Episode 43- Lions & Blizzards

Okay, I went into this episode incredibly angry from having watched the character assassination and intensely disturbing plot point from RPM not even an hour before this... and that has somewhat affected my recap. Apologies in advance.

We start this episode at the Oddball Games. We're not sure why they're called that, but okay. All five rangers are on the red team and we seriously couldn't tell Jason was wearing a jersey... it matched his shirt, shorts, shoes, and SHOELACES. Even his shoelaces are bright red.

On the blue team are Bulk, Skull, Angela, and other people we don't know. They end up in a tug of war to break the points tie and, of course, the rangers win and Bulk, Skull, Angela, and Principal Caplan (who was playing referee I guess) end up covered in mud. Zack, after previously trying to convince her to go to his "winning" team, offers to help Angela up and I was rooting for her to pull him into the mud with her, but she didn't.

So the rangers win the Noble Lion Trophy. They go to collect it only to discover that it's been taken. They immediately suspect Bulk and Skull. We get a little irritated but it turns out it was Bulk and Skull. They have it in the park. Rita turns it into a half lion, half goat monster, and it attacks Bulk and Skull, knocking them into the pond. The monster is named Goatan, but we spent the whole episode thinking it sounded just like a Dragonball Z character. So take that for what it's worth.

The rangers separate to go in search of Bulk and Skull and instead end up being attacked by putties. We have to commend Billy here. He has really improved. He holds his own against four putties on a playground. The putties then just randomly disappear. They decide they need to run off and meet up with Jason and Kim. Instead of using communicators, y'know, those things Billy designed to communicate with the others over long distances, yeah, instead of using those, they take off running. Oh show. Fail a little more, okay?

Later, at the Youth Center, Zack calls Angela a "babe-a-saurus" and I want to hit something (I told you I started this recap ANGRY). Angela then walks up to him wearing what looks like something you'd find a cheap hooker down on the street corner, and asks him on a date. What? Earlier, at the games, she turned him down and now she's asking him out? Make less sense, show, I DARE you.

They go to the movies and then Billy and Trini come into the Youth Center wearing bad weather gear... a mix of snow and rain type jackets and hats. Ernie announces they're under a tornado watch and everybody needs to get to the basement. Meanwhile, Zordon calls the rangers on the communicators and they teleport to the Command Center. From the middle of the Youth Center. And it's not like it had been awhile since people went to the basement either. Secret identities, guys, you're doing it WRONG! Zordon sends them out to fight Goatan, and we discuss DBZ again.

Zack, at the movies with Angela, tries to pull the "it's cold in here, let me wrap my arm around you" bit and we want to pound things because he's being sleazy (and hello, started the episode mad at power rangers already, sorry). Zordon tries to contact him but Zack doesn't hear it.

In battle, the rangers are kind of failing a whole lot. Goatan gets them in some tornado thingy and then Zack finally hears his communicator. Angela asks what it was and Zack says it's his popcorn alarm. Seriously, Zack? Popcorn alarm? What, pager, medication alarm, or needing to pee really not working for you or something? Wow, that was just... stupid.

So Zack joins the fight and apparently Goatan ruining his date is worse than his friends being in trouble. Mmkay. I could thwap him right now, I really could. They fight a little. An aside, here, because this fight is very boring and kind of fishy? But I stopped mid-fight and declared this episode would be ten times better if the lion part of the monster suddenly got very hungry and just nommed down on the goat's head right below him. That is the only thing that could have saved this episode. Alas, it didn't happen.

So they end up needing the Zords, of course, and they can't beat him and he freezes them. The controls are frozen as well, but Zack says the left tread isn't frozen and he can spin them. So he does. Despite the controls being frozen. We determined they must have included a "fish in the system" during building of the Zords, just for instances like this one. They beat Goatan really easily and then go back to the Command Center to talk for awhile. Zack then remembers he was on a date and needs to get back to it lest Angela get mad. Gee, you think?

He comes in at the end of the movie with two big buckets of popcorn and Angela, being the smart girl we knew she was in the first place, dumps her bucket on his head and walks out. Good girl.

Back at the Youth Center, Ernie is hanging a plant with help from Kim. Why, I don't know, he just is. A police officer walks in with Bulk and Skull, covered in mud, and Jason identifies them as swamp monsters. Way to sass the police, Jason! I'm sure that's going to go over well. Bulk flails a bit, knocks into Ernie, and gets covered in water. There was a frog in his shirt. Oh show.

2.5 fish. It really wasn't that bad, just the monster fight was weird and Angela asking Zack on a date totally contradicting previous canon.

Billy speak: "[something unintelligible] most effective against our adversaries."

"This is a decidedly large expanse to cover."

Covered in food: Zack gets covered in popcorn (and lots of people get covered in mud).

We have vowed to never watch this episode again.