Mighty Morphin #2.06 – Bloom of Doom

The Juice Bar is hosting Angel Grove High’s activity fair, because why not?

Zack is representing the Hip Hop Aikido Club, which…I guess is a thing? Trini is randomly leading the Volleyball Club, and she excitedly tells her new members that their first practice will begin in fifteen minutes.

Kimberly dejectedly watches Trini’s stream of sign-ups walk away, as it turns out there’s been no interest in her Gardening Club thus far. This organization I do buy — especially since Kimberly has been shown to be interested in flowers before.

Zedd concocts a plan to take advantage of Kimberly’s jealousy:

“I’ll booby-trap one of her silly cactus plants. When she pricks her finger on it, she’ll fall under my evil spell and turn totally against her little friend Trini.”

Back at the Juice Bar, Bulk and Skull are promoting what is undoubtedly the coolest organization in the entire school: the Unsolved Mysteries Club.

Kimberly glances at their pitch with understandable concern, given they’ve successfully predicted modern podcast culture two decades early.

Caplan, meanwhile, wanders about moping over how spread out the sign-ups are — some in the Juice Bar, others in the auditorium that Angel Grove High apparently has. His main concern is that people might not be able to find the right club, as if that couldn’t be solved by just having all the participants in the school itself.

Kimberly remains perturbed by her club’s lack of popularity, as she knows there was interest before. She lets out a groan before perking herself up by grabbing her cactus and promising she’ll design “the best garden that this place has ever seen.”

Bulk spots her misery and mocks her lack of turnout, asking if Trini snatched all the club members away from her. She snaps that someone will show up eventually, and when they burst out laughing, she runs off.

On the moon, a Z-Putty is holding a cactus identical to Kimberly’s, to which Goldar applies Zedd’s jealousy potion. With Kimberly temporarily away from her table, the Z-Putty turns into your typical 90s teen and runs to swap the plants.

At the bar, Ernie sets Kimberly up with a passionfruit and pineapple smoothie, which sounds delicious, and the Z-Putty switches the plants while she frets about Trini’s club being more popular than hers.

She bumps into the Z-Putty on her way back to her table, but doesn’t spot the cactus under its arm. Nor does she recognize the difference in her plant once she’s arrived. She goes to pat the flower on top and, of course, accidentally pricks her finger.

The spell takes effect at once, and she storms up to Trini and accuses her of hogging all the students, because people definitely can’t be in two clubs at once. Trini tells her it wasn’t intentional, and a nearby Zack tells her to cool off. Trini promises to help her find some members after her first practice, but that’s not good enough for the enchanted Kimberly, who says (in one breath):

“YouknowwhatIdon’tneedyourhelpokaybecauseIthinkIcandoitbettermyselfanywayallrightsojustbuzzoff.”

Trini is perplexed by this interaction, as are Zack and Billy (who has been steadily gathering members for the Science Club nearby).

Next, Kimberly stomps up to Bulk and Skull and demands to know if they actually have any sign-ups so far. Skull accidentally reveals that they had to bribe all of them with free food, because the world apparently wasn’t ready for the oncoming true crime revolution.

He offers her a position in the club regardless, which is nice, and when Kimberly scoffs at this, Bulk says:

“Too bad. Because our first gig is to find the true identities of the Power Rangers.”

He reveals that they already have the Rangers’ voices on tape, and at Skull’s second request to join them, Kimberly smacks his recorder and cries, “Get a life, dimwit!” This completely in-character moment somehow raises Jason and Tommy’s suspicions.

Skull remarks that she’s definitely not a Power Ranger, and Bulk mentions that she’s in a fight with Trini “or something” in such a dismissive tone he might as well be asking if it’s her time of the month.

Ernie hands Tommy the most plastic bundle of flowers I’ve ever seen and says they might cheer Kimberly up, and the dutiful boyfriend runs off to try.

