Zack is still fading out of reality, and the others plead him to fight against Rita's spell. Rita laughs at their situation and Goldar says he will press ahead with phase 2 of the plan. Billy explains what's happening and Trini translates that the more Zack doubts himself, the more he fades away. Quagmire flashes on screen again, this time speaking directly to the audience with a rhyme about how only he knows Rita's ultimate plan. The team summons him back in desperation by remembering his name. He takes Kimberly's word that they aren't friends of Rita's and joins sides with them. He tells Zack that to regain his full self, he must think positive thoughts. The others encourage him to try it and he thinks about his tough battle with the Knasty Knight, how he didn't think he would win but he persevered and won. And so he returns and celebrates with the others, but he's still wary of their being trapped on the island. Rita claims that the other Rangers will fall victim to her spell and not be so lucky. Zordon and Alpha are trying to regain contact with the team, but the Island is blocking their signal so Alpha tries to boost it. He suffers technical mishaps though, getting shocked several times. Quagmire tells the Rangers they must find the Power Coins on their own and teleports off, but they have no idea where to look. Billy somehow calculates that there's a strong chance they lie in a certain direction which he points out, and the Goldar vision interrupts saying he's going to cast a hallucination for Kim. She sees Bulk and Skull in tacky angel costumes, declaring very politely and properly that they've seen a small animal which they must protect. Naturally, she is quite bewildered. The others tell her there's nobody there. She declares that if Rita can make the two numbskulls be nice like that, she can do anything with her magic, and Kim starts to fade herself. They call Quagmire quickly who tells her to remember the fight she had with the Toad monster and her victory over it. This easily causes her to restore. Putties then manifest in Tommy's sight, but of course it's another illusion. He sees Jason as one of them and although Jason is trying to talk sense into him, he swings some punches and kicks at the "Putty" and some of the others.
Alpha continues to suffer comical accidents. The villains gloat at having turned the other Rangers at Tommy. He starts to fade out and Quagmire entreats him to be positive. He remembers beating the Putties in a solo fight and fades back to fullness. Some of the others congratulate him but Trini wanders away with Billy as Rita casts a spell to make them do just that. She's sat down and worried that Rita will be after her next, and slowly fades away. This is accelerated by a bad memory of Billy being chased up a cliff by a Putty. Quagmire reminds her of how she protected Billy and flung the Putty off a cliff. Billy is next to fade, being upset that even his book smarts can't get them out of this situation. Quagmire reminds him of his triumph against Madam Woe, and he successfully fades back. Jason says it's time to find the Coins, but Goldar taunts him that a real leader would have already had them out of the predicament by now. He fades too as Rita applies the spell to him, and Quagmire has no advice this time. He hallucinates the entire team vanishing, and his rate of disappearance speeds up. Quagmire then tells him to remember his battle with King Sphinx, and this lifts him out of the spell too. Rita is furious. The communicators remateralize along with the Power Coins which were on them the entire time. Rita actually grabs the pocket-dimension model of the island, shaking it to cause an earthquake before throwing it away.
They morph and teleport away just as she destroys the island. Returning to their Zords and quickly clearing them of the poison foam, they raise them to their feet. Rita is shocked as they form the Mega Dragonzord. Mutaytus advances on them but they unleash a volley of laser blasts on it, before walking through its own attacks. It reacts in horror. They generate a full power Z-blast wave, utterly obliterating the monster. They then summon Titanus and form the Ultrazord mode to attack Lokar. It rolls forward and fires off all its weapons on the spirit, but it flies away to return another time. Back at the Youth Center, it's time for the dance contest. Bulk makes a complete fool out of himself, eventually spinning and falling. Skull shows up and tries to one-up his friend, but Bulk tosses him out of the way and finishes his big number. The judges award him scores of 0, 1 and -3, but the two don't seem to care. Ernie calls up Zack and despite his initial doubts, the others psyche him up and he knocks it out of the park with flipping, grooving hip hop dance moves. The disk jockey is apparently none other than Quagmire. Zack scores a perfect 10, 10, 10 and is declared the winner. The whole team celebrates his victory by boogying down.
Tropes
- Accidental Misnaming: When the Rangers see that Quagmire is the DJ during the dance contest, Kimberly calls him "Quasimodo."
- Behemoth Battle: The Dinozords' rematch against Mutaytus and Lokar.
- Clip Show / Flash Back: The second half of this two-parter is footage of the Rangers remembering their most prominent battles over the first half of the season.
- Dark Is Evil / Light Is Good: Lokar's presence on Earth had caused the sky to darken in the previous episode. Once the apparition is driven off by the Ultrazord, the darkness fades and the sun shines brightly once again.
- Flashback-Montage Realization: As the Rangers begin to vanish due to doubting her own strength, they recall their past trials and victories and regain their confidence and avoid fading away.
- Little People Are Surreal: Quagmire.
- Mysterious Backer: Just who or what is Quagmire anyway? All that's really known is, he seems to be some enemy of Rita. He never appears again, so it's anyone's guess.
- No-Sell: Faced with the Mega Dragonzord, Mutaytus fires a beam of demonic power at the Zord. The Mega Dragonzord does not care one bit and simply walks through the resulting explosions.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: For all her silliness, Rita pulls this. On top of nearly killing the Rangers with their worst fears, when Rita gets fed up with her illusions failing, she decides to finally try and kill the Rangers herself. How does she do this? By growing big enough to manhandle the entire island. She then proceeds to obliterate the entire island with the Rangers only barely escaping. Silly she may be, but it's a reminder of why Zordon considers her a threat.
- Oh, Crap!: Rita gasps in horror when the Rangers destroy Mutaytus.
- One-Winged Angel: It only lasts a few moments, but when the Island of Illusion fails to kill the Rangers, Rita grows so huge she can shake and throw the island like a toy.
- Rhymes on a Dime: Quagmire does this throughout the two parter, although not all his rhymes make complete sense. For example, he refers to Madam Woe (a Monster of the Week who appeared in a previous episode) as a "nightmare queen" who Billy fought in a "realm of dreams," which doesn't really describe Madam Woe or the actual battle at all.
- It made sense in regards to Zyuranger, where Woe's counterpart Dora Laygor did in fact kidnap children in their dreams to make them into a liquid for a storm that Bandora planned to use in order to wipe out humanity. It would appear to be inconsistent writing on part of the American staff.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Lokar pulls a fast one after being bombarded by the Ultrazord. Considering that his Sentai counterpart is Satan, this is quite the accomplishment for the Rangers.
- Silent Antagonist: Mutaytus still doesn't talk.
- Troll: All of Rita's illusion spells count, but the one which makes Bulk and Skull out to be charitable paragons of virtue takes the cake. Although it does prefigure their later character development which would see them become much more agreeable and noble guys.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Most of the fearful illusions the Rangers are faced with are things they're phobic of, or the other Rangers dying, or not being good enough to save the team. Kimberly's terrifying illusion? Bulk and Skull being nice.
