This was a vehicle to get Max into a prison cell as a prisoner. How they went about it, and what his mission was...well, rather implausible, even for this series.
In the Chief's office, Max is about to leave but he first wants to ask the Chief something that Max feels requires the Cone of Silence. The Chief protests but gives in. As I'm going through this series again, I've been noticing that almost every time they use the Cone of Silence, the controls are different-sometimes operated remotely by someone the Chief summons on his intercom, sometimes by any of several different boxes on his desk. This show had another gizmo to activate it and this time Max asked if he could press the buttons. The Chief agreed.
They lower the device and the Chief is outraged to learn that all Max wanted to do was ask for a loan of $20. When he tells Max to raise the Cone, he can't because he can't reach the buttons just outside the plastic cone. The Chief cannot slide out underneath, but Max does, just as an alarm goes off indicating a major security problem.
She and Max hastily leave the office, oblivious to the Chief waving and yelling (which they cannot hear, of course) and so they leave him trapped in the Cone for who knows how long.
There's been sabotage to a nuclear plant in the Midwest and that whole region of the country will be blown up if they don't take some repair code to that region immediately. Worried that KAOS will stop them, the code is microsized and inserted in a special cap on one of Max's teeth.
At the train station (fog is making air travel no doable) KAOS agents are following (ridiculously closely, like in two steps behind him with every step he takes) so Max stumbles on purpose onto another passenger waiting on a bench after pulling off that cap and he then manages to insert it on the other man without him realizing it.
A few minutes later, Max and 99 have shaken their pursuers, but when they go to retrieve the dental cap, they learn that the man is a prisoner on his way to Illinois' famous Joliet Penitentiary.
Would you believe Max figures the best way to get the cap back is to rapidly get convicted of a crime and sent to that prison and somehow get into the same cell as that man? I know, it's as far fetched as it could be. When they left on the assignment, they had only 72 hours to get the information to the destination. And even if, magically, Max got sentenced and sent to Joliet quickly enough, and somehow got put into that same man's cell, how is he supposed to get the cap out of the guy's mouth without a violent objection?
What nobody figured is how hard it would be to get arrested. Max tries by not paying his check at a restaurant, but everyone in the Midwest is so nice, they all chip in to pay his bill. He tries to rob a man on the street, but instead the sympathetic psychiatrist he chooses for a victim instead gives him an appointment for a session the next morning. He then gets a cop to ticket him for littering, and by doing other small things, gets his day in court. But the judge just wants to let him off with a warning, then after Smart insults him, a suspended sentence. Finally Max ticks him off enough to get a year in Joliet, and Max thanks him and shakes his hand.
Of course, Max does get put in the same cell with the guy, along with a third man. The man who has the info is a big tough guy. Using dental tools smuggled in via a cake 99 baked, Max plans to go to work while the others are sleeping, and we get a couple of funny minutes showing him trying to get into the man's mouth while he keeps rolling over in his sleep.
I won't reveal how, but he finally gets what he wants, only to learn that it'll take several weeks to get released. The Chief explains while visiting him in prison that these things take time. He also tells Max that there's a problem with him returning to work once he is out-CONTROL has a strict policy against hiring ex-cons. And this is where it ends, a kind of a cartoonish ending to a rather ridiculous premise.
If you forget about the illogic of virtually the entire plot, there were several rather funny scenes in this one and some great dialogue. Not a classic, but a solid 8 to me.
In the Chief's office, Max is about to leave but he first wants to ask the Chief something that Max feels requires the Cone of Silence. The Chief protests but gives in. As I'm going through this series again, I've been noticing that almost every time they use the Cone of Silence, the controls are different-sometimes operated remotely by someone the Chief summons on his intercom, sometimes by any of several different boxes on his desk. This show had another gizmo to activate it and this time Max asked if he could press the buttons. The Chief agreed.
They lower the device and the Chief is outraged to learn that all Max wanted to do was ask for a loan of $20. When he tells Max to raise the Cone, he can't because he can't reach the buttons just outside the plastic cone. The Chief cannot slide out underneath, but Max does, just as an alarm goes off indicating a major security problem.
She and Max hastily leave the office, oblivious to the Chief waving and yelling (which they cannot hear, of course) and so they leave him trapped in the Cone for who knows how long.
There's been sabotage to a nuclear plant in the Midwest and that whole region of the country will be blown up if they don't take some repair code to that region immediately. Worried that KAOS will stop them, the code is microsized and inserted in a special cap on one of Max's teeth.
At the train station (fog is making air travel no doable) KAOS agents are following (ridiculously closely, like in two steps behind him with every step he takes) so Max stumbles on purpose onto another passenger waiting on a bench after pulling off that cap and he then manages to insert it on the other man without him realizing it.
A few minutes later, Max and 99 have shaken their pursuers, but when they go to retrieve the dental cap, they learn that the man is a prisoner on his way to Illinois' famous Joliet Penitentiary.
Would you believe Max figures the best way to get the cap back is to rapidly get convicted of a crime and sent to that prison and somehow get into the same cell as that man? I know, it's as far fetched as it could be. When they left on the assignment, they had only 72 hours to get the information to the destination. And even if, magically, Max got sentenced and sent to Joliet quickly enough, and somehow got put into that same man's cell, how is he supposed to get the cap out of the guy's mouth without a violent objection?
What nobody figured is how hard it would be to get arrested. Max tries by not paying his check at a restaurant, but everyone in the Midwest is so nice, they all chip in to pay his bill. He tries to rob a man on the street, but instead the sympathetic psychiatrist he chooses for a victim instead gives him an appointment for a session the next morning. He then gets a cop to ticket him for littering, and by doing other small things, gets his day in court. But the judge just wants to let him off with a warning, then after Smart insults him, a suspended sentence. Finally Max ticks him off enough to get a year in Joliet, and Max thanks him and shakes his hand.
Of course, Max does get put in the same cell with the guy, along with a third man. The man who has the info is a big tough guy. Using dental tools smuggled in via a cake 99 baked, Max plans to go to work while the others are sleeping, and we get a couple of funny minutes showing him trying to get into the man's mouth while he keeps rolling over in his sleep.
I won't reveal how, but he finally gets what he wants, only to learn that it'll take several weeks to get released. The Chief explains while visiting him in prison that these things take time. He also tells Max that there's a problem with him returning to work once he is out-CONTROL has a strict policy against hiring ex-cons. And this is where it ends, a kind of a cartoonish ending to a rather ridiculous premise.
If you forget about the illogic of virtually the entire plot, there were several rather funny scenes in this one and some great dialogue. Not a classic, but a solid 8 to me.
