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We open this episode with Trini and Kimberly asking people to sign a petition to shut down the local dump site. I'll refrain from talking about the good that dumps and landfills and such have, but if you want to know, Penn and Teller do a much better explanation than I ever could, so watch their show. Hell, just watch their show, it's a damn good one. We're quickly introduced to a new minor character, Mr. Kaplan, the principal of the high school the Rangers attend. If I could sum up this guy in one word, it would be "incompetent". Whenever he appears in an episode of the series, he always makes the wrong decisions and comes off as someone who has no clue how to do their job. I'm assuming that's what the writing staff was going for, just to give the Rangers some minor conflicts to contend with, but you'd think they could make him slightly intelligent. He shows up and commends the two for organizing this and we get some heavy pro-environment dialogue. Gee, not trying to shove anything down our throats, are they?
We then move to the moon where Rita reveals that the dump site is actually hers and goes on about her desire to pollute the Earth. Third episode in and Rita's already de-evolved into a stereotypical villain, being nasty just for the hell of it.
We cut back to the school where the other Rangers join the girls and also sign the petition. Trini asks them to go with them to deliver the petitions to the owners of the dump, but they decline due to Jason's karate class, Billy being head of the Science Fair Committee, and Zach apparently needed by Alpha at the Command Center. This part is a little misleading as the way Jason, Billy, and Zach come off in their statements makes it seem like they're lying to the girls and don't want to help them, which isn't actually the case, as we'll soon discover. The three leave the area and Bulk and Skull enter, making fun of the girls for so being environmentally conscious and throwing a couple of soda cans around. Someone else walks in and throws the cans in the recycling, which causes Bulk and Skull to dump the contents of the recycling can onto his head. We get the usual bad jokes and pratfalls which end in the two stuck in other cans. This segment is the first Bulk and Skull moment in which the two actually act like bullies, at least in my opinion. The downside of this is that they're not as funny as they were in the previous two episodes, so whether or not this is a good thing is up to the viewer. We also see a female punk character who occasionally shows up with the duo, even though she gets no lines and I don't think we ever learn her name.
We briefly move back to the moon, where Rita elaborates a little further that her plan is to separate the Rangers so that'll be easier to pick them off. Better plan than the previous "let's pollute the world because we're eeeeeeeeeeevil" idea.
We cut to the dump site as music that reminds me of the original Nightmare On Elm Street movie plays. Various shots of the dump site are shown as Trini and Kimberly comment on the disgusting nature of it. Again, not shoving anything down our throats at all. Kimberly comments that she doesn't think anyone is there, but Trini wonders why she feels like she's being watched. She gets her answer in the form of a Putty attack. The two of them fight them off for a bit, while Rita decides to send down a monster.
Meanwhile, we move to the Command Center, where Alpha reveals why he wanted to talk to Zach: He wants him to teach Alpha how to dance. Yes, I'm serious. But, as I said, this shows that Zach wasn't lying earlier, which makes the earlier scene confusing, as we can assume that Jason and Billy weren't lying either. I'm willing to bet that they tossed this scene in to show off the fact that the actor who played Zach was an excellent dancer (and he is). The alarm then goes off and Zordon reveals that Trini and Kimberly are in trouble, as the Putties are starting to gain the upper hand. Zordon teleports Jason and Billy to the Command Center and fills them in.
Meanwhile, back on the moon, Finster reveals his new monster, the Minotaur. Anyone who's studied Greek mythology knows what to expect, a man-bull hybrid with a club and shield. The monster arrives on Earth and Zordon recommends that the guys go to fight it first. They morph (and in a minor messup, they go out of order, with Billy going before Zach), and go to fight the Minotaur. Jason wastes little time and pulls out his Blade Blaster, but the Minotaur just reflects the shots with his shield.
We cut back to the dump site where the girls finish off the last of the Putties. Briefly at the Command Center, Zordon notes that Goldar has appeared to make things more difficult, and asks Alpha to get the girls to meet up with the others, adding that they need to work as a team if they hope to win. I'll get into my thoughts on this at the end. The girls morph and take on more Putties, these ones being led by Goldar. Trini decides to fight Goldar alone while Kimberly goes to get the others. Alpha and Zordon watch the two groups have problems with their respective fights, and Zordon wonders if now's the time to reveal the Power Weapons to them. Yes, Zordon, now would be a good time. In fact, giving them the weapons from the start would've been a good idea. You know, so they would be prepared for a situation like this. For an interdimensional heroic head in a tube, you're not very good at planning ahead.
