Welcome to Ranger Reviews, a webseries where we look at episodes of the tv show, Power
Rangers and then discuss it!
Today, we're exploring the forty eighth episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, titled
"Plague of the Mantis".
We start this episode at the Youth Center where Trini is practicing kata with her generic
karate teacher.
After they're done, Trini wipes no sweat off of her face with a towel, and her master
asks her what they honor in kung fu.
Apparently, it's a fair fight: always face your opponent in equal numbers.
In order to keep her thinking about kung fu, he gives her a praying mantis in a box to
watch and imitate.
He then just seems to shove it into her bag???
Without consent??
Bulk and Skull are watching from the bar, and they make fun of Trini for studying martial
arts based off a bug, but then they realize that they can just make up a kata and charge
people to learn it.
And Bulk gets a milkshake in the face.
Rita is watching Trini, and she tells Finster that she needs a monster to compete against
Trini.
A mantis monster.
Things are really going south up there on the moon.
Back at the Youth Center, Zack, Billy, Jason, and Kim are all watching on as Trini continues
to practice, and they admire that she's such a hard worker.
Then, Trini messed up again, and her master tells her to keep practicing, handing her
the mantis.
Trini brings it over to her friends, and we get a surprisingly nice reaction from Zack,
who hates bugs still!
Consistency!
Then, Jason asks Trini why she decided to learn this new style to begin with, and Trini
says that because it's all about being fair and never cheating, it's a great challenge
to live up to, which makes it sound like every single moment of every single day, Trini is
fighting the urge to cheat in literally everything in her life.
Then, Bulk and Skull show up, dressed mildly as cockroaches.
Yup, this is their shtick this week.
The two then proceed to try to do karate around the teens, and it ends with the five getting
up and leaving.
Savage.
At the Command Center, Alpha sees that there's an unidentified energy source that's landed
in the park, and Zordon says that Trini is nearby so he'll have her investigate.
Cut to Trini practicing kung fu once more in the park when she gets a call from Zordon,
and she goes to check it out.
Then, she sees the monster off screen, and she tells Zordon to alert the other rangers.
She doesn't even get to say "it's morphin time" though.
She just… morphs.
Then, we get a weird editing moment here where the Yellow Ranger is just backflipping through
the forest before she's taken off guard by the monster.
Then, they fight a little bit before the four other rangers show up to help Trini, but the
monster tells her to shove it because she has friends, so she has no honor… and Trini
believes this for some reason, saying that she's afraid.
Of what?!
At the Command Center, Trini beats herself up for not fighting the monster alone, and
Alpha lets the rangers know that monster knows mantis kung fu, and Trini promises to be ready
for the monster after some more practice, and then Jason says that they'll nail the
monster together.
Man, sometimes they give Jason the weirdest dialogue.
A magic note appears at the juice bar in front of Ernie, and he gives it to Trini, who reads
it, and says that she's got to go and leaves.
We also see Bulk and Skull trying to mimic the cockroaches again, and we get an awesome
bit where Skull mimics the dead ones.
Trini has come to the quarry to meet her master, apparently, the monster appears, who taunts
her for having no honor.
Trini accepts his challenge while the four other rangers show up at the juice bar looking
for Trini, and Ernie shows them the note.
They automatically know that this shit is a trap, and they go after Trini.
How is arguably one of the most intelligent people in this group dumb enough to fall for
this?
Yellow and the Mantis fight a decent fight in the quarry.
The other rangers show up, and they get ambushed by Putties.
Yellow and the Mantis continue to fight, and it's pretty damn obvious that the Yellow
Ranger is fighting in Tiger style….
Not Mantis Kung Fu.
Jesus Christ.
Then, more putties show up, and they swarm Trini, and she asks where his honor is, and
he says, "I have no honor.
Like you said, I'm one of Rita's monsters".
I mean, fair enough.
Trini gets the upperhand briefly before we cut back to the other four rangers fighting
their own squad of putties.
So much fighting in this episode.
It's great.
Zordon lets them know that Trini is in danger, and the other rangers just morph to her.
Screw those putties they were fighting on their own, I guess.
Then, Rita makes Mantis grow big because of course she does.
The Rangers call out their zords and bring them together to form the Megazord.
The giant robot and the giant bug fight very little before the Rangers say, "screw this",
and they call out the Power Sword, and they just kill the monster.
At the Command Center, Zordon congratulates the Rangers on their win, and Trini on being
a fair fighter.
Then, at the Youth Center, Trini practices with her master again, now doing excellently.
Of course, this episode can't just end on a good note though because Bulk and Skull
are soliciting people to sign up for their cockroach kung fu, and the two demonstrate
it, and they end up hurting each other and releasing cockroaches onto themselves.
The end.
This episode is honestly probably the best Trini episode we'll ever get.
It actually gives Trini a purpose to this story, and it really shows what Trini values:
fairness in a fight and being an honorable human being.
I feel like Trini used to be better in a fight than Billy, but even now, Billy has really
started to show his prowess in putty fights, so with Trini now becoming the defacto least
capable, it's almost heartwarming to see that she just really wants to be something
more for the team.
Also, there's so much fighting in this episode, I love it.
But now, let us say goodbye to the status quo once more as next time shakes things up
again, but until then, may the power protect you!
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