A Good Day at White Rock
A Good Day at White Rock
Original Air Date: 10-08-1982
This episode has a lot of awesome in it, as should be obvious in the very first clip in the teaser.
nothing like a frightened-looking woman to get your attention
This episode finally brings the OP together, with sound effects and voiceover.
T&A
I told you I could cap this all day and not run out of porn
The episode opens in a warehouse where some guys are delicately pestling some white powder that is clearly supposed to be cocaine. One of them is concerned about how long this is taking (I guess they're cutting the drug for sale).
what do they use for cocaine in shows? baby powder? it looks like baby powder
They're interrupted by the sound of approaching turbines, and KITT comes crashing through the wall. He fishtails while the drug dealers dive to the side, and strikes the table with his rear quarter, throwing the cocaine into an inhalable cloud of dangerous proportions. Michael leans out the window and, in a very out-of-character moment, he has a semiautomatic rifle in his hands.
you're supposed to be a role model, Michael
The drug dealers whinge about the loss of their coke and Michael cracks wise, and then ... arrests them? I guess he arrests them, even though he has no police powers.
Later, in the daytime, he enters a swank restaurant where Devon is eating escargot.
Devon looks happy because he was otherwise eating lunch alone
Devon graciously offers to buy Michael some lunch, and Michael orders a hamburger, fries, and a Coke. Like any truly high-class restaurant, the waiter takes this totally in stride, although Devon seems scandalized. Michael then broaches the topic of a vacation. He's been working sooooo hard for the last ... 2 episodes, you see, one of which was the series pilot. He's practically burned out. Devon is very open to this idea and even offers to call his travel agent to help, but Michael doesn't need that. He just wants to do a little not-very-ambitious rock climbing. Devon gives him his blessings.
Michael takes KITT out into the boonies.
oh, KITT, you are such a heartbreaker
While driving, KITT and Michael play a cute little word/geography game. Michael is not very good at it and tells KITT to stfu, but it's more playful now than it was in the pilot. KITT takes no offense and asks Michael to brief him on their mission, and Michael has to explain that there is no mission. They are on vacation. KITT has no idea what a vacation is, or what relaxation is, revealing just how incredibly young and inexperienced he is at this point in the series.
hmmm
this is like looking at a woman's breasts while you talk to her. not cool
Michael eventually likens relaxation to putting KITT into neutral, which KITT dismisses as unproductive. He also thinks that rock climbing is pointless and dangerous, and insists that he cares about Michael only because he was programmed that way. Michael may or may not buy this.
They swing into White Rock and park in front of the general store.
if only Norman Rockwell had known about black Trans Ams
The general store is run by a young lady whose back is turned when Michael walks in, so they have a little misunderstanding until he speaks up and she realizes that he isn't one of her regular customers there for nightcrawlers and mealworms. This is Sherry although her name won't be revealed for a while.
for now, she is nameless
They exchange small talk and Michael reveals that he's there to climb a rock, and he makes a minor pass at Sherry, which she rebuffs. Unabashed, Michael notes that the sign in the window says he can get a hamburger there and he'd like one. This, she's cool with.
Her little brother Davey (also not identified here) runs in gushing about KITT, and he instantly makes friends with Michael as the owner of the sweet car. Michael offers to give him a ride, thereby ingratiating himself with both Davey and Sherry. Davey runs back out and Michael makes another pass at Sherry, which is better received than the first one.
Later, Michael comes out of the store to find Davey drooling onto KITT's fender, and asks him if Sherry has a steady boyfriend. Davey scoffs. Talking about KITT, Davey notes "she's beautiful" and has a "great body." Michael, apparently assuming that Davey is referring to his sister in these terms, agrees. They hop into KITT and go for a drive, because it's OK for a child to get into a stranger's car as long as the car is hot.
Davey requests to be dropped off in a specific spot, where a group of other children about his age are hanging out around a yellow van.
despite appearances, this is not a child molestation van
Davey acts like he and Michael are best buds, showing off his connection to a sexy car to his friends. Michael, amused, drives off, but is quickly less amused when he sees a fight break out in his side view mirror. He pulls a quick and illegal U-turn right in front of a cop and returns to the van.
