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So we start off at the Juice Bar with a number of booths set up, each for a respective club in the school. Of course, Billy has the science club, while Zack has the "hip-hop-kido" club. I know that's his own fighting style, but wouldn't it make more sense for him to do the dance club? Trini's in charge of the volleyball club/team, and gets a huge turnout. Kimberly, who's in charge of the flower/plant/botany or whatever club, who's right beside her, gets no one. Kim congratulates Trini, but seems just a bit jealous of Trini at the moment.
Which is the perfect opportunity for Zedd's next plan. He'll cast a spell on Kimberly's cactus, and when she pricks her finger on it, her jealousy towards Trini will increase exponentially. I really like this plan. It's similar to the last two plans of wanting to split the group up, but those relied more on confusion among them. This one is about making one of them want to split the group up. That's brilliant.
Back at the Bar, Zack dances around to get people interested in his club, Bulk and Skull talk about their "Unsolved Mysteries" club (which actually sounds pretty cool), and Douchelan whines about how the applications are all over the place. Kim remains optimistic that she'll get members, despite Bulk and Skull's mocking. Back on the moon, Goldar pours a "jealousy potion" onto a cactus, and Zedd sends out a Z-Putty to switch it with Kim's. I'd comment on the semantics, but it ends with the same result, so whatever.
The Z-Putty arrives on Earth, in a human disguise, and makes the switch while Kim talks to Ernie about her troubles. Afterwards, Kim pricks her finger, as predicted, and as a nice touch her eyes flash green for a second. She confronts Trini over her "stealing" all the club members, and when Trini offers to help her get some, she says that she can find some on her own. Of course, our heroes can't imagine what's wrong with her! She then talks to Bulk and Skull, who continue with the same plan from the last episode to find the Power Rangers, as in, record people's voices to match with the ones they heard. Kim berates them as she usually does, but a really nice touch here is that she sounds much more mean-spirited towards them, instead of her usual level of sarcasm. Subtle, but noticeable enough to make a difference. Tommy tries to cheer her up with a flower, but Kim just gets worse, even mentioning that Trini isn't her best friend.
After Trini's volleyball club ends for the day, Jason and Tommy ask her what's going on with Kim, but Trini's just as lost as they are. Bulk and Skull arrive, and initially decide that there's no way that they could be the Rangers (cue knowing look between the members), but decide to record their voices anyway for the sake of SCIENCE! *trumpets* This, of course, leads to Bulk getting tied up in the microphone cord. Meanwhile, Kim is messing around in a garden, wondering why she's even bothering, calling it boring. Zedd decides to use the flowers to create this week's monster, the titular Bloom of Doom.
At the Command Center, Zordon and Alpha catch wind of the Bloom of Doom's creation, Zordon mentioning that its pollen is highly flammable, and they contact the Rangers. Jason, Trini, and Tommy morph first, followed by Zack and Billy. When Kimberly gets contacted by Zordon, there are a number of nice touches here. First, Kim puts on a fake smile and has a false sound of pleasantness in her voice. Then, while Zordon is talking, she makes constant "hurry up" motions with her hands, but doesn't say anything. Then, after getting the special vine weapon thing to take on the Bloom of Doom, she puts on another fake smile before morphing. All nice ways to show just how different this Kim is.
The Rangers arrive at the battle and the Bloom of Doom summons some Z-Putties for the fight. Of course, the Rangers plow right through them, and take on the Bloom, who sprays her burning pollen on the guys. Kim wraps it up with the vine/ribbon thing, which of course electrocutes it. Trini accidentally cuts the ribbon, letting the Bloom escape. Kim goes after it, and winds up being teleported to some alternate dimension with the Bloom. The others retreat to the Command Center for backup.
In the alternate dimension, the Bloom attacks Kim while mocking her, saying that her own jealousy has driven her friends away and that she'll be stuck there forever. At the Command Center, Billy manages to figure out through technobabble a way for Trini to save Kimberly and break the spell. Which is "throw her daggers at this spot". Makes as much sense as anything else, but this scene does show that Billy's become a lot more accustomed to the Command Center's technology. Trini teleports back to the battlefield.
Back in the alternate dimension, we see Trini's daggers come out of nowhere and hit the Bloom, freeing the both of them from the dimension and breaking the spell on Kim, just as predicted. The two instantly patch things up and team up to fight the Bloom. The others arrive and combine their weapons into the Power Blaster and finish it off. Zedd gets angry and promises victory next time.
Back at the Juice Bar, Kim meets up with her group members, who got the wrong information on where to meet, which is explained by Douchelan mixing up the locations. We then think we're getting a gag with Douchelan sneezing his toupee off, but it's just a tease. Damn, what a missed opportunity. How sad is it that we won't get to see Douchelan sneeze his toupee off. The others arrive and Trini and Kim reaffirm their friendship. Bulk and Skull arrive, supposedly with evidence of the Power Rangers identities via their voices. Of course, the tape screws up and they have nothing. Still, Bulk and Skull vow to find their identities regardless. They wander off, group laughs, episode ends.
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This one was very good. The plot was interesting and showed that Zedd was willing to adapt his gameplan even this early on. The monster was...interesting, to say the least. But really, you should watch this episode solely because of Amy Jo Johnson's performance. She manages to add enough little things to make it seem like an increased aspect of a character, rather than an entirely different person. Very well done, and worth your time.
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The only thing that really stuck out for me concerning the Bloom of Doom was its voice. I can't even describe it properly, but it sounds like a woman's voice horribly warped to switch between high pitched and unnaturally deep.
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