Episode Title: Green No More Part II
Original Airdate: September 28, 1994
When we last left Angel Grove, the rangers we’re having a rough time. Tommy is without his powers and is being hunted by the Turbanshell monster. Meanwhile, the other five are trapped inside a force field in Lord Zedd’s Otherworld dimension. That’s not all, Zordon and Alpha are trapped inside the command center by another force field that is slowly closing in on them. Plus, there are five evil Dark Rangers ready to cause havoc at soon as Zedd lets them loose. Here comes Green No More Part II.
As we begin, Tommy ends up in one-on-one combat with the Turbanshell creature. As for the the other rangers, Zedd takes away their powers and sends them back to Angel Grove, unable to do anything to help. They decide to head off to Billy’s lab to see if he can come up with a way of breaking through the force field surrounding the command center.
As for Tommy, he gets more trouble when Goldar shows up to taunt him. He even shows the green ranger scenes of his past glories on a strange firery video screen in the sky. Goldar also has some sort of time device that he plans to use to use…to…do something to Tommy. Okay, it’s not really clear what the heck the time device is for. Tommy decides he’s not down for the count, though. He battles Goldar and manages to get the time device, which he then uses to go back and warn his past self about what is to come. Now, somehow past Tommy is able to hand current Tommy his communicator across the time warp. It doesn’t make any sense, but that’s never stopped this show before.
Tommy then joins the other rangers just as Billy breaks through the force field. Zordon informs the team that they must destroy Lord Zedd’s green crystal for the team to get their powers back, but only a non-ranger can go into Otherworld undetected. Luckily, Tommy now fits the bill. So, Tommy manages to sneak in and smash the crystal on a rock. This immediately gives our heroes back their powers and changes the Dark Rangers back into their normal selves. The rangers then head off to fight Turbanshell, who has gone back to smashing up downtown Angel Grove. The resulting battle ends up being pretty wild, complete with freeze rays and Tommy disguising himself as a watermelon. When all is said and done, the city is saved, but Tommy has lost his green ranger powers for good.
This episode is definitely a bit of a letdown from part I. To start, it takes one of the best things about the first installment and totally squanders it. Last time we were teased with the possibilities of a battle with a bunch of gimp suit wearing Dark Rangers. This time, the baddies show up just long enough for them to be transformed back into their regular surely teenage selves. What a waste! We do see the characters show up again at the end of the episode, but the scene is so cheesy. The bullies all come into the juice bar (conveniently with their memories wiped of any knowledge of what happened) and Kimberly suggests that maybe they wouldn’t be so mean if they just had some friends. So the rangers go and buy them drinks. I mean, sure the rangers are doing the nice thing and all, but Luke Skywalker never said, “Hey maybe that Vader guy wouldn’t be so mean if I just went and bought him a milkshake.”
One thing this episode does have going for it is the final battle, which gets a bit nutty. At one point, Tommy hides inside a pickup truck full of watermelons. I guess he figures his green helmet blends in. The Turbanshell picks Tommy up with a handful of melons and swallows the whole lot. Then, Tommy starts blasting the creature with a heat ray from the inside. He doesn’t succeed in taking him down this way, though. Later, Zack blasts the monster with a freeze ray to help take care of things. It’s weird stuff, but at least it’s not just the monster being slashed by a giant sword-wielding robot…like we often see. Speaking of battles, though, the best battle in this episode is the one-on-one fight between Tommy and the Turbanshell. We get the chance to see some really cool martial arts action courtesy of Jason David Frank. It’s one of the better sequences we’ve seen this season.
Even though this episode has its moments, I guess I just couldn’t get around some of the big head scratcher moments in this plot. For instance, Zordon says that only a non-ranger can sneak into Otherworld undetected, so Tommy goes. But, at the point when this happens, aren’t all the rangers without their powers? So any or all of them could’ve gone. It just doesn’t add up. I’m also a bit unclear as to why what happens in this episode means the end of Tommy’s powers. But, they’ve been leading up to this for most of this season, so it had to happen eventually.
Oh, and I should mention one bit of trivia on this episode. This adventure represents the first time that Bulk and Skull have not appeared in an episode. I guess they really got scared off by those new kids last time. Well, I’m sure they’ll be back next time, but Tommy…well, he’s officially off the team now. Or is he? I mean, we thought we lost him at one point last season and he came back!! I should just stop talking right now. Let’s just worry about next time when he is definitely absent. Join us next time for Missing Green.
Channel: Superhero 