Episode 27- Island of Illusion Part 1

Okay, this is one of my favourite episodes... well, the two combined. It's ridiculous, but it's also awesome and fun.

We start off with Zack showing off some wicked dance moves in practice for the upcoming Dance Competition. Yay! Zack features and for once Angel Grove has something going on that does not pertain to martial arts! Trini, Kim, and Jason are checking out Zack's moves when Bulk and Skull come up and insult Zack. Poor Zack. He knocks into Kim and then Kim's pink drink (milkshake perhaps?) is spilled all over Bulk. Zack reveals that he suffers from low self esteem and is sure he'll mess up at the competition.

Bulk and Zack end up in an impromptu dance competition. This didn't end well last time and we're sure it won't this time either. Sure enough, it doesn't. Bulk falls into some pillars, knocks everything down, and people laugh. Zack says Bulk just fell, just like he'll do at the competition. Zack is full of Emo today.

Rita, meanwhile, is apparently fed up with loosing and decides she's going to summon her own monsters. She tells all her minions her plan and waits while they jump all over her telling her what a good plan it is.

She starts to summon Mutitis and it causes a big earthquake down in Angel Grove. In the Youth Center, people go running willy nilly. Ernie hates when this happens and takes cover. The Rangers, meanwhile, cling to each other in the middle of the room and then use the communicators to contact Zordon. Zordon tells them Rita is up to no good and they must find Zack immediately. So they run out of the Youth Center. They could have just used the communicators again, but oh well. Tommy is stopped at the door when two small children he had been teaching in a class call for him. They're scared. I really give Tommy a lot of credit here. He takes responsibility and stays behind with the kids. Good for you, Tommy!

The others find Zack pretty quickly. The earthquake has stopped and he's still being all emo. They don't even really get a chance to talk before they're surrounded by putties! It's an awesome fight, really. Everybody kicks major butt all on their own and Zack even takes out three at once! But Goldar and Scorpina show up and they know they have to morph if they stand a chance.

Rita finishes summoning Mutitis and we discover he looks like a red skull. Or a red version of Rito. Or a Zedd prototype. We're not sure. They summon the Zords and Jason calls him "Ugly Man". That's... real creative there, Jason.

Rita starts gloating a little early. She tells Finster she made her own monster and it's winning. You can just hear the "nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah" in her voice, too. She travels to Earth to watch the fight and we're filled with glee! Rita on Earth is always made of win.

Lokar then shows up. He's a big blue head floating in the sky with some kind of spikes for hair. He's really cool and we wish there had been more Lokar. He could have been awesome in Mystic Force, actually. He eclipses the sun and we have to wonder why the MegaZord isn't affected, being solar powered and all.

His power is the Breath of Doom. Seriously? That's... special. He mutates Mutitis and makes him even uglier. Tommy is summoned and requests Ernie stay with the no-longer-terrified children. He shows up and summons DragonZord, but just in time for both DragonZord and MegaZord to be covered in some kind of toxic foam. It looks like shaving cream, actually, but whatever. The Zords fall down and now, fifteen minutes into a twenty minute episode titled Island of Illusion, the Rangers are thrown into another dimension only to land on, well, the Island of Illusion.

We don't know how they got there or why toxic foam apparently equals immediate death-to-zords, but we nod and smile. They wander around for awhile, everybody clinging to Jason. We can appreciate that. We might cling to him and his delicious arms too. Kim says it seems like the bushes have eyes and we are shown that, yes, yes they do have eyes. Or rather, there is somebody hiding in the bushes so it looks like they have eyes.

The Rangers hear a horrible noise and Trini comments on it being seriously out of tune. Not where it came from, not what made it in the first place, but that it's off key. Priorities, Trini. They stumble upon a Little Person and Kim starts to say "Rita sent us..." when he flips out. He says friends of Rita are no friends of his and disappears. We can't blame him. I wouldn't stick around either. Unfortunately, he also rhymes. Everything.

The Rangers then see previous monsters they've fought. Pudgy Pig is there and I squeeled in delight. TSB was saddened to realize there is no Terror Toad, however. Zack starts to flip out a little, though. Because they're on an island apparently. And he sees an out-of-tune Little Person. But mostly it's the island.

Zack then stumbles upon a snake and starts really flipping out. He's whimpering and sort of screaming and is just paralyzed with fear. We wonder why they went with snakes. Not but four episodes ago we discovered Zack is terrified of spiders. They could have used that, but oh well.

He says they can't fight something like snakes and we think that's just ridiculous. Of course you can fight snakes! Shoot, get one of your non-afraid friends to go pick it up and move it if it's that bad. Mind, his non-afraid friends can't even see the snake, so I guess that wouldn't work in this particular situation. We then get Ominous Goldar speaking from the sky, tearing down what little confidence remained. Quagmire, the Little Person from earlier, appears and warns them of impending danger. Zack, now kicked while he's down, begins to fade.

And that's the end of part one. It really was rather ridiculous, wasn't it?

Overall, 3.5 fish. Tommy was responsible so we couldn't help but lower the fish a little for that. Also it's just a great two parter so that probably affected it here.

Covered in food: Bulk gets covered in some pink drink

Billy Speak: "Zack seems to be experiencing a transient deficiency in self esteem."
"There must be a major destabilization of a trophospheric(?) pressure zone."
"It would appear that we all survived the transdimensional journey intact."
"He means your loss of confidence is causing your body to dematerialize!"

Fic we want: Billy fixing the Zords so they are no longer solar powered, which would explain why they were unaffected by Lokar's eclipse.