There he pulls one of the other boys off Davey, who claims the fight started because the other boy said KITT was dumb (so I reckon Davey started it really). Michael thinks that's no reason to get into a fight. While the sheriff pulls up and gets out of his car, a dude moseys over and tells Michael to stop leaning on his van and also to stop messing with his little brother. This is Lonnie (no relation to the other Lonnie from the pilot).
as you can see, his fashion sense is impeccable
Michael attempts to defuse Lonnie's attitude by complimenting his van, to which Lonnie replies by saying KITT is dumb. This makes Michael less diplomatic and they almost get into a fight, but are interrupted by the sheriff. The sheriff hints strongly that Michael needs to move on.
J. R. Ewing's second cousin
It takes two to make an argument, you see, and the sheriff (a peace officer, with an emphasis on the word "peace") is perfectly willing to remove one of the two by tossing Michael in jail. Michael decides that it would be great if he went to do his rock climbing right now, and everyone agrees. However, first the sheriff hands Michael a traffic ticket for that U-turn. HAH.
Later, Michael is back in the car with Davey, who thinks that Michael was too much of a pushover with the sheriff. Michael explains to Davey that there is a time to fight and a time to not fight. Davey assumes that the time to fight is when you can win, but in a pretty cool little moment Michael explains that no, that's a bully's thought process, the real answer is that you fight only when you have no other choice.
Cruising toward White Rock are today's antagonists.
naturally, Born To Be Wild is their theme song
The first person they meet in town is Lonnie, next to his van. Lonnie is amused by them at first, but quickly becomes intimidated. They decide that it would be fun to totally trash his beloved van.
this is how you know they're evil
Lonnie is quite upset but can't do anything because there are like 20 of them.
Meanwhile, at White Rock Mountain, Michael has all his rock-climbing gear together and prepares to go climb a rock. KITT is concerned that he's going to kill himself and asks to be pre-programmed in case Michael doesn't come back. Michael blows this off. KITT then asks anxiously what he's supposed to do while Michael is gone. The act ends as Michael tells him that he's on vacation too, and he should get some sun.
KITT is perfectly subordinate
Act 2 starts with the bikers heading into downtown, scattering trash and law-abiding citizens as they go. Various businesses switch their signs from OPEN to CLOSED. They roll up to the general store, and Sherry is too slow locking the door. The bikers all barge in and demand lunch.
I don't think we ever get a name for the guy in the blue bandanna, so I'm going to call him Rapey McRape
Out on the mountain, Michael is rock climbing, just like he's been talking about the whole episode. At one point he falls, but it turns out that safety lines work. KITT makes a new friend.
hot to trot
KITT fails in shooing the dog away in the conventional way, so he plays a sound file of a roaring lion and this sends the dog scampering.
Back at the general store, Sherry is not having fun.
her hair does not belong to you, McRape
She's putting up with it as well as she can, but she's skeeved in a serious way. The gang leader pulls McRape off her and tells him that they don't need that kind of trouble, and defuses it.
One of the bikers spots the sheriff coming, and the leader tells everyone to be cool. McRape grabs Sherry and snuggles her, much to her discomfort. The sheriff comes in and greets them cordially, and somehow gets McRape off of Sherry. One of the bikers "pays" for the food they ate and stuff they are taking by handing over $20. Davey protests, but the sheriff hushes him and says the bikers are being fair. He decides to give them free beer. Now Sherry protests that she can't afford this shit and the sheriff shushes her, too.
The bikers leave, pleased by how they just rolled over Sherry and the sheriff, and chat about how smart it was to pick this particular town, because they can only "fight one war at a time."
Sherry asks the sheriff why he didn't arrest the bikers, and the sheriff says, "Arrest them for what? They didn't do anything, did they?" Then he gives her a line about how they were all lucky to get off that easy, the bikers will be gone soon, and it takes two to make an argument so let's not start anything with them. Sherry suggests bringing in the state police, and the sheriff says, "And do what? Arrest them for not shaving?" Sherry is disgusted.
Now, at this point I was thinking, yeah, sexual harassment (almost assault) is not a crime and neither is theft when the victim is a woman. But upon further analysis I note that the sheriff is going to let them get away with destroying Lonnie's van as well. So the assault on Sherry was gendered but the sheriff's response actually isn't. He's an equal-opportunity doormat.
Michael finally reaches the top of White Rock Mountain. It turns out that there was an easier way to get up there.
the plaid means he's going native
Davey came looking for Michael because of the biker problem; he doesn't know where else to go, since the sheriff is so useless. Michael is okay with coming to the rescue and tells Davey to go wait by the road, Michael will pick him up there.
