The last episode had its ups and downs. In terms of plot, it was bland, uninteresting, and a little preachy in some cases, if you want to view "keep a statue no one cares about around for culture's sake" preaching. But the battle with the monster and the Zords was entertaining and fun to watch. So how will this one fare? Let's find out.
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So we start off at the Juice Bar where Kimberly and Tommy are working on Kimberly's float design for the upcoming parade. Guess what the parade is for? World peace. Not even slightly cliched, is it? Tommy praises Kimberly's float design, but when you see the overly flowery mess that it is, you wonder why. Then you remember that Tommy wants to get into Kimberly's pants, and it all makes sense. Bulk and Skull show up, but quickly leave when Bulk's allergies to the flowers acts up. Shortest and most disappointing comedy sequence yet.
We cut to the moon where Rita expresses her distaste for Kimberly's design and goes on about how there will never be world peace while she's around and more expected villain stuff. The fact that I could barely understand anything she said does not bode well for the rest of the episode. Of course, that could be due to the quality of the video, but either way, nothing was really missed.
We head back to the Bar where Tommy and Kimberly continue working on the design. After Kimberly explains that the flowers for the float will be recycled, just to add in that extra message to the kids, Putties show up. The two fight the Putties while the Putties wreck Kimberly's model. This fight is AWFUL. I hate to go into technical complaints here, but the camera angles make this a terrible fight. They're all extreme close-ups and we can't really see the blows coming even close to connecting. And let's not forget the fact that Tommy, who previously could beat four or five Putties alone, can't beat that same amount when he has help. Badass Decay on a very fast level, but I guess the thought process was "It's filler! Who cares?"
The other Rangers show up just as the Putties leave. Kimberly is distraught to the point of tears that her float design is wrecked.
"It's only a model."
Seriously, they wrecked a model of the float. The float itself can still be built. Obviously Kimberly should have design schematics or something like that to use for the actual model. And by the way, Trini's big line of comfort here is "there will be other parades you can build models for". And this is supposed to be the understanding, compassionate member of the team. Just amazing. The others offer to help her rebuild the model, since it's apparently so freaking important, but Kimberly says there won't be enough time to get all the flowers needed.
We cut back to the moon where Rita wants Finster to make a flower-themed monster. Finster suggests the monster in the title, the Spit Flower, which eats flowers and spits them back out as biting energy-draining flowers. Rita orders him to make it and he does so, sending it down to Earth right away.
Back at the Bar, the others decide to take Kimberly out to lunch to help her cheer up a bit. Tommy, being Tommy, has something to take care of and leaves. After he leaves, Zordon contacts the Rangers and they teleport to the Command Center. He fills them in on the Spit Flower and how it's a threat to world peace. OK, is this parade a hippie convention or something? Does every float in this parade have hundreds of flowers on it for the Spit Flower to turn evil? Are the producers taking a jab at the hippie populace, or the concept of world peace in general? I know I'm reaching here, but I'm trying to find some sense of logic! Anyway, the Rangers morph and go to meet the Spit Flower.
They meet up with it and it instantly starts spitting out evil flowers. And by that, I mean flower heads with little mouths and sharp teeth that jump around and bite people. Why does this sound like a B-horror movie that would probably be better if it had more cheese in it? Anyway, the flowers latch onto the Rangers, leaving them open to attack. Rita then makes the Spit Flower grow. Wow, not even at the halfway point yet. The Rangers try to get the flowers off of them, but that leaves them open to another attack from the now-grown monster.
We cut to Billy's garage where Tommy is working on something that the viewers can't see. I'm not curious as to what it is (I'm sure anyone would figure that out by now), I'm more curious as to how Tommy got into Billy's garage. Does Billy just leave the door open? Do the Rangers each have a key to it? Yes, I'm nitpicking a bit, but it really makes me wonder. Zordon calls Tommy, so he morphs and joins the fight. He zaps the monster to hold it back, but it starts inhaling all the flowers in the area, so he summons the DragonZord.
Zack, Billy, and Trini then summon their DinoZords and form the DragonZord Battle Mode. What's really weird here is that all five Rangers and not Tommy jump into this MegaZord. Granted, Tommy doesn't actually jump into the DragonZord until towards the end of the season, but why have Jason and Kimberly? Anyway, they fight for a bit and both sides are fairly even, until the Spit Flower spits out some flowers onto the DragonZord. Its energy is drained and Zordon orders the Rangers back to the Command Center.
Zordon explains that the Spit Flower's energy is growing as time goes on. OK, that's a decent explanation as to why the DragonZord, supposedly the most power MegaZord yet, couldn't beat it. Zordon has Alpha analyze the fight to try and find a weakness in the Spit Flower. We then cut to Bulk and Skull running around with the monster flowers on them. Not exactly their finest comedy moment.
Back at the Center, Zordon tells the Rangers to attack the Spit Flower's mouth, since that's where it produces the flowers. How that serves as its power source isn't actually explained. The Rangers head out, but Zordon tells Tommy to stay behind in case they fail and need backup. The Rangers arrive and Kimberly hits the Flower with her Power Bow. They then combine their weapons and finish it off. After that, Tommy asks Alpha to go with him to Billy's garage to help him with his project. We see the two working on it, and apparently Alpha, despite being an intelligent robot, doesn't know what pliers are. We then get a goofy moment where Alpha glues the glue bottle to his hand by mistake.
Tommy: Alpha, you're too much!
My thoughts exactly.
Oh, and we get the obligatory "Rita bitching about losing again" moment.
We head back to the Bar where Jason and Zack are sparring while casually talking about the fight today. You know, in public, WHERE PEOPLE CAN HEAR THEM! Secret identities, guys! They then head over to the Bar where Ernie has a TV playing the parade. And the less said about Billy's line with the binoculars, the better. Tommy and Kimberly arrive and Kimberly is, of course, upset about watching the parade. Turns out, Tommy remade her model in time and sent it in. As such, the float is now seen in the parade. Kimberly hugs Tommy out of gratitude, and the look on Tommy's face just screams "yeah, I'm so getting some tonight". Bulk and Skull arrive all bandaged up from the attack, but Zack scares them off with a faux magic trick and a bouquet of flowers. The group has a laugh and the episode ends.
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Wow, this one was dumb. It was so mind-numbingly dumb that I can't even get properly angry at it. The plot with Kimberly's float was silly, the conflict made no sense, and the only shining moments in this were Tommy showing off his superior acting skills. The monster fights were much, much shorter than they should've been, not to mention chopped together with scenes in the Command Center. Also, I have no idea what the Spit Flower was supposed to be. Zack called it a giant bug, but it looks like some mutant cross between a crab and a frog to me. All in all, it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be, but it was still pretty awful.
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The Spit Flower. A gigantic bug, a crab-frog mutant, or a sin against mankind? Help me out on this one.
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