YOPR: 49-50. Return of an Old Friend
On April 19, MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS: ONCE AND ALWAYS premieres on Netflix. I’m writing about all 60 episodes of MMPR’s first season in the lead-up to that premiere.
If you’d like to follow along on this rewatch, entirety of MMPR’s first season is available for free (with ads) on YouTube.
49-50. Return of an Old Friend
One-sentence synopsis: Tommy’s back.
Why it matters: The popularity of Tommy Oliver trumped whatever vision Saban Entertainment had for Jason David Frank as the leading act in its Cybertron project, and so he was written back into Mighty Morphin Power Rangers a mere 14 episodes following his departure. The reintroduction doesn’t really pick up until the start of part two, but in a single episode it’s able to reorient aspects of “Green with Evil,” which for the better part of five episodes painted the Green Ranger as an outcast who was superior to his spandex-clad equivalents. Then, a mind-controlled Tommy had to be stopped from doing bad things and reined in. Here, full of free will, he seeks out a way to help his enemies-turned-friends after they find themselves on the end of a bad bargain. Tommy previously chose to be part of the Power Rangers team – a team, he noted poignantly in “The Green Candle”, that existed just fine without him – but this is the moment where he really becomes a Power Ranger. He – and, beautifully, Zordon – in the face of low odds choose to gamble for the greater good. Neither was guaranteed success on the other side of their decision and never wavered. That’s what doing the right thing is all about.
Episode MVP: Parents. Cousins, uncles and other extended relatives have been featured throughout the series. Adults and other teenagers are staples of our heroes’ lives. But it isn’t until episode no. 49 that we see the Power Rangers’ parents for the first time. They are, mostly (and predictably), aged-up versions of the caricatures their children started out as, and will decades later serve as fodder for deeper storytelling in the Boom! Studios comics. Their presence here – aside from the revelation that Kimberly’s parents are divorced – doesn’t reveal much about who these teenagers are or from where they come, but it does remind viewers that they are still kids in a way that their high school classroom activities don’t. They have lives that exist outside of what we see in the 20 minutes we spend with them each episode.
A good quote: “He doesn’t look good, but he did it.” – Jason
Rating: 4/5 Dark Dimension inconsistencies