MKSP: 107 Not A Drop To Drink
Michael Knight Sex Project: Episode 107 Not A Drop To Drink
This is another one with that common Knight Rider trope, the damsel-in-distress who's a single mother (or single-handedly responsible for a much younger brother/nephew/boy, and yes they are generally boys). (We've seen this trope come up twice so far--Maggie and Buddy in the pilot and Sherry and Davey in "Good Day At White Rock".) Fran's pretty cool--a bit bitchy at first, but fiery and tough and beautiful.
This one's nice for me because it's all ranchers and guys in cowboy hats and water rights. Shades of the range wars of a hundred years ago, which is kind of fascinating. An encapsulated version of the history of the West, which I just adore, of course. And Michael's got enough of that cowboy vibe that he fits right in. To which I can only say yum.
But, the question at hand is how does he do with the girl of the week...
--It's certainly a pretty little valley.
--So here we have three low-level bad guys, minions, one might say. I believe they'll be Larry, Curly, and Moe in these notes. (Curly being the especially stupid one in the background. We'll be seeing him again.)
--The ranchers in the valley are celebrating because the Foundation has just won a legal case for the little ranchers against Bremen (the BigBad evil rancher) securing their legal right to their water. Devon and a lawyer from FLAG are there at this picnic celebrating.
--And this is the quite lovely GotW this week. I like that strawberry blonde hair. She's pointing out that just because Bremen's been thwarted in the courts doesn't mean he won't be finding some *other* way to steal their water and drive them out of the pretty valley.
--Heee!! Devon in a cowboy hat!
--What was shaping up to be a lengthy speech from Devon got interrupted by the bombs the Three Stooges were setting blowing up the dam that feeds the irrigation system for the valley.
--She is awfully pretty in a rather edgy way. This is a very bristly woman, all edges and corners.
--She's clearly the leader of the ranchers...or at least when she says go, they all move. De facto leader anyway.
--Devon, naturally, sends out Michael and KITT to help them, since the courts have done their part for the time being. It's time for direct action.
--Michael raises the very salient point that he can help the ranchers for a week or a month, but how can they permanently solve the problem. But the FLAG lawyer's going to get an injunction against Bremen, but that will take about a week to ten days. And the ranchers can't engage in any "extra-legal" activity against Bremen in that time or the judge will throw the case out. Of course, why the FLAG lawyer thinks Bremen, who's already ignoring one court decision, will respect an injunction, I don't know. But I don't think I'm supposed to ask that question.
--Michael is, of course also looking extremely good here. :D
--Ah, ha! The GotW's name is Francesca. Cool!! She doesn't look like a Francesca to me, but it's good to have caught her name.
--Devon describes Francesca to Michael as "almost as impulsive as you are. Stubborn, rebellious, constantly indignant."
--This is an usually lengthy exposition dump for this show--or at least an unusually lengthy one that doesn't involve KITT.
--Heee!! Michael's playing like Bonnie's Frankenstein and KITT's the Monster. "What have you done to the monster now?" (in an Igor voice). Bonnie, though she does have a good sense of humor generally, is not amused. :D
--KITT now has a rather harpoon-like rear-mounted grappling hook. Nice! Devon: "My, what a remarkable fisherman KITT would make."
--The bad guys apparently know that the foundation is sending out a hotshot to help the ranchers.
--This is Francesca's son, Kevin.
--I'm deeply and madly in love with the fact that Michael is sleeping in KITT while KITT drives.
--[The next morning] Michael: "Morning, KITT. I've got to tell you, you're better than any hotel. That was a great night's sleep and a terrific dream." (And OMG his voice here, like we know exactly what kind of terrific dream he was having.) KITT: "I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, Michael." (And OMG his voice has slipped into a somewhat deeper, hotter, and more tender register than usual too.) ::weak swoony flaily hands::
--Nice shot of KITT's scanner. I wish I could do clips and get the back and forthness of it. But I really actually adore the fact that they cut to KITT's scanner after he's saying he's glad Michael enjoyed it. For reasons that I'm not sure I can explain.
--Oh, Bremen's clearly not so much for subtlety. He's got three guys in Big Construction Machinery (front-end loaders, maybe, I'm never sure) there to schmeiss Michael on his way into the valley.
--Michael: "We got room to jump?" KITT: "Of course we can jump, but I can't guarantee where or how we'll land." Oh, KITT, I love you so!
