Power Rangers Review: "Goldar's Vice Versa"

I promised this quite a bit, not just to myself, but to others in my past Power Rangers Reviews. And as two-time WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels said in a June 2005 episode of Raw, "I made a promise, and I'm here to deliver." I remember this so well for so many reasons, one of them being that for Adam Park, Aisha Campbell, and Rocky DeSantos, this was their first full episode as Power Rangers. All three quickly embraced being part of the sextet, especially Adam, who was ready for anything back in Part II of "The Power Transfer."

What Adam was not ready for was the Vice Versa dance. The Vice Versa dance operated like the Sadie Hawkins dance: the girls asked out the boys. Adam was hopeful that he would be asked out, but he hadn't as of yet. Meanwhile, Bulk and Skull were hiding from a pair of girls who were just like them, and wanted very badly to ask them out. As for Zedd, well, he had his own plans for quite the date for Adam. Oh boy.

Aisha suggested a girl named Sarah Diaz to Adam, who was taken immediately but he worried about his approach. Finally, at a nearby park, Adam spots Sarah and is about to go for it, and it's right at that exact moment that Zedd sends the Putties. Ay caramba! Adam fights off the claybrains, but after he does, he sees that Sarah's gone. So Adam is out of luck, until...

Adam and Aisha take notice of this new girl, named Sabrina, showing off her martial arts moves--very well at that. Adam's taken by her, but Sabrina's introduction, well, is quite thorny. As Sabrina approaches Adam, she rudely shoves her gym bag right into Aisha--acting like Aisha doesn't even exist. Sabrina works her flirtation magic on Adam; meanwhile, Bulk and Skull receive notes from someone who "has what they're looking for." The pair assume it has something to do with their Power Rangers quest, but they continue to try to avoid their romantic pursuers.

Meanwhile, Adam is totally drunk on Sabrina. Seriously, if his nose were any more wide open, it could easily catch a TD pass in the Super Bowl. Aisha voices her immense doubts on Sabrina, but Adam suggests a hike together, just the three of them, so Aisha can warm up to Sabrina. Aisha, for Adam's sake, agrees.

All the while:

Yeah, that's not suspicious at all. When I first saw this episode, I beamed at this, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that, I mean I actually beamed. A very distinct gold flash just happens to appear as Sabrina mentions Aisha being a possible obstacle in her plan? "Could it be?" I thought as I watched this. Actually, I didn't think that. I was too busy beaming and being in awe to conjure up complete sentences at that time.

So the hike goes as one expects. Sabrina pretty much triples down on her bitchy demeanor towards Aisha, and flatly tells Adam that she'll never like Aisha. Meanwhile, Zedd gushes over seeing that two Rangers have fallen into the trap, and it's followed by Goldar and a group of Putties appearing to the trio. Adam tells Sabrina to take cover. Sabrina's response:

"Thanks for the advice, Power Ranger, but I can take care of myself!"

And there she is, folks! Sabrina officially revealed herself as Scorpina, back and every bit as vicious and wicked as she was in Season 1, with a cackle to match! We hadn't seen an active Scorpina since the "Return of an Old Friend" two-parter that brought Tommy back as Green Ranger. More gushing later, as Adam and Aisha are tied up, Kimberly and Billy inform Ms. Appleby about Sabrina, only to be informed that there's no new student named Sabrina registered. There's something rotten in Angel Grove, besides Goldar and the other minions, that is.

Kimberly, Billy, Rocky, and Tommy head to the Command Center and wonder about Adam and Aisha's whereabouts, with the four Rangers seeing their comrades tied up, and also seeing Scorpina, whose appearance shocked Kimberly.

"Scorpina!"

"Who's Scorpina?" asked rookie Ranger Rocky.

"Bad news, man," answered Tommy. "You're lucky you haven't had to deal with her yet."

The four Rangers morph (marking the debut of Kimberly and Billy's new morphing scenes, as well as Rocky's first scene altogether) and headed to rescue Adam and Aisha. After the Putties were defeated, Billy uses his Power Lance to free Adam and Aisha, who morph (for the first time) and join their comrades. Goldar and Scorpina grow, of course, leading to the Zords coming into play. It gets a bit too hot for Thunder Megazord and Tigerzord's Warrior Mode, so they form Thunder Ultrazord with Tor. After shots are fired, Goldar and Scorpina retreat.

The dance takes place, and it all ends well for Adam, as he ends up dancing with Sarah. As for Bulk and Skull, they receive one more note, and it's revealed that their admirers wrote them... with clear romantic designs on the pair. WOW!

"Goldar's Vice Versa," the 29th episode of Season 2 of MMPR, aired on November 12, 1994, and the episode marked Scorpina's return after being sidelined once Lord Zedd took over. To this day, however, I am bugged and bothered that we never got another appearance after that, but this was still delicious. For this episode, Sabrina Lu made her lone appearance as Sabrina/Scorpina, and she really played this very well. I still loved the beginning of Sabrina's reveal, the way she acted out Sabrina's demeanor, and of course, Sabrina's evil unveiling as Scorpina, complete with her intro line ("Scorpina, and I'm your worst nightmare!") and that cackle! Lu was terrific in that role, and while it sucks that we wouldn't see her return as Scorpina, at least we have this delicious nugget to look back on.

We were also treated to what would officially be the new norm regarding the Rangers' morphing sequences. Tommy's White Ranger morph debuted in the episode "Two for One," but the rest of them debuted in this episode. Kimberly and Billy received new sequences, while Rocky, Adam, and Aisha received their first. As you can see, they are all matching; all shown in their respective colored tank tops. I'll be honest, seeing Kimberly's new sequence for the first time slightly increased my crush on her, and I was nine years old at that time!

As you know, I have my theories, and regarding this, I think this was the first of many episodes that would see Rocky, Adam, and Aisha learn what Tommy, Kimberly, and Billy had to deal with in their time as Rangers. First, it was Scorpina returning. Then we would see a number of episodes featuring past monsters, and of course, we get a bigger return later in the season, and that will be saved for another story. It's amazing, this is my first review of a standalone episode (a non-multi-parter) since my review about the pilot. "Goldar's Vice Versa" was definitely iconic in its own right, but again, there are a lot more crazy moments from Season 2 to detail.

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