Sam leaps into Arnold Watkins, a college student and self-professed superhero. While Al tries to help the real Watkins get over his dangerous hero complex, Sam must navigate Watkin’s harrowing relationship with the guys at a fraternity who are into dangerous stunts as part of their hazing rituals. Things are complicated by the presence of Alia, another leaper last seen in Deliver Us From Evil, who is there to ruin Arnold’s life. However, Alia hopes to escape and Sam speculates that if they are together when they leap, that he may be able to rescue her. In the end, the two leap together and land together in a woman’s prison–with unknown which person’s leap they have arrived at.
Written by Richard C. Okie. Directed by Harvey S. Laidman
Previous Episode: Blood Moon • Next Episode: Revenge of the Evil Leaper
Comments:
Quantum Leap, like most shows from its era, was reasonably static. Even though the setting, tone and even the genre varied from episode to episode, the series was pretty formulaic. Sam would leap-in to a scenario, deal with the fish-out-of-water elements that were inherent to that, piece together what the situation actually needed, face some trials in this process, and, most of the time, eventually figure it all out and leaves the people he meets better off than he found them.
Every so often the show would mix things up a bit, and one of the biggest ways it did this was with the whole “Evil Leaper” concept. As I mentioned in my comments in the first Evil Leaper episode (Deliver Us From Evil), it’s a shame that the show didn’t have more seasons to explore this, but at least it took the time in this fifth and final season to play with the concept not just once, but over three episodes.
Return of the Evil Leaper is the second of these. Last time, the presence of Alia and Zoey and the reveal of what they were doing was a big surprise–one of the best that the show has ever delivered, in fact. This time, the name of the game is dramatic irony. We know going into this what it’s going to be about, and we watch as Alia and Zoey show up and start their evil work. We have a pretty full picture of what is going on long before any of the characters do.
And that provides for some interesting scenes. We see both Sam and Alia “working” each other to achieve their goals, without realising that they are facing much bigger opposition than they think. That provides a dynamic to the drama that is not normally part of a typical Quantum Leap story.
However, it also means that a lot of our runtime gets burned up with this sort of stuff, with not all that much leftover for what I’m really looking out for, which is some real development to the whole Evil Leaper idea. And while the way Sam and Alia team up is clever (with both of them manipulating things in order to try to coordinate their leaps), there’s not as much time as I’d like to seeing them interact as people and having their relationship explored.
With all of that going on, it’s easy to forget that this is the “superhero” episode of Quantum Leap, in that Sam’s overall mission is to help his host, Arnold Watkins, from getting himself killed by trying to act like a superhero. It turns out that this is not accomplished by Sam, specifically, but by Al via some counselling sessions with Arnold in the Waiting Room. That makes the second episode out of the last three to spend a lot of time in the Waiting Room (after Dr. Ruth), and to have the leap be completed by something that happens there rather than by something Sam does. These scenes are pretty good, but still I think I’d have preferred a little less time with Al and Arnold, and a bit more with Sam and Alia’.
Having said all that, it’s not a bad episode by any means–it just feels rushed in the places that I wanted it to spend time in. And of course, there’s this whole other episode coming right after this one which might deliver some of the things I’m looking for. I haven’t rewatched it yet, but watch this space and hopefully my comments will be here soon.
Cast Notes:
• Renée Coleman and Carolyn Seymour are back as Alia and Zoey from the previous Evil Leaper episode, Deliver Us From Evil, and they both appear next time as well in Revenge of the Evil Leaper. I don’t know Coleman from anything else (although apparently she was in A League of Their Own with Tom Hanks and Geena Davis), but Seymour is familiar to me from three episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation—Contagion (as a Romulan), First Contact (as a different alien) and Face of the Enemy (as another Romulan) and two episodes of Star Trek Voyager—Cathexis and Persistence of Vision (both as a hologram).
• Paul Scherrer (Jack) was also in a Star Trek Voyager episode, this one entitled Critical Care.
• Michael Manasserri (Jerry) apparently starred as Wyatt in the TV version of Weird Science.
