Mighty Morphin #2.12 – Green No More: Part 1

Yep, you read that right.

We begin with Tommy alone on the basketball court. Kimberly arrives, saying Jason told her he’d find Tommy here. She asks how he is and he gets right to the point:

“The results of the bioscan Alpha ran on me come in tomorrow.”

She tries to perk him up by saying that Zordon might find a way to restore his powers, but he doesn’t want to get his hopes up. After all, even if there is a way, Zedd’s been after him from the start, and won’t stop until he’s “completely stripped of [his] powers.”

Lightning strikes and a ghostly image of Tommy appears at the edge of the parking lot, saying nothing at first but clearly meant as a message for him.

The two step forward and the specter meets them, speaking at last:

“I’m you from…the future…final battle…remember…communicator…That’s all I can…tell you…Don’t give up…You’ll meet…right after…”

The image disappears and Tommy and Kimberly are left to reflect on its implications.

On the moon, Zedd gloats about how the end of the Green Ranger is finally at hand. He’s scant on the details, but seems confident. Not that that’s any different from the usual.

We jump to Angel Grove High, where Billy and Zack are anticipating the arrival of Zack’s cousin. Naturally, they find him dancing for a crowd — including Richie — in the middle of the hallway.

Finished with his performance, the cousin — whose name is Curtis — grabs his boombox and goes to meet Zack. The Black Ranger introduces him to Billy and Richie, who’s still hanging around, explaining that Curtis has just moved into town. Richie shakes his hand, woodenly excited to meet another new arrival.

Now, you might be thinking that all of these young, clean-cut individuals with connections to current Rangers moving to Angel Grove might have something to do with the soon-to-be three open spots on the Rangers’ roster. But no, this is all build-up for an entirely separate, much sooner plot point, and it will all be a red herring, anyway, so don’t worry too much about them.

Curtis and Richie head off to chat as Tommy approaches his friends. Kimberly’s already updated them on what went down, and Billy suggests that the image appeared through a “ripple in the space-time continuum.”

Two recycling bins suddenly come rolling at the trio, and they manage to jump over them just before they crash into the staircase, Bulk and Skull stumbling out in a daze. Billy scolds them, pointing out that they could have hurt someone, but the bullies are too preoccupied with five menacing teens approaching from behind.

The deviants mock Bulk and Skull, asking if they enjoyed their ride and gleefully declaring that the once-bullies are scared of them. The two bail, passing it off as needing to continue their search for the Power Rangers.

Sensing trouble, Zack asks if the five are new to Angel Grove, but Tommy gives him a warning look, not wanting to stir up anything. This all goes out the window the second a dweeb steps out of a nearby science classroom, prompting the gang to steal his backpack and inhaler and toss him back into the room.

Tommy snatches the kid’s backpack out of the hands of the bully with the glasses. The five having acknowledged they’re from out of town, Tommy says:

“Then I guess you don’t know the rules around here, now do ya? But I’m sure you’ll learn.”

The leader replies that he’s used to making his own rules, which he’s sure Tommy will learn. Tommy gives him a look that reminds the audience just how deadly he was when he was evil, and the ringleader drops the inhaler into his hand with a laugh.

Billy lets the dweeb — whose name is Stuart — back out of the classroom, handing him his stuff and sending him on his way.

Zedd is impressed by the charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent of the five bullies, deciding to make them his Dark Rangers. Entirely separate from this, Goldar is holding a green crystal, the purpose of which Zedd explains:

“When the Green Ranger is no more, the crystal will be fully charged, and I will use it to destroy Zordon and his Command Center!”

Speaking of the Command Center, Tommy heads there to check on the results of his bioscan. The news isn’t good:

“The scan came up negative. Our last effort to restore your powers has failed. Tommy, you may have enough power for one last fight.”

He asks about his vision, which Alpha is still analyzing in the hopes of finding the origin. Zordon points out a bad sign:

“Although you were in the middle of a battle, you were not wearing your Green Ranger costume.”

As this sinks in, Tommy asks:

“But if I’m in a fight without my powers, how could I possibly win?”

We leave Tommy on that thought as we catch up with the other Rangers — sans Trini, who is visiting her grandmother but sends her regards — hanging out by a pond. Jason and Zack are training, which is a nice return to form, while Kimberly and Billy are discussing Tommy.

Kimberly spots a vibrantly-colored shell in the sand and reaches for it, but the boot of Billy’s Dark Ranger counterpart (can we please get some names for these people?) steps on it first. The whole crew comes in to mock her for looking for seashells, smacking her bucket out of her hand as soon as she stands up.

Jason asks what the hell their problem is (I may be paraphrasing) and his counterpart replies that Angel Grove belongs to them now, which kind of suggests it belonged to the main cast before. Which, yeah, they do everything for the town, even when they’re not being Power Rangers, but it’s not like they rule with an iron fist.

Okay, until they give us names for these people, I’m calling them Mason, Jack, Willy, Jeanie, and Amberley. They boost each other up for what is sure to be a very one-sided fight as Zedd gloats over them from his base, teleporting them away to the Dark Dimension before they can actually start anything.

The Rangers are understandably concerned by this sudden disappearance, hoping Zordon will have some answers. We cut to the Dark Dimension…and yeah, I’m really going to have to stop calling it that now that the show is making it abundantly clear that Zedd’s Otherworld is not the same as Rita’s Dark Dimension.

