Mighty Morphin #1.43 – Something Fishy

We open with the main cast discussing how excited they are for their upcoming scuba diving trip, which feels like something teenagers wouldn’t normally be allowed to do unsupervised.

Coincidentally, Bulk and Skull have planned a fishing trip at the exact same time, and taunt the teens about how they won’t be able to see any fish because they’ll have caught all of them. Spoiler alert: The bullies’ fishing trip will be nowhere near the dive site.

Trini remarks about the pigsty that is Bulk’s locker, and, thinking she was talking about the lone can of bait he has stored there, he rebuts her by informing her that it will make them irresistible to fish — just like they are with the ladies, as Skull adds.

Trini blows him off, and the two exit as Skull accidentally trips Bulk with a net and flees his immediate wrath.

Moving right along, Jason asks Billy if he’d like to come with them, adding:

“You know I’m a certified diving instructor.”

Billy apologizes and explains that he has a “regrettable dislike for fish,” which seems odd for a man of science, but I suppose his specialty really lies in mechanics and technology, not biology.

Kimberly, meanwhile, has her own reasons for bowing out — specifically, not wanting to “ruin a perfectly good hair day.” Instead, she and Billy have prepared a fish-free picnic in the park.

On the moon, Rita is delighted by Billy’s spontaneous fear of fish, and tells her minions to get to work on an aquatic monster to send after him.

Back at the beach, Jason, Trini, and Zack go through a full diving safety PSA for the sake of the six-year-olds in the audience who are surely diving regularly in their daily lives. Once that’s out of the way, we cut to Kimberly and Billy’s picnic, where Kimberly has betrayed Billy’s wishes and packed fish and chips for lunch.

He says he’ll eat the chips but leave the fish, which is a level of phobia well beyond normal levels. She asks him what’s up with his fear of fish, which we’re meant to believe he’s always struggled with, but this is of course the first and only time we’ll ever hear of it.

We then get a hysterical scene of Young!Billy at the exact same park on the exact same rocks, where in his quest to simulate the effects of a whirlpool, he accidentally excited a fish into biting his finger.

And…that’s it. Traumatized for life by a common pond fish.

Kimberly cracks up at this revelation, and when Billy scolds her for laughing at his fear, she points out that it could have been worse — it could have been a piranha. She hands him a paper plate with a fish sandwich (I thought they were having fish and chips?) that she promises won’t bite him.

He wonders aloud how the others are doing, and Kimberly uses this as an opportunity to needle him into pushing himself past his fears and going with them next time. Her exact phrasing is, “Maybe next time we could go diving with them, Billy,” implying that her line about her hair was just an excuse to keep Billy company during the trip.

Billy is still wary, but his thought process is cut off by nearby screams. Said screams are soon recognizable as belonging to Bulk, but before they are, Kimberly is ready for action.

The duo rushes to the scene, only to discover that Bulk is screaming because he thinks he’s caught a huge fish. Instead, he reels in a “No Fishing” sign, which leads to an unfunny remark from Skull asking how they knew they’d be fishing today.

Kimberly mocks their fishing ability, and Skull defends their efforts by revealing all the “cool stuff” they’ve caught — which is all, of course, junk. Bulk spits at him and Skull scrambles after him as the two depart.

Billy points out that “at least they’re cleaning up the environment,” which is a fair take, given just how much junk they’ve managed to fish out of the pond.

We then get a shot of both bullies accidentally catching themselves by the seats of their pants with their lines, which they are somehow dumb enough to misinterpret as having caught a fish. They yank and yank until finally the force catapults them directly into the pond, and Kimberly and Billy chuckle and walk away instead of making sure neither of them were injured on impact.

Kimberly proposes stopping by the beach to surprise their still-diving friends, suggesting that they might need help with their gear. Billy agrees under the condition that he doesn’t have to go in.

I feel the need to point out that we’ve definitely seen Billy at the beach before, and he didn’t seem to have any particular fish or water aversion then, but he spent the whole time chilling in a beach chair next to Kimberly, so it’s technically not a continuity error.

Rita decides she needs to keep them off the beach at all costs, and sends down a squad of Putties to intercept them while they’re cleaning up the picnic supplies.

Kimberly and Billy are probably the weakest fighters of the group, but you wouldn’t know it from their showing here. Both pull off impressive feats of gymnastics as they strike the Putties, with some jarring editing trying to pass off Kimberly going into a backflip as beginning a forward flying kick.

The two are, however, quickly overwhelmed, and when a call to the others offers no answer, Billy gets the idea to use the empty cooler to cover the head of a single Putty, which is apparently enough of an upper-hand that they’re able to turn the tides on the five surrounding them.

After finishing off the Putties, they call the Command Center and no-shit-Billy says, “My intuition tells me Rita’s up to something!” which Zordon obviously immediately confirms. They teleport and Zordon briefs them on the situation:

“Our sensors have detected a disturbance in the ocean near Angel Grove Beach. Rita has unleashed a terrible Goo Fish upon our shores. Its harmful venom can immobilize anyone or anything it touches.”

Kimberly shouts that the others are down there scuba diving, which Zordon already knows because Zordon knows whatever the plot demands. He tells them that there is no time to wait for the others (who can’t hear their communicators because they’re underwater), and Kimberly gets the honor of declaring, “It’s morphing time!”

