Knight's End.

I may have recently written about Knight Rider, but since I've watched a finale I was previously unaware of, it's a topic I'd like to revisit. ”The Scent of Roses” transcends many of the stand-alone episodes of the series, with major developments that examine where Michael Knight has been, and where he'll ultimately go. It also prominently features the return of Catherine Hickland as Michael's one true love Stevie, and David Hasselhoff's first wife. Interestingly enough after they divorced, Hickland went on to marry soap star Michael E. Knight. ”The Scent of Roses” is not the last episode, but the 11th episode in a final season that included 21 episodes. It was conceived as a finale, but NBC chose not to air it at the end of the season for some inexplicable reason. It was odd pacing for subsequent episodes not to refer to or feel the impact of this episode, but then television shows didn't have the tight continuity back then that they possess now.

I'm not certain if a SPOILER label is needed twenty years after this episode first aired, but for those of you working your way through the DVDs like I am, be warned that this will be a somewhat detailed recapitulation. The episode begins like any other, with the villain of the week hatching a nefarious scheme. A trio break into a government data center, led by a man with an obviously fake beard, when Michael's boss Devon picks up on the incident and alerts Michael, who races to the scene in KITT. He rushes in as the criminals are leaving, and wrestles with them briefly, knocking the main perpetrator's beard off. They shove him back and one of the thugs blasts him twice with an assault rifle, sending him down a flight of stairs. KITT races in and shields him from subsequent fire, and radios for help as the bad guys make their escape.

Michael is badly hurt, and I believe this was the first time he'd been shot since the pilot episode, in which a bullet to the face resulted in police officer Michael Long receiving plastic surgery, a new identity, a new partner in KITT, and a new mission working for the Foundation for Law and Government(FLAG). KITT waits anxiously in the parking lot for news as Devon and KITT's technician Bonnie hear from the doctor that miraculously, it looks like Michael will pull through. Yet though his body is mending, his spirit is shattered from the incident. On his wristwatch communicator he confides in KITT that he's not sure he wants to return to the life he's been living. Meanwhile, one of the villain's thugs breaks in and nearly kills Michael again, but KITT taps in to the loudspeakers and warns both Michael and the doctors and nurses in time for Michael to wake up and knock the guy out.

Later, in an inexplicable silk robe far too nice for any hospital, Michael strolls the grounds and tells Devon and Bonnie that he's decided to leave the Foundation. He's just tired, and it's been a long time coming. A dejected Devon and Bonnie approach truck driver and back-up muscle RC3, who tells them that where he's from, “...breathing is alive. The rest is up to you.” Never one to pass up an unnecessary backhanded compliment, Devon thanks him for saying something “basic but true,” and realizes he must find Michael the will to live again. And so he seeks out Stevie, who is singing in a club. She fears the worst when she sees Devon: “He's dead...isn't he?” Devon assures her that he's not, at least not on the outside, and that he needs her.

Michael leaves the hospital and says a difficult goodbye to KITT, leaving his watch on the dashboard. He's not getting away that easily, however, as RC3 intercepts him on the sidewalk and convinces him to come to a going-away party with Devon and Bonnie, after all they've been through together. At the restaurant, the waiter leads him to a table even as his crew walks in a different direction. He's confused by there being only two place settings when he looks up to see Stevie approaching. Hasselhoff once more summons the future spirit of Tribbiani soap opera acting as his lips quiver and his face crinkles up. Stevie wants to hear from him that he needs her and after more embarrassing moments of soap opera gazing, the two finally hug. After dinner, the happy couple stroll out of the restaurant where KITT is waiting to serenade them with As Time Goes By. He convinces Michael to accept his services since he has no car and KITT has nothing to do until the Foundation finds a replacement driver. At this point, the episode veers into a truly ridiculous montage of a couple doing every possible happy beach activity, while KITT leaps over dunes and keeps a watchful eye for assassins. They don't buy a boat called the “live-4-ever”, but the telegraphing is so heavy I'm certain these happy times don't bode well for Stevie's future.

For some reason, the villain's henchman isn't a decent enough sniper to pick Michael off on the beach, but using a remote-controlled toy plane rigged with explosives to blow up their beach house is a more efficient plan. As I said, the middle of the episode gets somewhat ridiculous. Meanwhile, Michael has proposed, assuring her that he's done with the Foundation for good, and that nothing can possibly come between them anymore. As he leans on KITT sipping coffee, admiring the approaching plane, I was certain what was going to happen next. However, KITT detects the explosive and warns Michael, who rushes into the house and gets Stevie out to safety just in time, as the plane flies in and the house explodes! So she would survive after all, but perhaps this was the incident that convinced them not to marry. After all, to my recollection, Michael Knight was always a “young loner”.