Davey is confused as to where Michael is going, and has to be told, duh, he's going back to pick up his car. "What's so important about your car?" asks Davey. "You'd be surprised," says Michael, instead of, "It's my car, that's what's important about it." Like Davey expected him to abandon his expensive sports car out at the mountain and walk back to town or something.
It's only now that we learn Sherry's name, incidentally.
Michael rappels down the mountain and they return to town.
oh, KITT, it's impossible for you to look bad
Michael goes into the store and talks to Sherry. She claims to be all right but he is not convinced and presses, and it doesn't take long for her to fall into his arms to hug away her trauma. Michael offers to stay there that night, but it's gentlemanly and he's not making a pass this time.
McRape comes back and parks behind KITT. Sherry gets the shotgun but Michael deters her from using it and goes outside. McRape is checking out KITT and asks to drive around the block. Michael does not exactly say no, but KITT is hardly going to let a dirty biker in the door and Michael uses this to basically humiliate McRape by showing that the door opens easily for him.
Michael then insults the biker, who pulls a switchblade on him. Sherry sends Davey for the sheriff. Michael and McRape fight, and Michael disarms him by beating his arm against KITT's spoiler. KITT does nothing.
The rest of the biker gang cruises in. Michael and Sherry get into KITT, which as we know is the safest place on Earth. Michael further antagonizes the bikers by rolling into their parked bikes, and they all start beating on KITT. Sherry is amazed that KITT is undamaged under the assault. Michael introduces her to KITT, and KITT explains that he is an experimental prototype vehicle and "impervious to virtually all forms of violence."
Michael is delighted by his experimental prototype vehicle. also, note the only person of color in the background. he is a vicious biker
Eventually the sheriff rolls in, and Michael gets out of KITT, happy that the law has shown up. He is promptly arrested.
As he's put into what looks like the jail's only cell, he demands an explanation (I'd kind of like one too, since Michael was just sitting in his car doing nothing - habeas corpus was made for this). The sheriff explains, again, that it takes two to make an argument, and other than that he has basically nothing. Michael is outraged and asks at what point the sheriff is going to act, but the sheriff thinks that's his problem and not Michael's. After an unproductive phone call to a busy number (probably Devon, number is 223-553-0433, call today!), Michael is locked away.
Back at the store, Davey thinks that someone should find out what the bikers are up to. Sherry forbids him from acting on this thought. Yeah, that'll work.
Outside town, the biker gang is camped out in a wooded area, getting drunk.
I love ya, man
The gang leader passes the word that he doesn't want everyone getting too shitfaced, and then he comes down on McRape over the confrontation he caused back in town. McRape really wants Sherry, and the leader promises him "afterwards." Mr. Leader Man then gives an extemporaneous speech about how another biker gang is going to be rolling in tomorrow and, again, they can only fight one war at a time. The act ends.
That night, in jail, Michael asks to be deputized. Hah hah, says the sheriff, and he leaves to go on night patrol. Michael asks him to check on Davey and Sherry.
Once alone, Michael shows us that he has a new toy.
it's not a Rolex though
His watch is actually a comlink that lets him talk remotely to KITT. KITT reports that he's impounded, just like Michael, but of course he can get out. He offers to come bust Michael out, but I reckon Michael remembers KITT's method for doing this and decides to rely on his own devices. KITT inquires if they are still on vacation as Michael pulls threads out of the blanket on his cot.
KITT is blocked in, so he pushes another car out of his way to escape from impound.
he's apologetic for what he just had to do to his loyal subject
Some kids are randomly making out in the back seat of that car (in the police impound lot??) and are impressed that the Earth just moved for them.
Michael attaches his thread to a spring he's removed from the cot and uses this to lasso the keys to his cell, which the sheriff has cleverly left on a peg in the same room.
you've got to be kidding me
KITT picks him up outside and they drive off. KITT wonders if they're getting out of town, but Michael wants to know what the bikers are up to. In what is clearly a scene filmed in daylight with a night filter on the camera, they find the biker camp and Michael decides to investigate more closely. He instructs KITT that, if he doesn't come back, KITT should go find Davey and Sherry and get them out of town. KITT says, "You're the driver, but on the whole I think it would be preferable if you did come back."
Michael sneaks over to the bikers' motorcycles and swipes a vest from one and a hat (ewww) from another.
