Power Rangers Review: "The Mutiny: Part III"

This landmark special arc began with a huge bang: the debut of Lord Zedd. Part I saw Zedd eject Rita Repulsa from the moon palace due to her numerous failures to defeat the Power Rangers, and it ended with Zedd releasing the Pirantishead monster, who froze four of the five Dinozords. Things were turned up in Part II, as Pirantishead placed Tyrannosaurus and Dragonzord under his evil control, resulting in Zordon presenting brand new Zords to the Rangers: the Thunderzords.

The five original Rangers each received a Thunderzord, but as for Tommy, his unstable powers prohibited him from having a Thunderzord of his own. In order to pilot their new Zords, they needed to regain control of their old ones, and that plan included Billy and Trini working on a signal blocker, while the remaining four Rangers were left to deal with the Z-Putties, and Pirantishead, who enlisted his mesmerized Zords to go after the Rangers.

And now, the conclusion.

Four of the Rangers--Jason, Tommy, Zack, and Kimberly--are continuing to deal with Pirantishead, who continues to control Tyrannosaurus and Dragonzord, while Lord Zedd gloats. However, as Zordon notes, the controlled Zords are not going after the Rangers, they are actually heading for the rally. He later contacts Billy and Trini, and asks the former if the signal blocker's finished.

"Negative, we're still working on it," is Billy's answer.

The evil Zords continue their attack on the rally, and Zedd continues to boast and pound his chest. Finally, the signal blocker is finished, and Billy and Trini morph and join their friends. The pair arrive with the signal blocker, and they are set to regain control of their old Zords.

One problem: nothing's happening.

Billy doesn't know what the problem could be, and afterwards, Jason shifts to Plan B--bringing the weapons together. Alpha, upon seeing this, panics, as it appears that the Rangers are set on actually blasting their Zords. Zordon tells Alpha to have faith in the Rangers, and he's right, as after they form the Power Blaster, they turn the weapon towards Pirantishead and fire at the monster. With Pirantishead at bay, Billy looks to fix the signal blocker. So what was the problem? Bad wiring? Bad connection? Not enough power? Nope, none of that.

The real problem? Billy put in one of the batteries backwards. Yeah.

So the battery's flipped, the button's pressed, and the Zords are freed!

This does not please Zedd; his seemingly perfect plan hit a big time snag. So now he finally knows what the Rangers made of, but in response, Zedd decides that he'll strip all of the power from the Zords and send them back where they came from. The Rangers move out of the way of the rumbling, but they witnessed the five Zords descend for what would be the very last time. As Zedd celebrates, Jason tells Tommy to send Dragonzord back to the sea, which Tommy does. Zedd later tosses what appears to be a bomb to Pirantishead, who activates it and grows from the effect of the explosion.

The Rangers retreat to the Command Center and mourn the apparent loss of their Zords, but they were informed by Zordon that he and Alpha did manage to gain enough of the Dinozords to create the Thunderzords, and they are ready for the original five Rangers to use. Tommy's powers were not stable enough for him to have a Thunderzord, and after getting the Zords fully ready, the five Rangers go off, after getting a verbal endorsement from Tommy.

For the first time, we see the summoning of the Thunderzords, and it goes in the following order:

Zack: "Mastodon Lion Thunderzord Power!"

Kimberly: "Pterodactyl Firebird Thunderzord Power!"

Billy: "Triceratops Unicorn Thunderzord Power!"

Trini: "Saber-Toothed Tiger Griffin Thunderzord Power!"

Jason: "Tyrannosaurus Red Dragon Thunderzord Power!"

