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So we start off at the Juice Bar with a "clean-up drive" taking place, which is apparently good enough to make the news, since there is a reporter there. She turns to our heroes and-
HOLY SHIT ON A CHRIST CRACKER!
Zack! What happened to your hair?! You switched from that cheesy 90's crewcut/afro combo to frickin' CORNROWS?! I mean, yeah, I know we see his new hairdo in the intro, but it's still hard to get used to. It completely goes against his original and more familiar design. Things will never be the same again.
It's here that you'd expect me to rant about them bringing up yet another environmental message, but surprisingly, it's not about cleaning the environment. It's more just about keeping the community clean and looking nice. So, it's not really annoying, but more entirely pointless. Yeah, I can understand you wanting to clean up litter, but why graffiti? I think it adds a lot of ambiance to a neighbourhood. If you're walking down the street and you see some random graffiti on a wall, you know you're in a baaaaad town. Then again, this is Angel Grove, which is supposed to be squeaky-clean, so I can see why they're bothering with this.
The reporter mentions a rumour that the Rangers are gonna show up and help with the clean-up, causing our heroes to try waaaaay too hard to hide the fact that they are, in fact, the Rangers. After they leave, Bulk and Skull try to borrow the recording equipment from the news crew, but no luck. Bulk, evil genius that he is, gets an idea. They follow the camera crew to the park, where the Rangers are said to be showing up, then when they do, they rush in, yank off their helmets, and expose their identities for fame and fortune. This seems...rushed, a bit. What, the Power Rangers are just gonna stand there and let you yank off their helmets and expose their identities to the world? Yeah, that'll happen.
We then move to the moon, Zedd concocting his next plan. He mentions how the Rangers love everything clean and pretty.
Goldar: Yes, it's one of the Rangers' most disgusting traits!
When you find yourself agreeing with the villain, that's not a good sign.
Zedd decides to create the ugliest monster he can think of, the Octophantom, which is a cross between an octopus and an elephant. Oooookay.
We then cut back to Earth, with the Rangers and others all cleaning up the park, with the camera somehow appearing in the trashcan facing up. And this isn't just a strange camera shot, it's implied that the camera being used in the episode, by the news crew, is somehow in there. I don't get it. Zedd mentions how the Octophantom is supposed to capture each Ranger in a magic jar, which will drain them of their powers. Why does this sound familiar? He mentions that the Green Ranger will be first, of course, because he needs to be written out until the end.
So back on Earth, Z-Putties arrive and start to cause havoc. Tommy, Jason, and Kim get the others to run away, but it should be noted that the cameraguy leaves his camera behind, still recording. This'll come into play later. They fight the Z-Putties for a little bit, until Zedd sends down the Octophantom. Eeesh, he wasn't kidding about it being ugly. They morph, meaning the camera saw who three of the Rangers were. They fight off the Z-Putties some more, the camera capturing everything. Here is where I find a problem with the Z-Putty fights now. They kick and punch the Z-Putties in their weakspot multiple times, yet they don't die right away. Yet when Kimberly barely grazes one Z-Putty's symbol, it dies. Yeah, it'd be boring if they were beaten right away, but a little consistency wouldn't kill you, Saban. Of course, this wouldn't be a problem if they didn't have the weakspots in the first place.
Anyway, Tommy gets overwhelmed by the Octophantom and the Z-Putties and is captured. Jason and Kim teleport to the Command Center, the camera having seen everything. Bulk and Skull come across said camera, realize that it was recording while the Rangers were fighting, and take the tape. I'd be worried about this if status quo wasn't in the way.
After some random expositing about the monster at the Command Center, we see Tommy chained up in a cave somewhere, which is somehow draining his powers. I'unno. Zedd explains that he'll send the Octophantom to Earth to deface some public property with graffiti, in order to lure out the Rangers.
Zedd, stop. You're supposed to be a SMART villain. This is smelling awfully Rita-like. Yes, this is just a trap to lure out the Rangers by exploiting their good nature, but they're not THAT good! Besides, Zordon explains that it's clearly a trap from the get-go. Sure, they morph and go anwyay, but come on, this is just stupid!