I'm not sure if I should make a joke here about the Village People or about lice
The bikers are drunk and telling surprisingly non-obscene knock-knock jokes, then they drop some exposition so that Michael learns that there is a biker gang war about to happen the next day. McRape also expresses, again, his intention to, well, rape Sherry. The gang leader once again tells him to wait until after the other gang has been taken out.
Intel gathered, Michael returns to KITT and they head back to town. He fills in KITT, who initially thinks that a gang war is a self-limiting problem since it doesn't matter to them who wins. He changes his mind when Michael tells him that White Rock is to be the battlefield. Michael asks for ideas, and KITT suggests that Michael go first, since "it always makes you feel so much better on those rare occasions when you out-think me." Michael hah-hahs.
Back at the biker camp, Davey is sneaking around and is discovered and captured.
Michael drives Sherry to the sheriff's office. Sherry offers to go in alone and take care of it, but Michael says it's more believable if it comes from him. Really? She's concerned that the sheriff will toss Michael back in jail but Michael is confident that won't happen. She gives him a good-luck smooch and they go inside.
The sheriff is initially not receptive, because Michael broke out of jail and stole his car from the impound lot. Michael says, truthfully, that he did not steal his car, and in a moment of hilarity the sheriff says, "I suppose you want me to believe that it drove itself over here and picked you up." Michael explains the situation and then pushes a confrontation when the sheriff seems determined to put him back in jail. He gives the sheriff a choice: either help him save the town, or he'll save the town alone.
The next morning the bikers are mostly asleep, although a few are tottering about. Davey is tied up to a tree. Michael and KITT come cruising in, with Sherry, waking up the bikers.
you're not KITT's type, dude
The gang leader says that if Michael wants the kid, he's going to have to get out of the car, alerting them to Davey's presence. After a moment of thought, Michael decides to fishtail around, damaging some bikes and throwing up a huge cloud of dust. He uses the cover to dart out and retrieve Davey. They zoom away, and the bikers quickly follow them.
Michael goes off on a dirt road (which, for some reason, prompts one of the bikers to say "hyperspace" ???) and there follows a long car-motorcycle chase in which they dispose of some of the bikers a few at a time (for instance, at one point Michael stops and turns sideways so that two of the bikers strike KITT broadside and go flying over his roof). In the process, KITT makes the following jump over a pond.
nice
still graceful
is he gonna make it?
HOLY MOLY
I want you to look at the angle of the car in that last cap. HOW DID THAT STUNT NOT KILL SOMEONE.
even dirty, KITT is sexy
Eventually Michael gets the remaining bikers to follow him and leads them into town, passing a point where Lonnie and the sheriff have constructed a simple trap, which they erect once KITT has gone by.
support your local sheriff
The remaining bikers are clotheslined and defeated. As Michael, Sherry and Davey approach, the sheriff apologizes to Michael.
knowing is half the battle
Turns out he's not just a peace officer, but also a law enforcement officer (with the emphasis on enforcement). Michael magnanimously forgives him. Later, the second biker gang comes into town, but is stopped by a barricade built of the first gang's damaged motorcycles. They consider this a moment, then turn around and leave, to the delight of the townsfolk.
The epilogue finds Michael back at the swank restaurant with Devon. Devon has gotten the state police report and knows all about what happened, and chides Michael a bit for being unable to even have a vacation without attracting trouble but he's otherwise not upset. Michael thinks this should count as a Foundation mission, and Devon is okay with that and promises to approve Michael's expense report. Michael just wants another vacation. Devon thinks that's a great idea and tells him not to hurry back.
Michael runs outside, where he has a guest.
oho, so it's that kind of vacation
Michael puts KITT onto Auto so he can mack on Sherry, and KITT wonders if it's safe to assume that no one wants to play geography games. He's told to just drive, "until one of us runs out of gas."
Once again, we have an episode that really has only one female character. I don't believe any of the other women in the episode even get lines.
Like the last one, you can kind of excuse the gender imbalance, because: biker gang. But you also kind of can't, because nobody held a gun to anybody's head and made them write a script about an Army base and then another one about a biker gang. These are story choices. The gender imbalance is baked into each setting, but the decisions to use those settings were choices.
Sherry fits within many of the same "good woman" stereotypes that Maggie did. She is caring for a young boy, but we are allowed to maintain her virtue in our minds because the boy is her brother and not her son. She is hardworking and responsible, but not too spirited. She's also largely asexual except to the degree that she is sexually imposed-upon by McRape. She defies this at the end, however, when she seems willing to enter into a (possibly physical) relationship with Michael, so she's not Maggie.
