Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 3, Episode 22: Follow That Cab!

When we last left off with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the Power Rangers had gotten a new set of Zords. Lord Zedd had forced them to use the Shogun Zords, but Billy worked out a way for the good guys to take control. Kimberly’s power was fading because Kat had her power coin. The Power Rangers also took down a monster that was pretty much a creepy flasher. It was a crazy, story-filled few episodes.

The story is almost at the point where Kimberly passes her position on the team to Kat. Kat still needs to flip from the bad guys to the good guys, though. That could happen in the next episode. I don’t know. I’ll find out pretty soon, however, as I watch…

Season 3, Episode 22: Follow That Cab!

A famous gymnastics coach was in Angel Grove scouting for his Pan Global team. Kimberly wanted to meet him, not because she thought she could get onto his team, but because she had looked up to him since she was a young child. The only problem was that someone had stolen her car. She got help from Bulk and Skull, who commandeered a taxi for her and the three of them began a chase.

Kimberly left Park Cat under the supervision of Ernie at the Angel Grove Youth Centre. When PC went missing, Ernie enlisted the rest of the gang to help find her. She wasn’t actually missing, though. She went to turn into Kat and meet with Rita Repulsa. Rita told her what the evil plans were and repeatedly called her an evil girl. This sparked a memory in Kat’s mind of how good she had been as a child. She momentarily broke out of the evilness until Rita put a spell on her again.

The evil plan that Rita, Lord Zedd, and Rito Revolto had come up with was to zap the taxi that contained Kimberly, Bulk, and Skull to turn it into a monster with them inside. That way, the Power Rangers couldn’t defeat it without risking harm to their friends.

When the gang found out that Kimberly, Bulk, and Skull were in trouble, they headed to the Command Centre to get filled in on what they could do for their friends. They were given some Shark Cycles so that they could chase down the Crabby Cabbie monster. When they caught up, it grew, and there was a fight. That was that. Park Cat came back, Bulk and Skull arrested the car thief, Kimberly got her car back, and the episode ended with PC still having evil eyes.

As for the fight that brought everything to its climax, it didn’t all happen at once. The Power Rangers got into their Shogun Zords to defend against the Crabby Cabbie, while Alpha tried to figure out a way to get the three teens out of the monster. He eventually figured it out and the Power Rangers were able to turn their defense into an offense. They got into Megazord formation. Only, it wasn’t a Megazord. It was sort of a pyramid stacking of the Zords. They spun around and that spinning killed the monster.

This was far from the best Mighty Morphin Power Rangers episode. It wasn’t bad, but there were some issues with it. It teased at moving the story forward before bringing everything back to the point it had been before the conflict. It felt like a filler episode, which it was. It was situated between Kimberly losing her Power Coin and Kimberly giving her power to Kat. The only thing that was brought to the episode that would add to the show going forward was the Shark Cycles, a set of motorcycles designed to look like sharks. Other than that, the status quo was kept.

How was the status quo kept? The Kat and Kimberly storylines set things up but never paid anything off. Kat had a shimmer of her good side but was immediately turned evil again. The struggle disappeared immediately. That could have been saved for the next episode without changing a thing in this one. That was especially true because the Kat meeting with Rita Repulsa was only there to have that moment. It didn’t tie into the rest of the episode at all. It wasn’t as bad as the Kimberly storyline, though. Kimberly wanted to meet with the coach. She was going to drive over and meet him when her car was stolen. The rest of the episode was about getting the car back. She never met him in the end. That’ll happen next episode, but to have a full story, it should have been at the end of this one. Everything felt like a part of a story without moving the story forward in any way.

Now, for something a little different, there was a visual moment in Follow That Cab! which stuck out. When Park Cat ran away from the Youth Centre, she went around back to the dumpsters to meet with Rita. This was a location that had never been shown in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers before. That wasn’t the visual bit though. It was Park Cat’s transformation into Kat. PC went partway behind a dumpster when light flashes began. Then Kat was getting up like she was a terminator that had just transported back from the future, with clothes on. It could have just been that she was getting up from being cat height. Or it could have been an actual reference to the Terminator movies. Either way, it was interesting to notice.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers has great episodes, terrible episodes, and everything in between. This one was on the lower end of things. It wasn’t the worst, by any stretch of the imagination, but it lacked a solid story arc and a hand-to-hand combat fight. It did integrate Bulk and Skull into the story better, though, so t had its good elements. Hopefully the next episode can kick things off a notch and the show gets into A Different Shade of Pink. That post should come sooner, rather than later. I’ll see you when it comes out.