Mighty Morphin Power Rangers S:01 E:13

Episode Title: Peace, Love, and Woe
Original Airdate: September 21, 1993

Have you noticed something about all of Rita’s monsters so far? All dudes. Of course, the main baddie, Rita herself, is female…but still. It’s time for a bit of diversity in the villain department in this episode. Plus, we also add a new human female as Billy gets a bit of a crush in today’s episode, Peace, Love, and Woe.

There’s a big dance happening tonight at the Angel Grove Youth Center and Juice Bar. Everyone is getting ready, but Billy doesn’t have a date. Nor does he really want one. He’s much more interested in playing with his new weather machine in his lab. However, Billy (literally) bumps into a cute and intelligent girl named Marge (Alexandra Wilson). The two instantly hit it off and before Billy can work up the courage to ask her to the dance, she asks him! He accepts, but thinks the two should spend some time getting to know each other (uh, that’s what dance’s are for, Billy) so they decide to meet at the park at four.

Meanwhile, Rita decides it’s about time to send down a new monster. Rather than creating one, she calls upon an old pal, Madame Woe. She’s a creepy blue-haired chick in a kabuki mask who can control the weather. Rita tells her that one of the rangers will be at the park at four and if she kidnaps that one the others will then come running. Problem is, Marge gets to the park first. Thinking she’s the ranger, Madame Woe sends Marge to another dimension. When Billy shows up, all he finds is Marge’s necklace that fell off when she was swiped. Oh, and then some putties show up and the whole gang shows up to fight them.

After the fight, everyone heads to the command center to get the lowdown from Zordon. The key to defeating Madame Woe is to destroy the crown jewel on her forehead. When they teleport to Woe’s location, it doesn’t take long for her to zap them to another dimension. There they find Marge before battling Madame Woe. They decide to combine their five power coins, which will give one of them, in this case Billy, all of their power. Billy and Madame Woe then duke it out back on Earth while the others wait to be freed. Once Billy crushes the jewel, everyone is released and our heroes create the power blaster to destroy Madame Woe. And in plenty of time for Billy to go to the dance with Marge.

Once again we have a situation where the identities of the Power Rangers should be exposed. Marge is definitely no dummy…she’s supposedly as intelligent as Billy. So, why doesn’t she recognize that the blue ranger who shows up to rescue her from another dimension HAS BILLY’S VOICE!?! Or that he and his four friends wear the same color outfits as the rangers wear?? I’m getting to the point where I’m starting to question how effective the Angel Grove educational system is!

As for our monster-of-the-day, Madame Woe may be one of the creepiest we’ve had so far. The lifeless kabuki mask and long blue fingers are like something out of some freaky Japanese horror movie. She’s also got these long braids of blue hair which lash out like whips and tie up the rangers. Plus, much of Madame Woe’s scenes take place in this alternate dimension. So it’s very dark and foggy, which just helps to give the character a much more sinister feel. The voice work is also quite good for Madame Woe, provided by Alex Borstein (later of MadTV and Family Guy fame).

The episode is not without some padding, though. Bulk and Skull’s contributions to this episode seem a bit tacked on and without any real motivation. It’s just like, hey…here we are time to have Bulk fall into a cake again! The puttie attack in the park is also unnecessary. The stuff with Madame Woe is way more interesting. On a whole, though, this is episode succeeds by having a sinister villain that isn’t a rubber monster. Next time, though, it looks like we may get the Power Rangers version of the movie Airport, when Kimberly ends up on a plane with an unconscious pilot in Foul Play in the Sky.