Season One: The Zyu 2 Episodes: Return of an Old Friend.

 

            Return of an Old Friend, part one. 

                                                      Doomsday Redux.

Sentai Notes:

• In Zyuranger, we barely get any info on the parents of the Zyurangers, apart from Geki and Burai, who are set up to be brothers. We are informed in Burai's backstory that their real father was a warrior who rebelled against the Yamato King, eons ago, and was killed in the process. Before then, the King, who had longed for a child, adopted Geki and raised him as his own, while Burai was left with the memory of a dead father. The Hamlet state that Burai is thrust in allows for the plot be set in motion for his eventual reunion with his brother, millions of years later. Power Rangers kept most of the private lives of the Rangers at bay until this point, where we are introduced to their parents. The Hamlet element is absent, of course, as the parents are whisked away to another dimension. 

Strategy Notes:

• Rita once more uses divide and conquer. Her Dromole monster lets off some gas that puts Billy under her spell, enabling him to enter the Command Center, steal the Dragon Dagger, and set off the episode's plot. This allows Rita to once again have the Dragonzord, who must answer to who ever uses the Dagger Flute. 
• The kidnapping of the parents is a hostage situation with a barter. Goldar uses them as a bargain chip for the Power Coins. He then violates all rules of diplomacy by taking the Coins and not handing the parents over. In times of war, if anyone pulled off what he did, the said person has lost all credibility at the negotiation table, which is something pointed out in a review of The Patriot, when Mel Gibson's character meets Lord Cornwallis, returns his dogs, then claims he'll kill some officers he has if he doesn't get his men back, and it's revealed the "officers" are just scarecrows and Cornwallis' dogs have changed loyalties. Knowing how things go in the movie, Gibson becomes a wanted man in the movie and would have hanged for everything he had done to the British. Of course, Goldar isn't human, is evil, and laughs at the rules of war. 
• Jason reveals he has mastered the art of deception also with the fact he and the others gave away their coins, but he held on to one that wasn't really theirs to give: the Green Ranger coin. In other words, this is the strategy of keeping your trump cards hidden, holding back on reserves until necessary. 

Biblical and Mythological Homage:

• None. 

Misc. Notes:

• The episode introduces us to the parents of the Power Rangers, and Bulk and Skull. In a stereotypical fashion, we see Jason's father is also an athlete, Billy's parents wear glasses, Skull's look like motorcycle gang members, while Bulk has a large-sized mother. At the same time, Zack's parents look like Steve Irwin somehow wooed and married one of the Huxtable daughters, while Trini's look like the long last relatives of Kim Lane from Gilmore Girls. Kimberly's mom even wears pink. 
• One character development for Kimberly is we find out her parents are divorced. Her dad arrives alone while her mom comes with her boyfriend. 
• First time since "Doomsday Part 2" the Dragonzord has been seen in action. 
• The Zord battle uses footage from "The Green Candle Part 2". 
• The first, and only time, the Dragonzord single-handedly defeats the Megazord (last time they fought each other, the Dragonzord barely fought at all. It just got tossed around. Perhaps the Dragonzord was holding back, or something).
• Jason Frank is in the credits, but like in "Doomsday, part two," he doesn't appear until the very end. 
• First time we hear "Go Green Ranger Go!" though as an excerpt.
• We see the entire team in the dark chambers. 
• Goldar plays the Dragon Dagger Flute the wrong way. His fingers are on the blade instead of the  handle. 
• New footage of the Zords are shown.  
• When the Rangers are handing over their coins, Goldar says, "Goodbye, Red Ranger." When Kim gives hers away, he says, "No more Pink Ranger to get in my way." Yet, it's implied he has a crush on her in The Movie. 

Thoughts:

     Well, we made it. The two-parter comes to answer if the Green Ranger will return and the build up in this is incredible. For part one, we get the situation that feels like a remake of "Doomsday," making one wonder if Saban didn't have the plans to merge the two together or lacked the foresight and therefore allowed Tommy to be initially written out. In my personal opinion, the two stories could have worked as we in both people being taken away by Rita and the Rangers get defeated in a Zord battle. The ultimate cream on the cake with the latter is the Rangers are forced to give up their powers, leading to victory of Rita's to be certain.

