The Mutiny

"So, poor old Zordon is still around, eh? Little does he realize that his pitiful teenage do-gooders are no match for me."

- Lord Zedd

The Mutiny is a three-part episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and the first storyline of Season 2. This episode features the first appearances of Lord Zedd and the Thunderzords.

Synopsis
Rita Repulsa has been removed from power, and now her master Lord Zedd threatens the Earth with powers unlike anything ever seen before. The Power Rangers must step up their game if they hope to survive against this new enemy.

Part 1
The Power Rangers have entered themselves in a four-wheeler race to raise money for charity. As always, Bulk and Skull brag that they will defeat the heroes, even though Kimberly reminds them that it's a charity event. Mr. Caplan drops the green flag and the race is on. Up in the Moon Palace, Rita Repulsa is getting ready to launch her newest scheme to destroy the Power Rangers, but a sudden lightning storm sends everybody into a panic. Goldar declares that the storm can only mean one thing: the return of the evil Lord Zedd. The lightning storm is also seen on Earth, causing concern among the Rangers as they continue the race.

Goldar heads to a new area of the Moon Palace to meet with Lord Zedd, a fearsome man of exposed muscle and twisted metal who has already turned the room into his personal Chamber of Command. Goldar quickly swears loyalty to Zedd, who rewards Goldar by returning his wings to his back. Rita then attempts to pledge her own loyalty, but Zedd shows no forgiveness towards her due to her many failures. To prove his superiority, Zedd uses his power to create Z Putty Patrollers, a more ornate and more powerful version of the familiar clay soldiers.

Zordon summons the Power Rangers to the Command Center with distressing news of Lord Zedd's arrival. He fears that the Rangers' current powers will not be enough to defeat Earth's new menace, but he is unable to do anything about this for the time being. Meanwhile, Zedd has run out of patience with Rita's continued grovelling and strips her of her magic wand and her powers, then orders her banished from the Moon Palace. Adding insult to injury, Zedd has his Z-Putties bring out a miniature version of Rita's original space dumpster and shrinks her to the size of a doll. Goldar enjoys one last laugh at his former master's expense as he seals Rita in the dumpster so that Zedd can cast it off into deep space. With Rita out of the picture, Zedd turns his attention to the Power Rangers.

Back on Earth, Bulk and Skull have crashed their four-wheelers and are attempting to steal the Rangers' own when Z-Putties arrive and send them into a panic. The Rangers morph and arrive to save them, but the new breed of Putty prove tougher for them to handle than Rita's version did, more so when Tommy's Green Ranger powers begin to fail mid-battle. While Bulk and Skull cheer from nearby, Jason connects with a punch on the Z-emblem of a Putty, causing it to explode. The other Rangers follow suit and soon the entire pack is crumbled to dust. As the heroes return to the Command Center, however, an awestruck Bulk declares to Skull that they have a new goal: to reveal the Power Rangers' true identities and become famous.

At the Command Center, the Rangers admit that finding the Putties' weak point so quickly was luck and realize that if Zedd's Putties are that tough, then his monsters must be even worse. Zedd proves them right when he transforms a piranha into the monster Pirantishead. Tommy is unable to join the fight due to his weakened powers, and so the other five Rangers head back to action without him. Pirantishead appears in Angel Grove to taunt the Rangers and shows his power by blasting buildings to pieces. The Rangers respond by summoning the Dinozords. Part 1 ends as Pirantishead freezes the Mastodon, Pterodactyl, Triceratops and Sabertooth Tiger Dinozords in place.

Part 2
Although the other Zords are frozen, the Tyrannosaurus Dinozord is still active and the Rangers summon it to take on Pirantishead. The monster takes control of Tyrannosaurus, which then attacks the Rangers instead. After receiving a power boost from Zordon, a recharged Tommy arrives and the others apprise him of the situation. Tommy summons the Dragonzord to protect them from Tyrannosaurus. The two Zords begin fighting, and are evenly matched until Pirantishead takes control of the Dragonzord as well.

In the Command Center, Zordon tells Alpha they were fortunate to anticipate Lord Zedd's return, and instruct him to prepare for 'Phase 2'. Meanwhile, the Rangers are desperately trying to avoid the Tyrannosaurus and Dragonzord's attacks. Tommy attempts to distract the Zords by playing the Dragon Dagger, and the Rangers leap to the top of a nearby building in an effort to reach the Zords' controls. That doesn't work, and the Rangers decide to retreat and consult with Zordon.