--Heee!! KITT's so indignant at this clumsy trap. KITT: "Are they serious?" Michael: "They don't know you like I do." So he zips out between two of them going backwards in ski mode. :D
--Eeee!! Francesca has a cow-dog!! I love cowdogs! They're the coolest animals! :D ::bounces::
--Oooo!!
--Francesca and her dad both have rifles on Michael. That seems a bit rash. They don't seem to have much of a call to be going quite so overboard. Fran's dad, Josh, warms up as soon as he sees Michael's ID. Fran's not so quick to relax.
--Kevin, of course, is all over what a neat car KITT is.
--And KITT has to do his Cerberus impression again to keep the dog from peeing on his tires. But Harry, being a superior sort of dog (he's a cow-dog after all), doesn't fall for it. KITT: "Some days there's just no winning."
--Well, Michael's there offering his help against Bremen and Fran's being, erm basically a bitch. A pretty bitch with green eyes and red hair. But a bitch nonetheless. ::sighs::
--She's giving him an exposition dump about the importance of water to cattle ranching. Okay sure, whatever. I'm just going to look at the pretty.
--Ah, and while Michael didn't dare actually flirt with her (because she'd probably have ripped his balls off) after she's ridden off he's openly admiring her.
--Mmmm!! I fear I'm being self-indulgent again.
--KITT: "Michael, did you see what that cur did to my tire." Michael: "No, but I'm sure the damage isn't permanent." KITT: "It all depends upon whose tire it is." :D
--Oh, he's standing up to her about her "extra-legal" activities, calling her desire for revenge pure self-indulgence. Nice.
--Ah, and now for an extremely silly scene with KITT playing matador with an escaped bull. To the amazement of Fran and Josh. :D But it does succeed in warming Fran and Josh right up to Michael. Apparently if he has a car that can fight bulls he can't be as much of a jerk as she was thinking. :D
--Bremen has moved himself securely into Very Bad Guy territory by being blithe about the fact that someone's going to have to get hurt to cut off the ranchers' water. Blatant disregard for human life is a deinite sign.
--More exposition. If the cattle don't have water for even a few hours, they'll stampede. I'm just admiring the pretty again.
--Josh gives Frannie a little bit of a hard time for being such a bitch to Michael when he just came there to help. And suggests that maybe she's interested in him and that's why she's being so prickly. Hmmm...maybe Michael does have a chance with this one.
--Michael definitely knows how to play his ace with the kids--he offers to let Kevin show him around the ranch the next morning, in KITT. :D
--Such a nice smile.
--Fran: "This is really our war, not yours. Bremen means business. He hasn't killed anybody yet, but I think that's just because he hasn't had to." Michael: "Don't worry about it. I've been in wars before, and I survived." Oh, I realize that Vietnam war experiences were a standard part of the backstory package for a 1980s TV hero, but the way he said that...::hugs Michael::
--KITT's feeling all left out stuck out in the driveway. ::pets KITT::
--Josh is trying to convince Fran that she and Michael should, erm, do something. (Nonspecific.) Though Fran's smart enough to realize that Michael's just drifting through, so even if she was interested which she's not admitting, she's not interested. So to speak.
--Damn this episode seems to have a lot of scenes with People Who Aren't Michael or KITT talking to each other. More than most. I mean Fran's okay and Josh is sweet, but I want Michael and KITT!!
--On the other hand, she is awfully pretty.
--Michael and KITT are on guard duty, taking a turn protecting the dam and the catch basin from the Three Stooges.
--The other ranchers at least are grateful that Michael (whom they call "Mike") is there helping out. I'm finding that somewhat intriguing. Both the gratitude and the name thing.
--Mmmm!!
--Oh dear, Larry and Moe are going after Michael and leaving poor dumb Curly to try and steal KITT, because "it'll make a good souvenir." Poor Curly, I almost feel sorry for him.
--I really am being terribly self-indulgent this evening. Please forgive. :D
--Perhaps embarrassingly, one of the only things I would change about this show is the fight choreography--which is rather 1980s cartoonish. If Michael fought like Eliot in Leverage I think I'd basically explode an ovary every single episode. In my head, of course, that's much more how it plays, hot and decisive and fast and...mmm...yeah. ::wanders in to personal happy place and wallows there::
--Poor Curly's being terrorized by KITT following him at basically a walking pace flapping his doors and blinking his headlights. Curly's not too bright.
