Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 2, Episode 21: Zedd's Monster Mash

In the previous episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, we said goodbye to three of the original actors as well as two secondary characters.  The show didn’t do that.  It was just the last episode featuring those people, until Austin St. John returned during Power Rangers Zeo.  It was an episode about a magnet monster attacking Angel Grove.  Bulk and Skull tried to contact space life, and Billy flirted with a girl.

Now we start the farewell run of the three Power Rangers.  Jason, Trini, and Zack will be taking a back seat as the show begins writing them out.  This isn’t the episode to introduce the new characters.  It is the one in between.  This episode will be bringing back some old enemies and allowing the Power Rangers another chance to fight them.  I don’t know how it’s going to happen.  We’ll have to watch to find out.  Here we go.

Season 2, Episode 21: Zedd’s Monster Mash

The children of Angel Grove met in the Youth Centre for a chaperoned trick or treating trip.  The high school students were escorting the children around while they got candy.  Kimberly, Tommy, and Billy were prepared to take kids out.  Jason, Trini, and Zack were running late and wouldn’t make it before everything went down.  Tommy took out a bunch of children dressed as Power Rangers.

Bulk and Skull thought this would be the perfect opportunity to find the Power Rangers.  They thought that the Power Rangers might be wandering around town in their suits because it wouldn’t seem out of the ordinary on Halloween.  Not that it would seem out of the ordinary any other day.  They are always saving Angel Grove.  The idea was also partially right because Alpha was sent from the Command Centre to watch over some children.  Bulk and Skull got in trouble from a local parent for harassing children, then ate so much candy that they got sick.

Speaking of monsters, this episode was full of them.  Lord Zedd’s plan was to send Tommy to a dark dimension in which many of the previous monsters were alive.  They teamed up to fight the White Ranger, who had his morpher taken away.  The most notable returning monster was The Pumpkin Rapper.  He spits rhymes and vines to take down the Power Rangers.

Most of this episode was spent showing fights.  It was the easiest way to cover up the fact that three of the actors were missing.  Put the characters in their suits and it looks like they’re still there.  The first fight was Tommy versus putties.  The children he chaperoned were actually putties in disguise.  The fight was a typical putty fight that ended with Tommy being kidnapped.  This would be followed by Tommy fighting with the monsters, which was like a standard fight, except with more enemies.  A lot of time was taken up by introducing different monsters, and the fight ended fairly quickly as Billy came and returned Tommy’s morpher.  The last fight was a Zord fight versus a grown Pumpkin Rapper.  The fight ended quickly again.  Jason, Trini, and Zack showed up.  Everyone created the Thunder Megazord.  The Tigerzord showed up.  The Thunder Megazord used its sabre and the Pumpkin Rapper was defeated.

Nothing in this episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was meant to have weight on the series.  It was that in between episode where the producers were panicking to solve their problem of the lost cast members.  They stalledr to buy time before the show’s big transition.  That’s why you only see Billy, Kimberly and Tommy.  The other three teens were no longer on the show, and there hadn’t been anyone else cast.  If anything, the most notable thing is that this was the first episode without at least four of the original five Power Rangers.  Remember, there was one episode before this that didn’t have Austin St. John playing Jason.

The thing that this episode did was spice up the comedy.  Bulk and Skull usually do crazy things, but this episode took it a step further.  Near the end, the characters felt sick and their faces changed colour.  There was a green hue placed on their faces in the way that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers tends to do its effects.  It seemed out of place while being exactly what the show is.  Other than that, this was a standard stand-alone episode with more monsters than usual and fewer Power Rangers.

In the next episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, three new characters will be introduced.  They will be the replacements for Jason, Trini, and Zack.  It’ll be an important episode as it moves past this loss.  It will mark the beginning of a new era that will last until well into season three.  I’m excited to move into this new stage of the show and I hope you are too.