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Another week, another search for an assassin. In last week’s episode, A Plush Ride, Michael went undercover to uncover the identity of an assassin hiding among a security team. This week, he’s once again on the hunt for a killer, this time targeting the newly elected leader of a small South American country. But does this episode bring anything new to the table, or is it just another rehash of an all-too-familiar plot by now?
The Plot
When Michael is assigned to protect Marie Elena, the daughter of a recently elected president, he discovers that a group of exiled political leaders is plotting to assassinate her father and regain control of the country. After Micky, a woman who unknowingly possesses crucial information about the plot, becomes a target, Michael must protect her while infiltrating a lavish mansion to uncover evidence of the assassination plan. With the conspirators closing in, Michael and KITT race to stop the killers before they can carry out their plan.
My thoughts
While the core plot element of figuring out the identity of an assassin initially made me cautious about another retread of the previous episode, this actually turns out to be a much more lighthearted affair, even throwing some good old-fashioned soap opera amnesia into the mix.
The episode centers around not one, but two attractive women. One is the daughter of the newly elected president of San Marada, whom Michael is assigned to protect. The other is a ditzy blonde Michael rescues from some bad guys early on, only for her to promptly develop amnesia.
This creates a dynamic we haven’t really seen before on Knight Rider: one woman spends the opening of the episode teasing Michael, only to feel threatened when another attractive woman enters the picture. Apparently, even Michael Knight isn’t immune to a little romantic competition.
When it comes to the women on Knight Rider, they tend to be dressed in fairly ordinary clothing. This episode, however, gives us Maria Conchita Alonso in several bikinis throughout. It even opens with a gratuitous shot of her backside on the beach. Knight Rider has never put quite this much skin on screen before, and I’m certainly not complaining.
Mostly sidelined in this episode are Devon and Bonnie. While Devon at least gets a few lines, Bonnie is essentially just there for one scene without contributing anything to the story. The focus is firmly on Michael and his mission to protect both women from the same group of bad guys while trying to uncover the identity of the assassin.
The episode also has a distinct James Bond feel to it. Michael even sports a tuxedo during the first act, and there’s no denying that Knight Rider has been taking some inspiration from Bond from the very beginning. In another universe, KITT could just as easily have been developed by Q Branch and handed over to James Bond as the latest gadget-filled car in his arsenal. In fact, quite a few of KITT’s features have already appeared in various Bond cars.
When it comes to gadgets, no new ones are introduced this week. However, when a couple of bad guys escape by boat and KITT is unable to follow them, Michael remarks that he should get some pontoons. I can recall an episode where KITT actually drives across water, so this could be some early foreshadowing.
For now, the only real opportunity KITT gets to show off is when a valet attendant blocks him in by parking other cars in front of and behind him, leaving him no way out. KITT responds by simply pushing three cars out of the way. It would be an impressive feat if he hadn’t already pushed a garbage truck out of the way in The Final Verdict. At this point, moving a few cars is practically child’s play for him.
The episode also features one particularly silly KITT moment when he comes to Michael’s rescue by jumping off a cliff onto the beach. The sequence even uses stock footage of a completely different car making the jump, followed by a landing that makes absolutely no sense from a directional perspective. Then again, KITT’s landings rarely make much sense. His jumps often end with him heading straight into a nose dive, only for the next shot to show him landing perfectly on all four wheels. Apparently, KITT has a little more control over physics than the laws of physics would suggest.
The finale features KITT and Michael chasing a man on horseback through a horse course, with KITT tackling the various obstacles along the way. It’s definitely a fun sequence and a great way to end the episode.
This is a fun episode that even has a bit of a meta element, as the amnesiac girl turns out to be a soap actress, making all the over-the-top melodrama surprisingly fitting for her character. As far as episodes involving Michael having to identify an assassin go, this is easily the most entertaining one so far.
Knight Rider tropes
KITT shenanigans
KITT gets to impress a parking valet by pushing several parked cars out of the way, and he helps Michael scale a cliff to rescue a woman. Other than that, though, there aren’t any real standout KITT moments this week.
Damsel in distress
Here’s a novel element for this week’s episode: not just one, but two damsels in distress. Maria Conchita Alonso’s Marie Elena is never actually in any real danger and mostly serves as Michael’s mission contact/love interest. Judy Landers’ Micky, on the other hand, is the classic damsel in distress, with Michael having to save her multiple times because the bad guys want her dead for knowing too much.
Child in peril
Both girls are childless, so once again, no kids in danger.
Michael’s undercover identity
Michael goes undercover at a party hosted by the bad guy. Much like James Bond, he spends his time wandering around the mansion in a sharp tuxedo, trying to gain access to an office containing the information he needs. Because apparently the best way to infiltrate a villain’s mansion is to just show up looking fabulous and hope nobody asks questions.
The Villains
The villains this time are two men attempting to assassinate a newly elected president who took power from them. It’s essentially the same motivation as the bad guys in Commando, who want to kidnap Arnold Schwarzenegger’s daughter to force him to help them regain control of their country. They’re not particularly memorable and come with a bunch of henchmen who are equally forgettable.
Notable gadgets
KITT has a pulley system that allows him to lower and lift Michael alongside a cliff to rescue a young woman. Bonnie doesn’t introduce this feature, however, making this yet another episode without any input from her. Apparently, KITT just comes with an ever-growing list of standard features that nobody bothered to mention before.
Memorable guest stars
I recognized Judy Landers immediately but couldn’t quite place her. It turns out she has a resume packed with appearances on practically every major ’80s TV show, including The A-Team, which is where I finally recognized her from. She was great in Where Is the Monster When You Need Him?, one of the better episodes of that season of The A-Team.
Maria Conchita Alonso, meanwhile, might also not be a household name, but she’s appeared in a couple of classic movies, including The Running Man and Predator 2.
Random observations
KITT can reach incredible speeds, is bulletproof, can push garbage trucks out of the way, and jump over multiple cars, but his fancy pulley system struggles to pull two fairly slim adults up a cliff. I know the whole point of this is to create some tension, but still.
Maria Conchita Alonso sure looks fine in a bikini.
This is another episode that uses stock footage of a completely different type of car jumping off a cliff. Is it really that expensive to build a scale model of KITT and shoot the scene themselves?
In the finale, David Hasselhoff’s stunt performer wears black shoes while Michael wears brown Nikes, making the cuts between Hasselhoff and his stunt double painfully obvious.