     The whole thing also takes echoes of "Green With Evil," in which now Billy is put under the spell and he uses his smarts to disable Alpha and steal the Dragon Dagger. There is also the scene of him in the Dark Chamber. For once, someone other than Jason and Zack are present and the Rangers actually come in morphed. Once with the Dragon Dagger, Goldar summons Dragonzord to attack Angel Grove. Hello, Dragonzord! Long time, no see!

   The Power Rangers summon their Zords to form the Megazord. In a clever way to use Rian Johnson's subverting expectations, we watch the Dragonzord, which had barely fought against Megazord the first time around, and was basically tossed around and thrown into a mountain, now suddenly standing toe to toe against it. In addition to that, the Dragonzord actually defeats the Megazord in just two blows. The Dragonzord either seems more powerful when wielded by the bad guys or the rust of lack of use in the past eight episodes didn't seem to bother it (yeah, all this time, Red Ranger never summoned Dragonzord or used Dragonshield since "Doomsday"), or better yet the Dragonzord may have been holding back when fighting the Zords earlier and now was suddenly letting it loose. However it was, it's surprising to see the Dragonzord win after a short match. Thus we get the fight we were denied of in "Green With Evil Part 5." 

    It's also surreal to see some emotion from the Power Rangers, with some of them visibly crying when they hand over their power coins in exchange for their parents. This because they weren't doing this for just anyone, but for people they loved and aspired to be like. 

   On the parents, it's done in a typical fashion to show the parents of the teens being just like them. We see Bulk with his parents, who resemble Kathy Bates and Teller's portrayal of Amy Farrah Fowler's in The Big Bang Theory (unlike in that one, Saban was too cheap to give Bates a cameo or Bates likely didn't want to get covered in cake). Skull's look like people who were previously in the motorcycle gang and never retired from it. Billy's is represented by his father being a nerd like him, Zack's look like a cross of The Cosby Show and Family Matters made real by the pairing of their children (Steve Irwin with Vanessa Huxtable getting married and having a child who aged rapidly, I'd say), Jason's has a champion body-builder of a dad, and Trini's parents are shown as typical Asian Americans. Of these groups, only Kimberly's parents are unique as they are divorced. 

   Divorce was on the rise in the eighties and nineties and public awareness of the effects of it upon children led to its inclusion in shows. Power Rangers at this stage took the risk and bring in divorced parents into the spotlight, where we see Kimberly feeling triggered at the sight of her mother with another man, her father coming all alone, and the two in the same room when they haven't spoken. Suddenly Kimberly goes from the privileged valley girl to a relatable character, since many kids watching the show who also had divorced parents had to deal with the same issues. If Power Rangers was targetted to an older audience, I don't doubt the divorced parents routine would be a plot point in Kimberly and Tommy's romance, with Kim both seeing her love to him as ideal and more durable than her parents, while also bearing the scars of the separation that could at times make her act crazy in the relationship (going from holding Tommy at arm's length to acting possessive in between battles, for example). 

    Speaking of Kimberly and Tommy, after many episodes of Tommy hidden away in what we can either say the episodes took place before his arrival or they took their dating off screen all this time, we see Tommy return near the end and we can assume he would bring his parents with him. Yet, in an unintended foreshadowing to later seasons, we see Tommy come in alone. Where are his parents? Were they dead? We don't know. But it'll be in Zeo before we find out he is of Native American descent and that he has a brother. Unfortunately, before then, we have another development in the relationship that, possibly, is foreshadowed by the divorce of Kimberly's parents. 

     As mentioned the build up in incredible, with the episode ending in the best way possible. The Power Rangers feel depressed that Goldar have all the coins, but Jason reveals he still had one left. The Green Ranger coin. We then see Tommy walking into the Juice Bar, with the camera looking only at his feet. That moment had kids everywhere grinning with anticipation because we all know whose feet those were. Finally they stop and the camera pans up and we see Tommy's face. "Where is everybody?" he asked upon seeing the mess. The freeze frame, the "To Be Continued" text, and the sound of the familiar "Go Green Ranger Go" in the soundtrack is the climax, because now we know Tommy is coming back to be the Green Ranger again, thus the Green Ranger is coming back!

          Return of an Old Friend, part two. 

                                       Hey la, day la, Green Ranger's back!

