Episode 15- Peace, Love, and Woe

I'd like to start this recap off by saying a high fish episode CAN be an awesome episode. It's just a ridiculous episode. Our first five fish episode is both.

We start with some teens decorating the Youth Center for an upcoming dance. Other teens, mainly the Rangers, continue with normal Youth Center activities anyway. Jason is instructing Trini in some martial arts move, Kim is doing gymnastics, and Bulk is skateboarding. In the Youth Center. I wasn't sure that would be allowed, but apparently Ernie has no rules for his business establishment. Trini doesn't pay attention, kicks Bulk, and he goes straight for Ernie who is carrying a cake. Ernie really ought to know better than to carry a cake around the Youth Center by now. Just as every time before, Bulk runs into him and they get covered in cake. Surprise surprise surprise. Or not.

Rita orders Squat and Baboo to get back to work but we're not entirely sure what they do for her other than praise her. Finster agrees to make her Madame Woe and we cheer. Madame Woe is awesome!

Meanwhile, back at the Youth Center, the Rangers are razzing Billy about his lack of date to the dance. Zack tells Billy he'll teach him some dance moves to impress the ladies and Billy replies with Billy speak. He's not interested in using dance moves to attract women. He has his massive and beautiful brain for that. Trini knows that's what real women find attractive and says as much. "Billy doesn't want to dance JUST to attract girls." She really stresses that JUST. Billy then runs into a girl, quite literally. She is absolutely adorable and they both use the same sophisticated manner of speech. Aw. The other Rangers look on approvingly. They are so invested in his love life, it's almost unnerving! Billy and Adorable Smart Girl see her dropped Necklace of Extreme Significance and bump heads attempting to get it. Aw, cliche romantic interest move! We discover she was also a graduate of the Accelerated Baby Genius program and the adorable factor just went up by about ten points. She asks Billy to the dance and it's so freaking cute I can hardly stand it.

I should mention that a lot of dirty innuendos get thrown around:
Billy: "I'm not really interested in engaging feminine attentions through bodily gyrations"
Adorable Smart Girl: "I'm afraid neither one of us was monitoring our designated entrance or exit"
Plans to "discuss the weather"
And Zack is hanging ALL OVER Jason. No, really, he is. He's resting his hand on Jason's shoulder and is DRAPED across his back. I think this is the most action any Ranger has ever gotten, including Tommy. They were like this the entire 2 minute scene!

Rita calls Madame Woe to her and tells her one Ranger will be in the park that afternoon and should be taken, that the rest will follow. She totally PWNS Zordon on monitoring the Rangers. She knows about their dates and Zordon can't even be bothered to figure out if they're under a spell before 24 hours has passed! Madame Woe goes to said park and, instead of finding Billy, finds Adorable Smart Girl. Her Necklace of Extreme Significance falls to the ground as she is captured. Shortly thereafter, Billy shows up with flowers. Aw, he brought her flowers! He is distraught to discover no Marge (she finally has a name! And we found out before the episode ended too!). He is attacked by putties, however, and calls the other Rangers over. Apparently four putties can hold off five Rangers for a few minutes, or long enough for Billy to discover the Necklace of Extreme Significance on the ground. He's about to explain when Zordon calls them to the Command Center. He was unusually timely this episode and I must applaud him for his first ever lack of fail. I love Zordon but wow does he fail at monitoring them most of the time.

Billy is sad, they attempt to cheer him up, and then discover that they can combine their Power Coins to focus all the power into one Ranger. It has never been mentioned before and never mentioned since, so we like to call this Captain Plot Device. They go and fight and are almost immediately sucked into a Madame Woe's alternate dimension. Wait. What? We call FISH and move on. Billy is all "Oh look it's my girlfriend!" and she's all "Oh look it's the Power Rangers and I totally don't recognize your voice Billy the Blue Ranger."

Somehow Madame Woe can control the elements as well. We're scratching our heads but call fish and move on yet again. Twice in under a minute. That doesn't bode well for this episode. Billy determines they need to get back to their own dimension and they... combine their powers into one ("Morph to the power of one!" reminds us very much of "By your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!") and give it all to Billy. He... breaks free of the alternate dimension. We're not sure how, he just did. He somehow manages to YELL across to the alternate dimension and THEY HEAR HIM. Um... what the what what? Fish again, and moving on.

Billy grabs Madame Woe by the neck and pulls the Big Blue Crystal off her forehead. He CRUSHES it in his hand as if were made of fine powder and suddenly the alternate dimension fades and the Rangers and Marge are brought back to their own dimension. What? He can crush crystals in his hand? It brought them back? What? We yell FISH FISH FISH a lot and beg for the fight to be over already. The Rangers all fight, yet their power is still all in Billy, so we're not sure how. We just want it end, preferably sooner rather than later.

Thankfully it is over and we're brought to the Youth Center for the dance. The Rangers are decked out in atrocious outfits consisting entirely of their individual Ranger colours. Because that's not conspicuous or anything. Marge tells Billy all about the wonderful, heroic Blue Ranger and Billy is looking very boastful for somebody who's Ranger identity is supposed to be a secret. Billy gets the first heterosexual kiss of the show here (Jason and Zack having gotten the first kiss overall in Episode 13.)

We are then treated to horrible comic relief in the form of Bulk grossing us out by paying Ernie (for the cake he destroyed earlier) with money from his overly smelly feet. Ernie passes out into the new cake and, when revived by the Ranger teens, takes the smelly money and goes dancing. On the plus side, it's one of the few times we ever see anybody pay for anything in this show.

And that's the end of that.
Lists:

This is a solid FIVE fish episode. First ever. The morphed scenes are just too ridiculous to even consider going lower.

Billy Speak: "I'm not really interested in engaging feminine attentions through bodily gyrations"
Trini Translation: "Billy doesn't want to dance JUST to attract girls."

Billy Speak: "My priority is to complete my experimental weather analyzing device in my laboratory."

Marge Speak: "I'm afraid neither one of us was monitoring our designated entrance or exit."

Billy Speak: "It's Marge. She never reached the primary destination point we assented to."
Trini Translation: "Marge never showed up here as planned."

Billy Speak: "With alacrity."
Trini Translation: "He means we've got to move fast."

Covered in food: Bulk in cake once at the beginning, and Ernie in cake once at the end.