Kimberly and Trini watch over a mischevious little girl named Maria as part of a "Big Sisters" project. Things get harry when Rita and company discover the Power Eggs, objects that could increase the former's powers to the point of utterly annihilating the Power Rangers, and kidnap Maria in order to obtain them. Introduces the Radbug.
Tropes
- Artifact of Doom: Zordon states that if Rita gets her hands on the Power Eggs, she will become unstoppable.
- Ascended Extra: Variation; the "Radbug" in Zyuranger was a nameless vehicle that Prince Euro and his servants used to travel around. Here in Power Rangers it was invented by Billy and used multiple times throughout this season, but doesn’t appear anywhere beyond the initial 40 episides.
- Behemoth Battle: Dino Megazord vs. Chunky Chicken.
- Big Eater: Zack orders an enormous banana split but Jason doesn't think he can finish it. Sadly we'll never know since he has to abandon it to go save Maria.
- Also, Ernie mentions that Jason and Billy ordered the same thing separately. Whoa...
- Bratty Half-Pint: Maria, a mouthy girl who's prone to running away from her caretakers only to then prank random people to get their attention. In the ending she brags about having become popular in school after being saved by the Rangers.
- Children Are Innocent: The Power Eggs are protected by a magical security system that repels evil forces, thus Rita solves this by kidnapping Maria to take them because only innocent beings like her can open their container.
- Composite Character: Chunky Chicken a.k.a. Dora Cockatrice was two separate entities in Zyuranger.
- Cool Car: We're introduced to the Radbug in this episode.
- Cool Big Sis: What the Big Sisters project is all about, of course. Trini and Kim act as this to Maria, though it takes some time at first.
- Cosmic Plaything: In this episode Bulk is literally doing nothing but minding his own business eating ice cream until Kimberly accidentally drops the bowl of chili getting it all over him in the ending. See below the behind-the-scenes reason why, but still. When he's not a Karmic Butt-Monkey he becomes a
Designated one. - Defiant Captive: Maria continues to level insults at her captors even as they dangle her from an old factory building.
- Demoted to Extra: Variation; the Power Eggs were one of the main plot points in Zyuranger being that they were the last dinosaur eggs and Bandora (Rita) wanted to smash them in order fully exterminate the dinosaurs. Here they are merely items that Rita wants for power and they are never brought up again after this.
- Bulk and Skull, who don't show up until the end of the episode. And their only scene was footage originally shot for the first episode, meaning the actors didn’t actually film anything for this episode.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Stands out amongst most episodes since the Rangers summon the Megazord before the monsters get bigger. Granted, this was also the case in Zyuranger.
- Easily Forgiven: Kim and Trini don't get mad or discipline Maria for the prank she pulled at the gym, instead they just assure her that they'll always be her friends and immediately take her on a picnic.
- Establishing Character Moment: Maria's prank at the gym. See below.
- Feathered Fiend: Chunky Chicken is a grotesque chicken monster armed with shears.
- Friendless Background: Implied with Maria, who also implies to have a When You Coming Home, Dad? going on.
- Giant Robot Hands Save Lives: The Megazord saves Maria this way after Rita cuts the rope she's dangling from.
- Girls Have Cooties: Inverted. Maria is repulsed and calls all the boys in her class "dorks" upon Kim asking who's the raddest one.
- Innocuously Important Episode: It was this episode that first mentioned the Morphin Masters - ancient wizard-type beings with deep connections to the Morphin Grid itself - via the backstory of the Power Eggs. Although the show would never mention them again, the fandom (who have theorized that characters like Zordon and Ninjor could be potential Masters) and especially the Boom! Studios comic book series (who used a fallen Morphin Master as the main villain of their "Beyond the Grid" arc) have never forgotten. They return to the television screen in a BIG way in Power Rangers Dino Fury as it's revealed that they've had a hand in the non man-made Power Rangers trinkets — from Dino Gems, Energems and the Ninja Steel/Nexus Prism — and watching over the Power Rangers, with implications that they helped revive Steel and Kendrix in the finales of their shows.
- Make My Monster Grow: Done by Rita to Chunky Chicken.
- Mama Bear: Both Kim and Trini get aggressive at the prospect of Maria getting hurt by Rita's henchmen, especially Trini, when she goes as far as threatening Chunky Chicken upon him cutting Maria's rope.
- Monster of the Week: Chunky Chicken.
- Mouthy Kid: Even when dangling from a rope, Maria trash talks the Monster of the Week.
- The Prankster: Maria makes her entrance by shutting off the boy's locker room's hot water, sending the guys out in a tizzy.
- Shear Menace: Chunky Chicken's weapon of choice, which also double as his Dimensional Cutter.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich: See above with Big Eater.
- Villainous Glutton: Squatt salivates over the Power Eggs but Baboo keeps him on a leash.
- Vocal Evolution: Here Goldar's voice begins to deepen to what most fans recognize him as. It will flip flop somewhat until "Rita's Seed of Evil".
- Walking Shirtless Scene:
- Zack is completely without his shirt in the first scene, much to his fangirls' and fanboys' delight.
- The boys who run from the locker room, thanks to a prank by Maria.
- Weaponized Teleportation: Chunky Chicken uses his shears to cut up a portal for himself and avoid the charging Megazord, before ambushing it from behind by coming out of another one.
- Would Hurt a Child: Averted and played straight. Rita kidnaps Maria, but only because she needs her to get to the Power Eggs, but afterwards she keeps her hostage and almost has her fall to her death.
