Mighty Morphin #1.56 – On Fins and Needles

Update on the Netflix-skipping-the-theme-song front: I lied.

We open with Tommy and Jason teaching a karate class in the Juice Bar, because why stray from our roots?

Zack and Billy — who is dressed like a middle-aged father of two — PSA the hell out of the audience as they watch the class take place.

Zack: Jason and Tommy really make a great team!

Billy: Yeah. It’s truly inspiring to see them volunteer their time to teach free classes.

Zack: Yeah, martial arts is such a great way to keep kids out of trouble.

After a successful demonstration from a girl named Melissa, Jason and Tommy remind their students that martial arts is for self-defense only and that it should only be used if all other options have been exhausted.

Rita gets pissed at all this camaraderie and vows to make Jason and Tommy enemies rather than friends and for the love of god we’ve already done this episode. Goldar proposes the use of what the subtitles say is the “Slippery shark’s rivalry spell,” but was definitely the “Slippery sharts bridal-ry spell.” Rita eagerly agrees with him.

Jason and Tommy head to the park to continue discussing, this time in private, the many benefits of martial arts on one’s schooling. I’m beginning to think this episode was a response to all the groups who wanted to ban the show for being too violent.

Regardless, Rita sends some Super Putties down to intercept them, promising that “What the Putties start, the Slippery Shark’ll finish!”

The boys do a fist bump before they charge in, because, as I’ve said before, there’s always time for friendship.

One Putty chucks a boomerang at Tommy, which he catches like a badass and prepares to throw back until it jolts him with electricity, sending him seizing to the ground.

This time it’s Jason’s turn to get the boomerang thrown at him, and when he catches it, it does…the exact same thing. Duh.

Once the boomerang’s lightning has zapped both boys (I guess maybe it’s supposed to be a shark fin?), the Putties vanish, their work done. The Rangers dust themselves off, not yet feeling the effects of the spell.

And then, suddenly, it kicks in. Tommy’s eyes flash like they did during Green With Evil, and Jason’s flare identically. The two snarl at each other:

Jason: What’s your problem?

Tommy: I could have used some help here!

Rita delights at the growing animosity, and they continue their verbal spar:

Jason: What are you talking about? If it weren’t for me, you’d be history!

Tommy: Man, that’s so typical. You think everyone else in the world is helpless but you.

Jason: Not everyone, but in your case—

Tommy: What’s that supposed to mean?

Jason: Figure it out!

Tommy: You know what? I’m getting real tired of you acting like you’re better than everyone else. And I’m sick of taking orders from you!

Jason: If you don’t like it, take a hike! The Power Rangers were doing just fine before you showed up!

At school, the boys continue to snipe at each other near the lockers, confusing Trini and Kimberly. Kim attempts to lighten the mood by saying that she heard their karate class is going well, but Tommy tells her flatly that he quit.

When Trini asks why he quit, Jason interrupts:

“Because he’s a quitter. That’s what quitters do.”

In return, Tommy snaps:

“You know what? I’d rather be a quitter than watch you show off every afternoon for the rest of my life.”

Jason smacks Tommy’s hand away, and the girls are immediately on their guard, likely worried what might happen if the two powerhouses went at it in such a public space.

Because they have possibly the worst timing in the history of timing, Bulk and Skull decide it’s time to make their entrance. Bulk spots the feuding teens and decides this is an opportunity to have some fun.

Trini is still trying to talk the boys down, urging them to sit down and discuss whatever it is they’re spatting over, but Bulk and Skull slide in to encourage them to settle things the old-fashioned way. Kimberly tries to shoo them off, but the hotheaded Rangers are spurred on and practically start circling one another.

Just as things are about to erupt, Ms. Appleby’s voice calls out, “What’s going on here?” Bulk wraps his arms around Jason in order to pretend he was trying to break up the fight, but she’s not buying it.

