Episode Title: The Green Candle Part 2
Original Airdate: November 23, 1993
On our last visit to Angel Grove, the Power Rangers were successful in their battle against Rita’s latest monster, but we’re not out of the woods yet. Rita is trying to steal away Tommy’s powers with the help of a green candle burning away in her dark dimension. When the candle burns out, Tommy’s powers are gone. Let’s see what happens in The Green Candle Part 2.
Thanks to some scanning by Alpha, he finds the doorway into the dark dimension. Of course, Tommy wants to head off and get the candle, but his presence in the dimension will just speed up the process…so it’s up to the other rangers. Meanwhile, as the others prepare themselves, Rita gets ready to send her Cyclops back out, this time to impersonate the various zords. Remember, this thing can change its form to impersonate just about anything.
After a bit of a tussle with Bulk and Skull, the rangers are successful in sending Jason off to the dark dimension. At the same time, Cyclops begins his attack disguised as the Dragon Zord. So, Tommy heads off to fight with the real Dragon Zord. In the middle of the battle, Cyclops changes forms to become the Mega Zord. Confused yet? This is a pretty epic battle which even sees buildings come crashing down. Thus Angel Grove continues its descent down the list of safest places to live in the US.,
In the dark dimension, Jason finds Goldar guarding the candle. The two battle, but Zordon soon sends word to the other rangers that Tommy needs help. Zack is sent in to retrieve Jason, which he does, but they are unable to grab the candle. After morphing, our heroes manage to take care of Cyclops quickly, but the candle ends up burning out before Jason can make it back to the dark dimension. To stop the power from going to Rita, Tommy hands his power coin over to Jason. So…Tommy is no longer part of the team. Everyone is a bit bummed, but in the end, Tommy does muster up the courage to finally ask Kimberly to the dance….after planting a big wet one on her lips, that is.
This is a pretty solid episode, primarily due to some great giant robot action. Often these fights happen in and around the buildings of Angel Grove, but conveniently there is little damage. This time Cyclops in disguise is ripping down buildings and just causing property values to go down all over the place. It’s still really really fake looking, but it does add some stakes to things. My only complaint, really, is that the monster is taken care of a bit too quickly once the other rangers show up.
I also enjoyed the moments between Jason and Goldar in the dark dimension. We’ve seen this scenario before, and just like last time, Goldar spends a lot of time taunting Jason. It reminds me a bit of how Palpatine loves to just talk and talk at Luke Skywalker during the third act of Return of the Jedi. Still, Goldar gets in some good sword play and Jason’s inability to get to the candle seems genuine.
Now, I’m not exactly sure how things proceed from this point. Though I’d watched some of this series in the past, I had not realized that we would reach a point where Tommy would lose his powers. He’s no longer a part of the team, and just as his macking with Kimberly finally paid off. Can a relationship succeed where one has superpowers and the other doesn’t? I guess we’ll find out. Next time the rangers face off against some kind of dino-bird called a Hatchasaurus in Birds of a Feather. Join us next time!
Channel: Superhero 