1.31 Calamity Kimberly

Episode 31, Season 1

Calamity Kimberly

Writer: Tom Wyner and Julianne Klemm

Director: Terence H. Winkless

Episode Summary:

We open in Kimberly’s bedroom with her moaning that it’s morning already and literally getting out of bed on the wrong side.  We the viewers see Squatt spying on her as an earthquake breaks her mirror.  Her dry cleaning is burned through and a beautiful day suddenly thunderstorms.  Today is just not looking good for our dear Kimberly.

Rita and Finster are discussing their latest idea for a monster, Samurai Fanman, but are clearly looking at a mini-version of Bones.  Me thinks I’ve seen this footage before.  Very clever, MMPR.

Kimberly is drenched when she arrives at school, her pep rally plans are muddy, her umbrella broke, TOMMY SEES HER WITH HORRIBLE HAIR!  Kimberly then treats us to the staple 90s phrase of disbelief – NOT!  Tommy fends off Bulk and Skull tormenting her as he finds Kimberly’s bad luck adorable and asks if he can walk her home after school (aww).

Tommy does some sweeping romantic grab when Kimberly falls, and then Samurai Fanman knocks Tommy out and steals Kimberly.  Tommy’s down for the count and naps on a chaise lounge at the Command Center for the remainder of the episode.  Trini teaches Billy Tai Chi and then we see our bad guys eating dinner at the Putty Bowl restaurant (seriously, how did we miss this restaurant in Angel Grove before?).  The big battle begins when the Rangers arrive on their underused bikes.  They fight, nothing happens, Tommy wakes up and calls on Dragonzord and then the monster dies.  Finally.

Kimberly ends the episode by wearing a jaw-dropping dress (well, only Tommy’s jaw drops, she walked by Billy first but since he’s gay he probably didn’t even notice, sigh) and burning out Billy’s tv when news of their fight comes on.  Oh Kimberly.

Facts:-First on-screen – Kimberly
-First line - "Morning already?” - Kim
-Focus - Kimberly
-Last line - "Yeah!” – Trini
-Trini knows Tai Chi and tried to teach to Billy
-Tommy has his first injury that benches him for most of the episode

Observations:

We see more of the Tommy/Kimberly romance which I’m always good for.  We also get to see Kimberly the character stretch a little more.  Obviously Kimberly is supposed to be the popular pretty girl – but we get to see that the popular pretty girl still gets picked on (by Bulk and Skull) and that she is insecure about her looks just like everyone else in high school.  Her dislike of her wet hair and Tommy seeing it comes across as shallow in the episode, but borrowing from my own experience as a teenage girl, it’s not too far off.

I also like that in case we forgot Trini exists, we still get to see that she knows so much more than everyone else on this show as she teaches Billy Tai Chi.  Why wouldn’t Trini know Tai Chi?  Seriously.

There’s also a few continuity problems with the source footage and the English dubbing.  We see Rita looking at Bones (from way back in episode 2) but they’re talking about Samurai Fanman.  We also do not see Samurai Fanman coming out of Finster’s machine.  Why is that?  Because it didn’t happen on Zyuranger.  Simple as that.  We also see the issue of getting Tommy out of the way because the Green Ranger was not in the source footage (because he’s busy, you know, dying).