Tommy says he’s sorry Kimberly is fighting with her best friend, and Jason adds that he knows it can be the worst. The boys glance at each other in agreement, because I guess Tommy has officially replaced Zack as Jason’s best friend now. They’ve definitely had enough fights.

At the presentation of Ernie’s flowers, Kimberly’s response is perfect:

Kimberly declares that she hates flowers and that Trini is not her best friend before storming off, possibly the most realistic high school moment we’ve seen thus far. The boys aren’t sure what to make of this, but elect not to go after her.

At the volleyball court, Trini is finishing up practice. She dismisses her team and says they’ll meet up again at the same time next week, which guarantees we’ll never hear from them again.

Jason and Tommy approach to ask Trini what happened between her and Kimberly. She rolls her eyes and explains the situation, and when the boys are confused by Kimberly’s behavior, Trini agrees that jealousy is out of character for her. Tommy suggests they head back to the Juice Bar to talk things out as Bulk and Skull arrive with their bribed club members.

Both bullies agree that there’s no way any of the “geekoids” in front of them could be Power Rangers, but it’s only scientific to test everyone. The teens clearly don’t think much of their methods, giggling as recording devices are stuck in front of their faces. Bulk trips over his wiring and lands flat on his face, increasing the aforementioned giggling.

Meanwhile, for someone who hates flowers, Kimberly has sure surrounded herself in them like she’s trying to summon a horde of fairies to Angel Grove.

She delivers a riveting soliloquy about how she’s wasting her time with flowers because they’re super boring and stuff, but none of this stops her from continuing to plant said flowers.

Zedd sends down a new monster — the Bloom of Doom, because obviously — to take care of her, and I’m honestly not sure what the point of turning Kimberly against Trini was if he was just going to go about things the usual way. Disrupting their teamwork, I guess?

The Bloom of Doom can spread pollen and spit fire, which seems a bit counterintuitive for a plant monster.

The alarms in the Command Center go off, and Zordon instructs Alpha to summon the Rangers. For whatever reason, he only alerts Jason, Tommy, and Trini, the latter of whom is worried about Tommy’s waning powers. Zordon says that it must be Tommy’s decision whether or not he wants to join them (as opposed to all the other times it hasn’t been), and at Tommy’s insistence, Jason puts up no resistance and calls for morphing.

As it turns out, Zack and Billy get the message as well, striding quickly away from the Juice Bar to take Alpha’s call in the hallway. This time, Zack calls for morphing as the boys teleport to the others’ side.

Finally, it’s Kimberly’s turn. She’s digging furiously in the ground when her communicator pings, and she answers it with an eyeroll and a “Figures” as she yanks off her gloves.

She then proceeds to answer the call with the fakest, perkiest grin and a sociopathically chipper, “Come in, Zordon!”

She gives the “wrap it up” motion with her hand as Zordon blathers on about the situation, and I swear to god, I’ve never loved Kimberly more.

Alpha beams what is definitely a pink rhythmic gymnastics ribbon into Kimberly’s hand, explaining that it’s a special weapon she’ll need to defeat the Bloom of Doom. Kimberly is just glad it’s in her hands instead of “that club-hogger, Trini’s.”

Alpha completely ignores this, probably wanting nothing to do with teenage drama, and Kimberly delivers the calmest, most customer-service-voiced “It’s morphing time” you’ve ever heard.

The Rangers all arrive at the battle at the same time despite having been called at varying times. The Bloom of Doom remarks that it’s surprised to see them all working together, and Tommy replies that they’re a team.

The Bloom of Doom summons Z-Putties to warm the Rangers up, and the fight is pretty meh. The only parts of note are Jason doing the splits — not something I was aware he was capable of — and Zack making a truly atrocious pun as he kicks a Z-Putty into a branch (is it “You should branch out more?” Of course it is).

The Bloom of Doom sprays its pollen at the boys, which causes a burning sensation that makes Billy think he’s going to spontaneously combust.

Trini threatens the monster for hurting her friends, but Kimberly unleashes her new weapon and — yep. I was right.