--So why didn't Michael want KITT to scare the Stooges off? Je suis confused. Though, as KITT pointed out he saved them both from harm. (Because Curly started bleating like a calf for Moe to come and rescue him from the nasty car. :D)
--For being a little bitty waterfall and not a huge holding pond, this is a sort of substantial river at this point. Huh. I wonder how that happens.
--KITT: "Michael, where are we going?" Michael: "Bremen's ranch, buddy, to investigate." KITT: "To investigate what?" Michael: "Well if I knew that we couldn't have to investigate, now would we?" KITT: "You call that logic?" Michael: "You got a better idea?" :D ::hugs them::
--Heeeee!! KITT's detected Curly up ahead of them. "That person up ahead is the one who tried to violate me last night." Hee!
--Hee!! Michael: "You take over, buddy. I want you to pretend you're a UFO with a very unpleasant disposition." KITT: "That may require considerable acting ability on my part." Michael: "Not as much as you think." Heee!
--So Michael hides in the back seat footwell and lets KITT scare the bejabbers out of Curly.
--KITT (to Curly): "You were very offensive last night...earthling." :D
--Curly: "Who are you?" KITT: "I don't really think you want to know the answer to that." :D
--So KITT threatens to take Curly away to outer space unless Curly gives him information about Bremen's next move. :D Which Curly, being none too bright, does. Go KITT!
--Okay, so the ranchers in the valley have a wee little dam that makes a wee little catch basin. Like they could hire beavers for all their dam maintenance needs. So where the hell did they suddenly come up with *this* big dam that Bremen's going to blow? I guess this is upstream from them and his plan now is to drown them out. Maybe?
--Oh, I see, he's not attacking the dam, they're just showing us that for Chekov reasons, they're attacking some water pipes. Though it's not clear how these fit up with the rancher's irrigation system.
--KITT (speaking about the rather large backhoe): "That's an awfuly impressive piece of machinery, Michael. Are you quite sure we want to antagonize it?" KITT's personifying the backhoe. Heee! :D
--Oooo!! I paused to type KITT's dialogue and stopped on this. Yay!
--Bremen really doesn't have good minions. He had the backhoe driver there *poised* to complete his mission and destroy the water pipes, and consequently the ranchers. And the guy turned away from that and went after KITT instead. Though, seriously, what does he think KITT could do to his machine? Heck, he could have smashed the pipes and still been waiting for KITT to get up to him. Goons! ::shakes head::
--Heee! They use the new grappling hook Bonnie gave KITT and the retro-rockets and drag the backhoe away from the pipes. And as they're dragging it off KITT gives it an ultimate insult, "Farm implements". :D Heee! :D
--I really am being terribly self-indulgent this evening. What can I say? I've been sick and need comforting. Please to forgive.
--So Michael goes to Bremen to try to convince him to "leave the status as quo as possible". Heee and Michael just tossed Bremen the keys to the backhoe. Michael: "You'll find your men handcuffed to their machines up at the pipeline. That play didn't work either. See ya." Give him hell, Michael!
--Is it awful that in my heart of hearts I want to be her in this scene. Walking through the beautiful big outdoors, the river running right there, the gorgeous and good-hearted man that's head and shoulders taller than me. Hell, I could even deal with the rifles.
--I think they're having a moment, though she's mostly talking about being worried about Kevin so far.
--I do feel a lot for Fran here, because she's afraid that if she lets go of her anger she'll just fall apart and that's where her strength is. Michael: "You can't be strong all the time. No one is." Fran: "Not even you." Michael: "Not even me." Oh, that's giving me some nice thinky thoughts there too.
--Ooo! My DVD player loves me, yes it does. :D
--And they have this sympatico moment and it ends with Fran saying, "Now what I need more than anything is a hug." And Mmmm!! Michael does give good hug, even with a rifle in his hand.
--The next morning very very early Fran goes off to Bremen's place and only Kevin (who was sleeping in the barn with his pregnant mare) knows about it. Kevin, who looks to be about seven, realizes that you're being stupid, lady. Why don't you? And she tells Kevin not to tell Michael. ::shakes head::
--See I was right, they were showing the big dam for Chekov purposes. Bremen just chastised the Stooges for their incompetence then sent them off to blow the sluice gates on the main dam.
--Is Kevin riding his pregnant mare after his mom rather than defying her muck-stupid orders not to tell Michael? D'oh!
