Power Rangers Review: "The Wedding (Part II)"

When we last left our heroes, they were vacationing in Australia, with no worries. Seriously, there were no worries. Lord Zedd was about to recharge his evil energies, leaving the Rangers with no emergencies to deal with. However, when one rat sleeps, another creeps in, as Rita Repulsa crash-landed on moon and set her sights on the ultimate takeover. The plan was to dose Zedd with a love potion, marry him, and then overrule him.

Rita needed the ultimate wedding gift: the Rangers captured. In a demented twist of fate, that's where Alpha 5 came in. Finster placed a virus into Alpha that turned him villainous, and the once loyal bot decided to send the Rangers to an abandoned theater knowing that their powers would be kaput there, doing so under the claim of an emergency. The Rangers morph and are teleported to the theater, where they see a bevy of past monsters, and learn (the hard way) that they are powerless.

On to Part II!

The Rangers, upon realizing their situation, decide to do the best they can against the bevy of monsters, but it's getting a bit too hot for them. Nevertheless, they carried on, because that's what the Power Rangers do. Meanwhile, there was on very enthused viewer of the Rangers' misfortune, and that was Alpha, who is shown hate-watching the Rangers and enjoying seeing them lose. Is Alpha from Long Island or something? Anyway, Zordon asks Alpha the million dollar question:

"Alpha, you knew the Rangers' power would not work in that theater. Why did you put your friends in such danger?"

As a wrestling fan, I can tell you, the only thing better than a heel turn is the motive. It's always amazing hearing that answer to the question, "Why?" Alpha gave us one hell of an answer:

"Friends? Ha! Teleporting here and there, having all the fun, getting all the glory! Well, it's my turn to be famous now! I'll go down in history as the one who destroyed the Power Rangers!"

See? There! Right there! I've watched enough of these situations to know that at times, when a character's under evil control, it brings out dark desires that they always had. No part of Alpha's answer was out of the blue; he had to have been carrying this from jumpstreet. The virus simply unleashed it.

We now go from the cackling Alpha to the even louder cackling of Rita. Rita is gloating over her plans for Zedd and how she'll turn him into her personal pet. Back at the theater, the Rangers are losing, and losing badly. Are the Rangers in the theater or in Pittsburgh? Soccadillo wants to destroy them, but Grumble Bee reminds Soccadillo that the Rangers have to be in one piece due to the fact that they're Rita's wedding present to Zedd. Now the Rangers have a partial answer to their current predicament: Rita and Zedd's wedding.

"It was bad enough having one evil lunatic on the moon," Tommy quips.

Billy states that having the knowledge is meaningless unless they find a way out, and Kimberly suggests a hidden stairwell inside the theater. Meanwhile, Rita wakes Zedd up, and once Zedd sees Rita, he's smitten as hell. If Zedd had anything resembling a nose, it would be so wide open that Jack Hughes could score another Golden Goal in it. Within seconds (30 of them, to be exact--71 less than OT in said Gold Medal Game), Zedd proposes, Rita accepts, and Goldar is summoned.

Goldar is stunned to see Rita and vows to eject her, but Zedd will have none of it. Zedd not only announces his upcoming wedding with Rita, but he makes Goldar his "worst man" and places him in charge of the celebration. Meanwhile, the Rangers attempt to make their escape, but see that the monsters have blocked the main entrance, and as for Rita, she's making plans for the wedding.

Back at the Command Center, Alpha watches the viewing globe and sees Bulk and Skull in the area where Kimberly's shopping bags have been placed. The pair planned to take the bags, but Alpha had plans of his own. Zordon warned Alpha not to get any ideas, but evil Alpha's on a roll. Alpha actually teleports Bulk and Skull to the wild parts of the Outback, causing those two to run around like headless chickens. Rita and Zedd giddily boast about the Rangers being trapped in that theater, all the while, Goldar watches from afar and states that Rita's up to something and he has to banish Rita before she has the chance to do away with him. That line says that Goldar knows that Rita still remembers how Goldar betrayed Rita for Zedd in Part I of "The Mutiny."

The Rangers eventually escaped from the theater, and Finster gives the word to Zedd and Rita, who sends the monsters after the Rangers. The alarm blasts in the Command Center, much to Alpha's annoyance, and in response to Zordon reminding Alpha about the Rangers needing to battle Zedd's monsters, Alpha actually shuts Zordon down. The Rangers' powers are back in full, and they can summon the Zords to battle against the Rangers. Thunder Megazord is formed, and Tommy calls on the Tigerzord, which converts to warrior mode.

So we have Thunder Megazord and Tigerzord's Warrior Mode against Peckster and Rhinoblaster in tornado tag team action. Everything the monsters dish out, the Rangers fire right back. It's an even matchup, until Alpha decided to decrease the Rangers' power supply. Now the Rangers are getting smashed... badly. The Rangers ended up having to abandon ship, and that allowed Alpha to teleport the sextet back to the theater. The Rangers can't believe their rotten luck, not only defeated, but back at the theater, where they are again tapped out of power.

The wedding is set to begin, despite Goldar's grumblings. As for the Rangers, they are wondering what the hell happened and how they ended up back in this very predicament. Tommy, the leader that he is, tells the rest of the Rangers not to give up, and that they will get out of this. But how?

Part II of "The Wedding," the 42nd episode of MMPR Season 2, aired on Fox (fittingly) on Valentine's Day--February 14, 1995. Without question, evil Alpha was the true star of Part II (in Part I, it was Rita), as we hear Alpha's maniacal reasons for his new evil demeanor, and he absolutely went hog wild in this episode. He teleported Bulk and Skull to the wildest parts of the Outback, and when the Rangers did escape, he removed Zordon and actually tampered with the Zords' powers. Yikes!

Also, we see Zedd and Rita engage with each other for the first time since Part I of "The Mutiny," and I have to address this. To this day, many fans pinpoint this three-parter as the moment that Zedd was, well, "changed." By that, I mean that there's a belief among fans that Zedd became less ominous and less "scary" after being paired with Rita. This all started back when Zedd debuted, and a bunch of Helen Lovejoy-esque parents clutched their pearls over his appearance. Here's my thing. Did Zedd lose some of his scary aura beginning with this three-parter? Honestly, yes. Did Zedd become a complete marshmallow after this three-parter? No. When it comes to that whole thing, I meet in the middle. Some of Zedd's oomph did go, but not as much as fans say.

The middle part of this trilogy was amazing, and the conclusion definitely had some moments, but that's a story for another time.

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