Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always

 is a special. It is the 30 years reunion of the Power Rangers franchise and is a tribute to the late Thuy Trang and Jason David Frank.

Summary
"After tragedy strikes, an unlikely young hero takes her rightful place among the Power Rangers to face off against the team's oldest archnemesis."

- Official Netflix synopsis

"Thirty years after the wise and powerful Zordon formed the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the team comes face to face with a familiar threat from the past. In the midst of a global crisis, they are called on once again to be the heroes the world needs. This 30th Anniversary Special is inspired by the legendary mantra from the franchise “Once a Ranger, Always a Ranger,” meaning once you become part of the Ranger family, you are always welcome back."

- Official Netflix synopsis

Plot
In 2022, Billy Cranston is attacked by a robotic Rita Repulsa and a gang of Putties. He morphs into the Blue Ranger and leaps into battle, later on joined by the other Power Rangers, Jason, Kimberly, Zack, Trini, and Tommy. Billy fights Robo-Rita and manages to damage her face, before being knocked to the edge of a cliff. Robo-Rita decides to channel her new powers into a deadly blast from her magic wand. However, Trini saves Billy by diving into the path of the blast and is killed instead. Robo-Rita then retreats to the Dark Dimension, leaving the remaining Rangers to grieve over the loss of Trini.

Back at Trini's house, Billy and Zack have an argument about how and when to break the news to Trini's daughter, Minh. Zack doesn't want to tell her that they're Power Rangers, remembering Zordon's rule about never revealing their identities. Billy argues that there's exceptions to every rule and Minh deserves to know exactly how her mother died. However, Minh has walked in on the conversation and immediately runs off in distress. Billy tells Zack that they need to tell her everything.

A year later, Zack has moved in with Minh and has become her guardian, giving up his career in congress to do so. They go to the cemetery to visit Trini's grave, planning to meet up with the other Rangers to commemorate the anniversary of their teammate's death. However when they get there they find the others have been confronted by Robo-Rita, who has resurrected Snizzard and Minotaur in new robotic forms. Snizzard captures Jason, Tommy and Kimberly and imprisons them in a machine that will slowly drain their energy. Knowing they're outmatched, Billy, Zack and Minh retreat in Billy's new RADBUG.

Back home, Minh expresses her desire to get revenge on Robo-Rita to Zack and Billy, but they advise her not to get involved and let them sort things out. She angrily lashes out at Billy, blaming him for her mother's death.

Zack and Billy head to a hidden Command Center located beneath Cranston Technologies. While trying to make a plan, Billy admits to Zack he truly is at fault. The year before, he had been attempting to revive their deceased mentor Zordon by finding his particles that remained after the Z-Wave and reconstituting him. However, he accidentally drew in the evil particles that had been purged from the original Rita which took over the body of Alpha 8.

Suddenly, they receive alerts about hordes of Putties attacking random people throughout the universe. Alpha's successor, Alpha 9 initiates the Bandora Protocol, summoning all Power Ranger teams. The call is answered by former Pink Ranger Kat Hillard and former Red Ranger Rocky DeSantos. While this is going on, Minh learns of Putty Patrols invading worldwide through a BuzzBlast post. Driven by the desire for revenge, she grabs her mother's Power Morpher and sets out.

Despite Zack's warning, Kat and Rocky are given proxy Power Coins so they can again morph into Power Rangers. However, Snizzard and Minotaur have been tracking Rangers all over the universe by using the Putties as bait to lure them into the same machine that trapped the other Rangers. Upon learning of this, the Rangers de-morph and fall back.

Back at the Command Center, the Rangers discover that Minh is at the Juice Bar and is under attack. Minh is able to hold her own briefly, but is overpowered after a failed attempt to use Trini's Morpher. Zack and Rocky teleport to the Juice Bar, defeat the Putties, retrieve Minh and bring her back to the Command Center. Zack takes Trini's Morpher away from Minh, scolds her for seeking revenge instead of justice, and after a heart-to-heart conversation where Zack tells Minh exactly what Billy was trying to accomplish, Minh finally calms down.

At a junkyard, Billy, Rocky and Kat morph to lure out Snizzard and Minotaur, then trap them on a giant electromagnet. The Rangers then use cloaking devices that Billy developed to make them invisible so they can infiltrate Rita's Moon Palace after consulting with S.P.A. agents (and former Rangers) Adam Park and Aisha Campbell who are heading back to Earth to help but are still hours away. However, after the Rangers leave, Minh grabs a spare device and Trini's Morpher, and escapes the Command Center. Minh then commandeers the RADBUG and takes off toward the junkyard, where she, after failing to morph for the second time, is abducted by Robo-Rita.

The Rangers find Rita's machine in her palace, seeing that she has already captured members of multiple Ranger teams. Billy discovers that Rita has been creating a time portal. Rita and her monsters arrive with Minh in tow and reveals her plan - to travel to the past and give knowledge of the future to her past self, allowing both Ritas to kill the Rangers before they are recruited by Zordon.

Rita attempts one more time to kill Billy with her wand, but Minh breaks free and takes the shot instead. She miraculously survives, and notices Trini's Morpher is glowing which flows memories of Trini as the Yellow Ranger to her signifying a transfer of power. The Rangers morph, and this time Minh is successful in morphing into the Yellow Ranger.

Rita then makes Snizzard grow but then Billy impales Rita with his Power Lance. Billy has Alpha teleport the Zords to the Moon where they form the Megazord. Billy and Minh take the Dino Megazord into battle against Snizzard, while the remaining Rangers defeat Minotaur in the palace. The Rangers join Billy and Minh in the Megazord while a wounded Rita attempts to use the portal. After a small struggle, the Rangers destroy Snizzard, which releases the captive Rangers. The Rangers immediately teleport back to the palace, where Minh holds down Rita, Kat destroys the machine, and Zack eliminates Rita.

Back on Earth, Adam and Aisha have finally arrived and load the freed Rangers onto their spaceship and set course for Aquitar, where they would heal up before returning home along with Kat, needing to head back to her son, J.J., and Rocky, heading back to his firefighter job.

Billy, Zack and Minh celebrate their victory at the Juice Bar, where Minh apologizes to Billy for blaming him about her mother and was teasingly grounded by him for stealing the RADBUG. Minh then reveals that the Morpher gave her memories of her mom back when she was a Ranger, and Billy notes the Morphin Grid is full of infinite possibilities so it may still be possible to bring Zordon back one day. Billy and Zack start telling Minh about some of their past adventures.

Cast and Characters

 * David Yost
 * Walter Emanuel Jones
 * Catherine Sutherland
 * Steve Cardenas
 * Charlie Kersh