--Of course, Fran ran straight into the Stooges at Bremen's ranch. Dip! But Kevin was there on his pony and *now* he's going to get Michael. Well, okay. Kevin wins, I suppose.
--Heee!! KITT's going to bust into Bremen's pool house to rescue Fran and announces warning for her to get against the south wall so she won't get hurt! I wonder how that property damage fits into the FLAG lawyer's warning against engaging in "extra-legal" activities.
--Ah, so the *main* reservoir is huge. Their little catch basin is *tiny*. So there's going to be a hell of a lot of water going through. Especially since, in a shocking bit of competence entirely unprecedented so far in the episode, the Stooges did succeed in blowing the sluice gates.
--Fran's freaking out because they're too late. But Michael has a Plan. "There's a canyon about a half mile down the road, we've just got to get there before the water does."
--That's an awfully long half mile.
--Eee! They used KITT's rockets (I didn't realize KITT had rear mounted rockets, BTW, cool!) to blow off a chunk of the canyon wall to dam the water. Which, conveniently, and ::koff: against all odds, works perfectly.
--Oh, my!
--Okay, so the episode ends with Fran inviting Michael, oh and Devon (back in the cowboy hat) and the FLAG lawyer, to come back soon. With some fairly steamy flirting with Michael at the end.
--Oh my my!
FINAL VERDICT: During the course of this case, I'd argue a very strong No Nookie for Michael. very strong. I don't think they ever got beyond that hug on the banks of the river there. Now if Michael goes back to visit her...maybe. I don't usually believe that he has any intention of going back to visit these women (or their kids), but Fran is more of a contender than most, because he clearly admired her a lot. Even if Michael went back, though, I think Fran would have realized that she (and Kevin and Josh) needs and wants a man who be around more than occasionally. I don't believe she's just looking for one night of good times (no matter how good), and I don't believe Michael would let her think she could have more from him. So during the course of the episode, I'd say no. A month later when he's driving through her area and has a day free...maybe, but my guess is probably not.
All screencaps are my own. Please feel free to use them however you like. Unless you like to use screencaps by hotlinking. That's not nice, so please don't do that.
All of my Knight Rider fanworks are linked here.
All of my episode notes, in all fandoms, are linked here.
This is another one with that common Knight Rider trope, the damsel-in-distress who's a single mother (or single-handedly responsible for a much younger brother/nephew/boy, and yes they are generally boys). (We've seen this trope come up twice so far--Maggie and Buddy in the pilot and Sherry and Davey in "Good Day At White Rock".) Fran's pretty cool--a bit bitchy at first, but fiery and tough and beautiful.
This one's nice for me because it's all ranchers and guys in cowboy hats and water rights. Shades of the range wars of a hundred years ago, which is kind of fascinating. An encapsulated version of the history of the West, which I just adore, of course. And Michael's got enough of that cowboy vibe that he fits right in. To which I can only say yum.
But, the question at hand is how does he do with the girl of the week...
--It's certainly a pretty little valley.
--So here we have three low-level bad guys, minions, one might say. I believe they'll be Larry, Curly, and Moe in these notes. (Curly being the especially stupid one in the background. We'll be seeing him again.)
--The ranchers in the valley are celebrating because the Foundation has just won a legal case for the little ranchers against Bremen (the BigBad evil rancher) securing their legal right to their water. Devon and a lawyer from FLAG are there at this picnic celebrating.
--And this is the quite lovely GotW this week. I like that strawberry blonde hair. She's pointing out that just because Bremen's been thwarted in the courts doesn't mean he won't be finding some *other* way to steal their water and drive them out of the pretty valley.
--Heee!! Devon in a cowboy hat!
--What was shaping up to be a lengthy speech from Devon got interrupted by the bombs the Three Stooges were setting blowing up the dam that feeds the irrigation system for the valley.
--She is awfully pretty in a rather edgy way. This is a very bristly woman, all edges and corners.
--She's clearly the leader of the ranchers...or at least when she says go, they all move. De facto leader anyway.
--Devon, naturally, sends out Michael and KITT to help them, since the courts have done their part for the time being. It's time for direct action.
--Michael raises the very salient point that he can help the ranchers for a week or a month, but how can they permanently solve the problem. But the FLAG lawyer's going to get an injunction against Bremen, but that will take about a week to ten days. And the ranchers can't engage in any "extra-legal" activity against Bremen in that time or the judge will throw the case out. Of course, why the FLAG lawyer thinks Bremen, who's already ignoring one court decision, will respect an injunction, I don't know. But I don't think I'm supposed to ask that question.
