The "Knockout" of the episode title refers to the attempt to neutralize key leaders of the Inter-Agency Defense Command by revolutionaries bent on "changing the world," but it could also refer to beautiful guest-star Jayne Kennedy as well as to, naturally, lissome lead Lynda Carter. Yet despite writer Mark Rodgers's attempt to inject knowing political references into his busy script, his story punches above its weight largely because of Kennedy's lightweight performance--lovely to look at but utterly unconvincing as the cop-turned-radical leading the revolution.
Equally unlikely is the chance meeting between her and Steve Trevor, in Los Angeles for his vacation, which results in his kidnapping by the Movement, the leftist terrorist group (think: Symbionese Liberation Army) that spares his life because--get this--he once saved Caroline Hamilton's (Kennedy) life when she was a San Francisco policewoman. Investigating his disappearance, Diana Prince joins forces with Pete Johnson (Ted Shackleford), an LA taxi driver and former Marine and race-car driver with a mysteriously mute young son--busy script, remember?--who helps Diana track down the extremists threatening the capitalist order. Or something. Of course there's a Movement mole in the IADC (more busyness) amidst vague allusions to 1970s political-paranoia movies such as "Three Days of the Condor" and "The Parallax View."
Moving through her second season, Carter maximizes her modest acting chops, her confidence as the series lead growing with each episode, with both her Diana and her Wonder Woman gaining strength as a result. And the presence of reliable television heavy Frank Marth, playing a professional hit man sent to eliminate Diana after the earnest amateurs fail, can only help, although Shackleford, whose game performance burnishes the narrative, deserves an opening credit. However, instead of a "Knockout," this ambitious but flawed suspenser barely notches a win on points.