'Knight Rider': What's your sign?

Sadly, tonight's episode of Knight Rider was the last new one we'll see in 2008. I had hoped that they would propel themselves into the new year with a turbo boost, but unfortunately that was not to be. I guess I'll have to wait till 2009.

The show seems to have this talent for having the second or third scene in every episode be the "plot" scene. That's where everyone sits down, discusses the mission, maybe interrogates a bad guy, and then the show goes on its merry way. I feel like I spend too many words on the plot scene, so tonight I'm going to try to do it in an abbreviated format.

The KNIGHT folks were holding this bad guy, "Virgo," who was part of a gang where everyone went by Zodiac signs and where they'd never met one another. A meet up was about to take place, in Vegas, and Michael was going to stand in for Virgo (Billy would tag along just for fun). Oh yes, the head bad guy went by "Capricorn" and Michael used KITT's fingerprint generator to dummy up some Virgo prints just in case he needed them (I totally got that option for an extra $250 on my Accord).

The only thing that really disappointed me about the Vegas vacation was that the Montecito no longer exists. Gary Scott Thompson really should have done something to get Michael to stay at the Montecito, even if it looked different than the Montecito we know and love (or the second Montecito that was created from the ashes of the first one). Instead though, Michael and Billy were staying at the Corsica which we neither know nor love.

But I digress, Michael went to Vegas as Virgo and was quickly found by Capricorn. They hooked up with everyone else in the group (only six folks, not the full astrological chart). They had a nice drink and got their fingerprints scanned. And here I was so worried that KITT's fingerprint generator was just showy nonsense. There was a small problem, the fingerprints may have matched the name, but Michael's picture didn't match the driver's license. Oh come on, you didn't really think that was going to be a problem, did you? All Michael had to do was have KITT doctor up a new ID for Capricorn, proving that anyone can make a fake ID really quickly and everyone's fears were forgotten.

Yeah, I don't really know why the show made the whole wrong picture on a photo ID a problem. Obviously KITT can doctor a photo ID on a computer instantly, Michael's cover wasn't going to be blown that quickly. The far bigger problem was that Steve Cordova, aka Capricorn, had been laundering money through the Corsica where he was head of security, and which had recently fired him.

Capricorn did, however, have one more big hit in mind -- they were going to go take the Corsica for 30 million bucks. It totally should have been the Montecito! That place got robbed 22 times a season. KITT figured that maybe Capricorn was setting up the rest of the squad to take the fall so that he could keep the money and/or his job, which actually didn't sound like a bad plan. It wasn't quite as good a plan as Mike's, which was just arresting the entire Zodiac gang as they had them on the Anchorage job, but Carrie stopped that. She claimed that they had no evidence about the Anchorage job (you know, except them all admitting to Mike that they'd done it just the night before), and Mike accepted that (because the episode wasn't over yet).

For the robbery itself, KITT was put on the casino floor (in one of those "win the car" games) so that he could get the robbery on video. Unbeknownst to the rest of Zodiac, KITT even got to take place in the heist (he was helping out Michael). KITT fired an EMP which, somehow, only took out the lights and some magnets instead of destroying any and all electrical devices (as an EMP would). I have to say, that was really fortunate, because without those night vision goggles that should have gone stopped working, Michael never would have made it out of the casino with the cash.

While the gang got away with the robbery, Michael didn't get away with the subterfuge. Apparently, he was better than the real Virgo ever was and Capricorn was going to do a variant on KITT's hypothesis, only turning in Michael not the whole gang. As an aside, and to be fair to the real Virgo, he didn't have a KITT and without KITT, Michael is just an ordinary Special Forces guy.

As for the ending of the plot... does it matter? It's kind of like that Simpsons Lord of the Flies episode where the narrator states at the end "So the children learned how to function as a society, and eventually they were rescued by, oh, let's say... Moe." But, if you want it, I'll give it to you... Billy drove KITT out of the casino, found Mike who was scrambling around in the dark trying to escape from Capricorn, who had on the night vision goggles that shouldn't work due to the EMP. KITT busted through a wall, turned on his xenon lights and blinded Capricorn. Problem solved. See, you didn't really want to know.

Odds and ends:

• Billy had some nonsense story tonight too. In Vegas he hooked up with a girl, and then had to help her out of a money jam. She may or may not have been playing him.
• They mentioned The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Reservoir Dogs, and Fast Times at Ridgemont High tonight. Were they trying to prove that they go to the movies once a decade?
• You might have thought that was the question for this week, but it wasn't... Question of the Knight -- was it really essential for Michael to refer to Virgo as a "douche" after Virgo called KITT "monotone guy?" Is that really the kind of show this is?

The TV and Film Guy's Reviews -- but you can call us Sagittarius.

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