Season 1, Episode 17
Date of airing: February 25, 1983 (NBC)
Nielsen ratings information: 13.33 million Households, 16.0 rating/25 share in Households
Written by: William Schmidt
Directed by: Bernard L. Kowalski
”Normally, I wouldn't do this, but since you won't be around to reveal our master plan, I think it only fitting that you behold its brilliance.”
Old white men, thinking they have all the power in the world, not realizing that they never do. Thinking they are the smartest in the room, just to be proven wrong later. Those men are the most dangerous people of them all.
The most dangerous mission of them all. Michael and K.I.T.T. face villains who, at first glance, seemed to be part of a destructive cult, only to be revealed as gold robbers financing their survival after a nuclear apocalypse (so... a cult). But what made the mission dangerous for our heroes was the fact that K.I.T.T. is known to people who want to exploit the supercar for their crimes – something I always thought was possible, considering how open Michael (and the Foundation) was with K.I.T.T. The car was constantly shown off for kids and women, and almost everyone Michael came into contact with on his missions got to know about the car, so it's no wonder that word would spread to villains who would like to have such a car to commit a crime. The Foundation never treated K.I.T.T. as a secret, as an experimental “weapon” to stop crime. This episode is the result of that. Will the Foundation and Michael learn from their mistakes after these events? Ha, of course not, this is a 1980s TV show, no one learns any lessons here.
It was still an interesting episode, thanks to the danger of the plot and Bonnie temporarily turning into a villain as well. This is the episode that gave Patricia McPherson something to do for a change, and it wasn't necessarily the David Hasselhoff Power Hour. While I'm still waiting for an episode of KNIGHT RIDER in which Michael is just a supporting player, the writers did something well enough here that could prove the show was able to use its other two credited main actors to carry a story. Hopefully, when that episode comes, it has a better story, without K.I.T.T. developing a superpower that has him crack a combination lock via telepathy.
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| Michael should start doing background checks on the women he is attracted to. |
