Top 10 Worst MMPR Season 2 Episodes

Hey everyone! I'm back again to talk about some of the worst episodes in Power Rangers' second season. It probably won't surprise any of you that I wasn't particularly keen on this season, but I'm going to try and point out what made some of its worst entries so terrible. Interestingly enough, I've found that there isn't really a connecting reason as to why these episodes stink. Season 2 had a lot of episodes that really blew, but they all blew on their own merits. That's admirable right?

I only proposed one rule for this list. The first is that I would stick to one episode from any multi-parters. There's a certain trilogy that would take up 3 spots on this list if I didn't exercise some restraint, so I thought that was only fair. 

I'm interested to hear what you good people think of this list as well. Maybe I'm being too hard on some of the lower-ranked episodes and they deserve a second chance. Maybe some of the episodes I ranked highest are some of you favorites. Though in this case I would certainly hope not. Please provide your 10 worst episodes of Season 2 in the comments, because I love to see how my opinions compare to other fans of the series. Now without further ado, let's talk some trash.

10: Scavenger Hunt

What could be less exciting than going on a scavenger hunt? Watching people participate in one.

Why would I ever care about the Ranger Teens finding a bunch of old garbage laying around the city? What happens if they lose? A big whopping bowl of nothing. The exact same thing that happens if they win. The only stakes in this episode were on Bulk's plate. If the central focus of your episode won't change the final scene whether our heroes win or lose, maybe you should try writing a second draft. 

But this one ranks really low because I wouldn't say it's abhorrent. It's colossally dull, but it's barely even worth my time. I just remember Lord Zedd not knowing the difference between a dimension and a galaxy. And Cannontop got shot by the Power Blaster while he was in a cemetery or something? Pass.

9: Rangers Back in Time Part 1

You know what I hate? Myself. You know what I hate almost as much? Precocious children. This episode wastes an absurd amount of time focusing on the Ranger Babies playing in the park, while adding nothing to them in the process. We don't see them behave in a way that would illustrate what they were like as kids; instead we have to watch a bunch of terrible child actors emulate a bunch of terrible adult actors. Then it all devolves into a groan-inducing dodgeball fight against Z-Putties. Pass. Try using a better Boy Meets World plot next time.

I'll give this episode one thing, and that's the ridiculous action from the kid who played Baby Tommy. Seeing him going apeshit on those Putties is one of the few moments worth watching in this snoozapalooza. But I already giffed it up there, so forget watching the actual thing. Save yourself the 20 minutes and do something more worthwhile. Like sit alone in complete silence with nothing but your thoughts for half an hour.

8: Zedd Waves

This episode gets a special place on the list for embarrassing me in front of a bunch of kindergartener friends back when I was 6 because I thought it would be cool to watch Power Rangers with them, but even they thought this trash was stupid. Well I showed them! Now I'm writing about how much it sucks too. We can be friends now right guys?! Oh…that's right. It's been 20 years. ...Oh God.

So as I was saying, this episode is lame. Beamcaster does nothing but fling his wand around and talk like some asshole radio DJ. Then he captures all six of the Power Rangers, and it barely has any impact. It should feel like Lord Zedd has scored a massive blow against the forces of good, but it's played as particularly mundane. This episode solely exists to show off how cool and rad the three new Ranger Teens are. Then they got hired and became three mannequins that exist to put magic pajamas on. Thanks for all the build-up, now get fucked.

7: Mirror of Regret

Mirror mirror on the wall, who regrets watching this episode most of all? Thank you to my Uncle Gene Shalit for writing the opening to this entry.

"Mirror of Regret" offered up a plot where Adam focused on becoming more self-confident. The problem is that they did an episode about Adam's shrinking violet tendencies the week before. I like that Adam was given some kind of character, but it was also explored in a horribly boring outing. Not only was it mundane, but it completely wasted Bulk and Skull. Hah. They moved around and got dizzy. Hysterical.

