‘THE GREEN CANDLE’ (MMPR)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
‘The Green Candle’ is another two-part ‘Power Rangers’ story in its first season and one that again changes the dynamic of the regular cast. It’s a ‘Power Rangers’ two-parter that focuses on Tommy, who loses his Green Ranger powers because of Rita Repulsa. He may never be a Power Ranger ever again.
In ‘Part I’, Tommy hopes to ask Kimberly to an upcoming dance whilst practicing martial arts with Zack. But Tommy seems nervous to ask Kimberly out. I’m surprised Tommy seems nervous about this. I’ve always found him confident, and Kimberly likes Tommy anyway. There is more than I know.
Anyway, Rita intends to steal the Green Ranger’s powers by using a power-draining candle, formed from magic wax. Once the candle has been burned out, Tommy’s power will be given to Rita. I’m surprised that it took this long for Rita to do that after she lost the Green Ranger many episodes ago.
When Tommy meets Kimberly and is about to ask her out to the dance, they get attacked by Rita’s Putties. The Putties capture Tommy, and he gets taken to Rita’s Dark Dimension where he faces Goldar. Goldar taunts Tommy a lot whilst he’s there, as he finds he’s losing his Green Ranger powers.
The other five Power Rangers seek to rescue Tommy, but Angel Grove is being attacked by Rita’s new monster called Cyclops. Cyclops is a one-eyed monster that can disguise himself as anything, including the Rangers’ Zords – the Dragonzord, the Dino Megazord and the Tyrannosaurus Dinozord.
The Zord fights featured in ‘Part I’ are very exciting to watch. It was fun to see the Dino Megazord fighting a fake Dragonzord before the real Dragonzord turned up. Tommy escapes the Dark Dimension and helps the Rangers to fight Cyclops. This is with difficulty, since he’s losing his powers.
‘Part I’ concludes with the six Rangers back at the Command Center and Zordon revealing that Tommy will soon no longer be a Power Ranger once the Green Candle is burned out. Surprisingly, ‘Part I’ appears to be standalone by the time it comes to an end, despite this being a two-part story.
In ‘Part II’, the story continues when Zordon says that someone must enter the Dark Dimension to retrieve the candle to save Tommy’s life and powers. Jason decides to go in. I like it when Tommy is anxious about this, but his friends seem determined to help him no matter what danger lies ahead. 🙂
The Rangers find a doorway into the Dark Dimension, as they locate the portal in the place where Tommy was kidnapped in ‘Part I’. Billy has also created a machine to allow them access into the Dark Dimension. When and how Billy found the time to create and build a machine like that astounds me.
There is a comedic sequence where Bulk and Skull almost ruin things for the Rangers when they find them setting up Billy’s machine on the top of a hill. They try to get rid of them because they claim the hill is theirs. I was anxious that Bulk and Skull would ruin things for the chances of saving Tommy.
Eventually, Jason enters the portal and he soon finds himself in the Dark Dimension where he gets to fight Goldar and he tries to get the Green Candle. Tommy meanwhile stays behind at the Command Center before Cyclops attacks the city again. Tommy soon goes to fight Cyclops with his Dragonzord.
Once the Rangers hear from Zordon about Tommy’s trouble with Cyclops, Zack goes into the Dark Dimension to get Jason back. This is so they can go and help Tommy. It will ruin their chances of retrieving the Green Candle from Goldar, but they decide that saving their friend is more important.
There is a rushed Megazord fight sequence with Cyclops by the story’s end, but it doesn’t give the Rangers time to go back and retrieve the Green Candle, since it’s already burned out. Tommy soon loses his powers, but he does get to transfer them to Jason, and it stops Rita acquiring them entirely.
It’s surprising that the Rangers don’t win in this ‘Power Rangers’ story. Tommy loses his Green Ranger powers and may never be a Power Ranger again. But who knows? Tommy may get to be the Green Ranger again someday, since Jason has saved Tommy’s powers whilst he was the Red Ranger.
Out of this loss for Tommy comes a great reward. Tommy meets up with Kimberly again and they both have their first kiss together. It’s rare to see two ‘Power Rangers’ characters kissing each other. In the end, Tommy asks Kimberly to be his date for the upcoming dance and happily, she says “Yes”.
‘The Green Candle’ is a good two-part story in the ‘Power Rangers’ TV series. Things change again in the Green Ranger saga with Tommy losing his powers for maybe a temporary period of time. Who knows whether Tommy will get his powers back, but at least he has found a romance with Kimberly.
‘The Green Candle’ (MMPR) rating – 8/10
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