Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 3, Episode 14: Final Face-Off

Previously in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the Hate Master came to town and almost tore the Power Rangers apart.  He threw hate dust on them and they started fighting and arguing.  They hated each other.  Except for Aisha.  She had the power of love inside her and that countered the hate that was being spread.  She used love to save her friends and keep Angel Grove from facing defeat.

Kimberly was a big part of that episode, being Aisha’s sounding board for the non-hate stuff.  It was her first big non-fighting role in a few episodes and it was nice to see her play a good part again.  She’ll be leaving the show soon, so she should come back in a slightly bigger role as they write her out.  That could start happening this episode.  Or there could be focus on another character like there usually is.  We’ll find out soon, though, because I’m about to watch…

Season 3, Episode 14: Final Face-Off

The local Angel Grove museum was holding an exhibit about the Kahmala, an ancient people.  There were legends that the Kahmala had, including one about a face stealing monster.  Kimberly wasn’t with the teens when they visited the exhibit because she was busy training for the Pan Global Games.

Rita thought that this would be a good time to attack Angel Grove.  She sent Squatt, Baboo, and Rito Revolto to the museum to steal an urn in which the spirit of the Face Stealer was kept.  They used the Tenga Warriors as a distraction, went around the Power Rangers, got into the museum, and got their monster.

Face Stealer managed to capture the faces of Aisha and Adam, as well as Bulk and Skull, and it was up to the other four Power Rangers to figure out how to save their friends.  They went to the museum and borrowed a few of the masks on display.  The masks distracted the Face Stealer enough that it could no longer harm them and steal their faces.  They managed to let all of the faces free and went up against the monster in one of the episode ending giant fights.

Bulk and Skull were doing some fairly good police work during the episode.  When they heard of a disturbance at the park, they went to investigate.  They found the monster and the Power Rangers and decided it would be better if the Power Rangers took on the fight.  The monster immediately stole their faces.  When they got their faces back and the monster was defeated, the pair took the masks and the urn back from the Power Rangers to return to the museum.  The security at the museum thought they stole the items and they were apprehended, but they were just doing their job.  I’m proud of the pair.

As for the fights, the Tenga Warrior bout was a fairly standard one for this season.  Jumps, kicks, and a few small special powers.  It was more about the distraction than the fight, though.  The fight against the Face Stealer was a little more.  Adam got his face stolen first, and Aisha rushed to his aid.  The Face Stealer caught her before she could get there, and the rest of the Power Rangers struggled to save their friends before retreating.  The final fight didn’t last long but had one important beat.  The Power Rangers got into their Zords to attack the Face Stealer.  That wasn’t enough, though.  They called on Titanus to make the Ninja Ultrazord.  With that, they easily took down the Face Stealer and sealed it back into the urn.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers might not always be what I want it to be.  Most of the time, it goes against my expectations for what would make it a better show.  It does, however, surprise me on a regular basis.  Big surprises come once in a while, but small surprises happen all the time.  Final Face-Off had a few small surprises that kept the episode afloat.

It has been mentioned in a few different posts now.  Kimberly left Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in the middle of season 3.  Amy Jo Johnson wanted to move onto other things.  Her absence has been apparent leading up to this point.  Kimberly has frequently not been present during the teenage stories, instead only popping up when she was needed to aid in a fight.  This episode gave a reason for her not being around.  She was training for the Pan Global Games, an international competition where she would perform gymnastics.  This was the character’s reason for leaving the show, and they started to sprinkle it into the show this early to help prepare the audience.

The other notable surprise was the use of Titanus.  Titanus was introduced in season 1 when the show was always trying to outdo itself in terms of how tough the monsters were to defeat.  The Power Rangers were always getting upgrades.  Titanus was one of them, being a robotic dinosaur that they could combine with to make the Ultrazord.  Titanus wasn’t used in season 2 because they had Tor, the turtle Zord, to team up with.  Now Titanus is back.  It showed up in the Hate Master episodes, not really doing much.  This episode, they combined with it to make the Ninja Ultrazord.  What makes this a notable bit of information is that Titanus is from the sentai that season 1 was based on.  It wasn’t used in the sentai that season 3 was based on, so a Ninja Ultrazord was something that only the American show did.  They had created a Ninja Megazord toy that could combine with Titanus, and used that to depict the Ninja Ultrazord on the show.  Had I not already known about it, I probably wouldn’t have noticed.

Even when Mighty Morphin Power Rangers put out a standalone episode, they were doing things to make the episodes stand out.  Some of them turned out better than others.  Final Face-Off was one of the better ones.  It started the writing for Kimberly’s farewell.  Titanus returned in a useful way.  Bulk and Skull did their jobs as police officers.  Will the next episode fare as well?  We’ll find out when I return with The Potion Notion.  I’ll see you then with another Mighty Morphin Power Rangers post.