Season 1, Episode 27: Wheel of Misfortune

"Wheel of Misfortune"
Episode 27
Air Date: November 1, 1993

Sigh....this episode is just.... I mean, we've had the rangers fight some ridiculous monster before. One turtle monster with a traffic light on it's shell, a genie, even a freakin' flower monster...but...THIS!? Nope, I'm sorry, the writers could have easily skipped this episode of Zyuranger and gone straight to the next!! Urgh!! The episode begins with the teens, unfortunately including Bulk and Skull, rehearsing for the play "Rumpelstiltskin". Bulk and Skull of course suck been then again everyone sucks, it's a bunch of 20 year old bad actors playing teenagers being bad actors!!! Once Bulk messes up royally by breaking a prop from the play that turns out to be Kimberly's grandmother's spinning wheel, Rita gets possibly her worst idea yet to capture it and put a spell on it.  I mean you think she will turn it at least into a monster or something but NOPE!!!

The next day Kim is all down about her grandmother's spinning wheel by telling Ernie this and Tommy comes by to help her fix it. Goldar and some Putties steal it; just before the two walk in and discover it's missing.  They try to ask some people at the Youth Center about seeing it, but it's TOO LATE!! The spell has already been put on the wheel...WOW!!! Meanwhile, Goldar says Tommy is at the park and Rita sends some Putties to capture him. It's a decent, if not surprisingly pathetic fight as usually Tommy is able to handle a squad of Putties on his own but he gets tied up at the end.

Back at the Youth Center, we get a cute moment where the rest of rangers seat all around Kimberly who is upset about the missing spinning wheel when Zordon contacts them and they teleport to the Command Center.  Zordon tells them that Rita is behind Kimberly's grandmother's stole spinning wheel. But not only that but Tommy is in danger. But who cares, the evil wheel must be stopped when Goldar and Scorpina are at it again! They morph and a fight between them and the two generals starts. It's a decent fight, though brief before Rita makes them grow. The rangers summon their zords and they have a tough time handling the two with their individual zords when Tyrannosaurus get caught in a web, beaten up by the two and the rest get blasted by Scorpina.  The team needs Tommy and instead of Zordon just telling Alpha to teleport Tommy to safety, he just tells Alpha "Tommy knows what to do". So...Zordon is psychic now?? The other rangers could die and instead of helping them right away he just believes Tommy will figure it out and save the day without their help. On one hand, this is stupid turn of events for the sake of unnecessary drama and on the other end, the Putties tie Tommy up with possibly the weakest rope in history, so I guess Zordon was right. Tommy tricks the Putties, escapes and kicks their asses (seriously, they could have guarded him MUCH better!!!) and morphs into action to help the others. Zordon telling him beforehand they must form the Ultrazord.

Back in the Sentai footage, Tommy arrives, calls the Dragonzord and the other rangers form the megazord to fight.....-_-....a flying wheel with sparks coming out of it!!! WOW!!! Dragonzord handles Goldar and Scorpina while the freakin' megazord struggles fighting a dumb ass wheel with sparks coming out of it!! I just....anyway, for an episode that first introduces the Ultrazord formation, this is such an anticlimactic bore. All this epic fire power against a freakin' giant spinning wheel, NOT an evil monster that was the toughest fight so far. Why even call for the Ultrazord, it's a F@#$IN' WHEEL!!!??? God, I hate this episode!!! Rita, who was watching the fight, leaves after the rangers won as well Scorpina and Goldar. I mean clearly the rangers are such badasses as they can destroyed an evil wheel!!! O_o The heck

Ummmm the spinning wheel is returned back to it's original spot, Bulk ruins the play and Kimberly takes bow. I hate this episode!!! I do like the idea of Rita using one of the rangers' own items against them by putting a spell on it (a precusor to Lord Zedd and his monster of the week schemes next season) but my God, this episode was forced filler and the plot was ludicrous!! I know this is Power Rangers but my God, did this episode stink. Worst one of the season so far and that's saying a lot compared to the basic, generic mess we've been getting for the most part this point in the show.

Final Morph: D+