Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 1, Episode 33: The Yolk's on You



One of the things that I’ve found most interesting about Mighty Morphin Power Rangers thus far is how they have integrated both Tommy Oliver and the Green Ranger into the week-to-week stories.  Tommy has become a major part of the gang, but his Power Ranger persona hasn’t been as prevalent in the fighting side of things.

I bring this idea up because of the episode I am about to describe to you.  In order to keep the Green Ranger away from the monster fights in the beginning, the writers must find different ways to get him away from everyone else.  With this most recent episode doing that sort of thing, I thought it best to cover some instances with Tommy being removed from the beginning of the fight.  First, the episode at hand.

Season 1, Episode 33: The Yolk’s on You

There’s a talent show or something going on in Angel Grove.  Tommy and Jason are going to do some martial arts.  Bulk and Skull are going to play some music.  They’re all preparing for their performances when Tommy realizes that he forgot his belt and he has to go get it.

Tommy is off looking for his belt when Rita Repulsa sends down some putties to capture him.  Tommy fights with them and chases one until he is caught in a boobie trap of the kind where the net is on the ground and it pulls you up into the tree.  Basically, he was captured using the oldest trick in the book.

That’s when Rita strikes.  Finster has created a monster called Fang who likes Gooney Bird eggs so much that the loss of them will cause him to get enraged.  Rita uses the anger to pit Fang against the Power Rangers, who never actually stole the eggs.  The Power Rangers don’t stand a chance without Tommy, but luckily, Tommy escapes the net and summons his Dragonzord.  The Power Rangers get into Ultrazord mode and kill Fang.

Back at the talent show, Tommy and Jason successfully show off their martial arts skills.  Then Bulk and Skull take the stage to perform a terrible song.  I’m pretty sure that the end of the episode is everyone laughing.  For some reason, I can’t remember exactly.



Like I said, the writers are always trying to find a way to exclude Tommy from the beginning of the big fights.  Nearly every episode includes an event like Tommy forgetting his belt.  It might be a reliance upon the Japanese footage.  That’s most likely the reasoning behind it.  I would like to take the rest of the post to highlight some of my favourite Tommy eliminations since the character’s introduction.


  1. In the episode Life’s a Masquerade, Tommy is taken out of the story because he must complete the costume that he is making for the Halloween party at the Youth Center.  His absence makes for an interesting story beat in this episode as they believe that the monster Rita sent to the party is Tommy for a good amount of time.  Tommy shows back up at the end, dressed as the monster that was defeated.
  2. Calamity Kimberly makes the interesting choice to have a sleeping spell sort of thing cast on Tommy when Kimberly is captured.  This makes it so that Tommy can’t help the rest of the Power Rangers when they initially go to rescue Kimberly.
  3. Perhaps the funniest of all of the cases is the episode The Rockstar where Tommy isn’t even present or mentioned.  What happened to Tommy during that episode?  I have no idea.
  4. The Trouble with Shellshock was the first episode after Green with Evil.  It was the first time that the Tommy elimination happened.  Everyone was hanging out and playing basketball when Tommy just up and left.  Then the putties showed up and the gang had to fight them off without Tommy.
  5. The episode before this one was A Star is Born.  The whole high school storyline was about how Tommy wasn’t there.  He was busy auditioning for a commercial while everyone else was fighting Scorpina, a worm, and Babe Ruthless.


Mighty Morphin Power Rangers likes to find ways for Tommy to not be there.  I’m sure that the next two episodes will give the biggest Tommy elimination yet.  That’s right.  I’m onto the Green Candle episodes.  I’m excited for this, as I know they are some of the best of the series.  Are you exited for me to get to the episodes?  Those of you reading this might be.  That’s only about five people though.  Everyone else doesn’t know the greatness I’m about to watch.  I’ll see you soon when I write about part one of The Green Candle.

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