Jason, Zach, and Billy are getting their asses kicked by the Minotaur, and also have to deal with Squat and Baboo tossing rocks at them. Wait, they're actually helping? Well, yeah, even though they're not directly fighting the Rangers. Rita then throws her wand down to make the Minotaur grow, making things even worse for the group. Trini and Kimberly arrive to see the now giant Minotaur, Putties right behind them, and the decision is made to call the DinoZords.
We get a more detailed entrance for all the Zords this time, with the T-Rex coming out of the fissure again, the Mastodon breaking out of a block of ice, the Triceratops coming out of a sand dune in the middle of a desert, the Saber-Toothed Tiger leaping out of a jungle, and the Pterodactyl flying out of an exploding volcano. Pretty epic, but it would lose impact as the season went on. The Rangers enter their Zords, and instead of forming the MegaZord, take on the Minotaur separately. First, the Pterodactyl zaps Goldar and the Putties, removing them from the conflict. Next, the Triceratops and Saber-Toothed Tiger both attack the Minotaur, before the Mastodon steps in to freeze it with its nitrogen breath or something, while the Triceratops holds it down. The Minotaur fights back and they form the MegaZord, but stay in tank form. They fire at it but the Minotaur fights back. Alpha comments on the fact that the Minotaur keeps on coming, and Zordon orders the Rangers to retreat.
After returning, Zordon gives the Rangers their Power Weapons. Billy gets the Power Lance, Kimberly gets the Power Bow, Jason gets the Power Sword, Zach gets the Power Axe, and Trini gets the Power Daggers. The Rangers return to combat the Minotaur, who is now back to normal size, for some reason. They take him down with their weapons, then combine them into some crossbow-like weapon and finish him off with a giant lazer. Rita, of course, is pissed, wondering why, out of all the villains in the universe, she's stuck with these nitwits.
We cut back to the school, where the group walks upon the mess from earlier. Mr. Kaplan walks in and immediately blames them for it, but is called away before he can punish them. They work together to clean up the mess, and Kaplan walks back to notice the mess gone, which the group pretends was never there. Kaplan, being the brilliant mind he is, believes them. Zordon contacts the Rangers to congratulate them on their victory, but is having a hard time getting through to them due to Alpha's dance music interrupting the feed. Zach's facepalm right here perfectly sum up my thoughts on this. The group laughs and the episode ends.
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This was, in my opinion, a big step back from the previous episode. Like last time, it seems as though the guys backstage were having trouble deciding which direction to take the series, only this time they went the other way and went for a more serious approach. As such, Bulk and Skull's segment isn't played for laughs as much and Alpha's segment....well, just wasn't funny.
They also seemed to be displaying two messages very bluntly in this episode, those of saving the environment, and teamwork, if the episode title didn't give that away. I already touched on the whole environment saving thing, as I said that it felt like they were shoving it down our throats. The comments by both the heroes and the villains as well as some of the shots of the dump site just add to this, and isn't a wise move. Look, I'm all for protecting the environment as much as the next guy, and in some cases more so. But I'm much more for people developing their own opinions on a situation, rather than forcing a side onto impressionable kids. The previous episode's message of overcoming your fears was done much more subtly and, corny as it was, done better. This just seemed tacked on as a way to teach kids one of the many things the PSAs were trying to do. If you want to teach kids important life lessons through a TV show, fine. But don't have it be one side to a heavily debatable topic like how to deal with the environment. It just isn't right.
The whole teamwork thing was also an issue, but in a different way. The fact that the group needed to learn teamwork in the first place didn't make any sense to me, as they were already friends and got along just fine. How a cohesive group like this suddenly needed to learn how to work together just didn't add up. Although it makes me wonder if the scene where the guys say they can't help the girls has a hidden message behind it. "Kids, ignore all previous obligations to help your friends with their problems. That's what teamwork is all about!"
Anyway, this wasn't a very good episode, and just seemed to serve as a way to fill time until the Rangers got their weapons, which I bet was the idea. Sadly, this wouldn't be the last message-heavy episode we'd get in the series, but we'll get to them when we get to them.
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Ladies and gentlemen, witness your typical Minotaur in its natural environment...
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The Power Blaster formation, via the Disney re-edit of this season.
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