Power Rangers Zeo: Episode 5: For Cryin' Out Loud

When Power Rangers Zeo last left off, the Zeo Rangers had defeated yet another monster. They were almost thrown into the sun but rallied back after receiving their new Battle Helmets for the Zeo Megazord. They took down the monster as King Mondo watched from the sidelines. It was a great victory. Rocky also got a date for… sometime in the future!

Pretty much everything that needed to be introduced to Power Rangers Zeo had been introduced when the fifth episode rolled around. They had their Zords. They had the Battle Helmets. They had their Zeo Powers. The Machine Empire had taken over where The Moon Monsters had left off. The only things left to introduce were Ernie, who hadn’t yet shown up, and the sixth ranger, The Gold Ranger. Would the fifth episode bring either of them into play? The only way to find out was to check out…

Episode 5: For Cryin’ Out Loud

Bulk and Skull had to meet Lt. Stone at Ernie’s Juice Bar. They were late but decided they could make up time by speeding their motorcycle through a construction zone. It was a disaster. They went over rough terrain, getting covered in dirt in the process. They couldn’t see. They crashed into the Juice Bar. Lt. Stone wasn’t happy about it. He forced them to hand out textbooks as punishment.

Adam, Tanya, and Rocky wouldn’t stop making fun of Tommy because of the project he was assigned in school. He had to be married to Kat for the duration of the project and they had to act like a couple. He was embarrassed. Things got more complicated when Kat added another ripple to the project. She brought a family friend’s baby, Joey, into the mix. They were a married couple with a child for the project. Adam, Tanya, and Rocky ran away before they could get roped into helping take care of Joey. Kat caught Tommy before he could sneak away, too.

The Machine Empire saw Joey as an opportunity. They used a clown machine to catch his attention. It was sent down with some Cogs, resulting in a fight between the Zeo Rangers and the Cogs. Alpha was left to look after Joey. During the fight, a couple of Cogs used an EMP sort of device to shut down Alpha, and they stole Joey. The Zeo Rangers didn’t know what to do.

Billy said he could teleport Joey, as long as Joey was crying. The problem was that Joey was being a good boy with the villains. He wasn’t crying. The Zeo Rangers tracked him down to the Angel Grove quarry and went for their final fight. The location added a whole new wrinkle to the action. Tommy left everyone else to fight the Cogs while he ran up the factory exterior at the quarry to try and save Joey. He was fighting Cogs and avoiding blasts from the clown monster the entire time. Eventually, Joey got knocked off the building. He was crying, though, so Billy was able to save him. That’s when the monster got big, the Zords came out, the Megazord was built, and the fight was over.

There was a lot to love in For Cryin’ Out Loud. If Power Rangers Zeo hadn’t proven itself before, this episode solidified that it was a step above the Mighty Morphin era. It had a solid enough story, some excellent stakes, and good action. It may have been a standalone episode that didn’t add much to the overall series, but it was fun and that was what mattered. It really nailed the fun.

A couple small things were utilized in For Cryin’ Out Loud that didn’t get the introduction they deserved. One was the Zeo Pistol. The Zeo Rangers had new guns that they could use to shoot at the villains. They may have been used in the previous episode, but they also may have been another weapon. Billy didn’t introduce them. Tommy simply told everyone to use them and they used them. They weren’t even pistols. They were a completely different kind of gun being called a pistol. Then there was the Power Sword. Tommy pulled out a sword that he was able to hack and slash at the monster with. These weapons should have been set up in the Power Chamber but were, instead, just thrown into battle without an introduction. That was one way to do it.

Now to bring up Billy. He was no longer a Power Ranger in Power Rangers Zeo. He became the technical advisor for the team, working alongside Alpha in the Power Chamber. It seemed like a fitting place for him to help the Zeo Rangers if he wasn’t going to be a Zeo Ranger himself. The weird part about it, however, was that he seemingly disappeared from their school lives. Tommy, Kat, Tanya, Adam, and Rocky frequented the library at Angel Grove High School. Billy was never there. The only time he showed up in episodes was in the Power Chamber. Had Billy dropped out of school to be a full-time technical advisor? That felt very against character.

The last thing to mention was the editing work being done in For Cryin’ Out Loud. Fight scenes in the episodes were usually composed of huge chunks of American footage and huge chunks of Japanese footage. There didn’t tend to be a mixture of the two within the same scene. That might have been a result of seasons 2 and 3 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers using monster footage from different Sentai seasons than the costumes that the Power Rangers wore. It meant that anything outside the Zord fights had to be American footage to keep using the costumes. In this episode, it was easy to notice that the fights were intercutting between American and Japanese footage. The most noticeable part was when Tommy was climbing the stairs outside the factory building. One shot would feature the Green Zeo Ranger holding a weapon and the next wouldn’t. The weapon was the Japanese footage, where the American footage wouldn’t have the weapon because it hadn’t been introduced. For the most part, the intercutting was done fairly well. It was only obvious when looking for it.

For Cryin’ Out Loud was another strong episode for Power Rangers Zeo. The retooled Power Rangers knew what it was and was leaning strongly into it. It was a more focused show than the Mighty Morphin era. If that kept up through the entire season, I’m going to be excited to keep watching. The post for the next episode, Rangers in the Outfield, will be coming up soon.