth. After all, she takes on Goldar entirely on her own! That’s awesome. While Kim is taking on Goldar on her own, the boys can’t even stand their ground against the Minotaur monster. Go Kim!

And thus we get the calling of the Zords. Three episodes in and they can’t even be consistent with the summoning sequence. Kim doesn’t even call hers and yet, here comes pterodactyl! We’ll forgive them the inconsistency this time since we get some nice footage of the individual Zords doing their individual fighting scenes entirely… well… individually. Any sequence showing the Zords being awesome on their own is made of win. We are also introduced to the Triceratops Power Hooks. Neither of us can remember exactly if they ever appear again. We’ll keep you updated. They were pretty cool here, though, so whether they appear again or not, it was good to see.

The Rangers, mid fight against about the lamest monster thus far, suddenly retreat back to the Power Chamber. Why? Why to get the Power Weapons of course! While the weapons are totally awesome and we’re so excited to see them, they are NOT more powerful than the Zords and we’re a little confused why they had to get them NOW, in the middle of a fight, when they already had the Zords. The Minotaur then shrinks for some reason and we are treated to the fantastic assembling of the Power Weapons into one massive weapon. Jason levitates while assembling it though we didn’t know he had that power. I’ve decided it must be due to his massively large and oh so pretty arms. They’re all powerful, you know. We notice Goldar has disappeared. We’re not sure where he went or why. He could have helped out in this fight. He must have read the script, however, and the script for Power Rangers rarely makes much sense. The Minotaur is beaten and the Rangers congratulate each other before going back to school. Good thing too as we’re left with only about two more minutes before the episode ends.

The Rangers, now in their civilian clothes, walk down the hallways of school and we discover the mess from the earlier encounter with Bulk and Skull has not yet been cleaned up. First Kim and Trini just leave it, then Bulk and Skull just leave it, and it being after school hours now, we’re forced to assume the janitorial staff of Angel Grove High is either overworked, on strike, or just that bad. Mr. Caplan, considerably more cranky than in subsequent episodes, grumbles about it until he’s called away to speak with a Mrs. Quagmire. Quagmire? That name comes up later in a very interesting way.

The Rangers FINALLY decide to bring the title of the episode into play and scramble to clean up the mess together. Go teamwork! Though their teamwork needs a bit of work since they missed a piece of paper or two… or ten. They finish just in time for Mr. Caplan to return and, for some reason, lie about being the ones to clean the mess. We’re not sure why they lied. This is supposed to be a kids show. Lying is bad. Modeling lying is bad. And to lie about something good one has done? I just don’t get it.

Covert operations once again need some more practice as they answer the communicators in the hallway! Way to go guys. Real subtle there.

And credits roll. We’re left with numerous questions. The main plot of the episode was getting the waste dump site closed down. What happened with it? Did they get it closed? Will it be cleaned up? Did Trini and Kim retrieve their petitions? Was it ignored? Did they really just DROP the plot of the episode? We’ve only been able to come up with one answer to these questions. Fish. Just… fish.

List time? Sure, that’d be great, if there were much of anything to list! There are no new Ranger facts. Nobody gets covered in food. There is not a word of Billy speak and thus no Trini Translation. About all that’s really noteworthy of listing is the introduction of the Power Weapons, the first appearance of Mr. Caplan, and the few seconds of screentime for the female bullies.

All in all, this episode gets a 4 out of 5 fish for loose ends, unbelievable plots, and just general all around incomprehension.

Episode 2 - High Five

Well. We vanished off the face of the Earth, didn't we? Sorry about that. Things called 'the flu' and 'graduate school' got in the way for a while. But we're back with another recap.

Our first individual episode spotlights Trini and her fear of heights. We find this ridiculous, considering that according to Day of the Dumpster Trini is supposed to be fearless. Of course, we can't really blame Trini for being nervous - there is a distinct lack of mats under that rope, and we would be scared that we would fall. On the other hand, we also appreciate the entire rope sequence, because Jason has really nice arms. Also, we are fond of Jason wrapping his legs around Billy's head. And they said this show is for kids. Really.

