Previously, on Power Rangers: Zack was feeling "a bit anxious" about a dance competition, so Rita decided to come up with her own plan to make all the Rangers lose their self confidence. This involved summoning a ridiculous monster and a giant floating head to blow them to an Island, that may possibly be the Island from Lost. Zack is randomly afraid of snakes, and that makes him start to vanish. Also, the guy doing the previously on announcement keeps saying that the island is called the Island of Illusions, but he is wrong.
Billy almost immediately figures out that somehow Zack starting to disappear is linked to his self esteem. I still don't see how seeing a snake makes you lose your self-esteem, but what do I know? At least this starts the trend of Black Rangers having self-confidence issues. (Look, I said Mirror of Regret was one of my favorite episodes.) Quagmire appears and breaks the fourth wall to talk directly to the camera. For some reason, the Rangers think that he can help. So they try to call for him, and Kimberly calls him Quasimodo. Awesome! This time they manage to convince Quagmire that they don't like Rita, so he offers to help, which basically means doing these ridiculous rhymes about situations where the Rangers have won battles.
Zack remembers fighting the Nasty Knight on his birthday, in an episode that is far more memorable for the fact that Batman exists in the Power Rangers universe. Also, Zack was barely holding his own in that episode before the others show up, so I'm surprised that this was his big triumphant memory. Of course, since he's only had two episodes about him so far, it wasn't like they had a lot of material to work with. Zack resolidifies, and thanks Quagmire for the pep talk. I'm not sure why, because telling someone to have confidence does not translate into actual confidence.
Meanwhile, Zordon tells Alpha that the Island is reflecting communications. I'm not sure how Zordon even knows where they are. There's also some sort of war going on between Alpha and the computer, because it keeps electrocuting him. I don't even know.
Back on the Island, Tommy wonders if Quagmire also knows where their power coins are. Quagmire basically says they have to figure it out for themselves. Billy somehow has developed a program in his mind to discover where the coins are, and as he tells them to turn around, it's time for Kimberly's fear.
Okay, I really do love this show, but WHAT. Kimberly sees Bulk and Skull as Angels, rescuing a turtle. Her reasoning for being terrified by this is that if Rita can make Bulk and Skull be nice, she can do anything. Because apparently only Rita can make Bulk and Skull be nice. I am so looking forward to those two getting more character development and the greatest big damn hero moment in the show.
On the bright side, Quagmire (with some help from Tommy) makes Kimberly remember defeating the Terror Toad!!!!!! My favorite monster, yay! Kimberly doesn't want to remember it at first, because it was too gross. Oh, Kim. *hearts*
She goes back to normal, and then it's Tommy's turn. Now, if this episode was going to try to do something with character development, then Tommy would be afraid of turning evil. Instead, the show claims he's afraid of putties and starts seeing the other Rangers as putties. I choose to fanwank this as Tommy's fear of being on opposite sides of his friends and being forced to attack them, but I may be giving the show too much credit. He beats the spell by remembering beating a bunch of putties. Oh, Tommy.
Trini is afraid that she's going to be next, so of course she is. She starts remembering not just her fear of heights, but her fear that Billy was being too high, and QueenRiley starts flailing about her OTP. She remembers defending Billy and wins, and then Billy gives her a hug.
Now we get to the two fears that actually have something to do with character development. It's a minor miracle. Billy is afraid of failure. He should have figured out a way to do this. His intelligence is failing them. Trini sounds positively panicked when she yells for Quagmire, and Quagmire tells Billy to remember how he beat Madame Woe.
Jason's fear is the one that made us both flail. Jason is afraid of failing his friends, of not being a good enough leader and losing them. He sounds like he's going to cry when he's all "they've faded away because I wasn't good enough!" and just... Oh, JASON. *hugs him so much* Look, it's actual character analysis on the show, and this is why Jason was such a great leader. He remembers fighting King Sphinx, but we're pretty sure that some of the footage wasn't aired here, because it's new to us. (One of these days we should watch Zyuranger, huh?)
The episode was pretty low fish up until this point, and then everything goes wrong. Since they've all beaten the spell, their communicators and morphers reappear! And they morph and get off the island and somehow that revives their zords! And then they form the megadragonultrazord and win! There's a lot of fish right there. Actually, I'm wondering how long they were gone for, I mean, it didn't seem like much time had passed on Earth at all, except Zordon was busy worrying.
Later, at the dance competition, Bulk enters anyway, and makes a fool out of himself, but we're really proud of him, because he had to know that he was going to get laughed at, but he did it anyway. Aww, Bulk. (The judges were really mean. Negative three? Seriously?) And nobody clapped. Fail, Angel Grove!
Zack wins the competition with a perfect score. If you're surprised by this, you aren't watching the same show we are. Oh, and apparently Quagmire is the DJ. I don't even know.
Fish: Four. I love this episode, but man, it is RIDICULOUS.
Billy speak: "Your molecular integrity is fluctuating at an inverse ratio to your level of self esteem"
Trini Translation: "The more Zack doubts himself the less there is of Zack."
Billy speak: "If lack of confidence is the operative factor, it just might work."
"My calculations suggest a 98% probability that our coins are in... that direction"
"She's demolecularizing"
"I recall a confrontation. she had me in a most impressive grip. But I finally applied sufficient leverage to defeat her."
"Wow, prodigious!"
"I seem to be completely reconstituted."
Questions: Who is Quagmire? Why does he hate Rita? I mean, besides the obvious. How did he get on the island? Why was he DJing at the end? And is he the same Mr. Quagmire that was mentioned way back in episode 3?
What fears do you think later Rangers would have to confront?
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