Season 3, Episode 23: A Different Shade of Pink, Part 1

"A Different Shade of Pink, Part 1"
Episode 23
Air Date: November 6th, 1995

So here we are in the final episodes of our original Pink Ranger!!! So Kimberly finally gets to meet her idol, Mr. Schmidt, the famous gymnastics coach she read in the newspaper about last episode. He's suddenly very interested in coaching Kimberly for the Pan Global Games (Which I'm guessing it the PR equivalent to the Olympics or something??? O_o) but of course, her commitment to the intense training  for it will interfere will her duties as a Power Ranger, which leads to a touching scene at the Command Center where she tells her fellow rangers about her latest news and how worried she is that her time as a ranger will be cut shorter by her training. I love what Zordon says to her, about her responsibility as a ranger never meant she had to sacrifice such an opportunity such as this. Not to mention, Kimberly just addressing this and being concern just once again shows how much she has grown as not only a ranger but as an individual. Zordon even mentions how much maturity she is showing beyond her years.

Meanwhile, Rita is getting petty again and wants to tire out Kimberly so she doesn't make the Pan Global Games. While I say Rita is being petty, her plan actually works by spreading out her forces around Angel Grove, forcing the rangers to split their teams and exhaust them with the constant back to back attacks. Even with Kimberly doing her best to keep up with her fellow rangers, the combination of her fighting and training is too much for her as she collapses into Tommy's arms after the second confrontation with Goldar, Rito and a couple of old monsters. Later that night, Tommy drives Kimberly to Ernie's Juice Bar so she can practice at night after leaving her coach earlier to fight with her fellow rangers. But unfortunately, the consent stress of her training and her recent battles finally forces her to give out to the exhaustion and she accidentally falls hard onto the mat on the floor.

Meanwhile, during all of this, while Kat continues to spy on Kimberly, the spell over her is once again starting to ware off as we learn more about her past and how she became Rita's new pet....literally. We learn she was a swimmer at the Pan Global Games, who accidentally hit her head as well as seemingly forced to retire early because of her injuries, it's not clear. We then finally see a flashback of her being tricked by Rita and a Tenga disguised as human. While Kat was about to run away, Rita put her spell on her to make her evil slave. When Kat finally realizes what happened to her and what's about to happen to Kimberly, she quickly tries to get into the Ernie's Juice Bar. But alas, she's too late as Kimberly falls and Kat watches over her in regret of what she's done. Overall, this was a great episode with a good plan by the villains, some more strong character development for Kimberly and some nice backstory as well as development for Kat. Nice! :)

Final Morph: A-