'Knight Rider': KARR returns!

Well, we waited weeks and watched endless promos for this episode of Knight Rider. I think we were actually promised the event last week, but in reality, it was tonight that KARR returned. I'm not afraid to say that I was excited that the moment had at last come to pass.

It all started off well enough, with Sarah in a bikini on the beach in Hawaii. I figured everything must have been swell, there she was in a beautiful place wearing very little, but once she ignored a call from Michael I knew I was wrong. Sarah then proceeded to go out, get drunk, and beat up some dude who was hitting on her at a beachfront bar. Yeah, because hitting on the attractive drunk girl was totally out of line.

Because he apparently cares, Michael had followed Sarah to Hawaii (Doc Graiman had a beach house there, so I guess Michael figured that's where she was). He tried to point out that they were both hurting and might have protested a little when Sarah started kissing him, but he was mostly just into it. Was he taking advantage of her? Probably.

Michael may have been basking in the glow, but if he'd only known what was going on back at headquarters he would have felt differently. The entire place was being dismantled... including KITT! Alex Torres and company actually pulled the chip out of KITT, and then, to make matters worse, Torres suggested that they throw the chip into KARR! The guy was so getting fired by the time the episode was finished... either that or dead, he could have also been scheduled to end up dead.

Okay, if that wasn't weird enough, once the show got back from a commercial break it went all Star Wars, with Doc Graiman appearing in a holographic message to Michael explaining Michael's history and then telling Michael what Torres would be up to (he was right). As Graiman explained Michael's history, he was used as the original driver for the KARR project, once the program was destroyed, Michael's memory was wiped. I wonder if they had that planned prior to the revamp.

With Michael preparing to leave, Sarah acted like she was totally against saving the world this week. All she really needed though to get in gear was her daddy to have left her a holographic message too, and once she found that she was back on board, but Michael had already left, hooking up with Billy and Zoe back in the real world.

Sitting at a Starbucks in goodness knows where, Michael et. al. (save Sarah) quickly came up with a plan. They realized that KITT had left Billy a message which led them to a website, www.michaelknight.org, where KITT had sent his whole personality (don't bother, the site doesn't actually exist, I tried). All they had to do was break into KNIGHT Industries, turn back on the computers, build a new chip for KITT, and then find the lovable old Mustang.

So, there we were, a good way into the episode, and still no KARR, I should have known better than to expect anything but an appearance in the last few minutes of the show. Sure, we got a little, behind a curtain, mini-glimpse at about this point in the episode, but KARR wasn't yet active, so I'm not counting it.

Far more interesting than our little glimpse of KARR was Billy actually being able to build a new chip for KITT out of random parts. Insanely, and only on this show, the chip actually worked and they were good to go, save for the fact that KITT's "Learned Behavior Integrative Algorithms" packet had been downloaded onto an Xbox 360 in Portland. For those of you who don't talk geek, those are the bits that make KITT, KITT. Billy went to solve that problem (it involved playing some game with the child-owner of the 360).

Let's ignore the bit where Michael and Sarah went to D.C. in order to "convince" the evil government agent working with Alex to tell them where KITT was located, and just move on to Michael going to Area 51 to save his friend. I think that may be the first time Michael has ever put himself in harm's way to help the car, but I'm saying that Michael only did it because he was angry at the government for stealing his memory with the whole KARR thing, not because he really cared about KITT. I will compliment him however for deciding to only use non-lethal weapons against the military personnel at Area 51, after all, it wasn't the grunts' fault that they were assigned to protect the car.

Michael managed to get KITT back, but he also angered the evil Optimus Prime, or "KARR," if you prefer. Frankly, I think it's awesome that Peter Cullen, who voices Optimus Prime, did the KARR voice for the show (he also did KARR in at least one episode in the original series) -- he was certainly menacing here.

KARR's first order of business on hearing KITT escaped? He took Torres (who told KARR not to go after KITT), and somehow integrated Torres into himself, thereby ensuring that the person KARR was supposed to be taking orders from was ordering what KARR wanted. Quite the clever vehicle Doc Graiman came up with, I can't imagine why Graiman felt KARR evil.

Now, proving that I was right about Michael only going after KITT because of his desire to get back at the government and KARR, Michael chose to square off with KARR despite the fact that KITT hadn't fully downloaded his programming yet. Michael was, again, willing to risk KITT for his own ends. So, attack KARR Michael and KITT did, and they lost. KITT was destroyed forever. Michael was integrated into KARR (which was all KARR really wanted), and now the man who does not exist fights for evil instead of against it.

Right... that could have been what happened, after all, it would have made for quite the revamp of the series. Apparently though the producers weren't willing to go quite that far. No, instead Michael and KITT turbo boosted through the middle of KARR, allegedly destroying the evil entity forever. Goodness, I hope KARR can be rebuilt. He has to be rebuilt, right? Please tell me that we're not done with that story arc yet... please.

And that is where we actually ended the revamp -- one more appearance by Graiman told us that our heroes get to keep their headquarters and that they will no longer be beholden to the government as Sarah was able to find the hundreds of millions daddy left her. Isn't that nice?

Question of the Knight -- is the show going to be better in this new format or do you like the old "beholden to the government" version more?

The TV and Film Guy's Reviews - where KARR lives.

E-mail

• Digg
• Facebook
• Fark
• Yahoo Buzz
• Stumbleupon