--Michael is, of course also looking extremely good here. :D
--Ah, ha! The GotW's name is Francesca. Cool!! She doesn't look like a Francesca to me, but it's good to have caught her name.
--Devon describes Francesca to Michael as "almost as impulsive as you are. Stubborn, rebellious, constantly indignant."
--This is an usually lengthy exposition dump for this show--or at least an unusually lengthy one that doesn't involve KITT.
--Heee!! Michael's playing like Bonnie's Frankenstein and KITT's the Monster. "What have you done to the monster now?" (in an Igor voice). Bonnie, though she does have a good sense of humor generally, is not amused. :D
--KITT now has a rather harpoon-like rear-mounted grappling hook. Nice! Devon: "My, what a remarkable fisherman KITT would make."
--The bad guys apparently know that the foundation is sending out a hotshot to help the ranchers.
--This is Francesca's son, Kevin.
--I'm deeply and madly in love with the fact that Michael is sleeping in KITT while KITT drives.
--[The next morning] Michael: "Morning, KITT. I've got to tell you, you're better than any hotel. That was a great night's sleep and a terrific dream." (And OMG his voice here, like we know exactly what kind of terrific dream he was having.) KITT: "I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, Michael." (And OMG his voice has slipped into a somewhat deeper, hotter, and more tender register than usual too.) ::weak swoony flaily hands::
--Nice shot of KITT's scanner. I wish I could do clips and get the back and forthness of it. But I really actually adore the fact that they cut to KITT's scanner after he's saying he's glad Michael enjoyed it. For reasons that I'm not sure I can explain.
--Oh, Bremen's clearly not so much for subtlety. He's got three guys in Big Construction Machinery (front-end loaders, maybe, I'm never sure) there to schmeiss Michael on his way into the valley.
--Michael: "We got room to jump?" KITT: "Of course we can jump, but I can't guarantee where or how we'll land." Oh, KITT, I love you so!
--Heee!! KITT's so indignant at this clumsy trap. KITT: "Are they serious?" Michael: "They don't know you like I do." So he zips out between two of them going backwards in ski mode. :D
--Eeee!! Francesca has a cow-dog!! I love cowdogs! They're the coolest animals! :D ::bounces::
--Oooo!!
--Francesca and her dad both have rifles on Michael. That seems a bit rash. They don't seem to have much of a call to be going quite so overboard. Fran's dad, Josh, warms up as soon as he sees Michael's ID. Fran's not so quick to relax.
--Kevin, of course, is all over what a neat car KITT is.
--And KITT has to do his Cerberus impression again to keep the dog from peeing on his tires. But Harry, being a superior sort of dog (he's a cow-dog after all), doesn't fall for it. KITT: "Some days there's just no winning."
--Well, Michael's there offering his help against Bremen and Fran's being, erm basically a bitch. A pretty bitch with green eyes and red hair. But a bitch nonetheless. ::sighs::
--She's giving him an exposition dump about the importance of water to cattle ranching. Okay sure, whatever. I'm just going to look at the pretty.
--Ah, and while Michael didn't dare actually flirt with her (because she'd probably have ripped his balls off) after she's ridden off he's openly admiring her.
--Mmmm!! I fear I'm being self-indulgent again.
--KITT: "Michael, did you see what that cur did to my tire." Michael: "No, but I'm sure the damage isn't permanent." KITT: "It all depends upon whose tire it is." :D
--Oh, he's standing up to her about her "extra-legal" activities, calling her desire for revenge pure self-indulgence. Nice.
--Ah, and now for an extremely silly scene with KITT playing matador with an escaped bull. To the amazement of Fran and Josh. :D But it does succeed in warming Fran and Josh right up to Michael. Apparently if he has a car that can fight bulls he can't be as much of a jerk as she was thinking. :D
--Bremen has moved himself securely into Very Bad Guy territory by being blithe about the fact that someone's going to have to get hurt to cut off the ranchers' water. Blatant disregard for human life is a deinite sign.
--More exposition. If the cattle don't have water for even a few hours, they'll stampede. I'm just admiring the pretty again.