It's interesting that we don't learn Sherry's name until halfway into the episode. She never introduces herself. We only hear her name when her little brother is talking about her to Michael at White Rock Mountain. For half the episode she is nameless.
This bothers me, and it took me a while to put my finger on why. What I finally came up with was this: it's the fact that, for a good while there, you can only think of her as "the general store lady" or "the only woman in the episode" or "Davey's sister." All are identities that define her in limited terms (in terms of other people). By her occupation (a service occupation). By her gender relationship with the other characters (they are all male other than her). By her personal relationship with Davey. By having no name for a good long time, she is diminished, into someone who wouldn't exist without others against whom to compare her.
Sherry is not a very active character. She is threatened and robbed, and her solution is to appeal to the (male) sheriff (from whom she gets no satisfaction, leaving her with no other options). Her little brother (male) gets the idea to appeal to Michael instead, and Michael (male) eventually comes through for her. Now, at one point she does grab a gun, and if Michael hadn't been there she probably would have used it. That makes me feel a little better about her as a character, but overall she is made out to be more of a victim than anything else.
I'm also honestly not sure what to make of Michael's assertion that the info about the biker war will be more believable coming from him. Why? The sheriff knows Sherry, and doesn't know him from Adam. Why would he be more believable than her?
The truly interesting character in this episode is KITT. Now, KITT doesn't do very much. He just breaks himself out of impound. He doesn't provide any significant input, either, unless going back to the sheriff was his idea. The script leaves it unclear who came up with that plan, but it seems more like a Michael plan than a KITT plan.
Nevertheless, KITT is important to the episode because he gets real characterization.
The early "what's a vacation" conversation is honestly painful if you unpack it. It could be argued that the concepts of "relaxation" and "vacation" are meaningless to an AI, since he probably just needs a defrag every now and again to get the same effect. But that wasn't the metamessage that was conveyed. He didn't even know what the word "vacation" meant. The only way that could be true would be if that word was never loaded into KITT's dictionary.
So KITT was built and programmed with a purpose in mind, and was never even introduced to the idea of taking a break from the fulfillment of that purpose. It would be different if he knew what a vacation was, and just had no use for one. The choice of deciding whether or not he had a use for a vacation was simply never offered to him.
The exchange also highlights how young KITT is. Notwithstanding his somewhat arrogant comment about how rare it is that Michael is able to out-think him, we have not yet been shown KITT doing any creative thinking. So that comment might just be his ego overwriting reality, which would definitely be true-to-type if he is essentially a child here. A child who is sent into combat at the command of others.
That's incredibly disturbing, and sad, even given that he is nigh-invulnerable.
It's also disturbing how much anxiety KITT clearly experiences at the idea of Michael falling to his doom and leaving KITT with no provisional instructions. It was easy for me to envision KITT waiting there, at the base of the mountain, for all of eternity (or at least until he ran out of power) if Michael never came back, not knowing what else to do.
Then, at the end, Michael and Sherry are making out right there in KITT's front seats, and KITT is just asking for instructions on what he should be doing. It's not clear if he is oblivious to the import, or if he knows what's going on and is tactfully ignoring it.
KITT is still a liminal character here, and I'm sure that the writers did not put this much thought into those conversations. They are amusing, in the same way that those Data-doesn't-understand-human-emotions conversations in ST:TNG would be (KITT pre-dates Data by quite a bit ... things that make you go "hmmm"). I found KITT's overall character arc through the course of the series to be the most fascinating one, though, and this is where he first starts to express a genuine personality. And it's a co-dependent one.
Finally, I was interested in how both this ep and the last one depict KITT entertaining Michael on a long car trip. This one more than the last one, since it is explicitly stated that Michael suggested the geography game they were playing, but I think it's also safe to assume that Michael suggested Atari games, too, and that KITT did not initiate either exchange. It was probably more like KITT minding his own business, Michael getting bored, and soliciting something to fill in the time from KITT. Which KITT then provided.
I highly doubt that the reverse would ever happen (that KITT is bored and solicits something to fill in the time from Michael), but I have to wonder if Michael would be equally receptive if it did. Michael seems pretty thoughtless to KITT at this juncture; I doubt he would diss KITT on purpose, but he might do it thoughtlessly.
And that's that for this ep.