How About That Thing?

I decided that May will be special. Because I haven’t written a Power Rangers related thing in a couple months, I think it’s time to get that out of my system once again. In fact, since I covered most of what I wanted to cover in season 1 at this point, I figured it’s about time to talk about the majesty of season 2.

There’s a lot that could be said about season 2, and we’ll get to it all throughout the month. For now, let’s just say this much: they were pretty much out of footage from the show they were adapting into MMPR in season 1, so they had to improvise. And the results… Whew boy, the results.

Look, man, I know MMPR requires suspension of disbelief, but looking at the end product of a lot of these episodes, it is genuinely a miracle I was still a fan of this show at this point. Although somehow, I remember season 3 actually being WORSE than this… But we’re jumping ahead.

There are a lot of major events that come up in season 2, and I figured I’d spend the month of May looking back on them. I like to call this retrospect: May the Power Protect You Month.

Because it’s May, you see. And that was always something Zordon said to the rangers. And…

Oh whatever! Let’s see you come up with a better one!

naturally, a good place to begin is where season 2 decided to begin: on the three-part episode known simply as “Mutany”.

The episode starts off innocently enough. The rangers are taking part in a charity go-kart race. Bulk and Skull are also taking part… For some reason. I’m guessing community service? Either way, I imagine their kart is going to explode the moment they try to start it.

Meanwhile, Rita is talking about her latest scheme. When suddenly, thunderbolts and lightning, VERY VERY FRIGHTNING!

Sorry, that’s a little hardwired in.

Anyway, after the moon quakes, we’re presented with the source of all this disturbance.

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the infamous Lord Zedd. Who is Lord Zedd, you ask? Well, Lord Zedd is the next level. All this time, we thought Rita Repulsa was the final boss. Turns out she was just crashing at the palace while Zedd was on vacation. Now that he’s back, he’s going to unload his suitcase, take a shit, and then pick up where he left off. And the moment he declares he’s in charge, Goldar, Squat, and Baboo all basically tell Rita to go fuck herself and pledge their loyalty to him.

Well, okay, Goldar pledges his loyalty to him, anyway. Squat and Baboo basically do what they do best: stand around, do nothing, and waste space. Seriously, you thought those two were useless in season 1? Wait till you see season 2. You’ll find yourself wondering why they even bothered keeping those two around.

Regardless, they’re still here, and Goldar approaches Zedd’s throne to declare his undying loyalty to his master once again.

I remember seeing Lord Zedd for the very first time as a kid, and… Well, the term “nightmare fuel” didn’t exist when I was a kid, but I could easily see this guy haunting the nightmares of a few people. Seriously, how the hell do you go from Rita Repulsa to THAT?

Not only does he look absolutely horrifying, but everything else about him is, like, three steps above and beyond the call of duty for the writers. They could’ve just imported the costumes from season 2’s counterpart (Deiranger, I think), but nope. They made that. They made that, and they aren’t sorry.

To add to the menace, they gave him a cool voice effect, they gave him a staff that I remembered wanting so badly at one point, and they gave him the single most badass villain music in he history of villainy. Ladies and gentlemen, the anti has just been upped.

Where as Rita used a telescope, Zedd just used eye beams.

Somehow, Zedd had sight beyond sight. He always knew where to look, even when it seemed like he was hooked into that throne of his.

Also, when you made him mad, he began to glow red.

Admittedly, this ability to change colors doesn’t really contribute anything, other than indicate just how angry he truly is. It doesn’t seem to give him a power boost, it doesn’t seem to effect his magic any… It’s really more of a cosmetic thing than anything else. And you know what? That’s just fine. Sometimes, little details like this are done because they’re cool, and no other reason.

In conclusion: Lord Zedd made a fantastic first impression as the new big bad. And to drive the point home, one of his first acts as new villain is to tell Rita “Screw you, YOU’RE FIRED!”.

He shrinks Rita, and seals her away in that “dumpster” she was locked in at the beginning of the series. He gives it a good toss, and sends her off to the deepest depths of space. For about ninety percent of Season 2, anyway, but we’ll talk about that later.

With that out of the way, it’stime to introduce the new putty patrol.

Meanwhile, a the command center, the rangers are teleported away from their race, and told the bad news. Zordon comments that their current zords might not be powerful enough to combat Lord Zedd… But luckily for you guys, I happen to have a whole OTHER collection of zords that’ll do the trick. Just need to dust them off, let the software update, make sure all the buttons still work… You know, the usual tech stuff.

Meanwhile, at the race…

Yeah, that was pretty much what I was expecting from Bulk and Skull. Though I’ll give them credit where credit is due: at least they made it past the starting line. That was more than I was expecting out of them, for sure.

And just in case life wasn’t kicking them in the junk hard enough, wouldn’t you know it, this ends up being the exact spot the new and improved Putty Patrol lands! The rangers are deployed, and an epic battle is fight! And right out the gate, it becomes clear these aren’t your average putties. No matter how many times you knock them around, they just keep coming at you. They have no concept of retreat, and they don’t get tired or discouraged like Rita’s putties.

