Season 3, Episode 17: A Ranger Catastrophe, Part 1

"A Ranger Catastrophe, Part 1"
Episode 17
 Air Date: October 16th, 1995

If there's one thing that Power Rangers has been lacking up to this point in the franchise is a credible storyline; an over arching narrative that moved the story forward as well as developing the characters in the process. Sure Season 1 and 2 were mostly about Tommy losing and regaining his powers over and over again; not to mention gaining new powers and leading the team. But those weren't really story arcs and more multiparters dealing with only his story and not the main story of the show. Here, for the first time, is where that changed as "A Ranger Catastrophe" introduces us to a new recurring character that would not propel the show's entire story forward but manage to lead to some of the show's finest episodes of the show but some of the best character development in Kimberly. The episode begins with Aisha finding a stray cat in the park with Kimberly.

Turns out that there's more going on with this cat then meets the eye as since Aisha's been working at the local Animal Shelter, Rita has come up with a plan to infiltrate the rangers with this cat....but we don't know what her plan is yet in detail. All we know is when Aisha puts the cat up for adoption at the Animal Shelter, Rita doesn't want anyone to own it besides the rangers; even sending Rito to scare off any people who are interested in buying her. This leads to a confrontation between Rito and Aisha, who morphs in ninja form as they fight. When word of Aisha getting attack goes to the other rangers, they also morph into ninja form and join the fight with Aisha. Lord Zedd soon sends down the Tengas to aid Rito in fighting the rangers. So it's a full on brawl between both sides with ninja blasts and Rocky phasing into a tree to beat up some Tengas in a humiliating way. lol

But as everyone is fighting everyone is fighting, the cat is just watching....then turns into a beautiful young Australian girl, who is clearly smiling in glee as all the chaos outside as her eyes in glow in an evil red color. As Katherine distract the veterinarian at the shelter, the rangers wrap up their fight with Rito as the Tengas leave him there to look like a fool. When Tommy, Aisha and Kimberly arrive at the shelter, Kat makes herself disappear and reappears as the cat. Turns out the rangers can keep the cat since no one has adopted her yet. Meanwhile, when Kimberly is planning to go on a date with Tommy, Kat leaves to the house to inform Rita of their plans and gives her a nice car to drive in. At the Youth Center, Kat, looking all evil, introduces herself to Tommy and uses her charms to sway him into helping her with her car that apparently broke down. Even manipulating him into taking a test drive of the car which working real well for it breaking down. Yeah, I know it was a lie but Tommy wasn't at least a little bit suspicious of Katherine??? O_o

Anyway, with Tommy driving the car, Lord Zedd is cued by Rita for the next phase in her plan by trapping Tommy and Kat in another dimension (like always, sheesh!) As Kimberly and Aisha return to the Youth Center with no luck finding PC (The name they gave the cat), Ernie tells her that Tommy went off to help someone with their car just as Zordon contacts them. They teleport to the Command Center and see both Tommy and Kat trapped there, wondering who the girl is with him. But before the rangers can save him, Rito has been made giant sized by Rita and Zedd and is attacking the city. Leaving them to choose what to do next.....Overall, this was a great introduction to this story arc that hopefully will turn out to be a good as I remembered it being! :)

Final Morph: B