Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 2, Episode 32: Rocky Just Wants to Have Fun

Last time we left the Power Rangers, Bulk and Skull had figured out who they were!  But they forgot quickly after, because of an accident that happened when they saved the Power Rangers from a monster.  Why did Bulk and Skull save the Power Rangers?  Well, the monster erased the Power Rangers’ memories, and Bulk and Skull were the only people left to execute the Power Rangers’ plans.  It was a big episode for Bulk and Skull.  It helped put them in a better light for the second time in the past handful of episodes.

Now we’re onto an episode about Rocky.  He’s the least fleshed out of the new characters and it’ll be nice to get a little bit of insight into what makes him Rocky.  We know that Adam has some confidence issues, and we know Aisha’s personality.  Rocky is sort of a blank slate.  This episode should change that and give him something that the audience can latch onto.  We’ll get that and more in…

Season 2, Episode 32: Rocky Just Wants to Have Fun

Rocky and Billy were in the Angel Grove Youth Centre studying advanced math.  Ernie unveiled his newest purchase.  It was a pachinko machine.  He let Rocky try it.  Rocky thought it was a lot of fun.

Lord Zedd took that as inspiration for his two step evil plan.  The first part was to cast a spell on Rocky that would make him only want to have fun.  He would ignore anything that wasn’t fun.  It took him out of the Power Rangers team.  The other part of the plan was to turn the pachinko machine into a monster called Pachinko Head.

The Power Rangers met Pachinko Head in the park after fighting putties on a playground.  It was a lackluster playground fight.  While they attempted to smack talk the monster, Rocky ran back and forth like a goof.  He didn’t want to fight.  He just wanted to have fun.  The monster quickly turned everyone, except Tommy, into pachinko balls.

The big fight at the end started with Tommy on his own with the White Tigerzord as Alpha-5 attempted to turn the rest of the Power Rangers back into teens.  Rocky was the first one saved, with the fun spell broken.  He got his Red Dragon Thunderzord and headed into battle.  When the rest of the Power Rangers were saved, they joined him.  The Megazord was able to quickly kill Pachinko Head.  Then came the next phase of the attack as Serpentera showed up, only to lose its power and leave.

Bulk and Skull spent the whole episode thinking that Ernie was a Power Ranger.  Skull had done some research and figured out that every time the Power Rangers were saving the world, Ernie had the day off.  They stalked him, only to find out that while they were watching him, the Power Rangers saved the world again.

Technically, this episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was a Rocky episode.  The difference between this one and the two Adam episodes is that this one didn’t give any new insight into Rocky.  It didn’t show us a new side of Rocky.  He was under a spell cast by Lord Zedd that made him want to have fun.  That isn’t Rocky’s normal personality.  He’s usually there to get the job done, regardless of how fun it is.  This episode could be seen as an anti-Rocky episode since it goes against everything that has been established for the character.

Bulk and Skull, meanwhile, had one of their better storylines.  The show has been taking the time to work on how they write these two characters.  They’re still the bumbling comic relief, but there has been more care put into the two characters to give them depth.  This episode had them do their typical bumbling thing.  Yet, it showed the pair as slightly more intelligent than they have come to be known.  There was an actual reason behind their plan.  Instead of some crazy contraption that would direct them to the Power Rangers, Skull had done homework.  He had researched the past Power Rangers events to figure out where to look for the Power Rangers.  This storyline wasn’t an afterthought.  There was thought to it, both on the part of the writers and the part of the characters.  It was a nice new layer to Bulk and Skull that the series should keep up.

That does it for this episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.  Another monster has been defeated.  Lord Zedd will have to regroup his forces and try again.  Perhaps he’ll try in a movie kind of setting.  The episode title Lights, Camera, Action sure makes it seem that way.  We’ll find out next time.  See you then.