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So we start off at the school where Billy and Trini are petitioning. I can sense your lack of shock. They want to preserve some statue that's a landmark of the city, but naturally Bulk doesn't give a crap and says as much. Trini explains that the city wants to wreck the statue and replace it with a barbecue pit, which Bulk is happy about. Oddly enough, I agree with him. Delicious grilled food, or some statue nobody cares about? I'm sure most would go with the food too. Trini explains that the statue is supposed to protect them from insects, which leads to Zack stupidly admitting that he's afraid of bugs, but more so of spiders. And now we have this episode's theme: Zack dealing with his arachnophobia. Bulk and Skull decide to sabotage the lecture by releasing some of the bugs that Trini brought to display. Naturally, everyone runs off and Zack freaks out when a spider is on his shoulder. Though, since it's a tarantula, can you really blame him? Kimberly warns the duo that "what goes around, comes around". Wow, nice threat, Kim. Nice to know that your usual witty repertoire is still in use.
We cut to nighttime where some Putties are surrounding the statue from earlier. Squat and Baboo arrive and Squat wonders why Rita wants the statue anyway. Oddly enough, I'm wondering the same thing, and it does not make me look forward to the rest of the episode. They grab the statue by the tried and true magician's trick of throwing a blanket over it and causing it to disappear.
We head back to the school the next day where Trini is upset that the bugs she brought, which were also supposed to be part of a science project, are still missing. Jason suggests that they go replace the bugs after school. The group runs into Billy, who's carrying around his new "lab assistant", Jack the mouse. Zack comments on how he likes mice only slightly more than bugs, leading to his usual classy overacting. Bulk and Skull arrive and we get the usual back and forth between the two groups. Though, when Zack says that Jack is smarter than them, Skull gives a good line:
Skull: Hey! You can't talk about Bulk like that!
It's that kind of comedic timing that brings some level of enjoyment to the show.
Bulk tosses a book at Billy, which causes him to drop Jack. Jack then crawls up Skull's pantleg and we get the usual dancing around that happens when something crawls up someone. It ends with the duo imitating Scooby and Shaggy after they've seen something scary, which isn't overdone at all. Really.
We cut to the moon where Finster is admiring the statue that was stolen. Rita gets annoyed and tells him to shut up and make a monster. Finster does so, creating the oh-so-original Spidertron. Rita then reveals the rest of her plan. She'll disguise Spidertron as a duplicate of the statue, then it'll escape and grow to attack the city. She'll also place moths around the statue that drop sleeping powder, which will put the Rangers out of commission. This is one of her better plans, no doubt, though why they needed the statue and why they couldn't just put everyone to sleep is up for debate.
We cut to the park where the Rangers are, minus Zack and Tommy. Tommy's taking his karate class (surprise surprise) and Zack has his own martial arts class to teach. Plus, there's that whole bug-phobia thing, which the Rangers feel the need to remind us of again. After they collect some bugs, Putties attack, but the Rangers naturally fight them off in a typical Putties fight scene.
We cut to another part of the park where Zack is teaching his "hip hop kido" class. No, seriously, his fighting style is apparently so great that kids are wanting to learn it from him. He goes to change the tape to his cassette player, since hip hop kido requires music to be effective, but Zack forgot one of the tapes in his car, so he leaves to get it while his students practice. Once he leaves, the moths from before fly in and put the kids to sleep. Zack returns and immediately realizes that something's wrong. He calls Zordon and Zordon explains the moths' purpose. Naturally, Zack runs for it.
I know they have sleeping powder on them, but I must reiterate: HE IS RUNNING AWAY FROM MOTHS. BAD MOTHS ON STRINGS I MIGHT ADD.
Anyway, he decides to head to the statue in the park, since it's supposed to protect people from bugs. When he arrives, he sees the statue covered in the moths, then realizes that the statue is a fake. Apparently, the real statue had flowers in its hair, while the fake had snakes. How Rita made such a critical error is...oh, who am I kidding, she probably did that on purpose.
Anyway, Zack morphs and blasts the statue with his axe in cannon form. Spidertron emerges from the statue and gets ready to fight. Goldar arrives and starts wiping the floor with Zack. Thankfully, Goldar hasn't lost his badass cred yet, so we can still buy this.
We cut to the others who get the call from Zordon. They morph and go to help Zack. Spidertron covers them in his webbing (the jokes are easy and numerous, so save it), leaving them open for Goldar to fry them. Zack retaliates by zapping them with his Blade Blaster, which actually works for once. Rita responds by making Spidertron grow, so the Rangers summon the DinoZords.
Naturally, they quickly form the MegaZord and go to town on Spidertron. Spidertron covers them in his web, though, freezing them in place. Apparently, Spidertron can also electrocute the MegaZord through the webs. This causes the Rangers to separate the MegaZord back into the DinoZords. The T-Rex Zord fights Spidertron for a bit, but naturally gets his ass kicked. Both the Triceratops and Mastodon Zords try their respective attacks, but they don't work either. Spidertron even counters the T-Rex's flying dropkick thing.
So, when the Rangers are getting beaten so soundly, what's the solution? Call Tommy, of course! Zordon does so and Tommy morphs to help the others. He immediately summons the DragonZord who starts to beat up Spidertron. Spidertron wraps him up in the webbing and fires some weird spikes at him. DragonZord retaliates with his finger missiles, allowing him to escape. They form the DragonZord Battle Mode, which is actually kind of odd since it results in Zack, Trini, and Billy in the cockpit of the DragonZord. Oh, right, forgot to mention: Tommy never actually pilots the DragonZord until later on. He just summons in and lets it do most of the work on its own. Kinda lazy when you think about it. We then get to see the DragonZord Battle Mode's finisher, which is to DRILL A HOLE THROUGH SPIDERTRON! HOLY SHIT! That's awesome!
We cut back to the park as Zack's students wake up. They resume class while no one in the audience cares. We then cut to the school where Trini explains that the statue reappeared after the fake was destroyed.
.....how?! I thought Rita stole the statue! What, did she give it back? Did she fail so badly at this that she just gave the heroes back something they actually cared about? What sense does that make?!
*sigh* Anyway, Trini then says that they got enough signatures to keep the statue around. And how was that more important than a barbecue pit again? Tommy asks Zack if fighting Spidertron helped him overcome his arachnophobia. Zack says yes, so Tommy places a rubber spider on his shoulder. Naturally, Zack freaks out. Group laughs and episode ends.
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Oddly enough, I find this to be one of the better episodes. Sure, the plot was lame and the whole statue thing was pointless, but what was good was pretty damn good. The Zord battle this time was nice and long and well done, very enjoyable. Plus, I must reiterate, HE DRILLED A HOLE THROUGH THE MONSTER! DAMN! Plus, the bit at the end with Tommy was actually pretty good, simply because Tommy was a better actor than the others at this point, and his delivery helped make it a good segment. Other than that, though, this was just there. Unlike with the second episode, Zack's fear of spiders was more played for comedy, and there wasn't any drama towards overcoming said fear. In the end, this was a slightly above-average episode, so no real complaints.
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Two problems with Spidertron: One, spider monsters had been done before and done better. Two, he just looks so silly. How am I supposed to take a ball with legs and spikes seriously?
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