This episode (yet again) functions to show exactly how mean the Rangers are to Bulk and Skull in this first season. Seriously, Kimberly, telling them to "crawl back to the ooze they came from"? That was uncalled for. You're supposed to be a role model. Please stop. Zack isn't much better, with his "if the rope fits" response to Bulk asking if he was stupid. We also cannot deal with the fat jokes. While Bulk doesn't get covered in food this episode, he ends up trying to climb the rope and pulls down the ceiling. What is that about?

We get a lot of backstory in this episode. We learn that Rita is responsible for trapping Zordon in the timewarp. We also learn that Billy is a super genius who tries to build a wrist watch cell phone but accidentally makes it teleport. Clearly he hasn't been doing anything but playing around with the Command Center tech since they got their powers.

We also wish that Alpha would never use slang again, because him calling the Rangers 'homeboys' and talking about 'the hood' just makes us sad. Partially because we know that it means that Alpha Six is coming, and also because it is just painful to watch.

We love Finster on this blog. We love his collection of monsters, already made. We love how Rita coos over them, and we also think the clay monsters are incredibly cute. However, apparently Rita only wants them to be gruesome and ugly. This possibly explains Goldar and Rito. We also think that they are really easy to beat, and we wonder if Finster was secretly sabotaging Rita from the beginning. Because the Rangers are still fairly pathetic at this point. Of course, Rita herself isn't helping matters, because her plans make absolutely no sense. What sort of plan requires a toy space shuttle and why are people running in terror as it slowly rolls down the street? (Side note - we liked the appearance of the monorail, mostly because we have fond memories of the first movie. And by the first movie, we mean Ivan Ooze.)

Meanwhile, in the Command Center, Zordon fails to notice that Rita is planning something. Rita knows everything that happens to the Rangers, but Zordon doesn't even notice that she launches a toy spaceship towards Earth. He needs to invest in better surveillance equipment. Not that we don't love the viewing globe.

Speaking of things we love yet find ridiculous - Zack's pants. And Jason's shorts. AMAZING.

We also love that it is still so early in the show that they are worried by putties. Of course, this is still so early in the show that Billy cannot handle himself at *all* so Trini needs to rescue him. We're okay with this, because we want Trini and Billy to be together forever. We do love that Trini overcomes her fear of heights to rescue Billy, because she loves him. We do think that Billy needs to not drop his communicator in the middle of a battle though. That is ridiculous. (Also ridiculous - the spinning kick of people being held between other people's thighs. But it looked cool.)

Things that will never get old - the ridiculous poses the Rangers do after they morph. More of this please. We also meet the actual monster - Bones, a skeleton. Who apparently controls a time warp and a dark dimension, yet notably not the same dark dimension that Tommy will... well, we'll get to Tommy eventually. We liked this monster though. Skeletons that can pull themselves back together are automatically awesome. Especially one who has his own henchman and secondary monster? Or did they just use a different costume after the monster grew? We weren't really sure, and honestly, neither of us cared enough to rewatch it.

Speaking of what happens when the monster grows - why did they only summon Tyrannosaurus? I mean, it was cool to watch Jason beat the monster by himself, but we miss the other Zords. Plus, as this is technically a Trini-centric episode, we feel that Trini should have been the one to beat the monster.

We do like the town getting to know the Rangers, but we wonder how Ernie knew they were called the Power Rangers. Does the theme music play during the actual battles? Or do the rangers hold press conferences?

Lastly, we think Zack is cruel scaring Trini up that rope. With friends like them, who needs enemies?



List time!
Ranger facts: Teleportation is only supposed to be used in an emergency. Excuse us while we FALL OVER LAUGHING.

Covered in food: None! But Bulk gets covered in the ceiling.

Billy speak: I finally completed a narrow beam transmission module that will allow wave function over an extended interval.
Trini translation: He's created a communication device using microwaves.

Billy speak: They respond to tactile pressure followed by auditory stimulus
Trini translation: So what you're saying is that we just touch and talk like this

Billy speak: "The neutrino power grid must have cross-molecularized."
Trini translation: Sorry, we didn't get one! How would you translate that?

Rating 3 fish. It would be 4, but we're giving it a pass since it's an early episode.