We open at the youth center as Jason is trying to break a bench press record, all while Ernie is giving encouragement with a sandwich in one hand and a drink in the other. He’s like Mickey, only fat, and quick to be easily distracted and lose count. And that’s exactly what happens, and the villain known as exposition over Angel Grove High’s school record distracts him, screwing Jason up. Rita sees Jason as weak on his own (despite the fact that he’s done over 1000 presses), and comes up with a fresh idea to take him out. Nah, it’s just Goldar and the monster of the week as usual.
So, Jason does it all again, getting almost to the 1010 record needed, but of course, that’s just when Kimberly blows a giant bubble with her gum, distracting everyone again, including Ernie. And this is made worse by Zack crashing into Kimberly, popping the gum all over one another. Rita continues her plan from her castle, as Finster suggests the monster they use is the powerful King Sphinx, who can use his wings to blow the other rangers away, making Jason a prime victim on his lonesome.
Back at the juice bar, we’re finally given some reprieve from Jason bench pressing, only to be distracted by wacky hijinx. He accepts the apology from Zack for screwing his set up for the 12th time (though it was really Kimberly who caused it, but whatever). Jason is bummed about not breaking the record, and doesn’t want to be labeled a quitter if he doesn’t succeed. Maybe doing it in a busy juice bar with Ernie of all people keeping score is a bad idea.
The misery of our heroes is enough for Bulk and Skull to show up and mock Jason for his failures, especially since the record (shockingly) belongs to Bulk. He can’t master martial arts to save his life, but he’s good with the weight set. At least he’s good at something other than antagonizing at this stage in the series. Bulk puts Jason in a clutch, to which Jason counters by tickling in the gut, followed by a stomp to the foot. And in the ensuing action, Bulk splits his pants in oh-so-comical fashion, with Skull sending them to the ground in even more comical fashion.
Zordon contacts Jason, Kimberly, and Zack, much to the confusion of Ernie. Yeah, maybe having a watch that plays a certain beeping theme would be the likely thing to cause some unwanted attention. Zordon briefs them about King Sphinx attacking the park. The rangers morph into action, and we get something fresh at this point in. A putty fight from the sentai footage, and not from the American end. And all this while Squatt and Baboo do nothing as always.
The monster of the week, as previously mentioned, is King Sphinx, and is easily one of the show’s best monster designs. A physically imposing monster bedecked with Egyptian garb. He also looks scary with his freaky looking dog face. He definitely stands out in a show with at times some very horrible monster designs.
He manages to use his wings to somehow send Kimberly back to the youth center and out of her ranger uniform. Next is Zack, who is also suddenly sent back. Though you’d think with how busy the youth center is on a regular basis that someone would notice that two teens just randomly popped out of thin air onto the balance beam. This leaves Jason alone. And the situation is made worse when King Sphinx teleports the two of them to the middle of the mountains. More brawling ensues, with Goldar randomly showing up to make the odds harder. Then, Rita adds further fuel by growing the two monsters.
Kimberly and Zack finally contact Trini and Billy who weren’t even made aware of the situation beforehand. Way to go Zordon, the rangers could have had a better chance at beating King Sphinx with all of his friends. But I know you have to bow to the almighty sentai footage, so it couldn’t be helped. They head to the command center and learn of Jason’s whereabouts, but still can’t get to him. Luckily Zordon has pulled another trick out of his ass… err… tube. He gives them the power crystals, which can be used to find Jason.
They teleport the crystals to Jason, which manages to send them right to the heat of battle. With everyone present, it’s time for the zords to arrive on the scene. They all link up, eventually forming the mighty Megazord for the first time since episode 1. With the Megazord in full form, it’s time to kick some ass. Or not, as the zord gets attacked some more by Goldar and King Sphinx, forcing it back into tank mode, then back into battle mode. This is actually a pretty solid zord vs monster fight, as there’s actually a far bigger challenge for the Megazord. It’s not just a “brawl with the monster, then destroy it” kind of fight, as the duo of Goldar and King Sphinx actually manage to be a formidable force against the rangers, even getting the advantage for most of the fight.
But eventually, they pull out the mega power sword from the heavens above, and use its powers to finally slash through King Sphinx, who blows up wonderfully. However, Goldar once again escapes, to be chewed out by Rita once more. And the episode ends where we started with Jason bench pressing again. Only this time it’s Trini and the rest of Jason’s friends making sure to keep score. And he manages to finally succeed without comedic incident. Ernie knew this was going to happen I guess, as he has a cake prepared for the situation. It says “Happy Birthday, Mom”, but give Ernie a break, the man at least did something semi-competently. Oh, I wonder if that cake’s gonna be thrown into Bulk and Skull?
What a shocker.
A Pressing Engagement is an okay episode. Though the conflict with Jason’s constant bench press failures got annoying, and the comedy is mixed in quality in this one, especially from Bulk and Skull, it is easily made up for with a great monster for this episode in King Sphinx, and a riveting zord vs monster fight. Plus, it’s the first monster actually destroyed by the battle mode Megazord. We get a new item in the power crystals, though going in with barely little memory of most of the show, I don’t remember if they were ever used to any major capacity other than this episode. In the end, this is an example of the show finally starting to fit into its regular formula, and we’ll definitely be expecting more plots similar in tone to this one.