Kim steps forward to save the day, excusing the boys’ behavior as practicing moves for their upcoming karate class. Trini backs her up, and Ms. Appleby lets them off with only a scolding about not doing such things in the hallway.

The boys manage to hold themselves together enough for her to leave, but are obviously still heated. Trini and Kimberly can’t imagine what might have caused this, not yet suspecting supernatural causes.

Speaking of supernatural causes, Rita is ecstatic about how well things are going, and uses the opportunity to send the Slippery Shark down to Earth.

At the Juice Bar, the local youth are lined up out the door to buy tickets to Jason and Tommy’s fight, which Bulk and Skull are naturally facilitating. You’d think Ernie wouldn’t stand for such nonsense, but he has about as much control over his establishment as the teachers do over Angel Grove High.

I like this side of Bulk and Skull. Less bully-ish (because were they ever truly threatening in the first place?) and more scheming agents of chaos. We’ve seen it before, but it hasn’t been nearly as pronounced as it is now.

At the Command Center, Alpha is struggling to keep track of the Slippery Shark, which has been established to be wickedly fast. Pro tip: You might want to call the Rangers to see if they can help. I bet Billy could pull off some Chekov-like magic with the controls.

Back at the Juice Bar, Jason and Tommy are preparing to put a thousand schoolyard arguments to rest. The other Rangers manage to break through the crowd, and Billy, at least, is aware of how serious things could get:

“This confrontation could have disastrous results!”

Zack leaps in to put a stop to things, holding the two apart. Bulk hollers at him for interrupting, but Zack ignores his protests. He reminds them of their lessons about how fighting should only be used if there are no other options, but nothing is breaking through as the boys’ eyes continue to flash in the middle of a crowded room.

Ultimately determining there’s nothing he can do (Bulk’s snarl of “Either buy a ticket or hit the road!” — it’s a public space, Bulk — seems to do the trick), Zack backs off, but the four sane Rangers keep an eye on their friends nonetheless.

The Rangers’ communicators go off, leading Zack to once again dive into the danger zone, this time stopping the boys just before Jason makes the first move. Jason growls at him, but both fighters still have just enough grasp of reality to stop their fight when Zack taps his communicator, albeit with some hesitation.

Zack leads them away as Bulk and Skull call after them, though they’re quickly distracted when the surrounding teens turn on them, demanding their money back now that the fight is off. Bulk tries to say that it’s only been delayed, but the two are quickly chased out of the Juice Bar.

At the Command Center, Tommy and Jason fight to make it to Zordon first, shoving Alpha and the others out of the way in the process. Zordon gives the team the low-down on the Slippery Shark, and Billy comments that he’s glad he got over his fear of fish.

Jason and Tommy trade verbal barbs about not being able to handle the monster, but Zordon is on top of things. He tells them about the spell Rita cast (he didn’t want to clue the team in when they were at each other’s throats two minutes ago?), and explains there’s no easy antidote — the only way to break the curse is for them to manage to work together despite it.

The two show absolutely no progress on this front by simultaneously shouting “It’s morphing time!” as if that was ever Tommy’s job. The others are forced to stand by as they attempt to work out their differences — apparently that’s the only way the spell reversal can work.

As soon as they’ve morphed and teleported, the boys decide to escalate it by a thousand by declaring:

Tommy: Hey, why don’t we make this interesting? If I destroy the shark, I take over as leader of the Power Rangers!

Jason: And if I get it first, you turn in your Power Coin!

Tommy: Fine!

Jason: Fine!

Jason does manage to find the Slippery Shark first, but is no match on his own. The monster toys with him a while, its speed too great for Jason to handle, and eventually vanishes, heading over to torment Tommy instead.

When it once again disappears, the two Rangers catch up with one another and, of course, each claims it’s the other’s fault that the monster got away. They propose alternate plans, with Tommy laying a trap on the ground while Jason watches the air, and break apart in a fury.

Jason again finds it first (though not from the air, which makes sense, given it’s not a flying monster), but Tommy gives better chase. And then, repeat after me: It vanishes and the two blame each other.