--Josh gives Frannie a little bit of a hard time for being such a bitch to Michael when he just came there to help. And suggests that maybe she's interested in him and that's why she's being so prickly. Hmmm...maybe Michael does have a chance with this one.
--Michael definitely knows how to play his ace with the kids--he offers to let Kevin show him around the ranch the next morning, in KITT. :D
--Such a nice smile.
--Fran: "This is really our war, not yours. Bremen means business. He hasn't killed anybody yet, but I think that's just because he hasn't had to." Michael: "Don't worry about it. I've been in wars before, and I survived." Oh, I realize that Vietnam war experiences were a standard part of the backstory package for a 1980s TV hero, but the way he said that...::hugs Michael::
--KITT's feeling all left out stuck out in the driveway. ::pets KITT::
--Josh is trying to convince Fran that she and Michael should, erm, do something. (Nonspecific.) Though Fran's smart enough to realize that Michael's just drifting through, so even if she was interested which she's not admitting, she's not interested. So to speak.
--Damn this episode seems to have a lot of scenes with People Who Aren't Michael or KITT talking to each other. More than most. I mean Fran's okay and Josh is sweet, but I want Michael and KITT!!
--On the other hand, she is awfully pretty.
--Michael and KITT are on guard duty, taking a turn protecting the dam and the catch basin from the Three Stooges.
--The other ranchers at least are grateful that Michael (whom they call "Mike") is there helping out. I'm finding that somewhat intriguing. Both the gratitude and the name thing.
--Mmmm!!
--Oh dear, Larry and Moe are going after Michael and leaving poor dumb Curly to try and steal KITT, because "it'll make a good souvenir." Poor Curly, I almost feel sorry for him.
--I really am being terribly self-indulgent this evening. Please forgive. :D
--Perhaps embarrassingly, one of the only things I would change about this show is the fight choreography--which is rather 1980s cartoonish. If Michael fought like Eliot in Leverage I think I'd basically explode an ovary every single episode. In my head, of course, that's much more how it plays, hot and decisive and fast and...mmm...yeah. ::wanders in to personal happy place and wallows there::
--Poor Curly's being terrorized by KITT following him at basically a walking pace flapping his doors and blinking his headlights. Curly's not too bright.
--So why didn't Michael want KITT to scare the Stooges off? Je suis confused. Though, as KITT pointed out he saved them both from harm. (Because Curly started bleating like a calf for Moe to come and rescue him from the nasty car. :D)
--For being a little bitty waterfall and not a huge holding pond, this is a sort of substantial river at this point. Huh. I wonder how that happens.
--KITT: "Michael, where are we going?" Michael: "Bremen's ranch, buddy, to investigate." KITT: "To investigate what?" Michael: "Well if I knew that we couldn't have to investigate, now would we?" KITT: "You call that logic?" Michael: "You got a better idea?" :D ::hugs them::
--Heeeee!! KITT's detected Curly up ahead of them. "That person up ahead is the one who tried to violate me last night." Hee!
--Hee!! Michael: "You take over, buddy. I want you to pretend you're a UFO with a very unpleasant disposition." KITT: "That may require considerable acting ability on my part." Michael: "Not as much as you think." Heee!
--So Michael hides in the back seat footwell and lets KITT scare the bejabbers out of Curly.
--KITT (to Curly): "You were very offensive last night...earthling." :D
--Curly: "Who are you?" KITT: "I don't really think you want to know the answer to that." :D
--So KITT threatens to take Curly away to outer space unless Curly gives him information about Bremen's next move. :D Which Curly, being none too bright, does. Go KITT!
--Okay, so the ranchers in the valley have a wee little dam that makes a wee little catch basin. Like they could hire beavers for all their dam maintenance needs. So where the hell did they suddenly come up with *this* big dam that Bremen's going to blow? I guess this is upstream from them and his plan now is to drown them out. Maybe?
--Oh, I see, he's not attacking the dam, they're just showing us that for Chekov reasons, they're attacking some water pipes. Though it's not clear how these fit up with the rancher's irrigation system.
--KITT (speaking about the rather large backhoe): "That's an awfuly impressive piece of machinery, Michael. Are you quite sure we want to antagonize it?" KITT's personifying the backhoe. Heee! :D
--Oooo!! I paused to type KITT's dialogue and stopped on this. Yay!