Devon determines that the criminal mastermind, a man named Durant, has put a hit out on Michael because he thinks Michael can identify him. He can't, but with KITT's help he faces a recording of the day he got shot and isolates Durant's face in the video. Devon meanwhile walks with Stevie, and confides in her that he's come to think of Michael as a son, with a joy for living that Devon never possessed, having spent his life focused on work. When Michael shows Devon a printout of Durant's face, he recognizes him as an explosives expert thought dead, and Michael leaves it to the Foundation to resolve, because he still has a wedding to go to. In an awkward moment, Bonnie asks if she can plan the wedding as a present to them, and Stevie asks Bonnie to be her maid-of-honor. I always thought that Bonnie and Michael might get together someday, but it never happened. Maybe I read too much into the scene, but it felt like Bonnie trying too hard to be okay with something that secretly upset her. Stevie also asks Devon if he'll give her away, and I wondered if Stevie had any relatives or friends at all.

The wedding is beautiful, outdoors and overlooking the ocean. There's some brief levity as RC has trouble getting the rings off his finger to present, and the ceremony continues. But would they make it? Or would Stevie tearfully run away, continuing the bad soap opera scenes sprinkled throughout the episode? Surprisingly, the ceremony concludes as the minister presents Mr. and Mrs. Michael Knight! It didn't make sense, but then a door swung open in a brick wall off to the side, and suddenly there was Durant. He was wearing a fake mustache, but it was him all right. In slow motion he draws a gun even as Stevie makes a split-second decision and throws her arms around Michael, taking a bullet meant for him. I bet she wished she made a split-second decision back when Devon approached her in that club and asked her to come back into Michael's life. She slumps in Michael's arms as he falls to his knees, tears streaming down his face. The slow motion continues as RC leaps over both of them, and even Devon races into action. Durant flees and leaps into the back of a van, where his henchman lay down cover fire to keep the Foundation operatives back. In the garden, Stevie asks Michael to always remember how much she loves him, before closing her eyes forever.

Every great hero has lost something, whether it be loved ones like parents or an uncle, or a home forever destroyed, or one of their senses. Out of that loss comes a fury of purpose and determination, and Michael strode out of the cemetery in the next scene, snapping to his friends that he's going after Durant on his own and he wouldn’t “need a judge and jury for this one.” He adjusts the ring on his finger before climbing into KITT and going into pure dark Knight mode. He roughs up the guy that tried to kill him in the hospital and gets him to give up the location of one of Durant's safehouses. He roughs up the goon there but Durant himself calls in and asks him to meet him somewhere. KITT advises caution but remains loyal to his partner, and the two end up in a warehouse, with Durant and a battery of missile launchers waiting at the other end. Missiles explode around them as they dodge and weave, making it to the other side and knocking over the platform from which Durant and his lackeys were controlling the artillery. Michael grabs Durant and beats him furiously, each swing of his fist against his wife's killer's face louder than the last one. KITT stops him from going too far however, advising him that he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he finished Durant off. Michael collects himself, and hauls Durant in to custody.

The epilogue finds Michael back at the beach throwing bread to seagulls, alone, and thinking of Stevie. He flashes back to something she told him, a rhyme she heard as a little girl that “You may break, you may shatter the vase, but the scent of the roses will hang around it still. The scent of the roses will linger forever.” At the time, it probably made absolutely no sense, but in hindsight it definitely takes on meaning. Did she see her fate coming? Could this have been Shyamalan's inspiration for Signs? I don't have those answers. As the word “forever” echoes, the scene fades back to Michael in the present, who suddenly looks as if he's found an answer. He looks across the beach at the black t-top parked up in the lot even as an upbeat trumpet sounds, the first positive fanfare. He starts to walk, then runs as the fanfare grows to a hopeful melody. “Where are we going, Michael?” asks his loyal car. “We're going home, KITT. To family.” Michael hops into the driver's seat. “We're going to the Foundation.” The music flares at full volume now as he drives off, the “KNIGHT” license plate the last image before the standard fade to KITT driving in the desert, and the closing theme song.

Overall, it was a great episode, despite the cheesy soap opera acting and sappy second act. I think the middle part was necessary though, to set the stage for Michael's dark drive toward vengeance, and for him to live again as the hero he's meant to be. It would have been a great way to end the series, to reaffirm his role as a Foundation operative and establish that, for what he's lost, he'll only fight harder to protect the innocent and the helpless. The episode marked the fall of a hero and the rise of a super hero, and it's a shame it wasn't aired in the correct order. When I'm done watching the second half, I might have to watch this one again, to get the proper feel for how events should have unfolded.