Their participation is contingent upon Tommy having no powers left, so they stand there stupefied as Zedd forms a monster — Turban Shell — based on Kimberly’s seashells.

The Rangers head to the Command Center and Zordon instructs Alpha to call Trini (I’m guessing the injury we discussed before kept her from shooting that day) as the alarms alert them to Turban Shell’s arrival.

Zack determines that they’re going to need “major Zord power” to defeat their latest foe, which I’ll accept because it’s been a few episodes since we’ve had to watch Zord footage. Tommy says they can count on him, despite them all knowing he only has one more fight left in him.

Trini teleports in and Kimberly and Zack protest Tommy’s involvement, but Zordon reveals that scanners indicate Turban Shell’s power level is too high for the core five to handle on their own.

Tommy puts his foot down and Zordon acknowledges that only he can decide his own destiny. The Rangers put their hands together, likely for the last time, and morph.

The recycled audio during morphed sequences, while a bit stilted, works much better than replacing them with other voice actors, whose performances I’ve heard were terrible.

The Rangers call their Zords, and we get the whole damn thing to make up for the last episodes not having Zord footage. Tommy calls the Dragon Zord despite having been expressly told not to — but I’m not going to have to make this point much more, so I’m not too pressed about it.

The Zord battle goes fine, given how much of this episode we have left — but this particular battle is hardly the point of the episode, so don’t put too much stock in it. Eventually, Turban Shell gets the upper-hand and launches the Rangers out of the Thunder Megazord entirely.

Tommy races to catch up with his friends once they land, and Turban Shell vanishes with the promise that it’ll be back soon to finish them off.

Turban Shell arrives back in Otherworld, where Zedd is instructing Goldar to keep a close eye on the crystal. Zedd screams at it for abandoning the fight, but the monster gives a half-assed explanation that it needed to recharge its shell.

Zedd is furious once he realizes how close his creation was to defeating the Rangers and orders it back to the fray, shell be damned.

Meanwhile, the Rangers are not only suddenly in the park, but have been separated from Tommy again, as they rush to his aid where he’s collapsed by a tree.

Tommy rasps that he’s feeling weak and Zack gives an incredibly obviously recycled cry of “Come on, guys! We can’t give up! We’re the Power Rangers!” which in no way addresses what Tommy just said.

And with that, Tommy vanishes in a bolt of lightning much like the one that took the Dark Rangers before. He reappears in a vast field in what I assume has to be Otherworld.

Turban Shell meets him there, suddenly normal-sized rather than Zord-sized. Tommy makes a valiant effort, but he’s simply no match with his powers as low as they are.

Turban Shell knocks him to the ground and a final burst of green energy erupts from Tommy and is drawn into the monster’s shell, leaving him unmorphed.

Turban Shell gleefully bellows:

“You’re through, Green Ranger! It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for — you’ve lost your powers!”

Quick on his feet, Tommy rolls over and army crawls through the tall grass to seek shelter behind a nearby rock outcrop. Turban Shell isn’t too bothered by the temporary escape — after all, its ultimate goal has been accomplished.

The green energy flows straight from Turban Shell to Zedd’s crystal, and the emperor roars in victory. He quickly moves things from Phase I to Phase II — “the elimination of the Power Rangers and the rise of the Dark Rangers.”

Back at the park, the Rangers fret over Tommy’s disappearance. They try to contact Zordon, but there’s no response. Billy determines that something is jamming the communicators, and Kimberly is desperate for answers.

Things get worse when the same lightning that struck Tommy lands around them, sweeping all five Rangers away to Otherworld. They land, unmorphed, in an energy-powered prison cell before Zedd and Goldar.

He welcomes them with aplomb, cackling when they reach for their morphers and informing them that they won’t work. He holds up the crystal and explains that he’s used it to seal off the Command Center for good.

He and Goldar then step aside as he introduces them to their “replacements.” And…uh…yeah:

It’s unfortunate just how bad the Dark Rangers look, given how seriously the episode has taken itself so far, but it kind of goes with the territory of it being Power Rangers. It’s also baffling that they couldn’t make better costumes, given the show was a massive, unprecedented success by this point and was raking in money left and right. But it’s pretty clear they never really applied that money to production, as evidenced by the ever-nearing departures over pay disputes.

Zedd’s speech here is mostly bluster, but he’s earned it given his successes so far this episode. Zack throws himself forward but is knocked back by the energy field. Jason tries to reason with the Dark Rangers, telling them that Zedd will dispose of them once he’s finished with them, but Jack snaps back:

“No one’s ever given us a chance like Lord Zedd has! He’s promised us his loyalty.”

Billy argues that Zedd is only loyal to himself, but the emperor cuts him off, eager to find and dispose of Tommy. Kimberly demands to know what he’s done with him, and Zedd replies:

“He’s somewhere in the Otherworld. He is powerless now and of no concern to me. Just like the five of you are now! What you are about to see is my Dark Rangers taking their rightful places — then, they shall begin the destruction of the world!”

We cut quickly to Tommy, who is still in the midst of fleeing from Turban Shell. The monster taunts him about the loss of his powers and points out that there’s only so long he can last. Tommy’s only choice, it argues, is to concede.