Back at the Command Center, Zordon and Alpha tell the Rangers that the Dinozords alone will be no match for Lord Zedd, so he plans to give them new Zords. The Rangers are introduced to the Thunderzords - the Red Dragon Thunderzord, Black Lion Thunderzord, Blue Unicorn Thunderzord, Yellow Griffin Thunderzord, and Pink Firebird Thunderzord. When Kimberly asks about Tommy, Alpha explains that his powers are still too weak and unstable to allow him access to a Thunderzord. Making matters worse, the Rangers must first regain access to the Dinozords before the Thunderzords can be summoned. Billy suggests he may be able to make a device that would block the signal controlling the Zords. Trini and Billy head off to work on the device in his lab, but Pirantishead is spotted at the rally and the other Rangers are forced to fight more Z-Putties in order to keep the racers from getting hurt.

At the rally, Bulk and Skull have stolen two four-wheelers from the Rangers and are trying to figure out the way to the finish line. Pirantishead appears and uses his powers to send the four-wheelers driving backwards. The monster then confronts the Rangers again and summons the Tyrannosaurus and Dragonzord to destroy the Rangers.

Part 3
Billy and Trini arrive with the device to stop Pirantishead's signal and activate it to no effect. With the Zords closing in on them, the Rangers form the Power Blaster and initially aim them at their Zords, but turn and blast Pirantishead at the last second. With the monster distracted, Billy fixes the device (he had put a battery in backwards) and activates it. At once, the attacking Zords are halted and the rest are unfrozen.

Furious, Lord Zedd uses his magic to sink the Dinozords below the Earth's surface, though Tommy sends the Dragonzord back to the ocean in an effort to save it. Zedd then throws a grenade down to Pirantishead, who uses it to grow to giant size. Back at the Command Center, Alpha reports that he was able to recover enough of the old Dinozords to create the Thunderzords. The Power Rangers summon their new Zords into battle, bringing a rare smile to Zordon's face as they come together into the Thunder Megazord.

Pirantishead makes the first attack by catching the Megazord in his chain weapon, but the Rangers recover and break the chain. With a mighty slash of its Thunder Saber, the Thunder Megazord finishes off Pirantishead and gives Lord Zedd his first taste of defeat. While Zedd rages in his throne room and berates all of his minions, Finster merely looks on from his workshop and mutters that his monsters would have won had Zedd used them instead.

Back at the Command Center, Tommy is informed that the Dragonzord's power is now as limited as his own and must be used sparingly, but the Rangers are confident that they will get their friend back to his full power. As for Rita Repulsa, the Viewing Globe reveals that she's still stuck in her dumpster and is singing to herself to pass the time. Everybody enjoys a good laugh at Rita's expense (even Zordon!), but they also see that Bulk and Skull are still stuck on their out-of-control four-wheelers.

The Rangers use Billy's device to get the vehicles back to normal, sending Bulk and Skull onto the ground in a heap. As Kimberly and Tommy help them recover, the bullies boast that they're going to expose the Power Rangers for who they really are. The Rangers simply laugh at the notion, but agree to give Bulk and Skull a lift to the finish line, where the group brings up the rear of the pack.

Episode info

 * Writer: Shuki Levy, Shell Danielson
 * Director: Shuki Levy

Cast

 * Austin St. John as Jason Lee Scott (Mighty Morphin Red Ranger)
 * Jason Frank as Tommy Oliver (Mighty Morphin Green Ranger)
 * Thuy Trang as Trini Kwan (Mighty Morphin Yellow Ranger)
 * Walter Jones as Zack Taylor (Mighty Morphin Black Ranger)
 * David Yost as Billy Cranston (Mighty Morphin Blue Ranger)
 * Amy Jo Johnson as Kimberly Ann Hart (Mighty Morphin Pink Ranger)
 * Paul Schrier as Farkas "Bulk" Bulkmeier
 * Jason Narvy as Eugene "Skull" Skullovitch
 * Henry Cannon as Mr. Caplan
 * David Fielding as Zordon (face)
 * Robert L. Manahan as Zordon (voice)
 * Romy J. Sharf as Alpha 5
 * Richard Steven Horvitz as Alpha 5 (voice) (as Richard Wood)
 * Machiko Soga as Rita Repulsa (Zyuranger Footage)
 * Carla Perez as Rita Repulsa (American Footage)
 * Barbara Goodson as Rita Repulsa (voice)
 * Ed Neil as Lord Zedd
 * Robert Axelrod as Lord Zedd (voice) and Finster (voice)
 * Takashi Sakamoto as Goldar (Zyuranger Footage)
 * Danny Wayne Stallcup as Goldar (American Footage)
 * Kerrigan Mahan as Goldar (voice) (as Ryan O'Flannigan)
 * Takako Iiboshi as Finster
 * Minoru Watanabe as Squatt
 * Michael J. Sorich as Squatt (voice)
 * Hideaki Kusaka as Baboo
 * Dave Mallow as Baboo (voice) (as Colin Phillips)
 * Ami Kawai as Scorpina
 * Wendee Swan as Scorpina (voice)
 * Scott Page-Pagter as Pirantishead (voice)

