Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 1, Episode 23: Itsy Bitsy Spider

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers has really reverted back to its old self, following the Green with Evil arc.  No longer is there a story that covers multiple episodes.  All of the stories are back to their self-contained twenty minute long episodes.  There’s nothing that will leave a lasting mark on the series.  These episodes are simple, fun filler.

Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy the episodes.  It’s just that my hopes had risen with the improved storytelling in the episodes that introduced Tommy Oliver.  They showed that the writers could step-up the quality and deliver some meaningful plots.  Alas, this is once again gone as the arc concluded, and we are back to the episodic nature that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was before Green with Evil.  It doesn’t make the series bad.  It’s just disappointing.  And with that, let’s talk about this episode.

Season 1, Episode 23: Itsy Bitsy Spider

Trini and Billy want to prevent a statue from being destroyed because the statue gets rid of bugs.  Strangely, they do this by bringing a lot of bugs into school.  Zack’s not a huge fan of this, though, since he’s afraid of bugs.  His fears end up coming to the surface when Bulk and Skull release all of the bugs.

Rita Repulsa takes the idea of the statue to heart.  Her next plan to destroy Earth will involve hiding a spider monster inside the statue.  While Zack is teaching a Hip-Hop Kido class in the park, butterflies come and put all of his students to sleep.  Then Spidertron bursts out of the statue.  Don’t worry.  Spidertron is just one of Rita’s monsters.  It’s not a transformer.

The rest of the Power Rangers (except for Tommy since he’s always the final thing that puts the Power Rangers over the edge for the win) show up to help Zack defeat Spidertron.  The main problem they have in their fight is that Spidertron shoots webs at them, and they all get tangled in the webs.

The only way to defeat Spidertron is to call upon the Zords.  That’s what the Power Rangers do.  They get in their Zords, make the Megazord, and fight.  That still doesn’t work, though.  Spidertron’s webs are just too much of a problem.  The Megazord can’t fight through them.  Jason calls upon Tommy, who shows up and calls in his Dragonzord.  The Dragonzord combines with some of the other Zords to create the battle mode of the Dragonzord.  There has to be a better name for it, but I can’t figure it out.  Anyway, the Power Rangers manage to win, like they usually do, and Angel Grove is safe from Spidertron.

As you can see, everything in the episode got tied up in a nice little bow at the end.  Spidertron got defeated, Zack overcame his fear of spiders (obviously, even though I didn’t mention it until now), and Angel Grove is safe for another day.  It’s as pleasant a conclusion as you could ever hope for in a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers episode.

There is one important thing that happened in the episode, though.  For 22 episodes prior to this, the opening credits shows Zack kind of dance-fighting in front of a bunch of children.  That’s his opening titles clip.  That clip comes from this episode.  The opening credits uses a clip of Zack teaching his Hip-Hop Kido class.  That was fun to finally see.

The episode also had a moral, which was a nice inclusion.  The moral was about overcoming your fears.  Zack is afraid of insects, but must help to defeat a spider monster in order to save Angel Grove and the children that he was teaching Hip-Hop Kido to.  He must conquer what he is afraid of in order to keep Rita from destroying the world.  Don’t let your fears get the best of you.  That’s what I learned from this episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Next time, I’ll be writing about another episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.  What will that episode bring?  Who knows?  Probably people who have seen the series before.  Anyway, I’ll see you then.