Alpha cheers on the Rangers from the Command Center, and in a rare display of personality, we see Zordon actually chuckling in agreement. We see the Thunderzords on display, and then the focus turns to the Red Dragon. We later see the body of the Red Dragon morph into an outright humanoid body, while the Dragon head reveals a face, which is attached to the body. The result is this:

Amazing, right?! Talk about a Zord upgrade! Yes, Jason's Red Dragon Thunderzord has the ability to change from its Dragon Mode into its Warrior Mode. Alpha was in absolute awe, and afterwards, Zordon instructed the Rangers to put all of their Zords together to form the Thunder Megazord. We later see the Lion, Firebird, Unicorn, and Griffin change forms. The Unicorn and Griffin cover the Red Dragon's feet, while the Firebird serves as the waist. Finally, the Lion served as the chest and arms, and the Lion's tail, if you will, serves as a helmet. The result is this:

Lord Zedd isn't impressed; he should be, because that Thunder Megazord looks awesome as hell. One person was definitely impressed as Thunder Megazord battled Pirantishead, and that someone was none other than Tommy. He was in absolute awe over the new Zords, but it was easy to tell that he was down about missing out. Alpha said that they would one day get Tommy's power to full (he'd be right, but that's another story). The Thunder Megazord showed its might against Pirantishead, and with a stylish new sword, the Thunder Megazord turned Pirantishead into a gaggle of fish nuggets. And yes, I'm craving fried catfish nuggets.

Zedd was livid. He had, for the first time, lost to the Rangers. Now he knows how the Carolina Hurricanes feel. After we see Finster mutter that one of his monsters would have defeated the Rangers (sure, Jan), Zedd rants over his loss, but whatever you do, don't call it a failure. Goldar did just that. Zedd's response:

"I didn't fail, you simpering twit!!! YOU FAILED!!! YOU ALL FAILED!! Just like you failed before!!!"

Even so, Zedd still isn't as sore of a loser as Connor McDavid is.

Zedd vowed to defeat the Rangers and destroy the earth, all the while, the Rangers are congratulated by Zordon, who stated that with time, their new Zords would reveal magnificent powers. Kimberly later asks Zordon about Tommy's Dragonzord, only to be informed that the Dragonzord, much like Green Ranger, is running on limited power, and has to conserve its energy. Tommy sees this news as the end of his time as a Power Ranger, only for his friends to inform Tommy that he is one of them and always will be. After receiving the reassurance from his cohorts, Tommy had one burning question: whatever happened to Rita?

You asked for it, Green Ranger.

Alpha pointed the Rangers to the viewing globe, and they saw Rita...in her floating dumpster...singing "99 Bottles of Slime on the Wall." My goodness. Of course, this gets a laugh from everyone, and I do mean everyone, as the biggest laugh came from, of all people, Zordon! I couldn't believe it when I saw this. Zordon, the always serious and no-nonsense sage, gave such a booming and hearty laugh and mocked Rita's singing! That was absolutely epic! All laughs aside, the group actually had one last little problem left: Bulk and Skull were still affected by Pirantishead. They were saved by the signal blocker, and afterwards, Tommy and Kimberly approached the duo, who told them everything that happened, including their plan to find out who the Power Rangers are. After that, all eight teens returned to the rally, and finished the race.

The conclusion of "The Mutiny" aired on Friday night, August 5, 1994 on Fox, and of course, this episode was the first time that we would see the Thunderzords in action. I was definitely in awe over seeing these new Zords in battle for the very first time, and of course, this would be another thing that became commonplace on Power Rangers: new season, new Zords. Sometimes, the Zords would change in-season. Fun fact: the first Power Rangers toy I had was the Thunder Megazord, which, as every Power Rangers fan knows, was actually sold in two separate boxes. The Red Dragon Thunderzord was sold on its own, and the other four Zords were in a separate box, with the Lion, Unicorn, Griffin, and Firebird known as the "Thunderzord Assault Team." Both boxes were Christmas gives from my parents.

This episode was the last new episode to air for a month, as Season Two resumed in September and aired on the normal time slot. This three-part arc definitely set the tone for the entire season, which was one hell of a rollercoaster ride, and I will definitely tell the tales in due time!

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