We are back to the old plot line of a two bit politician secretly using a private army to set himself up for higher office. This time around, it is a little more low rent. Instead of a governor wanting to be president, it is a mayor aiming for the Kansas governor’s mansion. A group of masked outlaws known as the Vipers, riding in an armored wagon, have bee raiding towns all across Kansas. Jim is warning the sheriff of a tow that, according to the pattern of attacks, is likely the next target. Sure enough, the Vipers hit the town. Jim cannot stop them, but he dos kill one and discovers aclue the Viper are somehow connected to the town of Freedom, Kansas.
Freedom is the only local town to ot have been attacked by the Vipers. The town chalks up their good fortune to it law and order mayor and gun slinging sheriff. But if you cannot figure out the real reason is because the mayor and sheriff are behind the vipers, you have not een watching enough television. Good for you. The mayor has been using the vipers to ro banks for his campaign coffers. He plans one last raid in Freedom in which he will betray the Vipers by booby trapping their wagon. He will then ride his heroism in stopping them all the way to the governor’s mansion.
The plot is not much of a mystery eve though the mayor is not ’revealed” as the mater mind until the end of the third act. The episode is mostly an actioner, with Jim bein tricked into a boxing match tat takes up most of the second act, then being frame for murder ad hunted down when the match fails to ru him off. The armored waon, which is supposed to be the unstoppable key to the Vipers’ success, is not given a while lot of attention, or does it seem all that formidable. Jim and Artie tae care of it with a couple shots, actually.
The episode ends abruptly after a firefight with no wrap up whatsoever. It look like the episode was running long, so they just freeze framed the last shot and called it a day. If I had to guess, it is because the boxing sequence, which spilled into the street, wound up more elaborate than originally scripted. The fight was the biggest part of the episode, even it clearly did not need to be so drawn out. Got to make the fist fight quota somehow.
“The Night of the Vipers” is nothing special, but it is not bad. We have seen variations on the plot several times before, so it does not feel very fresh. But still there is a mindless fun in watching the constant fights and Jim’s daring escape from a coffin submerged in a river. You cannot think about this one too much, so mindless is the best way to ejoy it.
Rating: *** (out of 5)