• Neil Patrick Harris (Mike Hammond) is very well known as Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother and the title role in Doogie Howser, M.D. He’s also been in lots of other things, including lots of voice work (ie he was the Flash in the animated movie Justice League: The New Frontier and he was Spider-Man in a 2003 Spider-Man series). He also played the Toymaker in the 60th anniversary Doctor Who special The Giggle, which included the first appearance of Ncuti Gatwa as the 15th Doctor, and the last appearance (so far) of David Tennant in the role. I believe this makes Harris the first actor I’ve come across to be in both Quantum Leap and Doctor Who.
Who and Where is Dr. Sam Beckett?
Sam is Arnold Watkins, a college student in North Falls, NY, from October 8-10, 1956.
What does Sam have to do?
Initially, it seems that Sam has to save the life of Arnold Watkins (his host) and Jerry, Arnold’s roommate, who were both destined originally to die in the dangerous fraternity hazing that is seen at the start of the episode. Later, Sam works to stop the dangerous chicken races, but the real purpose of the leap seems to be to bring Arnold to the future so Al can counsel him away from living such a dangerous life.
What do we learn about Sam Beckett?
There is nothing new this time around.
What do we know about Al?
Again, there is nothing new this time around.
What about the experiment?
As has happened many times before, and increasingly explicitly in later episodes, Sam finds that his mind is merging with his host, Arnold Watkins.
There are several references to Dr. Beeks, the project’s psychologist.
Sam believes, with no real evidence, that if he and Alia are touching when they both leap, that maybe he can “take her with him”. However it’s also brought up that she could take him with her, and the episode ends without it being clear which has happened.
“Driven by an unknown force…” (God or Time or Something)
In spite of the references to Lothos and his (its?) role in Alia’s leaps, there is no reference to whatever is driving Sam’s leaps.
“Oh Boy”
There is a long and awkward “Oh boy!” heard at the start as Sam rides on the front of a speeding car. He also says “Oh boy” in the middle when he realizes that Jack is not in danger and he has just made a target out of himself for no good reason. There’s a third “Oh boy” at what I assumed was the end of the episode, when Sam and Alia leap to the prison, but the episode still went on for several minutes after that.
Sam’s Complicated Love Life
Sam seems pretty taken with Dawn Taylor before Alia leaps in. And then when she does there is all this undealt with romantic tension between the two of them, but there is no time for it to go anywhere.
The Many Loves of Al Calavicci
Al references his ex-wives. Aside from that, we also see him leering at the Playboy centerfold that Arnold’s roommate is looking at.
And what about this Evil Leaper?
It’s said, presumably as an understatement, that Lothos was not pleased with Alia’s performance in the matter with Sam Beckett.
Alia says that after she last encountered Sam, she was tortured horribly before resuming her work as an evil leaper. She says it was “worse than death,” and the possibility of this happening again is enough to send Alia into tears and panic. She claims that in her work to kill Arnold that she does not have a choice. She is terrified that Zoey will find out that she is talking to Sam and will tell Lothos. She finds it hard to believe that she can actually escape Lothos and the torture that being on his bad side will bring.
When Zoey first suspects that Sam is present in October 1956, she confirms it with Lothos. Later, she tells Lothos to call Alia out of the situation, which leads to Alia beginning to leap.
Zoey tells Alia that Lothos is as surprised as they are that Sam is there, to which Alia is surprised, she believes that Lothos is supposed to know everything. However, it’s also said that Alia is present at all because Sam saved Arnold’s life, so it seems that in this case Lothos has leapt Alia into the situation in response to what Sam has done without realising that it was Sam who had done it.
Other Observations
• The story starts with something that says “Evil Leaper I – Reprise”, followed by clips from Deliver Us From Evil. Up until when I watched it for this blog series, this was all that I’d seen of the original Evil Leaper episode, I think
• After the reprise, a title card reads, “”Evil Leaper II”, though the episode is properly titled a bit later as “Return of the Evil Leaper.”
