How About That Thing?

Yip, another Power Rangers article. I mentioned before I had a lot of these written, or at least planned out in the early versions of this project. So much so, in fact, that, upon rewatching some of these episodes, I actually had to eliminate a few of these from my idea pad. If for no other reason, then because upon rewatching the episodes, they actually didn’t leave me with a lot of material I didn’t already use.

In fact, this week’s article came pretty close to the chopping block. Until I rewatched the episode in question, and suddenly remembered why I liked this one as a kid.

The episode in question is “Plague of the Mantis”, and, upon rewatching all of these episodes, it’s come to my attention that it’s really one of the few Trini-centric episodes in the series. There were very few where Trini was the main focus, and in a lot of the ones where she was, she had to share the spotlight with her BFF, Billy. I’ve never been sure if Billy was gay, or oblivious, or if Trini had shot him down at some point before becoming Power Rangers, but the more I watch this show, the more I can’t help but pick up some serious nonromantic lifemate vibes from the two of them. I don’t know, maybe I’m thinking too hard about this.

All I know is, for reasons I’d forgotten until rewatching this episode, I remembered this one being one of my favorites. Which struck me as weird upon reflection, because Zack was always my favorite of the original five. But whatever.

The episode begins with Trini training with…

Oh hi, Master Tao from VR Troopers! Fancy seeing YOU here.

Okay, to be fair, VR Troopers wouldn’t come out until a year or two later. I think. Either way, as the series progressed, and VR Troopers eventually got canceled, you’d be amazed at how much overlap there was between casts.

Anyway, Trini and Not-Master Tao, known in this series as Master Lee, are going through… Whatever they call it when you perform a sequence of moves in kung fu in order to improve your form, your stances, your memory, and what not. Yeah, as cool as I thought kung fu was as a kid, I had to settle for taking taekwondo when I was in middle school. I think in taekwondo, they call these sequences “jinjung”? I’d learn later that, in karate, they’re called kata. Surely, anybody who’s made it to yellow belt at absolute least knows what I’m talking about.

Anyway, Trini, god bless her, really isn’t that good at this kung fu thing. And it’s right about here I have to say, Thuy Trang got a lot of shit for her roll in this show. Bad enough she had to deal with being the yellow ranger while coincidentally being Asian, playing a roll that was originally assigned to a MALE in the original Japanese show, but it was pretty clear Trang was a martial artist first, an actress second, and a voice actor fifth or sixth. But it’s here where I got to give her props. It takes some genuine talent as a martial artist to perform a fairly obscure art like praying mantis kung fu. And it takes a pretty talented actress to pretend like she sucks at something she mastered a long time ago without coming off as too silly. So yeah, giving some mad props for this performance.

Seeing that she’s struggling, Master Lee gives her this.

“Observe the mantis,” he explains. “It is at peace, until it has to defend itself.”

Yeah, the only thing I notice is that mantis isn’t moving. Maybe it’s dead, maybe it’s a prop… But that’s me.

And of course, it wouldn’t be an episode of Power Rangers if it didn’t feature everybody’s favorite dumbasstic duo, Bulk and Skull. I’ll give them credit where credit is due: in a day and age where making fun of Master Lee’s accent wouldn’t have been considered low hanging fruit, they decide to take the high road, and make fun of the fact someone built an entire martial art around imitating a bug. Which THEN leads Bulk to decide on making his own martial art.

And I got to say, the saga of Bulk and Skull developing, and mastering the art of “cockroach kung fu” is probably the highlight of the episode. True, Bulk and Skull end up being the highlight of a lot of these old episodes, but this one in particular was definitely them on their A-game.

My favorite gag in the entire story is Bulk telling Skull to observe the cockroaches they caught, and do what they do. Which results in this.

Bulk takes a look at Skull lying there, and declares: “Not the dead ones, dumbass.”

Okay, he doesn’t actually say dumbass, but you get the idea.

In Skull’s defense, though, playing dead during a fight is technically an option. Maybe not a GOOD option, but an option all the same.

Meanwhile, in the A-plot, Trini is working on her kung fu in the park, when Zordon alerts her to something screwy going on just a few feet away. She goes to check it out, and spots the monster of the day.

Yip, the monster of the day is a kung fu mantis. Kind of makes me wonder: if Trini had been practicing crane style, would it be a crane monster? If she’d be practicing snake style, would she be fighting a snake monster? If she was practicing monkey style, would she have to fight Dale Gribble?

Either way, not a very original concept. For fuck sakes, the mantis’ name is Mantis! But hey, there’s definitely something to be said for keeping things simple.

Trini spots the monster, and declares that she’s got to morph in a tone I’d probably use when muttering “Oh for fuck sakes”, or “God damn it this sucks”, or something like that. I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to laugh at that delivery, especially after giving Thuy Trang props for pretending to suck at martial arts for a scene or two, but here we are. Although, at the same time, I’m surprised that isn’t EVERY rangers’ reaction this deep into the series. I imagine having to drop everything you’re doing to fight a monster every week Gets old in a hurry.

Trini morphs… Then proceeds to do the most unnecessary series of flips ever. An epic battle is fight, and the rangers eventually join up with her. Only for the mantis to throw a bitch fit about Trini not fighting with honor because there’s five of them, and only one of… Him? They refer to the mantis as a he, but its voice made me think it was a she. And that’s all I’m probably going to say on the matter, because I feel like I left the floodgate open for an extremely unnecessary debate over pronouns.

Round 2 begins when a letter mysteriously appears at the juice bar for Trini, instructing her to go to the quarry, and come alone.

“Nope, nothing suspicious about this,” says Trini, doing exactly what the letter says.

The others end up finding the letter moments later, and unlike Trini, who apparently has all the self-preservation instincts of a moth discovering a bug zapper, they immediately pick up on the fact something is suspicious. Of course, when they arrive on the scene to help, the putty patrol shows up to keep them occupied.

Trini and the mantis have their fight. And at first, it’s probably one of the better fights of the show. Right up until the mantis summons the putty patrol after getting its ass kicked.

“Dude! What the fuck!?” says Trini. “You criticized me for not fighting with honor, then you summon all of THESE assholes?”

“Fucking Durr,” says the mantis, “I’m the bad guy! I have no honor!”

Wow, I can’t believe Trini never anticipated that the bad guys would fight dirty. It’s like she’s never watched pro-wrestling. Or movies. Or any sort of story involving good and evil.

It’s also here where the Japanese footage starts to lose its continuity. IE, in one scene, the putties are all over the place, but in the very next, they’re nowhere to be found. Stuff like that.

The rest of the rangers catch up, join the yellow ranger, Rita makes the monster grow, and the rangers form the megazord. And, I have to admit, this one was definitely one of the better zord battles. Maybe not the best ever, but any battle that doesn’t result in the megazord whipping out its finisher right out the gate is worth a few points.

With the monster of the day destroyed, Trini is officially good at mantis kung fu now. Meanwhile, Bulk and Skull… Well…

Oh dear lord, what sort of wide awake hell did I walk into?

Bulk and Skull hold a demonstration of their newly developed “cockroach kung fu”. And… Well, suffice to say, there’s room for improvement. And that’s probably me being WAY too generous.

And that’s “Plague of the Mantis”. For what it’s worth, it’s actually not the worst episode I’ve ever seen. There’s definitely a few head-scratchers here and there, but I’ve definitely seen this show do worse. I’d definitely recommend giving it a watch.