Episode Title: Bloom of Doom
Original Airdate: September 17, 1994
We all know that when it comes to the Power Rangers universe, just about anything can become a monster that will cause property values to decrease in Angel Grove, California. We’ve seen all sorts of animals become monsters, and occasionally a plant. This week we return to the realm of botanical beasties. I guess it’s kind of appropriate considering the recent discovery of deadly giant hogweeds in Virginia. Let’s see what happens in this week’s episode, Bloom of Doom.
As we begin, it’s sign up day for a bunch Angel Grove High’s clubs. Zack’s hip hop-kido club has a lot of interest, as does Trini’s volleyball club. Even Bulk and Skull’s unsolved mysteries club, which is planning to find out the identity of the Power Rangers, has interest. The only person not getting any new members is Kimberly’s gardening club. She gets seriously bummed, and a bit jealous of her best friend, Trini. Of course, Lord Zedd decides to take advantage of this by replacing one of Kimberly’s cactus plants with one covered in a jealousy spell. When she pricks her finger on it, she becomes consumed with jealousy toward all her friends, but especially Trini.
Kimberly storms off after yelling at everybody, leaving the others very confused. There’s not time to dwell on it, though, as Zedd unleashes his newest monster, the Bloom of Doom. The rangers are called into action by Zordon, and Kimberly is entrusted with a wand that can wrap up the creature in a vine of sorts. She comes this close to ending the battle quickly, but Trini jumps in and causes the creature to escape. This just angers Kimberly more. So much so that she falls under its spell and gets zapped off to another dimension. After a briefing by Zordon, the rangers learn that only Trini’s power daggers can release Kimberly. So, she heads off to save her friend, even after how terribly she was treated earlier.
I’ve got to start by saying that this episode has one of the most unbelievable things I’ve seen in this whole series. All these giant monsters, I can buy…but seriously, nobody wants to sign up for Kimberly’s club?!? I may have been awkward with girls as a teen, but even I know that if an extremely cute girl has a club that nobody is signing up for…you go sign up!! Gardening is definitely not my thing…I have a hard time getting my lawn to grow. Yet I would totally sign up for gardening club if Kimberly was president.
All that aside, this is actually a pretty entertaining episode. I’ve said before how the “evil ranger” episodes tend to be a lot of fun. Here we have Kimberly going into super jealous mode and getting pretty nasty with the other rangers. In my opinion, Amy Jo Johnson is the strongest actor of this cast and she absolutely eats up the chance to once again play the opposite of what her character normally is. I especially loved her snarky “It’s Morphin Time” moment. Rather than shouting the famous catchphrase, as the cast often does, she smirks at the camera delivers a more slinky take on “It’s Morphin Time.” We also get some great moments with Kimberly battling the Bloom of Doom in the alternate dimension.
Now then, we do need to address this monster. We once again get a creature that has a slightly inappropriate appearance. When it first appears on screen, I literally almost choked. Just like the Oysterizer that showed up in the final episode of season one, the Bloom of Doom also could be construed as bearing a bit of a resemblance to a certain part of the female anatomy. Again, the kiddies that were the show’s target audience were not going to spot this, but those who have gone back and rewatched as adults may have had a strange realization when this episode popped back up. The monster does work quite well, though, helped in big part by the vocal performance of future Family Guy star Alex Borstein.
All-in-all this is a fun episode that has some welcome changes from the last few installments. Heck, Lord Zedd doesn’t even have the monster get big! Big, however, does describe what’s coming up for the rangers. Our next episode begins what many fans of show consider to be a seven episode story arch focusing in on the green ranger, Tommy. Join us next time for The Green Dream.
Channel: Superhero 