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30 Years Ago, The Blue Ranger Almost Defeated The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers have faced some truly powerful adversaries over the years, including the always diabolical Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd. Those villains tend to do the most damage whenever the Rangers have to face one of their own, with the Green Ranger saga immediately coming to mind. 30 years ago, though, it was actually the Blue Ranger who almost took down the Power Rangers once and for all.
On May 30, 1995, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers aired its 52nd episode titled Blue Ranger Gone Bad, and from the title, you already have an idea of where this is going. What is different from previous instances of a Ranger turning evil is the method, as Billy wasn’t turned evil or mind-controlled to turn against his friends. Instead, Goldar and the crew managed to magically create another version of Billy from a statue, and he would leave the other Rangers at the mercy of a monster without any way to fight back. That was due to the fake Billy stealing the team’s morphers, and it would take the real Billy returning to save the day. You can watch the full episode in the video below.
The Power Rangers Discover Two Different Billys
One of the most interesting aspects of the episode is how Rita and Zedd infiltrate the Power Rangers. Instead of actually turning Billy against the Rangers, they utilize a statue he created in class and magically make that statue into a living Billy clone.
The new Billy looks exactly like the old one, but they have to make a switch to make this plan work. Zedd and Rita then send a group of Putties to go after the Rangers, and when Billy is singled out from the other Rangers, they swap him out with their clone and imprison the real Billy in Goldar’s prison.
The new Billy then gets to work and says he needs to fix everyone’s Morphers and communicators, but some of them want to keep theirs just to be safe. While everyone is distracted, the clone manages to steal the other Morphers anyway, so when the Rangers have to fight the latest monster from Rita and Zedd, they aren’t able to Morph.
They are getting kicked around quite a bit as a result, but luckily, the real Billy is able to break out and return to his friends, and when he gets back, he is able to grab the Morphers and get them to the rest of the Rangers in time to tip the scales. At the end of the day, you always want Billy on your side and not the other way around.
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