Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 1, Episode 19: Green with Evil, Part III: The Rescue



I know I’ve fallen behind on my writing about Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.  I am sorry for the lack of content on that front.  It’s my fault.  I’ve been doing other things.  Now I have decided that it’s time to get back to writing about and watching Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.  I’m back.  It’s been about a week, but I’m back.

We’re still in the middle of that Green with Evil arc of the first season.  It’s been an interesting arc so far, with both light and dark moments.  It’s a pleasant change for the series.  Up to this point the series has been light all the time.  The darkness has raised the stakes and brought a credible threat to the world in which the characters live.  I’ll explain how as I describe the episode.

Season 1, Episode 19: Green with Evil, Part III: The Rescue

Jason manages to escape the life-ending attack by Goldar in the other dimension.  He hides in the fog so that Goldar can’t find him, until the Green Ranger comes to relieve Goldar.  Jason must now fight against the Green Ranger in order not to die.

Meanwhile the other Power Rangers are trying to find Jason.  He said he was going to meet up with Tommy after school, but Tommy told them that he never showed up.  Zack and Kim are suspicious and follow Tommy, only to be attacked by putties.  Tommy escapes.  Zack and Kim note that the putties didn’t even go after Tommy.

Upon returning to the headquarters, Kim, Zack, Trini, and Billy manage to teleport Jason back to their dimension.  This saved Jason from the Green Ranger, who was about to kill him.  Because of this escape, Rita traps the Green Ranger in the other dimension and sends a giant Goldar to Earth to wreak havoc.  The episode ends with the Power Rangers worried about what is happening.

Once again, the episode ends on a down note.  That’s three episodes in a row that ended with a threat to the world as the audience knows it.  In the first episode of the arc, the headquarters was trashed.  In the second episode of the arc, Jason was about to be killed.  In this episode, Angel Grove is being destroyed by Goldar.  This arc is bringing threats that just weren’t present in the first sixteen episodes of the series.  It’s a mature growth for the series that is bringing it a step above what it began as.

This arc has allowed the series to take a big leap forward in terms of quality.  Sure, the individual components of the episode are just as amateur as they were prior to the arc, but the writing has vastly improved.

I know that this arc has made my writing very repetitive.  I can’t help but continuously reiterate how I appreciate the added weight and stakes to the episodes in the ark.  The story arc is much more serialized than previous episodes which makes the events feel much more important.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is slowly improving itself to change from a simple, fun series to a well-made, deep, fun series.  Will it make the full transition?  I can’t tell you right now.  What I can say is that there is an upward trajectory to the series and I’m hoping that it keeps that up.  The next episode will hopefully keep that trajectory going.  We’ll see when I write about that one.

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