Power Rangers Once and Always Brings Back Hilarious Piece of Lore to Address Canon Issue

The 30th anniversary of Power Rangers is rapidly approaching and Netflix just dropped a sneak peek clip. Not only does it feature four of the returning Mighty Morphin Power Rangers but it also casually drops in a huge bit of deep cut lore.

In the clip, Billy explains that he and Alpha have been experimenting with secondary connections to the Morphin Grid, which will allow all of the Rangers to use Dino powers. Zack worries that, per a warning from Zordon, duplicating active powers is “very dangerous.” Kat however responds, “I don’t care how dangerous too much pink energy is.”

This sequence is most likely meant to explain away the fact that original Red Ranger Jason and original Pink Ranger Kimberly have been captured off screen while morphed (and explain why their actors aren’t in this special). It helps clear up any issues regarding how two people can be using the same powers at the same time, something that was rarely seen in the original series. 

This ties back to the “pink energy” line, which is itself a direct callback to the MMPR episode “Wild West Rangers, Part II.” In that episode, Kimberly inadvertently time traveled back into the past of the Old West and had to fight monsters on her own. Needing help, she teleported to Zordon and Alpha (also in the past) and asked for the Power Coins so she could give the Rangers’ ancestors powers. Alpha stated he had the power coins for Red, Black, Blue, Yellow, and Pink but Zordon specifically told Kimberly that, “You already have the energy from your pink coin. Too much pink energy is dangerous.”

At the time, this line was simply written as a way to explain why Kimberly doesn’t give the past pink coin to someone else. However, it’s also a line that, divorced from context, is just hilarious. “Too much pink energy is dangerous” is something that could only be said with a straight face in the Power Rangers universe. It’s a line fans have lampooned for a long time, and the fact it’s now being used as a genuine way to explain away what could have been a continuity nightmare is the cherry on top.

But why aren’t they worried about duplicating non-pink energy? Is ONLY too much pink energy dangerous? That’s what many fans believe but there is precedence for too much of other color energies being dangerous as well. In Power Rangers Dino Thunder, there were at one point two White Rangers running around, though after some time they started to weaken. It was revealed that there was a “glitch in the Morphin Grid. Two White Rangers can’t exist simultaneously. Eventually one has to go.”

This line helps to establish why more than just pink energy is dangerous but also that two powers of the same color can exist together, if only for a short period of time. After all, Billy and an Evil Billy faced off in the season 2 MMPR episode, “Blue Ranger Gone Bad,” morphed using the same coin, and briefly fought each other with no intense side effects before the Evil Billy was defeated. Same with the Red, Yellow, and Black Rangers during MMPR’s “The Power Transfer.”

With the Netflix special going as deep cut as the “pink energy” line (which helps connect it to all the other episodes we mentioned), the team behind this special have clearly done their research. What other easter eggs and references can fans expect when the special drops on Netflix on April 19? We can’t wait to find out!