Episode 36 - Birds of a Feather

Today on Power Rangers we get our first real taste of All-About-Tommy syndrome, in which an episode that looks like it will be about one character turns out to be about another character. Of course, since Tommy lost his powers last time, it isn't actually about him. This episode just looked like it was going to be all about Zack, but then turned out to be mostly about Jason. Which is still good, it's just that we want Zack to have more episodes! He is awesome!

While the credits were rolling, we actually had a discussion about why we think Rita is awesome. In the words of Queenriley, it is because she's in a cramped little space dumpster for 10,000 years and the first thing she wants to do is conquer Earth... not have a pee, not have a drink, not even have a cheeseburger. She just wants to rule the world. Seriously, Rita, we salute you and your total awesomeness.

The actual episode opens with a martial arts lesson, and miracle of miracles it isn't Jason teaching the class! No, they've remembered that Zack has his own style, and we get to see Zack teach a hip hop kido lesson. Not in the park this time, either! He's been promoted to being allowed to teach in the Youth Center. Anyway, Zack and his inappropriately young friend, Cameron, do a kata for the class, and then Cameron falls down. Zack tells him not to worry, and if he just concentrates he'll be great at the competition coming up.

Of course, it wouldn't be time for an encouraging moment between a teacher and a student without Bulk and Skull showing up to try and destroy a child's self-esteem. They have apparently sponsored their own kid in the competition, the appropriately named Biff. Biff shows off, and we're too busy being surprised that actual parents are in the background to pick up their kids from karate class. We didn't think such a thing was possible in Angel Grove.

At the competition, the first thing you need to do is to pay attention to the Rangers' outfits. This isn't just us on another making fun of the fashion thing, although we do enjoy that. It isn't even that Zack has apparently moved on from Jason to Billy (probably because Jason dumped him for Tommy) based on the color of his pants. No, it's that they are going to randomly change clothing in a few minutes and it makes no sense.

Just as the competition is about to start, Jason's communicator goes off. They all need to go fight a monster. Seriously, I'm amazed that Rita didn't pull things like this more often. She could easily ruin them if she made them cut out of tests and competitions and things. And you know, I'm not quite sure why they need Zack immediately anyway. Let him watch his student, for real. They can call him if they desperately need him. That's what they do with Kim later on!

So they go fight the Hatchosaurus and we're barely 5 and a half minutes into the episode, and this is going to be really high fight, isn't it. Jason also summons the dragonzord, since he has Tommy's powers now. And they blow up the monster. There's still 12 minutes left, how does this happen? So we go back to the command center, and seriously, they have all changed outfits.

Rita has apparently devised a spell where she can weaken the Dragonzord. No idea why she never did this before, but apparently it can drain energy from the Zord and also make its arms not move? In other words, she put a giant ring of energy around it or something.

Back at the Command Center, we find out that the reason that the monster is not yet destroyed is because they have to blow up the heart computer, aka the cardiotron. The show gets points for the name, I'll give it that much. They morph again and summon the Megazord to fight the Hatchosaurus, and promptly get beaten up. To help, they summon Dragonzord, but it's taking a while to show up, and they manage to blow up the monster again anyway, but it almost immediately reforms. Also, the Dragonzord falls down without hitting any buildings. We're wondering if the city planners left space for a monster fight or something.

Jason comes up with the brilliant idea of jumping down the monster's throat so he can fight the cardiotron inside it. The cardiotron is pretty creepy (it actually reminds us of a Dalek and has a lot of tentacles. Seriously, Jason, you have a sword. Why are you not slashing at the tentacles? Are you into tentacles? Instead, he just summons Dragonzord repeatedly, but it's still weak, so he summons the Shield of Cheap Bling and Dragonzord wakes up, and the Cardiotron is destroyed and they summon Titanus and hey, everything is fine now!

The next day (supposedly, we're not quite sure how it's the next day especially when they're still wearing the same outfits they change into earlier) they find out that Cameron has made it to the highest martial arts level. Or as normal people call it, the finals. He's up against Biff. surprise, surprise. Zack apologizes to Cameron, who forgives him, and then Cameron wins the competition. Biff tells Bulk and Skull he's getting a new coach, because he doesn't cheat. We like that kid. He looks kinda like the kid who plays young!Rocky.

Anyway, Cameron tells Zack that it's all okay because as long as he made Zack proud, and wow, that line comes off as so inappropriate. Oh, Power Rangers. You worry us, because we know where the inappropriately young friends thing is going. But don't worry, we love you anyway.


Fish: 3. And this is mainly the fault of the wardrobe department. We literally spent more time trying to figure out why they had changed clothes than anything else. Fail, wardrobe department!

Billy speak: "We must disconnect the cardiotron"
"Something is interfering with his mega receptors"