But this episode was okay, it was totally forgettable. It almost didn't deserve a place on this list. Then the fight with Skelerena happened. PU. What a total dumpster fire it was. The horrendously awkward cutting between Skelerena and the Rangers couldn't be any less engaging. Absolutely nothing happens, and then White Ranger has the gall to say that Skelerena is really tough. I'm glad we decided to debut our new Power Cannon weapon on the most hideously underwhelming monster in history. At least Beamcaster did something.

6: Welcome to Venus Island

What an enormous letdown. I thought this episode was going to keep up the pace with the majority of early Season 2. Then my hopes and dreams were shattered when I saw Billy charting out geographical patterns to locate an imaginary island.

This episode started with a pretty bad premise, what with Lord Zedd seeking out a child bride. Then he tells Goldar to carry around a magical bottle to tell him what to do and holy shit who could care? The Rangers spend half the goddamned runtime figuring out how to get to Venus Island, and I spend the remainder of the episode changing channels and watching reruns of Rugrats.

Invenusable Fly Trap seems like a cool monster, but she ends up feeling like a discount Terror Toad. Eating the Rangers with her chest hatch is essentially all she's able to do. Then she awkwardly flails her arms before getting unceremoniously murdered by the Power Blaster. We don't even get some spliced-together fight with her and the Thunder Megazord! You're better than this episode Chip.

5: Lights, Camera, Action

HEY KIDS, STAY IN SCHOOL! Has the check cleared yet? Okay, see ya.

Power Rangers is at its worst when it's absolutely cloying with morality. There are kids shows that can use a dash of subtlety when they broach serious topics, but MMPR simply isn't one of them. This episode exists to take you by the cheeks, lean in close, and scream about the importance of education until you get the goddamn point.

While that extreme moralizing is already obnoxious, the episode itself is equally wretched. I don't give a shit about the Power Rangers being interviewed on some doofus talk show. I don't want clips of the fight with Pudgy Pig. I want something fun and exciting, not the White Ranger reminiscing about his misadventures on Gabbin' With Garvey.

Then that asshole Showbiz Monster? Give me a break.

Oh, and before I forget. Commenter Stuart J.A. mentioned one of the worst lines in this episode that I completely neglected when I reviewed this episode. When the Rangers learn about Showbiz Monster attacking the city by standing around in stock footage, Tommy shouts, "Lights, camera, we're Morphing into action!" Holy fucking yuck. Keep this dreck off of primetime.

4: Rocky Just Wants to Have Fun

I just wanted to have fun too. Then I watched this garbage.

What's the best way to learn about a character that's just been introduced? Well that's easy! You make an episode where that character is put under a spell that makes them act completely out of character. Even better is when this episode is the only character focus that said character gets in the entire season. What a beautiful idea. Introduce a character and give them zero development over the course of 30 episodes. Who were we talking about again?

This episode even managed to make Serpentera uninteresting. They build up an appearance with him, and it's all recycled footage from his debut. You know why this episode was made? Because the crew got the costume for a Pachinko machine monster and realized they were stuck with it. The only thing that makes me feel better about this trash is that Pachinkohead is currently shredded apart at the bottom of a woodchipper. Rest in pieces, shithead.

3: Beauty and the Beast

Anybody in the mood to throw up? Want some G-Rated rape allusions in your infant's karate program? Then this is the episode for you!

Yikes. This episode was a real horrible surprise. I don't mean to inject my lib-commie-pinko social justice agenda into this writing, but I think drugging a girl and forcing her to be your wife is a little grody. You can say I'm reaching a bit when I describe the plot that way, but I'm also not the one who had a high-school student stashed inside a location referred to as "The Cave of Fantasy."

If the rest of the episode were decent, then I might have just written this one off as being shitty. But of course not, we had to get the whole kit and kaboodle of terrible Power Rangers. Nobody will shut their mouths about how bad they miss Tommy, Jason doesn't make one appearance outside of suit, Bulk and Skull follow around some mystic who tricks them into eating a muffin, Trini puts on Yellowface, Mirror Maniac makes zero impact as a monster, and we have to spend time with the little characters that weren't: Richie and Curtis.

