"Life's a Masquerade"
Writer: Cheryl Saban
Director: Robert Hughes
Episode Summary:
We open with the Rangers helping Ernie set up the Gym and Juice Bar for a costume party that will be taking place later that afternoon. Zack is helping Jason put up some party streamers while Tommy is helping Kimberly paint something on a ladder (SPOILER ALERT: Bulk will get pain in his face due to the paint being
Rita reveals to us that her Super Putty is ready and her team of villains spend the majority of the episode mining said Super Putty. But how to distract the Power Rangers so they don't disrupt her evil plot? Inspired by their Halloween-themed party, Rita decides to send a Frankenstein monster to wreak havoc on Angel Grove and busy the Rangers for a few hours.
After the commercial break, the Rangers are all dressed up in their costumes ready to go party! The ever-perceptive Kimberly notices that Tommy isn't there. Jason (aka Tommy's keeper) informs us (and Kim) that Tommy is putting the finishing touches on his costume and will meet up with them later. Typical. Alpha 5 recognizes the opportunity to mingle with the Rangers and comes to the party as a mysterious visitor that women seem to crawl all over. I haven't seen this kind of woman-on-robot action since Short Circuit. Frankenstein comes to the party and people mistake him for Tommy - but Billy (dressed as Sherlock Holmes) would like to investigate for more clues.
Billy follows the monster to Rita's cave where she's mining her Super Putty and a fight ensues after he carelessly trips a sensor. Billy morphs ("it's time for molecular transmutation!") and then runs to the others. Putties attack Tommy while he's by himself further preventing him from joining his friends. But no worries, Tommy makes it to the battle just in time to call on Dragonzord to form MegaDragonzord!
We end at the party - but still no Tommy! Alpha 5 wins the costume contest and makes a casual exit as Tommy shows off his new Frankenstein costume! The Rangers chortle and Kimberly comments that Tommy looks, like, so cute in gray.
Facts:
-First line - Kim "Hey guys, nice costumes."
-Last line - Kim "You look great in gray."
-First on-screen - Kim
-First hit - BILLY!
-Morphinominal Count : 1 - Kim says it
-Costumes: Jason - Robin Hood, Zack - King Tut, Billy - Sherlock Holmes, Trini - Pocahontas, Kimberly - Generic Princess, Tommy - Frankenstein
Observations:
I like how we introduce the Super Putty in this episode and set up the plot for "Gung Ho!" (the next episode), it gives the show a feeling of continuity and like there is some over-arching plot. That said, we've established before that Kimberly likes Tommy. It's fact. Even earlier in the episode, he tries to help Kimberly do some painting. Why then, do Kimberly and Trini accept dance offers from two random guys? If I were Tommy's friend I'd totally tell him his girl's cheating on him (*omg* I just realized this is fore-shadowing for when she writes him a Dear John letter in Power Rangers Zeo!).
Going along with the romance aspect of this episode, (looking past the fact that Angela is the only black girl we've seen in Angel Grove and therefore the only girl Zack can be attracted to) I like that Angela turns down Zack repeatedly. He's set himself up to be a really cool guy and when we see him crushed by a girl, we see a lot more to his character. A whole two dimensions. He likes to dance and rejection crushes him. But again, I like the fact that they use a second-tier character that will continue to appear throughout the series.
Let's look at the monster. Obviously when Megazord battles Frankenstein we're seeing the Sentai footage. But I'm surprised at just how much original US footage was produced with the monster. Given, the costume was probably not that expensive to recreate, but I like when they bring the costume to the US footage and bridge the gap between the Sentai footage and the un-morphed teens. It makes it more difficult (as a child viewer) to realize you're really watching two different shows.
Lastly, I think I need to start tracking how many times this one piece of footage is re-used and count how many times Megazord crushes this office building.
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