August Hollenbeck calls the Foundation with inside information that a stolen bacterium (capable of killing an entire city if put into it's water supply) is in the hands of one Simon Carascas. Carascas is currently staying at a foreign embassy, and is planning to export the bacterium back to the Middle East. Hollenbeck is shot while heading to talk to Michael in person, and his daugher, Gaye, is devastated, though Hollenbeck will still live. Since the Foundation knows that Carascas has a passion for rare and exotic cars, the FLAG team works together to get the bacterium back. First, Bonnie uses a new plastic (which can liquefy once heated) to create an "outer shell" for KITT. Then RC3 sets up a sale with Carascas for a rare 1955 Lynx Imperial, of which only two exist in the world. The Foundation has one of them, but they don't use the real one - KITT's new shell gives KITT the appearance of the rare car. Carascas sends one of his men to kill Hollenbeck at the hospital, but Michael intervenes and approaches Carascas as a second hitman. Later, Michael "kills" Hollenbeck, with one of Carascas' men as a witness. Meanwhile, Bonnie sells the rare car to Carascas and sets up scramblers in his stereo and t.v., so that Devon can deliver a news report that tells Carascas that Hollenbeck and Gaye are dead. Michael is paid for the hit job, but two of Carascas' other hit men realize that Gaye is not dead and kidnap her. Michael is locked in Carascas' mansion, but is able to escape and switch the real canister of bacterium for a fake. KITT heats up and liquifies his outer shell, and Michael heads out. Carascas has found out that Michael has escaped, and has headed to his yacht in a marina with the fake canister. Michael and KITT are able to fake him out so that Bonnie and Gaye are freed, and Carascas gets away...but once he arrives in the Middle East, he opens the fake canister, and is pursued by all those who feel betrayed by him.
THGOUGHTS: -Good episode, everyone got involved and there wasn't too much of the usual "chae the bad guy and then microlock his brakes" stuff we usually get.
-KITT says he doesn't like being red, that it makes him look like a "tomato on wheels." Funny how the Knight Industries Four Thousand (KIFT) is red in "Knight Rider 2000"! Not very conspicuous. Also, KITT's cpu is put into the KIFT body later in that movie but KITT doesn't seem to mind the color much.
Star Trek Actor Watch: Walter Gotell (as Simon Carascas) played Director Kurt Mandl (the head terraformer) in "Home Soil."
FAVORITE QUOTE: "You've just been slimed." -Michael to Vascone, after knocking him into the liquified plastic remnants of KITT's Lynx "outer shell".
NITS: -It's pretty obvious that Michael doesn't actually kick Lupo.
-Carascas' mansion looks a lot like the Helios mansion from "Chariot of Gold."
-I highly doubt that KITT would fit under the Lynx shell without KITT's entire top half taken off.
-The edited version of this episode cuts out KITT's conversion to Super Pursuit Mode. When you're watching it in reruns, it looks like KITT just transforms for no reason.