Season 2, Episode 30: Mirror of Regret

"Mirror of Regret"
Episode 30
Air Date: November 14th, 1994

So now we're getting to episodes that have to deal with the new rangers and learning more about them individually. While we already had a Adam focused episode last episode, this one focuses on him dealing with his past when it comes to bullying, especially when he befriends a young student in his karate class named Shawn. When Shawn is getting picked on by his fellow classmates, it's up to Adam to let him know that he can relate and it's all about building self confidence. It is a good lesson to teach kids and one that Lord Zedd uses to Adam's disadvantage. When Lord Zedd is spying on the rangers, he learns of Adam's troubled past and tries to use it to his advantage by using the "Mirror of Regret" on him to make him lose his self-confidence as Shawn did. When Adam is confronted by Goldar, holding the mirror, and some Putties, Adam is literally faced with his past as he has to relive the bullying he endured when he was younger. Of course when Zordon and the other rangers find out about this, it's up to Adam only to break the spell and gain his confidence back. Funny ho that always seems to happen in this show. When the rangers are under a spell, usually they have to get out of it themselves for some contrived moral message...even though the episode's message isn't that bad, just a tad bit forced.

In monster of the day news, we get this really gruesome looking hyena skeleton monster called Skelerena. Although, the voice doesn't go with the name as it sounds like a guy and the name doesn't go with the scary look. I guess Skeletor was out but come on writers, you could have done more with the monster; especially considering how easily it was destroyed. The main fight consists of the rangers battling some Putties in American in suit fight footage while Skelerena jumps around in Sentai footage. It really is becoming annoying with the terrible splicing of two different Sentai or in this case, two different footage from two different countries. I mean don't get me wrong, sometimes it works but most of the time it doesn't like here especially when the rangers aren't even touching the monster and have to fight it with all this distance in between them. It's just so cheap and lame. How the hell did we miss this kind of stuff when we were kids??? O_O

After Adam confidently breaks the spell, he rejoins the other rangers to defeat Skelerena with one of Alpha's new weapons he made for the rangers: the Power Cannon. Now, I'm sure this was introduced for to reasons: 1) new toys for the kids to buy at the time and 2) So that the American footage could make sense with the Sentai footage when the monsters would get blasted. But as I recall, the Power Cannon wasn't used that much its introduction and it's kinda lame how it as made to be a major addition to the rangers' arsenal when in the long run it amounted to nothing really. Overall, the episode was a pretty decent one with a relatively solid character focused plot at the expense of a weak and very anti-climatic monster of the day story line. I mean seriously, what a waste of such an awesome design. Yeesh!!!

Final Morph: C+