She ensnares the monster in her ribbon and jolts it with electricity, and Trini cheers her on before whipping out her Blade Blaster. She manages a hit, but it sets the Bloom of Doom free from Kimberly’s ribbon by accident, and the monster is able to get away.

Kimberly shouts at Trini that she’s ruining everything and that she almost had the monster for good, though she’s quickly able to spot the creature again and trap it once more in her ribbon. This time, the Bloom of Doom is ready, and uses the ribbon to throw Kimberly across the park.

The monster hypnotizes Kimberly, causing her to feel greater and greater jealousy toward Trini until she appears inside a mystical sadness cactus forest.

Tommy cries, “Look, they’ve all disappeared!” confirming that this isn’t just in Kimberly’s head. Unsure what to do without their friend or enemy, the Rangers head back to the Command Center.

Both Zedd and his monster wax poetic about how Kimberly’s jealousy has doomed her, because we have to make sure to really hammer this message in for kids. Kimberly ignores all of this and snaps, “I don’t think you know who you’re dealing with!” because she’s a badass.

The Bloom of Doom unleashes a fresh round of pollen on her, effectively torturing her until her friends can save her.

The other Rangers arrive back at the Command Center scratching their eyes and noses because…pollen, I guess? Zordon reveals Zedd’s jealousy plot and Alpha is charged with finding a way to rescue Kimberly.

The Bloom of Doom wraps Kimberly in its vine and electrocutes her in the same way she did it, though the Pink Ranger refuses to give up hope that her friends will come for her.

Billy strides up to Alpha and grabs his calculations. After hitting a bunch of console buttons randomly, he concludes that though she may be in another dimension, Kimberly is still reachable. If Trini is able to throw her daggers at the right angle, she’ll be able to break the spell and bring their teammate back.

She heads back in at once, and, uh…no one goes with her?

Kimberly’s daggers pierce the veil and we get a bizarre crotch shot of the Yellow Ranger as she screams her friend’s name.

Kimberly is ecstatic to see her teammate, and the two banish the spell (I guess?) with their declaration of friendship.

The two team up to take on the Bloom of Doom, and it’s the best day ever because girl power and also we’re too far into the episode to have time for Zord footage. Indeed, the (suddenly all six) Rangers combine their weapons and take out the monster with the Power Blaster.

Zedd is pissed about this defeat, threatening to turn his minions into snakes as if they had anything to do with this particular plan (or any of his plans, really).

Back at the Juice Bar, Kimberly’s table is now surrounded by plant-lovers. She apologizes for any confusion and promises to call them all personally to tell them where the meeting will be next time.

The real culprit is Caplan, who sidles in after she’s dismissed her group and says he put the wrong location in the school paper. She waves it off, saying her friends (she has other friends?) didn’t give up until they found her.

Caplan gives an enormous sneeze at the completely pollen-less table in front of him, and to my surprise, his toupee doesn’t come off. Maybe he got some better adhesive in the past few episodes.

The other Rangers approach the table and Kimberly asks if Trini can ever forgive her for “being such a brat,” even though she was under a spell. Trini is entirely unbothered, promising that their friendship is “solid as a rock.”

Bulk and Skull burst into the room in a whirlwind of excitement, vowing to expose the Power Rangers then and there. Zack nervously asks if they think they’ve figured out who they are, and Bulk says they’ll find out when they play the tape they recorded…somehow? Somewhere? Sometime? Unclear.

Alas, the tape is waterlogged, presumably because the bullies have been hanging out in Louisiana swampland, based on the state of their clothes.

Kimberly lets out a sigh of relief as Bulk declares:

“So it was a dead end this time. But let me tell you, next time, we will catch them in action. Indiana Bulk and Army Scout Skull will never give up ‘til they find the truth.”

Tommy gives a passionate salute and Trini wishes them luck with a hand over her heart, because the Rangers are all secretly trolls and I love them for it.