It sounds pretty intense… Right up until you realize their weakness is right there, front and center. If You hit him in the Z on their chest, they fall to pieces.

This actually brings up an interesting debate in the fandom: who had the better putties? Rita’s putties didn’t have the world’s most obvious weak spot on them, but they could be, and often times WERE easily discouraged, and made a hasty retreat when the fight wasn’t going their way. Zedd’s putties, meanwhile, have no quit in them, and will just keep at it no matter how much you knock them around. However, all you have to do is poke them in the chest, and BLAMMO! Honestly… I’m not sure which is better. Or even which is worse.

The putties are beaten, and the rangers check on Bulk and Skull. Once it’s obvious that the only thing that’s injured is their pride, the rangers teleport away. And it’s right there Bulk lays out the mission statement for the remainder of the season: We’re going to find out who the power rangers really are!

Not going to lie, it’s a schtick that really depended on the episode. Sometimes, it was funny, and other times, it felt like a waste of time and effort. But we’ll talk about their attempts as we go.

Cut back to Zedd, who’s already forgotten about the putties, and attempting to create the monster of the day for the next three days. BEHOLD!

This is Pirantis Head. For some reason, I remembered his name as Piranha Head, but apparently, I stand corrected. Not entirely sure what a pirantis is, but I’m guessing it has something to do with his enchanted flutes.

Also, before the epic battle, we get this.

Fun fact: this was the first time we ever saw the American actors in their ranger outfits like this. Sure, they had American actors before, but they kept their helmets on for whatever reason. Did they forget they could take them off? I don’t know why, but it always bugged me that it took this long before this became more common.

The rangers are made aware of Pirantis Head, and the battle begins. And it shows how desperate things are when the rangers summon their zords right out the gate. Seriously, the monster hasn’t even grown yet, and the zords are already on their way over! That’s only ever happened once in the previous season, and that was in the Green with Evil… Quintilogy? Pentilogy? Whatever you call a five-parter. Admittedly, it was a lot sillier to watch the then evil green ranger try to pick a fight with something that could squash him under foot with virtually no thought or effort… But Pirantis Head is a whole other beast.

PH reveals the power of his enchanted flutes. Although rather than play music, they fire off a blue laser that encases four of the zords in ice. Including this unintentionally hilarious moment right here.

Seriously, to this day, it cracks me up that the pterodactyl zord somehow manages to stay up in the air despite being frozen like that.

Jason laments that their zords are frozen, and has no idea what they’re going to do. I mean you COULD jump up there and actually have a fight with the monster… But you’ll find a lot of editting like this in season 2 where the monster and the rangers are almost never on screen at the same time.

Part 2 begins with Jason realizing: “Wait a minute! He forgot the tyrannosaurus! DURR!”

“Whoops, forgot the Tyrannosaurus,” says Pirantis Head. “Actually, instead of freezing it, I got a better idea!”

And with that, he uses his enchanted laser flute to instead… Well, I’d call it brainwashing, but can you really brainwash what is basically a giant dinosaur robot? It’s not sentient enough to be brainwashed, but the method on display is far from what you’d call hacking, so… You know what, I’m thinking too hard about this, and we’ve got two more episodes to go through.

Once the tyrannosaurus is under his control, it ends up with this weird discolored thing on its chest. Because that’s how you know the bad guy is in control.

So, with four zords frozen in ice, and a fifth zord under enemy control, it looks like the rangers are screwed. Until the green ranger comes into play.

“Hey guys! I know what to do! I’ll summon Dragonzord, and fight the tyrannosaurus! It won’t be easy, but I can…”

“Oh. Shit. It never occurred to me that he could just take control of Dragonzord, too. Huh. I’m beginning to think I didn’t really think this through.”

And… If we’re being entirely honest, his is a lot of episode 2 in a nutshell: the rangers mostly stand around wondering what the hell they’re going to do, all the while avoiding attacks from their own zords. Meanwhile, Pirantis Head is mostly just standing there, right out in the open, taunting everybody. Either the zords are running really good defense, or everybody is an idiot, and hasn’t come to the conclusion that they could just jump up there and fist fight the monster. I mean hell, what’s stopping them? Besides lack of stock footage, of course.

Lord Zedd, meanwhile, mostly spends the episode gloating about how awesome his plan is, and Goldar mindlessly agrees to the point I’m pretty sure he’s blowing him when the camera isn’t on them. Wait, does Lord Zedd have a penis? He apparently has a child in a series decades later, I’m led to understand, so… WHY AM I THINKING ABOUT THIS!?

Eventually, the rangers retreat, and Billy and Trini head to Billy’s place. The plan? Billy will build a signal scrambling device that’ll sever Pirantis Head’s connection to the zords, freeing them from his control. I will repeat that. Billy, a high school kid, is going to his home lab, so he can build a device FROM SCRATCH that can use radio waves or bluetooth or whatever, in order to break a monster’s MAGIC SPELL he used to control two giant robots. I love kids TV sometimes.

Episode 3 begins much like episode 2, with the action going strong. But then, out of nowhere, everybody just leaves.

