Power Rangers Review: "Green With Evil (Part IV: Eclipsing Megazord)"

To put it bluntly, this was the best episode of the miniseries. I'll go into more detail later. I'll say this. Part III was amazing in its own right due to the fact that Jason actually went up against Green Ranger in that dark dimension, and narrowly escaped. The Rangers had their leader back, but they also had another plague in the form of Scorpina. Despite this, Rita Repulsa pulled back on that attack, but the Rangers knew that it would be a matter of time until Rita would deliver again, possibly in a much larger way. That moment came in the form of Goldar destroying the city, and that left the Rangers wondering what to do as Part III came to an end.

And now, on to Part IV, which began with the Rangers set to morph into action and stop Goldar.

Or so they thought.

The morphers suddenly exploded, if you will, and the Rangers were panicked. Alpha revealed that an interdimensional power surge was caused by the beam that was looking locate Zordon, and that surge is messing up the morphing grid and preventing the Rangers from morphing until the surge ends. Holy cats! That was the thing about this miniseries. To play off the words of the late, great "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, just when the Rangers were close to getting all of the answers, someone or something changed the questions...big time.

As for Rita, she is all set to enact her ultimate plan that was revealed in Part III: creating an eclipse that would drain Megazord, and it also includes a slightly funny moment where Finster's ego becomes a tad bruised when he states that it would be Green Ranger responsible for (possibly) taking down the Power Rangers, instead of one of his monsters. Speaking of Green Ranger, he's still in the dimension training, and waiting for his chance; all the while, the Rangers are lamenting the fact that they were stuck in the Command Center while the city was in danger. Thankfully, Billy was able to do the right tinkering with the computer, and as a result, the surge is gone, Alpha can search for Zordon without problems, and the Rangers can morph into action.

While the battle rages on, Goldar's attack causes everyone to flee the Youth Center. Well, almost everyone. Just as Skull's about to run off, Bulk stops him, as his main focus is finishing his ice cream. All it takes is a falling beam right in front of the duo for Bulk to change focus. The pair decide to get away in the Youth Center bus, with Skull behind the wheel. Back at the Command Center, Alpha has Zordon partially back, only for Alpha to be turned off once again by the cackling Green Ranger.

Speaking of cackling maniacs, Rita appears and taunts the Rangers, and it's followed by Goldar picking up the bus that Bulk and Skull are in. Rita orders Goldar to take the bus to the beach, all the while, Green Ranger pounds his chest to Zordon and reverses Alpha's progress by causing Zordon to fade away even more. Back at the beach, the Rangers arrive and the Putties attacking the bus, which is on the near edge of a cliff, with Bulk and Skull panicking for their lives.

Green Ranger continues boasting in response to Zordon's proclamation that the Power Rangers would stop him. What he was not prepared for was Alpha emerging and placing a force field around Green Ranger, and afterwards, Alpha attempted to get Zordon back, but Green Ranger's tampering made it absolutely difficult. Regarding the attempt on Bulk and Skull at the beach, this was all part of Rita's plan to force the Rangers to call the Zords out, and with the quintet left with no choice, the Zords come into play.

Megazord is formed, and the Rangers narrowly save the bus, leaving Bulk and Skull immensely happy that they are alive. After that, they face off against Goldar, but Billy quickly notices the eclipse, which is decreasing Megazord's power. At that moment, Rita makes Scorpina grow, and yeah, the beautiful bad-ass villainess grows into a hideous and vicious scorpion monster. Holy moley! So now Scorpina's part of this fight. The Rangers have Goldar and Scorpina, and they are in trouble. However, the Power Sword does make things better, as the weapon increased Megazord's power.

Just then, Green Ranger, after taunting Alpha many times, is freed by Rita, and she makes him grow as well. So now Green Ranger has joined the fight, Sword of Darkness and all. The Rangers have Goldar, Scorpina, and Green Ranger! They have a trifecta from Hell! And with the eclipse hanging over their heads sapping away Megazord's power, it's only a matter of time before the Rangers are beaten. Sure enough, that's what happens. The evil trio's power ended up being too much for the Rangers, and as a result, down went Megazord, and out went the Rangers, who were de-morphed and watched in horror as the Zords went down.

The Rangers were at the Command Center, basically mourning. Kimberly and Trini voiced their sadness that they were beaten and defeated by Rita. Jason said that they could not give up, but Kimberly stated that they were outmatched. Even Billy couldn't give any optimism. Alpha asks Billy about the chances of bringing Zordon back online. "Less than 10%," was Billy's glum reply.

At that moment, Jason says something that stays with me even now as a sports fan:

"Isn't the smallest chance of victory enough of a reason to keep on fighting?"

As a Colorado Avalanche fan who wept on the evening of April 7, 2018 after watching us win our last game of the regular season to get the last remaining playoff spot, coming after our worst season in franchise history, that line hits me hard. In the NHL, all you have to do is make it, and anything can happen, and while the Avs were one and out that year, it would turn into a streak that turned us into championship contenders, and resulted in that Cup in 2022. So yeah, I worship those words right there.

But leave it to Mr. Positivity, aka Zack Taylor, to give this response:

"Let's face it, the Green Ranger was Rita's trump card. She played it, she won."

Good grief.

Alpha refuses to accept it, and says that Zordon wouldn't accept it either, only for Trini to give the reminder that Zordon wasn't present. Their mourning is interrupted by the sounds of the computer going off, and as Alpha explains--in so many words--it has to do with the Green Ranger. While the Green Ranger was in the force field, the computer locked into his inter-spatial bio-vibrations and had been running them through the system trying to make a match. In other words, the computer knows who Green Ranger is. Billy sets it up so the Rangers can see who it is on the Viewing Globe, and as they watch, each Ranger stands stunned. Zack, Jason, and Trini voice their shock, but it's Kimberly who is the most stunned, as they now finally learn that the Green Ranger was Tommy all this time.

So now they know. Took them long enough, but they know.

"Eclipsing Megazord," Part IV of the "Green With Evil" miniseries, aired on Fox on Friday, October 8, 1993, and this was, by far, the best episode of the arc. Even though the Rangers were at their lowest point at the episode's end, I still consider this my favorite episode of the miniseries. The Rangers really, and I mean really faced a lot--too much, even. Again, Jason showed his meddle as the group's leader with his attempts to get his cohorts back to positivity, even though he was the only one who refused to give up. Plus, it was a great moment for Alpha, as he managed to get the drop on Green Ranger. We don't really get to see Alpha show what he's made of during the course of the series. It's only very rarely that we see what Alpha's capable of, and ironically, his biggest breakout moment wasn't exactly a positive one--Power Rangers fans know what I'm talking about, and that will definitely be another story for another time.

Even as an eight-year-old watching this episode on Fox, I knew that Part IV would see the Rangers finally learn that Tommy's the Green Ranger. It was definitely heading that way, and the result definitely set up what would be a thrilling conclusion.

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