Errors

 * Original footage of Rita and her henchman standing on the Moon Palace's balcony during Lord Zedd's arrival is actually the balcony in Lord Zedd's part of the palace. However, later episodes would confirm much of Rita's portion of the palace remained intact, as she is seen walking on her old balcony on her way to Finster's nearby workshop in "The Wedding Part 1", and again when she is waiting with Squatt and Baboo for the ceremony to begin in "The Wedding Part 3". The lack of a proper U.S version of Rita's balcony in Season 2 is very surprising since a U.S version of Rita's balcony was already used for the U.S Goldar balcony shots in season 1. The only way to tell Rita's balcony from Zedd's balcony in Season 2 is by the complete lack of mist in the former.


 * Zedd creates Pirantishead from a piranha in the fictional Rampoon River, which is presumably meant to be located in Angel Grove. Piranha are native to South America and are not known to be found in the wild in North America.
 * When Pirantishead freezes the Dinozords, Pterodactyl Dinozord is suspended in midair. It's not clear why the Zord would not simply fall to the ground, unless the spell provides for its midair suspension.
 * The Sabertooth Tiger Dinozord is frozen while in the midst of the Megazord transformation, even though the Rangers didn't call for the Megazord and had yet to enter the Zords at all.
 * In Part III, Zordon refers to the new Megazord formation as the "Mega Thunderzord," even though he called it the "Thunder Megazord" (its official title) in just the previous episode when introducing the new Zords to the Rangers. This inconsistency would reappear in several upcoming episodes in dialogue from the Rangers themselves.
 * Red Ranger's Power Sword appears while Dragonzord runs amok on the city, but then disappears quickly in the next shot.
 * The Griffin Thunderzord does not look much like a griffin. It does not have an eagle's head; it looks more like a dragon with a backward-facing horn, which is much larger than the Unicorn Thunderzord's forward-facing horn.
 * The Lion Thunderzord has two extra rear legs during the American-produced transformation from the Mastodon.


 * Black Ranger's Power Axe appears to be missing some components from its design during the Power Blaster scene.
 * As Billy switches the upside down battery, some skin can be seen under his right glove.
 * When the Tyrannosaurus and Dragonzord nearly step on the Rangers before being released from Pirantishead's spell, the shadows on the ground clearly show two people holding the feet in order to create the forced perspective of the shot.
 * In the second-to-last shot of Part 2, the misty white aura surrounding the Tyrannosaurus and Dragonzord was missing.
 * During the battle sequence between Pirantishead and the Thunder Megazord, the Dino Megazord is briefly visible during the explosions, a result of the use of Zyu2 footage.
 * After Pirantishead is destroyed, Finster mutters under his breath that if he had used one of his monsters, he would have prevailed. The Rangers destroyed all of Finster's previous creations.
 * In "Doomsday," Billy said the Dinozords had a failsafe that transported them to their hiding places if they became so badly damaged that they were nearly destroyed. It is unclear whether that same failsafe was what allowed Zordon and Alpha to salvage the Dinozords when Zedd attempted to destroy them for good in Part 3.
 * Bulk and Skull's ATVs were still under the influence of Pirantishead's spell after he was destroyed, despite that fact the destruction of a monster typically cancels out any spells or effects it was having on the world and its people.

Songs

 * Ride the Machine (Parts 1 and 3)
 * Fight (Part 1)
 * Go Green Ranger Go (Part 2)
 * I Will Win (Part 2)
 * We Need A Hero (Part 2)
 * Combat (Part 3)
 * 5-4-1 (Part 3)