Episode 17 - Green With Evil Part 1 - Out of Control

Good morning, internets! We are beginning our Saturday marathon of the Tommy introduction, Green With Evil, and we have to say, we are surprisingly low fish so far! I mean, look, even with our thoughts on Tommy we really do like this miniseries.

The saga begins at the Angel Grove Martial Arts Expo. We learn a few things here. First, Angel Grove has a really high teenage martial artist population. Second, apparently Jason has already been declared Angel Grove's finest. Third, even though Trini also loves martial arts, she isn't bothering to participate. Someone new has challenged Jason, so there will be a competition.

We observe the challenger, one Tommy oliver, who is wearing green, and is way cuter in this episode than I remember him being. Kimberly, in a sign of what is to come, immediately says that she thinks he's cute. Trini gets the most disgusted look on her face, and we proceed to the competition. Jason and Tommy are evenly matched, and it ends in a tie. Those were some pretty impressive moves, we've got to admit. Kimberly continues to drool over Tommy, and Trini tells her maybe they'll see him in school the next day, and he must be new. If Angel Grove is a city, why do they assume he goes to their high school? Or will go? Maybe he's just a challenger or he goes to another high school in the city? Who knows.

The next day Bulk and Skull show up at Kimberly's locker, and try to harass her into... letting Skull carry her books? She tells them to go away and is basically ignoring them. They try and continue to bother her, when Tommy shows up. Bulk and Skull threaten to teach Tommy a lesson, so Tommy... decides to show off some martial arts skills to scare them. If I was a brand new transfer student in a school, I'm sure that would make a great impression on the administration. More importantly, it's the start of Tommy showing up to protect "his" girls, even though they can usually handle themselves. We are supposed to think this is romantic, of course, but QueenRiley and I are just busy rolling our eyes. Kimberly asks Tommy out (which we do actually approve of even if we don't like Tommy - she likes him, so she goes for it, instead of hinting around for him to ask her out. Good for her) and they agree to meet at the Juice Bar after school.

After school, Tommy walks down an alley that is decidedly not the way to the juice bar, so I have to wonder if he was planning on skipping out on the date or what? Rita has decided that he would be her perfect Green Ranger, which leads us to question where she got a power coin from in the first place. She sends a squad of putties to attack him, and a pretty awesome fight scene follows. Unlike the Ranger's first fight, Tommy is able to handle himself, and even throws a garbage can lid like Captain America's shield. This is apparently enough to convince Rita, and she places him under a spell.

In the biggest piece of Zordon Fail of the series so far, Zordon tells Alpha to power down while he goes into a meditative state, leaving nobody to watch the Power Chamber. Tommy, as the Green Ranger, enters. He easily manages to break Alpha by slipping a disc with a computer virus into his back, and then he sets about destroying the Command Center and severing Zordon's connection with this dimension, although not before Zordon apparently recognizes Tommy. We also hear for the first time about the nobody without a power coin can enter the Command Center. Really? How did the Rangers get in the first time? Or is it just that Zordon can override it? Same with Alpha, he doesn't have one. Does the Command Center recognize robots? Because if not Rita should just send in a robot army or something.

Anyway, the Command Center is trashed, and Tommy does his evil laugh, and we return to look in on our heroes. Apparently the boys idea of a good time is waxing the Radbug. The Radbug IS awesome, we have to give them that. Zack even offers to show them something called the Zack Wax. Anyway, the girls show up and Kimberly is sad because Tommy ditched her. Technically, he does have a good excuse, what with the brainwashing and all. Alpha manages to page them, but he makes even less sense than usual, and they discover teleportation is down. So they decide to take the Radbug. It really IS the only way to fly.

Before I forget, I really think the costume designer on this show should have been fired. Jason's shirt is orange. And there is no excuse for Trini's outfit. NONE.

They are horrified to see the state the Command Center is in. Trini is almost crying. Billy removes the virus from Alpha, and apparently all is well with him. Except some of his memory banks are fried. Rita takes advantage of everything to send Goldar to destroy things, and Goldar yells about his Empress, Rita Revolta? I swear, that's what it sounds like, but her name is Rita Repulsa, so no idea what is up with that. The Rangers go and summon the Megazord to fight him, and then Tommy shows up and managed to go through a door in the Megazord's head and throws them all out of it? Why is there a door in the Megazord's head?

Anyway, even though Tommy was evenly matched with Jason earlier, he now manages to beat all the Rangers. He also has nifty energy ball creating powers, so apparently he's now Goku from Dragon Ball Z. They teleport back
to the Command Center in defeat, Alpha has further complications from the virus, and the episode ends with the Rangers realizing that things are just going to get worse, in what is an amazingly dark ending for a children's tv show. We're pretty impressed.


Lists!
2.5 fish. We have many nitpicks, but we didn't really call fish while we were watching. The biggest problem is how Tommy went from being evenly matched with Jason to being able to beat up all the Rangers. Of course, Tommy is also apparently better than world famous karate scientist from last episode.

Billy speak: The communicators! They're non-functional!

Fanfic that people should write us: How did Rita get the green coin anyway?

Covered in food: None! Amazing!