Sentai Notes:

• In Zyuranger, the Green Ranger dies and passes the powers to his brother. Burai does appear as a ghost in the series finale, but is never brought back to life. Anyone who dies stays dead in the Sentai universe. But since the Green Ranger in Power Rangers proved so popular the Zyu 2 footage was going to include him. We can guess that the Zyurangers were able to convince God, Clotho, and their guardian beasts to reverse death and allow Burai to return. When facing the Dramole's Sentai counterpart the Zyurangers find themselves hit by gas and we can guess Mei had something in her to be resistant to the effects. She pleads to her friends to snap out of it before praying for help. Or, logically, their friend Ryota took the Zyuranger version of the morpher at some point, and was told he was the new Green Ranger, during which Burai's spirit merges with him to make him big. Another ally we don't know of also inherited the powers and Burai's spirit and came in to help. This could explain how the Zyu 2 footage shows different interactions with the Green Ranger in contrast to Zyuranger (ie, we don't see Red Ranger hugging Green Ranger - or indication that Geki is saying "Nisa? Nisa!" - while Pink Ranger is affectionate with Green), but some of it is mostly due to requests from Saban to have it follow the style of Power Rangers. 
• It's likely if there was a chosen successor to the Green Ranger, he likely also earned his way into the powers too, and likely stole the Dagger Flute in the process, before coming to terms with the Zyurangers and redeeming himself by bailing them out. 
• The scene of Dragonzord battling Goldar and Scorpina was in Zyuranger in which Dragon Caesar battled Griffinfozar and Lami while the Zyurangers watched. It provides a surreal sight where two characters who were such a thorn in their sides have difficulties containing Dragon Caesar (remember, Burai parted from Bandora before this). When the Guardian Beasts return, it's then they retreat, and right when they finally grab his hands. Thus Dragon Caesar won by forfeit and goes on to battle one on one with Tyrannosaurus. It wasn't used in "Green With Evil" since Saban showed Tommy was under Rita's spell, making the uprising not happen robbing any logical sense of Dragonzord battling Goldar and Scorpina from the picture. So they cut it out. When they came to this episode, they obviously decided to stick it back in there since everyone would want to see the Dragonzord win against something on its own besides the Megazord. 

Strategy Notes:

• Goldar makes a tactical error. He leaves the Coins to take on Dragonzord with Scorpina, only realizing his error too late. Remarkably, Tommy doesn't retrieve the Coins sooner. 

Biblical and Mythological Homage:

• As a Christian, I can say there is a connection with the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ in the Green Ranger's return. Let's ignore the dragon briefly and note the arc of his return in the episode. He volunteers to retrieve the Power Coins the way we are told Jesus stepped forth to be the Lamb of God. In the process, he falls down while taking the Coins away from the bad guys, in the way Catholic tradition tells us after dying on the cross, Jesus went into Hell and led out the faithful in what can be considered the biggest jailbreak. After some time, Tommy is elevated out of his chair and wakes up while standing, which is his obvious resurrection, and he is fully energized. But where Jesus is Son of God and has greater powers, Tommy comes out of this on limited powers due to the effects of the Green Candle. 
• Resurrection can be found in other religions. Greek Mythology features mortal heroes who turn into gods, Hindu legend of Rama has dead monkeys brought back to life, and Ancient Egyptians had Osiris (who is also depicted green) be murdered by his brother and brought back to life by his wife. None of the other examples have had as much of an influence as the Resurrection of Christ, but they too have someone coming back as more powerful than before, in contrast to Tommy. So instead of a direct homage, it can be considered a subversion.

Misc. Notes:

• Tommy has a new hairstyle. 
• When the Rangers use their Coins to restore Zordon, their order is in reverse of when they handed their Coins to Goldar (except with Zack and Trini). In Part 1, Jason gave his away first,  then Kimberly, then Zack, Trini, and Billy. Here, Billy yells his power first, then Zack, Trini, Kimberly, and Jason. 
• First US footage of the Green Ranger in action. 
• The Rangers combine to make Dragonzord in Battle mode, another thing not seen in weeks, but then summon Titanus to make Ultrazord. Why the change is not explained. Also, they once more call it "Mega-Dragonzord." Some things just don't change. 