Meanwhile, back at the B-plot…

Bulk and Skull are somehow still in this race. Although it’s pretty obvious they’re coming in dead last. They do one of those “those trees look awfully familiar” jokes, get mad at each other, and vow to go their separate ways. Only to end up bumping into each other seconds later. Oh, and Pirantis head as well.

Bulk and Skull have their usual wide-eyed terror reaction, Pirantis Head uses his flute to make their go-karts drive in a random direction… Not going to lie, this whole sequence feels kind of unnecessary. Especially after we’ve already established that Bulk and Skull are going to dedicate their lives, or at least the entirety of season 2, to finding out who the power rangers really are.

Getting back on track…

Billy manages to build the device, and give it a try. Except it doesn’t work. I guess science can’t withstand the infinite magical power of bullshit after all.

The rangers go for the hail Mary, and form the power blaster. Why they didn’t think of this a lot sooner, who can say? Either way, they make it look like they’re going to aim for the zords at first… But then swerve, and shoot at Pirantis Head instead! The diversion ends up distracting the monster, and the rangers have a moment to see what’s wrong with the device.

And what was wrong with the device?

“I don’t believe it,” says Billy. “I put the batteries in backwards!”

“Heh, our genius,” says Tommy.

Not going to lie, this moment always cracks me up. Maybe even more than it used to now that I’m watching this as an adult. You’d seriously be amazed how often I try to fix something, only to realize that the batteries were in the wrong way.

With the batteries in the right way, they regain control of the zords at long last… Only for Lord Zedd to go nuclear and single-handedly destroy them. Again, I’m so not joking about this. Zedd is so powerful, he can cast lightning FROM THE MOON that is capable of destroying dinosaur robots here on Earth. It really speaks to the level of power we’re dealing with.

To make matters worse for our heroes, it’stime to see how Lord Zedd makes that monster grow.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Lord Zedd makes his monsters grow by chucking a grenade at them. I might add, he’s chucking a grenade FROM THE MOON all the way to Earth, and always manages to get it to the monster. That, my friends, is impressive accuracy. It’s also ludicrous to the point of being hilarious, if you think about it. How the hell does a grenade make you grow bigger?

Monster catches grenade, and grows big. After a speech from Zordon, the core five get to break out their new toys, and form the thunder megazord. Or is it the mega thunderzord? I think they eventually settled on the latter, but the way naming conventions are with MMPR, and subsequent series, I’m in the habit of using the former. All I know for sure is that this is the megazord we’ll be forced to look at for the entire season.

As long as I’m being honest, the thunder megazord has got to be the absolute ugliest megazord I have ever seen. Granted, I’m only familiar with the megazords from the Zordon era, and from a couple episodes of Power Rangers: Samurai, but yeah, I think it’s safe to say this one is fugly with a capital FU.

Oh, and we’re apparently just going to glance over the fact the BLACK ranger pilots a GREEN lion this year. I mean it’s still not as perplexing as the Voltron force… But that’s a rant for a different article, and frankly, I’ll be impressed if anybody has read this far down.

Finally, the question occurs to me as I’m rewatching this for the first time. When Lord Zedd lost control of the original zords, he called down lightning that destroyed them. So what exactly is stopping him from doing the exact same to the thunder zords? The power of thunder? Some bizarre willingness to see where this all goes? I don’t know, it’s just weird how he goes out of is way to destroy the previous zords, yet doesn’t even ATTEMPT to try the same thing with the thunder zords.

But suppose all of this doesn’t bother you. What’s important is the epic final battle. Well… Yeesh.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but from an editting standpoint, this is probably one of the worst zord battles I’ve ever seen. Hell, at some point, you could tell Pirantis Head was a Zyuranger monster because there’s actual footage of the ORIGINAL megazord getting knocked over in the cobbled-together fight footage.

Monster goes kablooy, and Lord Zedd throws a fit that’d make my one-year-old consider signing up for his masterclass.

“I’m sorry you failed, my master,” Goldar grovels.

“I didn’t fail! YOU FAILED! EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!” Zedd shouts.

I don’t know what’s funnier: Zedd blaming everybody else in the room for his failure, or the fact Baboo even chimes in afterward with something along the lines of “Wait, were we doing something just now?”

“Well,” says Finster from his little station, “if you’d used one of MY monsters, none of this would’ve ever happened.”

Oh yeah, big talk coming from the guy who’s monsters have accumulated enough Ls to make The Cleveland Browns thank god they aren’t on this guy’s team.

Zordon congratulates the rangers on a hard fought victory, and we even get one last look at Rita as she hurtles through space, singing “99 Bottles of Slime on the Wall.” It’s a sight so hilarious that even the stoic head in a jar himself can’t help but crack up a little.

And that’s “Mutiny” in a nutshell. Despite part 2 feeling like some serious padding, and some lousy editing on the zord fight, it’s a spectacular debut for a new main villain. It’s just a shame they couldn’t maintain this level of awesomeness consistently. Especially towards the end of the season.

We’ll get to that later on, though. For now, all I can say is this definitely got me excited for the future. I looked forward to seeing what sort of battles awaited our heroes now, knowing how much more menacing the new guy came off.