[PRangerX]

Its generally accepted that Mystic Mother was literally Rita. Jackie Marachand said so herself at Morphicon. Plus like you said, they mention her by name in the episode. Lets not forget the headache joke. The controversy lies in how it doesn't seem to fit continuity. Since we last saw Rita as a young woman in C2D. Plus Mystic Mother seems like someone that has been around in the postion for thousands of years.

Some fans like to explain this with time travel. I like to think that Rita was the daughter of the original Mystic Mother. Vile was either her real father or abduced her to be raised evil. After her purification Rita learned of her true heritage and became Mystic Mother. Maybe the magic Finister did to make her look younger was undone at some point. Or her age is directly tied to the state of good magic ( once she becomes Mystic Mother). Which was damaged by the Underworld by that point.