Thoughts: 

   Since Lent is under way, I can mention it in this review to say the wait between episodes or sequels is just like giving something up for Lent, or going through a fasting day like Yom Kippur, or Ramadan. In Yom Kippur, people who chose to fast had to wait a whole day before they could eat a meal. In Ramadan, they have to wait a month before having the three full meals on each day (they have to wait until night before having something). In Lent, you abstain from things in addition to food for seven weeks before Easter shows up. As children, we had to wait for that amount of time with all the Easter sales going up before we get a visit from the Easter Bunny and get to hunt those eggs. Haim Saban had us all waiting for roughly longer than that (in fact, the amount of time worth three Ramadans) before the Green Ranger returned. 

   The waiting has indeed paid off. Tommy returns and is informed what has happened in the previous episode (no doubt, brought up to date about all the other monsters, too) and decides to take on the Green Ranger powers voluntarily to retrieve the Power Coins and the Dragon Dagger. The one problem is the effects of the Green Candle are still present and Tommy is no longer the strongest Power Ranger. Instead, he's like an advanced computer infected by a virus, a powerful car with a sabotaged engine, a strong man who lost a limb to an accident, a woman who had a cyst in her ovaries, all basically one who had been weakened and the days of being all powerful a distant memory, thus making him less than half of what he once was. The sad thing was, his potential was never exploited in the past, like a boxer with all the makings of a heavy-weight champion who never got allowed into the ring until he was older and less fluid, or a tech savvy person with a masters in engineer who wound up being hired in a company after the technology he set up with had gone obsolete (or how about someone who got a masters in library science and information, only to not be hired by a library or an information center, and instead wind up doing grunt work in a logistics center).  Plenty of people in real life are like the Green Ranger who have potential but never gets tapped. When he was all well, we saw him kept unmorphed due to footage, having to use convenient ways to keep Tommy out until the last minute, and all he does when morphed is summon Dragonzord to bail the Rangers out. Now he is going into combat morphed up while being much weaker than before and even Goldar knocks him down in a few blows (something that could never happen earlier in the season).

    The last does add tension. With only a recharge from Zordon, Green Ranger is unable to last long in a fight, yet he is unable to pull out due to the need to get the Coins. He gets the Dragon Dagger first and recaptures the Dragonzord from Rita once again. Then we are treated the Dragonzord mopping the floor with Goldar and Scorpina, before the Green Ranger loses it again. So, he grabs the box with the Power Coins and is recalled back just in the nick of time. 

   Yet the Power Rangers have their powers back and they use it to bring back Zordon as the recharge had some affects on him. Then Rita has her monster of the week, Dramole, the unseen monster who had been rolling through the earth all this time, and had sent gasses that took away the parents. He comes out and the Power Rangers take him on, only to find him much tougher than they thought. In a quick session, he puts a spell on four of the five, making them attack the Pink Ranger, and once more all is lost. 

   Tommy had been knocked out in the act of getting the Power Coins back and right then he is elevated out of his chair and woken up. Turns out the electric field around the box gave his powers a boost, like a bolt of lightning powering up a battery (don't try that at home), though we don't know how long this boost can last. A few more tests are necessary, but we all know it won't be long term and there will be a time when the Green Ranger powers will fade again. But never mind that now, because that's twenty-seven episodes away. 

   Once morphed, the Green Ranger saves the others once again and they form the Ultrazord to defeat Dramole. The parents are released and everyone is reunited. Best of all, Kimberly is shown to have gotten over her parents divorce and it's nice to see all three of them taking delight at Kim's happiness. With that done, she decides it's time to take things to the next level with Tommy. No, I don't mean sex, since it's a kids show. Actually, what I mean by that is introduce him to her parents. Tommy greets them politely and we can tell Kim's father, her mother, and her mother's husband really like him (even if one of them might object to his hair). It's really cute to see this, while sad since Kimberly's parents' divorce foreshadows the fact she and Tommy won't be together forever. 

    But never mind that. The episode ends with a food fight and the adults are partaking in it, even Ms. Applebee and Principal Caplan. The six Power Rangers step aside and watch, realizing there is still a kid in their parents. It's something to laugh at, though if any of them saw Still Standing or Grounded For Life, they might think otherwise. But this was before they aired.