Last episode we got a forced conflict between two of the Rangers, so that we could have the teamwork motto hammered into our brains yet again. Still, the fight sequences were pretty cool, and Jason and Tommy got to show off their martial arts skills some more, so it wasn't all bad. This episode is actually a two-parter, so it should be somewhat better than the previous fillers, right?
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We start off at the Juice Bar with Zack practicing his dance moves. Apparently there's a dance contest coming up and Zack's participating. Bulk and Skull, or rather just Bulk, since Skull doesn't say anything, doubt his mad skillz. Kimberly jumps back when Zack dances in her direction, causing her to spill her milkshake on Bulk. This somehow causes Zack to doubt his abilities.
Dude, you've proven your insane dancing abilities on multiple occasions, schooling the guy who just said you suck in the process. Plus, you're a protagonist in a 90's kid's show! You're going to win! CALM DOWN, emo.
By the way, that little segment I just mentioned? Happens in the first few seconds of the episode. I guess the producers just wanted to get to the good stuff.
Namely, Rita getting pissed that she keeps losing, so she's going to bring out the "heavy artillery". She starts chanting nonsense, which somehow causes lighting to strike ON THE FREAKING MOON, while Goldar provides exposition. The plan is to summon two monsters, one called Mutitus, who will attack the city, and the other being Lokar, who will send the Rangers to the place in the title, the Island of Illusion. Not really sure why this is such a good plan, since it sounds like almost all of the other ones (distract Rangers in some way while monster attacks city), but I guess we'll see soon enough.
Back at the Bar, Tommy shows off his martial arts skills (again) by teaching a couple of kids some pointers. Meanwhile, Zack challenges Bulk to another dance-off. And no, I'm not making that joke again. It was terrible the first time, it'll be terrible again. Anyway, naturally, Zack schools Bulk, and Bulk and Skull crash into some fake pillars. Despite this, Zack still doesn't think he can win. Because this self-esteem issue is definitely in Zack's character and totally believable.
Back on the moon, Rita observes the situation, claiming that this'll make things easier for Lokar. She continues the ritual as the minions put over Lokar as a bad mofo and Scorpina makes an unnecessary cameo. Rita completes the ritual, which causes a thunderstorm/earthquake/whatever-she-usually-does back on Earth.
At the Bar, the magical-thunderfuck-storm causes everyone to evacuate the Bar, with Ernie famously commenting on how annoyed he is with these constant attacks. The Rangers contact Zordon and he tells them that it's obviously Rita. They run off to inform Zack of what happened. You know, because he can't figure this out for himself, what with the giant thunderstorm being a total mystery. Oh, but Tommy can't go because his students from earlier are under a table. Yeah.
Back at the moon for a moment, Rita continues chanting while Goldar offers to head down with Putties to fight the Rangers. On Earth, the storm suddenly stops and the others find Zack, who's just standing behind a bush, being mopey. The Putties arrive and the Rangers fight them off...did Trini just steal Johnny Cage's ball-punch move? Anyway, Goldar and Scorpina arrive and the Rangers morph to fight them. Very briefly, as Rita completes the spell and summons Mutitus, who looks like a skinless human, already in giant form.
The Rangers quickly summon the DinoZords and form the MegaZord, and I realize that we're not even halfway done the episode yet. The MegaZord fights Mutitus for a bit, who somehow got a hold of the Frankenstein Monster's ball-and-chain, and doesn't do very well. Rita comments to Finster about how a monster SHE created is actually winning. She then teleports down to Earth and summons Lokar. The sky goes dark and Lokar appears...who is a floating head in the sky. Ooooh, intimidating.
Tommy gets the call from Zordon and heads to the others to help. Lokar exhales on Mutitus, mutating him further (hahageddit?), and instantly making him able to kick the Rangers asses. Tommy arrives and summons the DragonZord, evening the odds. The two Zords fight Mutitus for a bit, and by the way, the sky is still dark. No one is going to mention the MegaZord's solar power, are they? Mutitus soon gains the upper hand while Lokar and Rita just laugh evilly. Mutitus then sprays some white gunk on the Zords (FROM HIS MOUTH) which is apparently toxic. It hardens and causes the Zords to fall over, which also sends the Rangers to the Island of Illusion. We cut briefly to the Command Center where Zordon says he can't help the Rangers, and that they're on their own. Not that he would help, anyway, since he's an asshole.
We cut to said island, where the Rangers are all confused and lost. To make matters worse, their Communicators and Morphers are missing, meaning they can't morph and can't contact Zordon for help. They wander around the jungle for a bit, freaking out over the terrifying threat of FERNS (though we do get a cool shot of a Komodo Dragon). We soon see that some hobbit-thing is watching them from the trees, and apparently Zack catches a glimpse of him before he disappears. The group wanders around some more before hearing some weird music. They follow the sound to the hobbit, who they ask for help. Kimberly says Rita's name, which scares the wee man, and through his lame rhyming we learn that his name is Quagmire.
...nevermind, it's too easy.
Quagmire disappears and Goldar's head appears in the sky, mocking the Rangers. A bunch of monsters they already defeated appear in front of them (namely Eye Guy, Pudgy Pig, Shellshock, Pineoctopus, and Snizzard), but they quickly disappear, proving to be illusions. Zack freaks out over this and runs off, but comes to a halt when he sees a big snake on a branch right in front of him. Turns out he's as scared of snakes as he was of spiders a few episodes ago. But then again, that would require continuity. Nevermind the fact that Zack could just step away from the snake instead of standing there, frozen in place, but apparently the snake is just another illusion, as the others don't see anything. Zack finally freaks out enough to run away from the snake, when he suddenly starts to slowly disappear. Quagmire appears long enough to explain (in another lame rhyme) that the island causes those with a lack of self-confidence to disappear. The others try to get Zack to fight it, but the episode ends with Goldar laughing at them as Zack's down to his head.
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Everything in this episode seemed to move at a cheetah's pace. The self-confidence issue was introduced in a 30-second opening, we moved as quickly as possible to the actual plot of the episode, the Putty fight was only a few minutes, and the monsters arrived by the halfway point of the episode. Plus, having ZACK of all people suddenly freak out over stuff like this doesn't make sense, since his character has been nothing but confident going into this. This whole episode just feels rushed, which doesn't bode well for the second part.
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Mutitus, quite possibly the most gruesome thing 90's TV would allow.
Congratulations! Your Mutitus has evolved into....uh...whatever that is.
Oh no. The evil Lokar is a giant floating head. I am so totally scared.
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