They arrive at the battlefield and start fighting Octophantom, who attacks them by throwing...something. It's too small to see. They keep fighting while Billy stays in the background, trying to think of a plan. Wow, how uncharacteristically dickish of you, Billy. Stay behind and let your friends do the dirty work while you try to think of something. What a hero, folks. Octophantom is about to capture the Rangers, but suddenly stops to admire his reflection. Soooo, his necessary weakness is that he's vain. How...random. He then opens the jar, but Jason gets out of the way, the other three being captured. Octophantom teleports away, telling Jason to meet him at the quarry that so many battles take place at.
Back at the Command Center, Billy decides to create a device that can exploit the Octophantom's vanity. Dude, just get a giant frickin' mirror! And why does Jason need to run ahead and give Billy time to build a "device"? Seriously, just get a mirror and attack him while he's distracted! Why be so needlessly complicated? Oh, and if I haven't mentioned it by now, Jason suddenly acquired a habit of shouting "Back To Action!" whenever he or the group teleports back to the battlefield while already morphed. I guess they didn't have enough catchphrases already.
Jason teleports to the quarry and meets up with the Octophantom, who has the others tied up on a hill nearby. How this is draining their powers, I have no idea. Jason clenches his fist to show this is srs busness, yo, and they start fighting. And Jason gets his ass kicked. What the hell? Then Billy shows up with his device: a shield with a mirror in it. .....why did he need to make that?! He gives Jason the shield while he goes to save the others. After more fighting, Jason finally uses the shield to distract Octophantom while he blasts him with his Blade Blaster. Billy frees the others, then sends Tommy back to the Command Center because of his low power. I have to admit, an interesting effect is with Tommy's green suit slowly turning a dark grey-ish colour to show his dwindling powers. Nice touch.
Anyway, Zedd makes the Octophantom grow, so the Rangers summon the ThunderZords and form the Thunder MegaZord. They fight for a bit and it's slightly better than these fights have been so far. Emphasis on the "slightly", though. Although the Thunder MegaZord shows a new trick in creating a tornado with its sword. Anyway, after some awkward punching, the Thunder MegaZord just finishes the Octophantom and that's that.
Back at the Juice Bar, Jason congratulates Billy for his work today. For what? Abandoning his buddies and letting them get captured while his big device is essentially a frickin' mirror?! Yeah, that's some top-notch work there, boss. They mention that Tommy's powers are getting weaker and weaker, which is pretty much the only continuing plot point right now (not that I'm complaining, mind you), before Bulk and Skull arrive with the tape, ready to play it. The Rangers stop them, however, and wind up switching the tapes around so they get some cartoon that Skull apparently likes.
Now, there's something that's really bugging me here: Why didn't Bulk and Skull watch the tape ahead of time?! It doesn't make any sense that they would just grab a tape, think it had the Rangers' secret identities on it, not check the evidence, and show it to everybody. Yeah, they're not that bright, but they're not THAT stupid! But status quo demands that the Rangers' identities remain secret at all times, so we get this. The only redeeming part is that, while Bulk is lamenting his lost fame, Skull actually yells at Bulk for once because he's trying to watch the cartoon. Bulk facepalms and the episode ends.
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This one was baaaaaaad. I mean, it wasn't really bad, but bad enough to be noticeable. It seemed very, very rushed. Get the monster ready A.S.A.P., give the Rangers something to do while waiting, have Billy create some device to save the day, have Bulk and Skull do something...it just seemed like a paint-by-numbers episode with very little substance to it. The monster was a mess, the fight scenes weren't memorable, and Bulk and Skull were somehow stupider than usual. Even Zedd seemed to be phoning it in this time around. All in all, not a good one.
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Why a cross between an elephant and an octopus is called the OctophanTOM is beyond me. In fact, where exactly is the elephant incorporated here? It just seems like an octopus monster.
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I'd like to finish today by apologizing for the lack of updates recently. I've had a few things to deal with. In addition to figuring out what's going on with college right now, I've also started writing for a gaming website, GameRant. And no, I'm not telling you which writer I am. Just trust that that's what I'm doing. As such, I can't promise that updates will be as frequent as they once were, but I will try to get back to doing this on a semi-regular basis.
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