As the Rangers prepare for their Rumpelstiltskin play, Rita turns Kimberly’s grandmother’s spinning wheel into the Wheel of Misfortune.

Rehearsal
Episode Summary
The episode begins with our teen heroes rehearsing for a Rumpelstiltskin play with Principal Caplan…in his office? Bulk and Skull of course fare poorly, and Bulk isn’t even in costume: “Just adding a little touch of the ’90s, Mr. Caplan.”

Bulk gets on Kimberly’s bad side
He gets pretty rough with the spinning wheel prop and breaks it; this prop belongs to Kimberly, or rather, her grandmother, and she gets so, so pissed. This is the angriest we’ve ever seen her, so hats off to Amy Jo Johnson for her acting (no joke).

The others try to make Kimberly feel better
The Wheel
In the Juice Bar, the other Rangers try to cheer Kim up, and Tommy even offers to fix the wheel for her. But when they go back to the principal’s office to collect it, it’s gone! Rita stole it and turned it into a giant wheel of misfortune with spikes ‘n stuff.

Tommy is easily taken out by Putties
After looking for the wheel, Tommy is ambushed by Putties and tied up with thin-looking rope. Meanwhile, Goldar and Scorpina attack a quarry, so the other Rangers morph and get into their Zords.

This is a cool shot
Tommy manages to break free and joins the fight in the Dragonzord as the Wheel of Misfortune makes an appearance. Jason calls Titanus (from the last episode) for the first time, and all the zords combine into one and blast the shit out of everything.

The ultimate zord combination
The wheel turns back into its original form, good as new, just in time for the play.

Everyone backstage
Bulk screws up his lines and rips his tights on stage, then Kimberly tells the audience “The End” – but wait, nothing ended. They didn’t even tell the whole story! What kind of a play is this?

Bulk’s torn tights – you’re welcome
Thoughts
The play stuff in the first and last scenes was a bit fun and I even laughed at some of it. But the rest of the episode was rather unremarkable. The titular Wheel barely gets screentime and only shows up at the very end; understandable because the original Zyuranger episode didn’t have a lot of usable footage. It does make for a disappointing “monster” though.

Here’s the Wheel doing its thing
We do see some more of Tommy and Kimberly’s blossoming romance in this episode, though. I know some people like this. Maybe you will.

For all you Tommy X Kimberly ‘shippers out there
Random observation: After Tommy escapes the Putties and contacts Zordon, Zordon’s voice sounds weird and deeper. Like they wrote a new line at the last minute but couldn’t get the actor to say it in time, so they just had someone else say it.
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