1.4 A Pressing Engagement

Season 1 Episode 4
"A Pressing Engagement"
Writer: Jeff Deckman and Ronnie Sperling
Director: Adrian Carr

Episode Summary:
Jason opens the episode bench-pressing to beat Bulk's record while Ernie (owner of Ernie's Gym and Juice Bar) counts.  Kimberly is practicing her gymnastics moves on the balance beam and encourages Jason after she dismounts.  Kim starts blowing a bubble with her gum which distracts everybody because it's so big (that's what she said) and Zack enters the gym on his skateboard and crashes into Kim causing Ernie to lose count of Jason's progress and Kim to get gum all over her face (ha ha ha).  Zack apologizes to both Kim and Jason to which Kim replies "Forget it, it's casual" (that's what she said).  Rita is inspired by Jason's frustration with his friends and plots to get him alone so she can destroy the leader of the team and ultimately bring down the Power Rangers.  She questions Finster's manhood and ability to create a worthwhile monster but ultimately sends his Sphinx monster whose power is to blow people away by flapping his wings. 

Jason, Zack, and Kim morph and fight but Kim is blown back to Ernie's by the Sphinx monster causing angry Zack to punch Rita's henchman, Squatt, for no reason (other than the racist stereotype of the angry black man).  The Sphinx blows Zack back to Ernie's and around minute ten of the episode (halfway through) we finally see Billy and Trini.  Rita makes her monster grow (that's what she said) and poor Jason is by himself.  The other Rangers go to the Command Center because they can't find him (despite the fact that he's fighting a 100 foot monster in Angel Grove - how can you miss that?) and Zordon introduces the "Power Crystals" which resemble Astropops and can be sent to Jason through his sword and allows the other Rangers to teleport there?  They ultimately defeat the Sphinx using Megazord and the teens go back to Ernie's for Jason to defeat the record.  Bulk is jealous and falls into a cake.

Facts:
-Focus Character: Jason
-First line: "Okay, Kimberly" - to herself
-First on-screen Ranger: Jason
-Last line: "Yo, man, why don't you just have a piece of cake and chill." - Zack
-Bulk is a boxer-man
-Angel Grove has a large children's theatre
-First (and probably last) exposure to the Power Crystals
-Alpha 5 has a teddy bear
-Trini is the only ranger who can count past 1,009
-Jason's bench-pressing record is 1,010

Observations: 
Bulk really isn't as lame as originally thought since he originally held the bench-press record of 1,009 at Ernie's gym.  Also, we see an overhead shot of the inside of the Megazord, a view we don't see often in the series, and on Jason's console there's a green power coin that *spoiler alert* hasn't been introduced to the show yet.  I choose to see this as a sign that the Green Ranger in a few episodes doesn't come out of nowhere as opposed to a continuity error - it will help me sleep better at night.

Since we're in our fourth episode, and third specific-character focused episode, we're beginning to see the stereotypes personalities of the teens come out more and more.  Billy is a geek who plays with tech-toys and wears overalls.  Jason is a gym-rat meat-head and doesn't care about the environment.  Zack dresses in bright colors, says things like "yo man" and dance-fights to hip-hop music.  Kim wears pink, likes the mall, and is really short.  Trini, as we've learned, can speak Billy's tech-speak, can count past 1,009, is concerned about the environment, knows martial arts, and dresses better than Kimberly.  She is by far the most well-rounded character and with two focused episodes out of four so far, has the most screen-time. 

Sidenote, don't get attached to the Power Crystals.  I am predicting they won't be used again.