• OK, Sam’s “Midnight Marauder” costume is funny–the mask looks a lot like a Flash costume from the silver age of comics–aka Barry Allen. Barry Allen’s Flash first appeared in a comic called Showcase #4 which is actually cover-dated October 1956, the same month that this episode takes place in! Generally, cover dates for comics were always about two months after the book was published, which means that Showcase #4 might have really been published in August, which means it might be plausible for Barry Allen to have helped inspire the Midnight Marauder’s look? Oh well, it’s never mentioned, so it’s just speculation.
• There’s a cute moment of Sam faking it until makes it–since he doesn’t know his own last name, when he’s asked about who he is, he says, “rnold, the Midnight Marauder, everyone know me, I guess…”
• When Sam starts acting like the “Midnight Marauder”, it’s very confusing. I guess it’s supposed to be that Sam’s brain is mixing with Arnold’s–that is something that is stated. But the way Scott Bakula plays it is exactly the same as when Sam is just teasing Al, like he does with the whole vampire thing from the last episode, Blood Moon. It makes it hard to fully appreciate moments like Sam making a big deal of himself at the hazing with announcements like, “Risking one’s life for a foolish reason
is a crime against Mother Nature,” only to realize that nobody is in danger. Is Sam just losing his judgment because of the mind-merging, or is this just supposed to be funny? It’s hard to tell.
• Alia is pretty creepy when she first arrives and is in her evil-leaper role. The whole idea of someone just semi-randomly popping into people’s lives for the express purpose of ruining them is just pretty disturbing.
• Like Sam, Alia mistakenly uses anachronistic language (“macho”), but Sam doesn’t pick up on it.
• The library scene has Sam and Alia almost touching. When you are watching it this feels like it would have changed everything, but as the episode plays out it’s possible that them realising the other was there might not have made much difference.
• The episode references both Superman and Clark Kent
• The extended scenes with Al and Arnold Watkins in the Waiting Room are interesting because it’s still kind of a novelty to see these moments. But it’s becoming something we are more and more familiar with.
• Arnold has got a bunch of silly over-the-top superhero dialogue – “I believe you. You have the light of truth in your eyes,” for instance, and “Hammond is only one of million villains who victimise the weak and innocent,” for instance.
• There’s a pretty neat effect with us looking at Arnold’s reflection in the mirror, followed by him dropping the tie, and then after he reaches down to pick it up we come back up to Sam.
• Sam shows up at the hazing – makes a big deal out of himself ” and then finds out that Jack is not in danger.
• There’s a funny moment when Al talks to Arnold and tells him that he had Dr. Beeks do a little computer research on him, and Arnold looks at the hand-link and asks if that is Dr. Beeks.
• The sequence where Al gets Arnold to talk about his parents is pretty good. Dean Stockwell always does a good job with the more tender side of Al’s personality. “I think you do remember,” he says gently when Arnold claims not to remember his parents’ deaths. “Well, maybe you’re trying hard not to remember….Your parents were innocent, weren’t they, Arnold?”
• Sam grabs Alia in the library and the truth is revealed, but Alia (who knows who Sam is by this point) doesn’t try very hard to avoid it. It’s not stated, but I could believe the idea that she basically allowed it to happen.
• Cute moment when Sam asks Al, “You trust me, don’t you?” and Al replies, “Almost.”
• I was surprised at how much episode there still was after the leap at the end. It seems like time that could have been used to benefit the story of Sam as Arnold Watkins encountering Alia, but maybe after I watch the next episode I’ll be grateful for the extra time this affords that one.
Sam Leaps To
Revenge of the Evil Leaper
Favorite Dialogue
Probably my favorite is part of Al’s counselling of Arnold in the Waiting Room:
You’re not supposed to die. You weren’t then, and you’re not now. You’ve been trying to make this death wish come true with these dumbbell stunts. And sooner or later, you’re gonna succeed. Then who’s gonna protect the innocent?
Special thanks, by the way, to this site for the episode transcriptions.
The Best Moment
It’s great seeing Alia leap-in. It’s not a surprise, as I’ve mentioned, since we know the episode is going to be dealing with these characters, but it’s very interesting to see the sort of thing we get at the start of almost every episode from another point of view.
Previous Episode: Blood Moon • Next Episode: Revenge of the Evil Leaper
