Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 2, Episode 41: The Wedding, Part I

When we last left off with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, they had been turned to kids and then turned back into teenagers.  Lord Zedd had turned back the time of Earth, and the Power Rangers had set things right again.  Bulk and Skull had been in detention almost all their lives.  It was the introduction of time travel into the show, and would set that up for future stories to go to different times.

The three episode story beginning now will go in a different direction and set up something else for the show.  This something will be much more important at this point, because it’s going to be changing the villain.  Lord Zedd banished Rita Repulsa at the beginning of the second season.  She is coming back now.  Not only that, there will be a wedding.  Let’s get this story kicked off with the first episode.

Season 2, Episode 41: The Wedding, Part I

Angel Grove High School participated in an exchange program with Australia.  Of course, the main group of students were chosen to go to Australia.  Tommy, Kimberly, Billy, Aisha, Adam, Rocky, and even Bulk and Skull got to take a vacation.  They got to shop and see the landmarks, as well as take a break from saving the world.

Why were they taking a break?  Lord Zedd had to take time to recharge his power, so he wouldn’t be attacking Earth for a while.  He got Goldar to set him up in his recharging bed and went to sleep.  That was, he slept until Rita Repulsa returned.

That’s right.  Rita Repulsa came back this episode.  She escaped her space dumpster once again and enlisted Finster to grow her back to regular size.  Finster then concocted a love potion that would help Rita make Lord Zedd fall in love with her.  She would use his love to get her moon castle back, so she could once again begin her attacks against Earth.

The main conflict of the episode came when Alpha was turned bad.  He began working against Zordon and the Power Rangers.  By the end of the episode, Alpha had tricked the Power Rangers into searching an old theater, where they were ambushed by a bunch of monsters.  The Power Rangers were in real trouble.  Their powers didn’t work there, and they would have to fight without them.  The episode ended on a cliffhanger of them trying to figure out what to do.

The synopsis for this episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was pretty short, because there wasn’t too much to write about.  It was an episode setting up what would unfold in the other two parts.  The most important thing, and it was a game changer to the show, was the return of Rita Repulsa.  She would remain on the show for the rest of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers as one of the main villains.  She would team up with Lord Zedd, and later Rito Revolto, to terrorize Earth and try to take down the Power Rangers.  That was the importance of this episode.  It brought back one of the main villains who would stick around for the remainder of this iteration of Power Rangers.

That addition aside, there were still some wacky things that happened that took away from the seriousness.  Bulk and Skull spent the episode trying to ditch the rest of the students while they were in Australia.  That’s not the biggest thing to note, though.  When Alpha turned bad, he began to mess with Zordon.  He silenced Zordon so that there wouldn’t be any voice of conscience telling him not to be bad.  He also started playing with Zordon’s appearance, giving him different facial additions including glasses and a mustache.  This was the kind of humour that kept Mighty Morphin Power Rangers from being as great as it could be, but also made it the show that people like me know and love.  For everything good about the show, there were moments like this that were laughably bad.  That’s why the show has stayed with me.

One other thing of note is the Australian setting of The Wedding.  The students went to Australia on a school trip.  That was written into the show to help with the shooting schedule, since the actors were in Australia to film Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie.  It was easier to film in Australia than it was to do the whole body double thing that they did way back when The Power Transfer stuff was going on.

With that said, let’s bring an end to another Mighty Morphin Power Rangers post.  The Power Rangers are in dire straits as monsters surround them.  They have no powers to help themselves.  What will they do to get out of the situation?  We’ll find out soon in The Wedding, Part II.  See you in a little bit.