Nitro Man (episode)

Information
"Nitro Man" is the 19th episode of Martial Law. It first aired on March 27, 1999.

Summary
"Sammo is desperate to find Melanie, who is being held hostage."

--DVD description

Synopsis
The episode opens with Sammo and Terrell arriving at the First Allied Savings and Loan bank. Sammo is going to pick up his girlfriend, Melanie, for a lunch date, and Terrell is going to deposit his check.

In the bank, Sammo sees a cheery security guard, Dallas Hampton, and asks him where to find Melanie. Just as Sammo greets Melanie, a gunman in heavy black armor storms into the bank. He orders everyone against the wall as he commands another teller to fill his bag with money. Melanie tells Sammo that there's an alarm button under her desk, but Sammo tells her not to risk going for it. Likewise, Dallas--who is trying to get the customers to safety--tries to discourage Terrell from confronting the robber.

Nonetheless, Terrell emerges and shoots the robber multiple times, but it has no effect on his bulletproof armor. The gunman goes after Terrell, giving Sammo a chance to surprise him from behind and disarm him. Sammo knocks the man down. Dallas arrives to help, but the robber takes Dallas's gun. Melanie goes for her alarm button, but the robber takes her hostage and leaves with her.

At the police station, Winship meets with the bank manager, Mr. Morton, to see if he has any useful information. Meanwhile, Terrell finds a nervous man with a hot dog cart who happened to be outside the bank during the holdup. The man gives an exact description of the getaway car and its license plate.

Meanwhile, Louis and Grace are trying to find the supplier of the gunman's ammunition--he was using "yellow-jacket" bullets, designed to pierce through bullet-proof armor. They go to an informant--a street vendor named Trevor, who is selling clothes made of hemp. He gives them the name of the dealer: Socrates.

Louis and Grace find Socrates's ship and confront him there. They arrest him and find a box full of yellow-jacket bullets.

Elsewhere, Sammo and Terrell find the robber's getaway car, being towed by a truck. They stop the driver and search the car, and they find Melanie bound and gagged in the trunk. Sammo and Melanie are very relieved to see each other again.

Sammo and Melanie go back to the station, and Melanie mentions that the robber had a Dutch accent.

Louis and Grace question Socrates in the interrogation room, but he has little information. He doesn't know the name of the person who bought the bullets from him. Louis and Grace decide to wait their allotted 72 hours before charging Socrates, and they read the newspaper in front of him. Socrates sees a picture of Dallas Hampton--the security guard who tried to save people at the bank--on the front page, and recognizes him. He tells a skeptical Louis and Grace that Dallas is the one who bought his yellow-jacket bullets. The detectives decide to go to Dallas's house and question him just in case.

When they arrive, Dallas realizes that he is a suspect and flees. Louis and Grace try to follow him, but are stopped by Dallas's vicious dog. However, the incident confirms that Dallas is indeed an accomplice to the robber.

At the station, Winship and the team again meet with Mr. Morton, who is in protective custody because he was attacked and shot by the mysterious gunman who robbed the bank. Fortunately, he survived--he had taken to wearing a bullet-proof vest because he had gotten paranoid, and the man was using regular bullets this time. Morton finally realizes who the robber must be--a martial artist and former soldier named Roman Van Reit, who is an old friend of Dallas Hampton. Morton had once hired Van Reit, but had to fire him for opening fire in a crowded bank lobby to stop robbers.

Sammo and Terrell climb up a tall building to Van Reit's apartment. There, they confront Van Reit and Dallas, but the two villains resist arrest. Sammo goes after the fleeing Van Reit, but does not manage to apprehend him. Terrell has better success against Dallas, knocking him down with a soldiers' helmet and arresting him.

Later Sammo and Terrell question Dallas in the interrogation room. Suddenly, Van Reit arrives--weilding guns and fully clad in his armor, as he was when he robbed the bank. He intends to save Dallas from Sammo and the others. During a tense struggle, Sammo manages to disarm Van Reit of one of his yellow-jacket firing guns. Winship grabs it and shoots Van Reit with it, finally killing him.

Some time after that, Sammo and Melanie finally get their lunch date. Melanie is concerned that some kind of crime or disaster is going to break out again, but Sammo assures her that nothing will happen. They enjoy the rest of their date.