The two get a few good licks in on the Putties before the Goo Fish springs on them in what is absolutely a footage reversal of it jumping into the sea. Kimberly shouts that they’re going to need some help, so we cut to a generic shot of three people diving that the show didn’t even bother to dub over.

Goldar suggests Rita cast a spell to “make Billy’s fear unbearable,” which is not something I was aware she could do. Indeed, Billy immediately begins to shrink away from the Goo Fish in terror.

Kimberly tries her best to comfort him, but his fear only increases, leaving him curled in the fetal position on the ground. Torn between fighting the monster and protecting her friend, Kimberly calls for help yet again as we get a shot of the other three Rangers finally stepping out of the ocean.

Zordon alerts them to the situation and they quickly morph and teleport to the rescue, with Jason coming in hot and blasting the Goo Fish in the face. The Goo Fish is not about this action and flees the scene as the others scramble to see what’s wrong with Billy, who has snapped out of his terror now that its source is gone.

The full group beams back to the Command Center, where Jason and Zack drop some straight-up lies about how tough the Goo Fish was (again, it fled after one blaster shot from Jason). Billy blames his fear for their supposed failure, and Trini assures him that they all have fears.

Luckily, Zordon’s there to drop the bombshell that he’s actually under a spell from Rita, and if he can manage to face his fear and overcome it, he will be able to break free of it. Billy has his doubts, but Zordon reminds him that he has no choice if he’s to help the others fight.

Kimberly asks if Billy is sure he’s ready, but Trini compounds the guilt by saying that they need him. He tells them he’ll try not to let them down, and on that depressing note, they morph again.

Kimberly proposes the incredibly wise plan of Jason, Trini, and Zack fighting the Goo Fish while she and Billy take on the Putties, which everyone agrees to because…yeah. That makes total sense. We then get a bunch of shots of all of the Rangers fighting Putties, but whatcha gonna do.

The Goo Fish approaches Billy as he screams in horror, and Jason’s attempt to rescue him leads to the Goo Fish flinging him across the beach. When Trini and Zack rush to his side, the Goo Fish shoots them with his…goo, I guess…and immobilizes them where they stand.

Jason calls for help from the others, but Billy is still too terror-stricken to do anything but put as much distance between himself and the Goo Fish as possible. Kimberly, meanwhile, shoots the Goo Fish with her bow and races to her friends’ sides while it’s writhing in pain.

Of course, this is Billy’s episode, so we can’t have Kimberly be the ultimate rescuer; the Goo Fish throws starfish onto her body that quickly explode, causing damage to both her and the nearby Rangers.

Jason shouts for Billy’s help, but the Blue Ranger is still too shaken up — until, that is, Kimberly’s scream breaks through and helps him snap out of his hysteria. He drags himself to face his fear, and once he does, he’s suddenly faster than we’ve ever seen a Ranger before.

With a cry of, “How ’bout a dose of your own medicine?” he somehow manages to spray the Goo Fish with the same substance it froze the Rangers with. How does he do this? No idea. It’s never specified.

He bashes the Goo Fish around for a while until suddenly the others are at his side — maybe the blasts from the starfish bombs blew up their bindings. I don’t know, man.

Now that Rita’s sensed the tides are turning, she makes her monster grow, and the Rangers follow suit by summoning their Zords. We get alllllllllllllllllllllllll the stock footage this time around, from the individual entering of the Zords, to powering up the crystals, to forming the Megazord.

The Zord battle footage is…fine, with the only real early parts of note being when the Megazord smashes the Goo Fish’s staff and when the Goo Fish freezes the Megazord in place. In response, Jason cries, “His goo is jamming the server! We can’t move!” because for some reason we’re really dedicated to pretending its goo is more complicated than it is.

The Goo Fish then pummels them with two point-blank laser blasts, sending the Megazord sprawling to the ground. Zack somehow comes to the conclusion that they can “burn morphing power and convert the goo to energy,” which is absolute gibberish, but it does the trick.

The Megazord clambers to its feet — in another case of footage reversal, I might add — and Rita intones an “Uh-oh” as the Goo Fish flails around in panic. The Rangers summon the Power Sword and smash the monster to smithereens.

Jason congratulates Billy on overcoming his fear to save the day, and the Blue Ranger is adorably proud of himself in response.

We cut to the Juice Bar, where Billy enters in full fishing regalia announcing how excited he is to have caught a bunch of fish. Ernie, who was apparently out fishing with him (what the hell???), confirms that he was a star out there, and Trini and Jason shower him with praise for facing his fears. Jason suggests that Billy accompany them on their next diving trip, and Billy agrees wholeheartedly.

On that note, Bulk and Skull saunter inside, wearing the same clothes as before despite all the Rangers having changed outfits. Bulk boasts that he’s caught the “big one,” but when Jason and Zack challenge him to show off his catch, he unveils a large can of tuna.

With a glare, he hisses at Skull that he told him to “buy a big fish, sardine-breath!” Skull protests that he did just that, as canned tuna is “the only kind of fish I know!” With a scowl, he snatches Billy’s bag from him to find out what he caught. Billy tries to warn him when he sticks his face inside, but it’s too late, and a lobster catches Bulk by the nose.