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So we start off at the school, and if the title didn't tip you off already, it's football season and both Jason and Tommy are going to try out. We get a gag with Bulk and Skull that ends with Bulk crashing into Douchelan. May not have been funny, but it was satisfying. For some reason, Tommy isn't sure he'll make it onto the team. Dude, you're TOMMY. You'd get on the team with one leg and narcolepsy.
Blah blah, Rita hates football, blah blah, she's gonna beat the Rangers, blah blah blah. So we move to the Juice Bar where Tommy is still worried about the tryouts, since he's never played the game before.
...wait, WHAT?! You're trying out for a football team when you've NEVER PLAYED FOOTBALL IN YOUR LIFE?! How does that...how does it...I don't even...WHAT?!
Anyway, Ernie was apparently an all-star fullback back when he was in college, so he offers to help Tommy train. Considering he's NEVER PLAYED THE GAME BEFORE, Ernie has a lot of work ahead of him. We get another gag with Bulk and Skull, Bulk in a tutu because football players study ballet. Ernie confirms this, but I have my doubts. We see Tommy do various training exercises and I really cannot bring myself to care about this.
We see the Rangers playing flag football in the park and...son of a bitch, it's that stupid music from the trash club episode! You know, that supposed "cool" music that makes what the group is doing popular and something kids want to do. And yeah, playing flag football with your buddies is a lot cooler than picking up trash, but is this really necessary? We get some more training with Tommy and he's apparently too used to karate to get a handle on something as basic as tackling. Frikkin' wow, man. We then see Bulk practicing his ballet in detention and, judging from the look on Skull's face, he's getting a little too into it.
After more of the bad montage, Putties arrive and the Rangers fight them off. Afterwards, Zordon contacts them and they teleport to the Command Center. Once there, he fills them in on how Rita is planning her own game (UUUUUUUUUUGH), and reveals this week's monster, Rhino Blaster. Which actually looks like a mutant hybrid of a rhino and a bat. According to Zordon, if the Rangers lose the game, Rita will take control over Earth. So...she was serious about a game?
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-
The Rangers morph and go to fight the Rhino Blaster. Once there, he summons some Putties, in football uniforms no less. They, somehow, kick the Rangers' asses. Just...how? Why? Who? Where? When? WHAT?!
*sigh* Just two more after this...I can get through this...I can do this...
So, the Rhino Blaster summons some tornado that teleports the Rangers to an alternate dimension. While Alpha tries to bring them back, Zordon contacts Tommy for help. Who, of course, picked NOW to not wear his communicator. After more training with Ernie, he grabs his communicator from his bag and teleports to the Command Center. Zordon fills him in, mentioning his limited power seemingly for added drama, and Tommy morphs to fight the Rhino Blaster.
Of course, since it's Tommy, he takes out the football Putties easily and faces Rhino Blaster one-on-one. They fight for a bit until Rita makes the Blaster grow. Tommy summons the DragonZord as I realize I'm just barely in the second half of the episode. I'm not sure I like this. They fight for a bit and ENOUGH WITH THE FOOTBALL REFERENCES ALREADY. Dammit Tommy, you didn't even know how to play the game before today!
Alpha says that the only way to free the Rangers is to send the Dragon Dagger into the alternate dimension, but if the Rangers don't get it, then the Dagger and the Rangers are lost forever. Zordon relays this to Tommy and he decides to trick the Rhino Blaster into sending him to the same dimension as the others. He moves out of the way of the tornado at the last second, throwing the Dagger in instead. Apparently it worked, but we don't really get any indication it did. Tommy enters the DragonZord for the second time ever and continues fighting. And gets beaten so bad he's ejected from the DragonZord. Huh. Finally, the Rangers reappear...already in the MegaZord. Whaaaaaaa? Tommy gets the Dragon Dagger back, which is enough to repower the DragonZord. Sure, whatever. The Rangers form the MegaDragonZord for the third time, I think, and finish Rhino Blaster off. Rita gets another headache.
We cut back to the Juice Bar where Douchelan announces the new team: Jason, Zack, Billy (HWHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!), a bunch of people we don't care about, he forgot the rest of the names, Bulk, who's still wearing the tutu for some reason, and Tommy as the new star quarterback. BULL AND SHIT TOGETHER. Tommy thanks Ernie, the others, the Academy, his parents, blah blah blah, episode ends.
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This is just an aside, but I really have to wonder: Did Toei make the new Sentai footage by themselves and Saban had to write episodes around them? Or did they ask for the footage to go with their already planned episodes? I'm really, really hoping it's the former, because I really, really hope no one voluntarily wrote this episode.
I get that Tommy is super-amazingly-awesome, but how can he go from not knowing how the game works, having never played it, to suddenly being so good he makes the team as the quarterback? Yes, by all means Saban, rub it in our faces that Tommy is the perfect human being and we can never match up to him. But if you have to do that, stop with the bad sports references. It's getting ridiculous. Just avoid this episode.
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Unfortunately, this was the best picture of Rhino Blaster I could find. And by the way, what's with that name? I get the Rhino part, but why Blaster? You'd think he'd have some sort of gun if he had that name.
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