Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 3, Episode 26: Rita's Pita

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers just came off a three-episode arc that was the culmination of Kimberly leaving the show and Katherine being introduced. Throughout those episodes, Katherine was under a spell that Rita Repulsa used to make her evil. She stole Kimberly’s Power Coin until she broke out of the spell. She managed to get the Power Coin back to Kimberly, who then gave it back to Katherine and left for the Pan Global Games. Katherine would take her place on the Power Rangers team.

Now it’s time for the first episode of the new, post-Kimberly era of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Katherine is officially part of the team. There might be some problems that arise, though. Zordon mentioned that Rita’s spell was strong and might have some residual effects. It seems like Katherine may work against the team at some point. That should add a new wrinkle to things as the show heads into the final stretch of the season. That all starts with…

Season 3, Episode 26: Rita’s Pita

Tommy was at the Angel Grove Youth Centre teaching a kid the spirit of martial arts. He showed the kid some moves, which the kid performed almost flawlessly. Ernie asked if they wanted some food, and Tommy suggested that they both eat healthy. They ordered veggie pitas and some smoothies.

Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd came up with a plan to shrink a monster down and have Tommy eat it. The monster snuck into Tommy’s pita, where it pretended to be a pickle. Tommy swallowed it. Next thing he knew, he was eating anything that he could possibly eat. He ate burgers. He ate junk food. He went and destroyed an entire bake sale. Tommy was on an eating binge.

Katherine heard about the plan before it was executed. Her link to Rita through the lingering effects of the evil spell let her hear Rita talk about the plan. She knew she had to warn the Power Rangers. She didn’t get there in time, though. Rita sent Tenga Warriors down to fight Katherine, delaying her until it was too late. Katherine and the other Power Rangers went to the Command Centre for help, but they couldn’t bring Tommy. If they brought Tommy, they would be bringing a monster into the Command Centre. They, instead, took Tommy to the park where they put a giant sundae in front of him and made sure he didn’t eat it. The monster got fed up and jumped out of Tommy, where they could then fight it.

Bulk and Skull tried to eat junk food at the Angel Grove Youth Centre when the episode began. Skull ordered the biggest plate that he possibly could. His dream wouldn’t be a reality, though, because Tommy stole the plate. They then went to run a bake sale where they would convince people not to buy the food so they could eat it themselves. Tommy ate a bunch of it but was taken away before he finished the snacks. Bulk and Skull finished everything off before being confronted by Lt. Stone.

Katherine got to showcase her fighting skills in the first fight of the episode. The Tenga Warriors surrounded her in the middle of a random neighbourhood. She tried out her Ninja Powers for the first time. After every kick, punch, flip, and dive, she reacted in a happily surprised way. And she got to kick some butt. It made her look like the best fighter on the entire Power Rangers team. The fight was also helped by having houses in the background. It gave a more interesting backdrop than the grass or hills that most recent fights have been set in. The second fight was much less exciting. The monster jumped out of Tommy and was instantly grown. The Power Rangers got into their Shogun Zords, Megazorded up, and instantly destroyed it with their flaming sabre.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers moved into a new era with an episode that felt a lot like something they pulled out of the first season. Nothing was really moved forward in terms of overall series storylines. The closest anything came to that was when Katherine was trying out her powers for the first time. It didn’t add anything outside of a fun extra layer to the action. She was still getting used to being part of the team. Overall, though, this was a standalone episode with a cheesy central story.

The most notable thing that changed this episode, outside of Katherine being on the team in place of Kimberly, was the opening credits. With the main cast swap that occurred, the credits needed to be updated. There was a whole lot of Katherine footage put into the beginning of the opening theme. Perhaps it was only for the one episode, to introduce Kat to the main cast. She was the first one listed in the cast, but everything up to that point was clips of her. That was a whole ten or fifteen seconds of Kat clips. It was a big introduction of her to the credits, that’s for sure.

Rita’s Pita felt like a season one episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. It was all in the Tommy storyline. The first season had a bunch of storylines that were on the nose about being good people. This fit right in there. As Tommy was teaching the kid martial arts, he said that they should respect their bodies. What goes into their bodies matters. In much the same way that season one had an episode about protecting the environment, this one had a message about staying healthy. The way the monster tied into that felt like the later season one episodes where they ran out of Sentai footage and just got random monsters fighting from the Japanese company. It felt like a story forced around the monster instead of actually feeling natural. This was two different styles of season one episode thrown together to make a season three episode.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers wasn’t always at the top of its game, but it was almost always fun. This episode felt very standalone and seemed like a regression from the type of writing the show had been doing throughout the third season. It was also a hell of a lot of fun. Watching Tommy throw down as much food as possible in a way that looked like he was just shoving it at his mouth and not actually eating was enjoyable. The Katherine fight was a hoot. It was still having fun with everything. Would the next episode continue that trend? That could only be discovered by watching it. Come back soon for a post about Another Brick in the Wall.