So no, the sexual politics of this Power Rangers episode aren't the only thing I dislike about it. It's a total dump from top to bottom. I kept putting it lower on the list, but it kept irritating me more and more as I reminisced about it. I seriously can't remember one thing I liked from this entire piece of shit episode.

And it's still only number 3.

2: Return of the Green Ranger Part 2

I can't stop hating this trilogy. When I think back on how wretched Season 2 could be, this miniseries is the first thing to come to mind. It's absolutely despicable from every angle. It's bursting at the seams with filler and conducts itself in the most half-assed manner possible. I don't know how a premise like "White Ranger fights Green Ranger" was handled so poorly, but holy macaroons did they ever botch it.

You'd expect the Power Rangers getting sent into colonial times to pay off at some point in this episode. It doesn't. They end up fighting some hideous rats. You'd expect to get a fun fight between the White and Green Rangers. You don't. They kick at each other a few times before the Wizard of Deception breaks a chair over Original Tommy's head and kills any buzz that could be felt. Then you think there might be one thing that could redeem this goblin vomit. Green Ranger plays on his Dragon Dagger, the Dragonzord starts to emerge from the seas, and then…credits. What an absolute fucking cocktease. My DVD may as well have flown out of this laptop and slapped me in the face.

This episode was so terrible that it actually insulted me. Parts 1 and 3 weren't much better, but Part 2 felt like it actively detested me. I had a difficult time not putting this episode at number 1, but I simply can't deny how terrible the final episode on this list is.

1: The Ninja Encounter Part 2

I know I'm not breaking any new ground by insulting this episode. I know it's basically a punching bag for anyone who gets invested in this series. But that doesn't change the fact that this episode represents the absolute nadir of Season 2, if not Power Rangers as a whole.

While every other episode on this list disappointed me in some way or another, at least they were complete episodes. They were embarrassing, depressing, and exhausting, but they were finished products. "The Ninja Encounter Part 2" feels like a workprint of an episode. Something that would be shown to fans at Power Morphicon and touted as a long lost episode. That's the only way this episode could be accepted as anything but an absolute mockery of the audience's time.

Terror Blossom shows up, fights three of the Rangers, then vanishes four seconds later. He summons the Hatchasaurus and effectively says "That should eat up the next 12 minutes. Peace out girl scouts." Then I have to watch as this goddamned episode uses the longest possible stock footage sequences to pad out a desperately shrinking runtime. This entire episode feels like a class project you finished 20 minutes before it was due.

Zordon explicitly references the previous encounter with Hatchasaurus when he tells Tommy that they'll need to take special precautions to defeat the monster. Hatchasaurus will only truly be killed when the Rangers disconnect its brain, Cardiatron. Zordon states this at least three times, so you'd expect it to mean absolutely anything. Nope. It's nothing but another sad and pathetic way to eat up time, because the Rangers never battle Cardiatron again. I've never seen a show adhere so closely to its own continuity, just to throw it out the window once the episode hit 20 minutes.

Not to mention the editing. Holy Christ on the cross the editing. See that horribly spliced shot of the Megazord fighting Hatchasaurus? That is simply pathetic. Someone got paid to make that and broadcast it to human beings. Someone looked at that and said "good enough." I've complained about some of the shoddy editing in Season 2, but things like that are utterly inexcusable. I couldn't make something that terrible on accident.

This episode can't be done justice by describing it. I tried during my write-up, but even that was barely scratching the surface. I could go on for another 40 pages on how insulting it is to the human condition, but it doesn't make any difference. This episode stands at the top of every terrible Season 2 episode as an affront to God and humanity. It dares you to justify the fact that it exists. It mocks you for believing in entertainment. This episode wants to defeat you, and the sad truth of the matter is that it's already won. Simply because it's still real. This absolute piece of shit will outlive all of us. This horrendously stitched-together hunk of garbage will be remembered longer than any of us will. When Hatchasaurus dies, he'll be revived. When we die, The Ninja Encounter Part 2 will still exist for future generations to watch and detest. Proving once and for all that our existence has been a cosmic joke.