--Bremen really doesn't have good minions. He had the backhoe driver there *poised* to complete his mission and destroy the water pipes, and consequently the ranchers. And the guy turned away from that and went after KITT instead. Though, seriously, what does he think KITT could do to his machine? Heck, he could have smashed the pipes and still been waiting for KITT to get up to him. Goons! ::shakes head::
--Heee! They use the new grappling hook Bonnie gave KITT and the retro-rockets and drag the backhoe away from the pipes. And as they're dragging it off KITT gives it an ultimate insult, "Farm implements". :D Heee! :D
--I really am being terribly self-indulgent this evening. What can I say? I've been sick and need comforting. Please to forgive.
--So Michael goes to Bremen to try to convince him to "leave the status as quo as possible". Heee and Michael just tossed Bremen the keys to the backhoe. Michael: "You'll find your men handcuffed to their machines up at the pipeline. That play didn't work either. See ya." Give him hell, Michael!
--Is it awful that in my heart of hearts I want to be her in this scene. Walking through the beautiful big outdoors, the river running right there, the gorgeous and good-hearted man that's head and shoulders taller than me. Hell, I could even deal with the rifles.
--I think they're having a moment, though she's mostly talking about being worried about Kevin so far.
--I do feel a lot for Fran here, because she's afraid that if she lets go of her anger she'll just fall apart and that's where her strength is. Michael: "You can't be strong all the time. No one is." Fran: "Not even you." Michael: "Not even me." Oh, that's giving me some nice thinky thoughts there too.
--Ooo! My DVD player loves me, yes it does. :D
--And they have this sympatico moment and it ends with Fran saying, "Now what I need more than anything is a hug." And Mmmm!! Michael does give good hug, even with a rifle in his hand.
--The next morning very very early Fran goes off to Bremen's place and only Kevin (who was sleeping in the barn with his pregnant mare) knows about it. Kevin, who looks to be about seven, realizes that you're being stupid, lady. Why don't you? And she tells Kevin not to tell Michael. ::shakes head::
--See I was right, they were showing the big dam for Chekov purposes. Bremen just chastised the Stooges for their incompetence then sent them off to blow the sluice gates on the main dam.
--Is Kevin riding his pregnant mare after his mom rather than defying her muck-stupid orders not to tell Michael? D'oh!
--Of course, Fran ran straight into the Stooges at Bremen's ranch. Dip! But Kevin was there on his pony and *now* he's going to get Michael. Well, okay. Kevin wins, I suppose.
--Heee!! KITT's going to bust into Bremen's pool house to rescue Fran and announces warning for her to get against the south wall so she won't get hurt! I wonder how that property damage fits into the FLAG lawyer's warning against engaging in "extra-legal" activities.
--Ah, so the *main* reservoir is huge. Their little catch basin is *tiny*. So there's going to be a hell of a lot of water going through. Especially since, in a shocking bit of competence entirely unprecedented so far in the episode, the Stooges did succeed in blowing the sluice gates.
--Fran's freaking out because they're too late. But Michael has a Plan. "There's a canyon about a half mile down the road, we've just got to get there before the water does."
--That's an awfully long half mile.
--Eee! They used KITT's rockets (I didn't realize KITT had rear mounted rockets, BTW, cool!) to blow off a chunk of the canyon wall to dam the water. Which, conveniently, and ::koff: against all odds, works perfectly.
--Oh, my!
--Okay, so the episode ends with Fran inviting Michael, oh and Devon (back in the cowboy hat) and the FLAG lawyer, to come back soon. With some fairly steamy flirting with Michael at the end.
--Oh my my!
FINAL VERDICT: During the course of this case, I'd argue a very strong No Nookie for Michael. very strong. I don't think they ever got beyond that hug on the banks of the river there. Now if Michael goes back to visit her...maybe. I don't usually believe that he has any intention of going back to visit these women (or their kids), but Fran is more of a contender than most, because he clearly admired her a lot. Even if Michael went back, though, I think Fran would have realized that she (and Kevin and Josh) needs and wants a man who be around more than occasionally. I don't believe she's just looking for one night of good times (no matter how good), and I don't believe Michael would let her think she could have more from him. So during the course of the episode, I'd say no. A month later when he's driving through her area and has a day free...maybe, but my guess is probably not.
All screencaps are my own. Please feel free to use them however you like. Unless you like to use screencaps by hotlinking. That's not nice, so please don't do that.
All of my Knight Rider fanworks are linked here.
All of my episode notes, in all fandoms, are linked here.