Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 1, Episode 35: The Green Candle, Part II

One thing that I’ve been ranting about as I watch the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is the lack of stakes and consequences.  In the majority of the episodes, the conflict is brought in and resolved with no meaning to the overall series.  Sure, the monsters are more dangerous, Rita Repulsa things up more dastardly things, and the Power Rangers need more machine power to win a fight.  But when it comes down to later episodes, what happens in one specific installment has no weight.

The multiple episode arcs seem to have more depth and real danger to them.  That is partially because they are multiple episodes and thus take more than a singular twenty minutes to be tied up.  However, in two of these arcs, there has been a big change brought to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in general.  As I’ve said before, the Green with Evil arc brought Tommy Oliver and the Green Ranger into the series.  This was a big moment because it added another member to the team, and another main character to the series.  It changed the dynamic.

The Green Candle episodes also changed the series in a way that I will explain in a few moments.  These episodes mean more to the overall story than the average episode because of the changes that they create.  It's why I love getting to the multiple episode arcs.  They mean something.  They change things.  They move the series forward.  Now I’m going to move forward to the episode recap.

Season 1, Episode 35: The Green Candle, Part II

With the help of Zordon, the gang comes up with a way to stop the green candle from melting down, and preventing Tommy from losing his powers.  Jason is going to enter the other dimension and fight with Goldar.  Billy and Alpha have made a wormhole door that can be used to send Jason there.  They have to go to the park where Tommy was taken and Jason will enter there.

While Jason is off battling with Goldar for the candle and Tommy’s power, Rita sends the Cyclops back down to Angel Grove, where it morphs into every Megazord they have.  Tommy says that he can take it on and Zordon reluctantly sends him to battle the Cyclops.  The Cyclops easily takes Tommy on, since Tommy’s power is draining with the candle.

Zack goes to the other dimension to get Jason because it’s better to lose Tommy’s powers than to lose Tommy altogether.  Jason comes back and they fight of Cyclops.  They defeat it through the use of every Megazord form they have.  I forget all of the names right now, so I’m not going to try typing them out.

Anyway, they win the fight but Tommy loses his powers because the candle has melted all the way down.  This means that Tommy is no longer a Power Ranger, and he’s really bummed about it.  In a good turn of events, he is able to give his power coin to Jason so that Rita can’t get it.  That gold thing that normally hangs on Tommy’s shoulders goes to Jason and now the red ranger is more powerful.  The end.

So… Tommy is no longer a Power Ranger.  The green ranger is no more.  The team is back down to five members.  How is that for change?  Rita Repulsa is only getting more dangerous, and the Power Rangers are going backwards.

This episode had the stake, depth, and consequences that I’ve been looking for in the series.  I don’t need Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to be dire and negative all the time, but I like the events of a specific episode to have some meaning.  I don’t want every episode to end with things being neatly resolved in the end.  Or if they are, I want something to come of that resolution that adds to the show.  I want the series to grow.  I want it to become more than it has been for the first half of the third season. 

These two episodes have shown that the show can do that.  The writers have shown that they are capable of making a bigger episode that can influence the course of events for the next while.  They have shown that they can shake the foundation of the show and surprise the viewers.  It would be nice if they kept that up, though I feel like it’ll go back to being very episodic for a while.  Oh well, I got a great two episode arc out of The Green Candle.

Next up in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is an episode called Birds of a Feather.  Sounds like a bird monster will be coming down from the moon.  Like always, I’ll try to write about that one soon.  Like always, it’ll probably be a week before I get the writing done.  Like always, there’s probably nobody reading this point in my writing.  If you are, thanks for reading.  I’ll see you next time.