The shark leaps out at them from underground, knocking them both over, and they finally come to the conclusion that they probably need to work together to handle this. Jason is the one who suggests it, if you’re curious.

They decide to combine both plans despite the fact that we can clearly see the shark is underground, but if it means we’ll stop seeing the same scene over and over, I’m fine with it. As soon as the Slippery Shark surfaces, Tommy leaps onto Jason’s shoulders and launches a fishing net he pulls out of absolutely nowhere at it.

The Slippery Shark screams at both of them about not being able to move, but Tommy replies:

“You should have thought of that before, fish-face. Trying to break me and my partner up. United we stand — right, partner?”

Jason agrees and the two high-five, the electricity of Rita’s spell breaking crackling between their palms.

The Slippery Shark whips out its boomerang fin (confirming that what the Putties were tossing around earlier did, in fact, belong to it) and cuts through the net, and even the newly-quelled Rangers are unable to match them. Luckily, the other Rangers have been watching from the Command Center and are aware that the spell has broken, so Zack calls for morphing and they teleport in as back-up.

One thing I want to give credit to the writers for is making easily the most coherent filler episode we’ve seen so far. The narrative flows seamlessly from American footage to Sentai, to the extent that I honestly thought for a second that the morphed scenes might be majority-American. It wasn’t until I caught the differences in Dragon Shields that I realized otherwise.

This is definitely aided by the fact that this episode took by far the most time I’ve ever seen setting up the plot with the Rangers themselves, rather than giving like two minutes of set-up and throwing it all to hell until the two-minute finish at the end. This episode took more than ten minutes (of a twenty-minute show, mind you!) to establish Jason and Tommy’s plot line. That gives us more character, more flow, more story, and altogether more investment in the later fight scenes. As goofy and random as this episode may seem, I can only hope more like it are to come.

The Slippery Shark dives back underground, but Zack spots its fin sticking up over the grass and shoots it with the cannon end of his Power Axe. The monster does not appreciate that and springs back up, shrieking at Zack all the while. Jason calls for the formation of the Power Blaster, which I guess I have to call by its name because, as I said before, the Wiki confirms it.

Unlike in its last appearance, the Power Blaster does not one-shot the Slippery Shark, but it does scare Rita enough to throw her wand down just in time, not only making her monster grow but ensuring the Rangers’ shot misses, as well.

The Rangers call their Zords and we get a new shot of Jason entering his, which is at least something to break up the monotony of the stock footage.

The Zord battle is…weird. Most of it is one long shot of the Slippery Shark running around in circles, only occasionally stopping to swipe at the Megazord and Dragon Zord. Jason finally gets enough of this and calls for the Power Sword, which isn’t as instantly fatal as it usually is.

Instead, the Slippery Shark remains too fast for the Megazord to hit, so Billy reminds Jason that this fight has been all about teamwork, so he encourages him to instead focus on trapping the monster in place so Tommy can hit it with the Dragon Zord. The strategy works, as the Dragon Zord delivers a walloping blow with its tail and the Megazord manages to destroy the shark’s fin.

Once this is done, it’s only a matter of time before the Megazord is able to charge up a fully-powered Power Sword strike, slashing the Slippery Shark to infinity.

The episode wrap-up consists of Tommy and Jason successfully teaching their karate class in tandem as the others watch on, relieved that their magically-induced feud has met its end. Jason spots Bulk and Skull limping in, clothes destroyed from the angry mob, and wisely calls for a break.

Bulk tries to demand the two deliver on their promised fight, but Jason and Tommy want nothing to do with it. Pissed, the bullies reel back and try to prod the two into fighting themselves, but the accomplished martial artists easily dodge their punches and watch as their attackers accidentally hit one another.

Bulk and Skull collapse to the floor in pain, and Jason and Tommy use this as an opportunity to remind their class that there’s always a better way than fighting.