The Foundation has created a new isotope in Chicago called "Cernium 116." Wilton Knight's daughter, Jennifer Knight, has called a meeting of the Knight Industries' top board members because she believes that Knight Industries should focus on researching the isotope, not on spending money on the Foundation for Law and Government, which she reccommends be dismantled. The isotope cannot be transported until it enters it's transitioning phase in only a few days, in which time Michael is put on probation. Before the meeting with Jennifer Knight, Devon is called away to a supposed meeting with a colleague named Dr. Jonas Quinlan, but it turns out to be a trap. Phillip Nordstrom, a man obsessed with the powers of mechanics, has kidnapped Quinlan and plans to use Devon to steal the isotope. Nordstrom uses laser surgery to make one of his men look, and eventually even act, like Devon, fooling even Michael. Nordstrom uses a truth serum and torture to make Devon talk about the chemical base of KITT's molecular bonded shell. Marta Simmons, Dr. Quinlan's assistant, asks to meet Michael after being called by a mysterious man. Sh emeet with him and tells him to drive over to a warehouse area by the docks. KITT is sprayed on the street by a washer, but the "cleanser" is actually a destabilizing agent used to destroy KITT's shell. A massive battering ram appears and eventually destroys KITT. At first, Michael thinks Marta is the one who set him up, but he has been feeling strange about Devon, who has simply dismissed KITT as "dead." In fact, this Devon is actually the fake Devon. Michael tests him by fooling him into answering the wrong answer to a question Devon knew. Michael and Bonnie have to get KITT fixed within 24 hours, or the isotope will be stolen...
Meanwhile, throughout the episode, a strange man calling himself the "Street Avenger" fights crime throughout the city of Chicago, even protecting KITT from a couple of car thieves (that's before KITT is destroyed, of course).
THOUGHTS: -Very good start to the season (although many consider this season to be KR's worst). Those clever creators once again hid KITT's new ability (see part 2) in the title sequence until the next episode (except during the end credits, though that's only because this episode was chopped in half).
-KITT's destruction in this episode is very well done. Instead of using some unfinished model of the car for it's destruction ("Goliath," "Junk Yard Dog") they used another shiny KITT.
-Also, Bonnie and Michael's reactions to KITT's damage were great. Bonnie is worried about Michael and then KITT, while Michael keeps trying to get KITT to come alive again.
-Peter Parros joins the cast this season as Reginald "RC3" Curtis III (though in part 1, he's only known as the "Street Avenger").
New feature on KITT: +Not sure if it's new, but: Heat Sensors. Just before he's destroyed.
FAVORITE QUOTE: "For a moment there...I felt myself disliking him..." -Michael, about Devon (fake Devon, actually)
FAVORITE QUOTE EVIL!: "Well, I trust you kept yourself...busy?" -Fake Devon to Michael
NITS: -John Considine (as Phillip Nordstrom) played Boyd LeSalle in "Knight in Disgrace."
-Where did Jennifer Knight get those videos of KITT? (Footage from previous episodes, actually).
-The battering ram moves pretty fast! Answer: bad editing. You can even see when the battering ram hits KITT from the side the 3rd time, KITT's front is undamaged even though the ram has supposedly already hit it!
-At the end of the episode, the magnifying lens fake Devon uses to view KITT's destroyed shell makes the same sounds as KITT's "microlock."