Episode 122- Wizard for a Day

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present for your viewing pleasure, pretty much the only real actual Rocky-centric episode that gives him some semblance of development. Sure we get another one (next episode in fact), but it's not really character development and if I remember correctly, it's more about a FRIEND and random relative than it is Rocky. ANYWAY! Today I get to bask in the glory of TEH PRETTY.

So Billy is doing martial arts with Tommy in the Youth Center. Billy is very pretty. I highly approve of this. He's getting ready to break a board when Rocky comes in with a huge stack of books. Rocky is also very pretty. Not even five minutes in and we're getting one of the prettiest episodes of the season. *happy sigh*

Rocky explains that he's been selected for the Teacher for a Day program Angel Grove High does every single year. He explains it as if he's been party to this program his entire high school career, yet only a few months prior he lived in Stone Canyon. I guess we're supposed to forget that part. So apparently this is a program where for one day a student takes the place of a teacher, teaching all the classes, doing everything the teacher would be doing. The teacher gets to go through the teenager's classes and school day. I have mixed feelings about this program. Anyway, Rocky is carrying all these books because Mr. Wilton, the science teacher (OMG Angel Grove now has THREE teachers! Must have been a big budget year), has given him all his teacher editions to help him in classes the next day.

Next day? Wait. One day to prepare? Rocky gets ONE day to learn course material for all the science classes? That's not very fair. Nevermind that teaching is A LOT more involved than just picking up a book with all the answers and giving that information to the kids. Way way way more involved. You can't just be successful with one day to go over a teacher edition textbook. Wow.

So apparently Mr. Wilton is a bit of a hard ass and the rest of the Rangers don't seem to keen to have him hang out with them all the following day. They jump when he talks, call him Sir all the time, stand at attention, and Tommy even compliments his tie in an effort to suck up. It doesn't appear to work.

The following morning, Rocky shows up to school in a SUIT. And my screen explodes from OMGTHEPRETTYSOSOSOSOPRETTY. My literal words were "HOT DAMN! Rocky in a suit." Bulk and Skull, handing out parking tickets, see Rocky leave a building with all the teacher books. They think perhaps he's trying to cheat and stole the books. This is actually good thinking on their parts! They are determined to investigate and return the "stolen" books. As Rocky heads to class, leaving the books in his locker, Bulk and Skull break in and take the books back. This is actually not too bad of a plan, except they didn't investigate first. Oh boys.

Rocky heads back to his locker but finds the books missing. He can't wait, however, and hurries off to class to teach anyway. He's obviously going over something new and, having had no time to prepare or learn it himself, doesn't do a half bad job of at least naming some of the chemicals he's using. Though he ends up creating a big mess and not actually teaching much. Later, in history class (with yet another teacher that is not Ms. Applebee!), Mr. Wilton, who's name is actually Wilbur (poor guy, Wilbur Wilton? What were his parents thinking?), disrupts things by answering all the questions properly and then telling everybody else to be quiet. He gets sent to the principal's office.

We have to pause here because really? This doesn't make a lot of sense. It would be better to have the teacher there shadowing the student while s/he teaches (and then had the student shadow the teacher while s/he learns on a different day). I mean, they don't even let student teachers run a class unsupervised! Classrooms... well they just don't work like that! But then again, this IS Angel Grove we're talking about and they DO lack quality education. And teachers. Though at a whopping FOUR teachers, the staff really does seem to be growing by leaps and bounds.

So Rito, having observed this odd little program Rocky is taking part in, has decided he wants to do the same thing. He wants to switch places with Rita and Zedd. They are hesitant, but Rita eventually agrees and talks Zedd into going along with it. Rito takes the throne, takes the Z staff, and then comes up with a brilliant plan while Rita and Zedd taunt him. He calls Finster to make him a monster, but Finster refuses. He doesn't serve anybody but Empress Rita! Rito is determined, however, and goes to make a monster himself. Rito is so awesome.

