Episode 99 - Rangers Back in Time

I almost can't believe that this episode exists. I mean, neither of us remembered very much about it other than "Rangers get turned into kids" but I'm going to have to watch this episode a million more times because it is PURE GOLD.

You may not agree with me, but apparently a thing that I love is "people get turned into children." There needs to be SO MUCH FIC of baby!Rangers. And fic where Trini/Jason/Zack show up and have to babysit the baby!Rangers! And I just... yeah, I would read a million words of this. Or watch this episode a billion times, even though it makes no sense whatsoever and baby!Rocky has the worst hair I've ever seen.

Anyway, onto the actual episode. We open and the Rangers are in first grade. Well, not really. They're still in high school, but they are having show and tell. Their assignment is to bring in a photo of themselves as a kid, and talk about what it means to them. So Aisha has a picture of herself at a dance recital, Kimberly has a picture from her first gymnastics meet (she lost, I'm amazed) but it taught her to be a good sport. Tommy has a picture of him from a karate match (hard work), Billy took apart his mother's vacuum, Rocky learned responsibility from his dog, Buster, and Adam loves his dad. Bulk and Skull have a joint photo, of how they became BFF. (Or at Bulk put it, how Skull dropped a grape popsicle on Bulk and Bulk decided not to beat him up after. I love them so much.)

I officially have so much fanon about their childhoods it is now officially completely ridiculous. I could babble about that for most of the recap, but I don't think anyone but me wants to read a million words about Adam and Rocky playing in the sandbox together and then Aisha dumped a bucket of sand over both of their heads and told them that they were doing it wrong.

Zedd is all "AHA! I know! If I turn them into children they can't fight me anymore!" Oh, Zedd. This never ends well. So he creates the rock of time which will somehow turn them into children or maybe make time go backwards. It isn't really clear.

Back at school, Billy notices that the clock is running backwards, and he tells Miss Applebee, who is really freaked out about it. She doesn't know what to do. For some reason, calling a janitor is not one of the suggestions. And I have no idea why changing time would make the clocks run backwards. That isn't how this works. No, really. REALLY. I have opinions on time travel, I read a lot of scifi. (Maybe the clock is controlled by fish?)

Then the spell takes hold, and suddenly we are distracted by tiny!Rangers. They look like they're in... third grade? Just a guess? So about nine. Somewhere between eight and ten anyway. But we're suddenly distracted by the horrible hair. It isn't just Rocky's thing, which looks like a cross between a mullet and a hedgehog. Miss Applebee also has an awful wig, and Adam's hair isn't that great either. They just keep going as if nothing is wrong, and we're suddenly distracted by the giant swarm of fish that just swam across the TV.

Okay, the questions. If they did go back in time, why are Tommy, Adam, Rocky and Aisha still in Angel Grove? Why are they in the high school classroom? How have their memories changed so that they still know each other, but they don't know that they're Rangers? Why did the clocks run backwards? Why did their clothes shrink? Why are they doing more advanced work as children then they were doing in high school? Why does Rocky have a mullet? Why isn't Zordon affected? How is Zedd unaffected? Are they back in time, or did they just all get new memories? Is this an alternate reality? How is baby!Aisha so freaking awesome? Why did Queenriley and I accidentally decide that Zack is the Face of Boe? (The answer to that last one is actually that I made the best typo ever.)

So, Miss Applebee and her awful hair ask the students to do long division, and Kimberly gets called up to the board. She does long division, explaining step by step how to do 900 divided by 30. Aww, Kim. You kick ass at math. She goes back to her seat, and it turns out that baby!Bulk and Skull had tried to put a shaving cream balloon on her seat while she was up at the board. But their plan backfired, and they end up covered in shaving cream, and Kimberly only gets a speck on her jumper. Miss Applebee asks what happens, and Aisha stands up to tattle.

I take it back, CLEARLY Aisha, Rocky and Adam became BFF when she ratted them out for doing something. Also, she totally becomes a lawyer when she grows up. Nothing will convince me otherwise.

After class, the baby!Rangers and Bulk and Skull all go to the park. Adam and Billy try to fly a kite together. (Bulk and Skull then steal the kite and manage to get themselves tangled up in the string, at which point all the Rangers make fun of them. Apparently some things never change.) It is so adorable I can't even deal. But both Zedd and Zordon are watching. Zordon is concerned that bringing the Rangers to the Command Center will scare them, and Zedd is out to destroy them. So Zedd sends down some putties to attack the baby!Rangers. Kimberly clings to Billy, and Billy wonders if the putties are lost. And then Adam asks if they want to play, but the Putties attack instead.

I'm sorry, this fight is too adorable for words. Tommy manages to kick a dodgeball into the Z of one of the Putties. All of the Rangers join in, and even baby Bulk manages to destroy a putty! Aww, I am so proud of them! *pinches their cheeks* Zedd is not pleased that the baby!Rangers have managed to defeat the putties, so he turns a camera into a monster, and traps the baby!Rangers in a polaroid.

At the Command Center, Alpha works on a device to fix things, while Zordon worries. DUN DUN DUN.

To be continued. On Thursday.

Fish: FIVE. There are SO MANY QUESTIONS. But this episode was still AMAZING. I hope part 2 is as good.

Covered in: Bulk and Skull get covered in shaving cream, and some random lady at the park gets covered in garbage

Fic people should write us: ADVENTURES OF THE BABY RANGERS.