At the end of the school day, Rocky finds Mr. Wilton in the park. Mr. Wilton assures Rocky that he had no idea, it really is hard to be a teenager, much harder than when he was a kid. I'm kind of surprised by that. Being a teenager is hard and a crapshot no matter what era it's in. Rocky agrees that being a teacher is also hard, and then invites Mr. Wilton to the Youth Center. He says he'll follow along shortly and Rocky (OMGSOPRETTYINASUIT) walks off. Mr. Wilton is then attacked by the DUMBEST TENGAS EVER. Goldar has goaded Rito (so the Rita to Rito's Zedd) into sending them down while he finishes up his monster. They apparently think balding, middle aged, blonde haired blue eyed Mr. Wilton is ROCKY. Delicious, dark, Latino ROCKY DESANTOS. Um... yeah. Stupid birds. So they start to haul off Mr. Wilton but Rocky chases after them, uses his communicator to call for help (because he's AWESOME and SMART and KNEW HE HAD ONE), and then attacks in Ninja Mode. He can't hold them off, but the others show up about the same time Rito does. Rito turns MR. WILTON into the monster. That's right, he used a HUMAN BEING, whom he knew the Rangers would NOT hurt, into the MONSTER (and okay, so the turning into a monster was mostly a mistake, but it was still an awesome move!). Because he's freaking BRILLIANT!

So Monster!Mr. Wilton, with a creepy real Mr. Wilton face inside begging for help, starts to turn the others into chemical compounds. He's about to get Rocky when Tommy takes the Heroic Moment of the Day and dramatically pushes him out of the way in slow motion, taking the shot on himself. Really show? Did Tommy HAVE to have a dramatic hero moment in this episode? I mean, at least the whole episode isn't Secretly About Tommy, but this is Rocky's episode, one of the precious precious few we get (which I cling to tenaciously, stroke, and call My Precious). Let HIM have the hero moments.

So with everybody else turned into chemical compounds, Rito collects them all and then taunts Rocky. But Rocky is smart. He steals them back from Rito and then immediately teleports out of there and straight to the Command Center. Alpha, unfortunately, knows how to turn Rangers from soccer balls (oddly enough, in the OTHER Rocky-centric episode we get) back into Rangers, but NOT from chemical compounds back into Rangers. He starts freaking out, but Rocky uses his head! He remains calm and focused on the problem at hand, calming Alpha enough to help build a device that will change them back from a liquid state. Because Rocky is AWESOME and a GREAT leader. Too bad he never got to BE leader, since it was stolen from him and all. Not that I'm still bitter or anything. Ahem.

So everybody is back to their normal selves and Rocky comes up with a plan to destroy the monster to set Mr. Wilton free, and everybody says this was all thanks to the teaching for a day thing. Which... um... okay? I don't quite see how that's helping AT ALL here, but whatever. Fish. Move on.

So they go fight, Rito makes Monster!Mr. Wilton grow, they call the zords. They give him a smack down and Rocky, feeling responsible (how is it your fault, honey? I don't know), goes to finish him off alone. It takes one hit and the monster is gone, leaving Mr. Wilton lying in the grass in the park. The Rangers rush to make sure he's okay.

Back in the Youth Center later that day, Rocky talks about being a teacher and how it's hard and lots of work and we're all really? You think? DUH! Mr. Wilton learned to relax a little, and is now telling the story of how the Power Rangers rescued him. To ALL the teenage girls. He's VERY popular with the teenage girls. He seems pleased. I'm incredibly squicked out. Dude, it's not good to be middle aged and surrounded by teenage girls like that. It's CREEPY.

Bulk and Skull show up with the "stolen" teachers editions and give them back to Mr. Wilton. They accuse Rocky of cheating and Mr. Wilton defends him, making Bulk and Skull quake in their boots, call him Sir, and run away. Everyone laughs and I'm just... still kind of creeped out by Mr. Wilton and all the girls. (and I really think Rocky would have done FINE if he'd had the books the whole time)

4 fish because education doesn't work like that, but at least it wasn't entirely Secretly About Tommy.