Sam leaps into Henry Adams, a Vietnam vet who living in a forest outside of town. He struggles to get ahold of medicine to help his fellow vet Roy, who suffers from epilepsy. A local boy, Daniel, mistakes Henry for Bigfoot (because of his unkempt appearance) and is frustrated that nobody believes him. Daniel’s stepfather is the local sheriff Lukas, who served in the war alongside Roy and Henry. A terrible incident in the war separated their friendship, and Lukas’ unwillingness to face their past threatens everyone when Daniel wanders into the woods to prove that Bigfoot is real.

Written by John D’Aquino. Directed by Gus Trikonis.

Previous Episode: Goodbye Norma Jean • Next Episode:  The Leap Between the States

Comments:
The Beast Within is in many ways the last “standard” episode of Quantum Leap. After this we only have the Civil War one (where Sam goes into the life of his own ancestor), the Elvis Presley one (where Sam becomes the famous singer) and the series finale where Sam leaps not into himself, but as himself. It’s also the only “standard” episode for some time–prior to this we had the Marilyn Monroe episode, the Evil Leaper two-parter, the vampire story, and the Dr. Ruth story! The last time Sam just leapt into an ordinary, average person to put right what once went wrong was all the way back in Liberation.

And that’s too bad because these sorts of stories are the bread and butter of Quantum Leap, and The Beast Within is sadly not very good. There are some thought-provoking ideas with some interesting characters, but they gel together into a solid story. There are too many concepts competing for attention, and so the episode just doesn’t feel cohesive as a single episode.

You have, for instance, Roy and his seizures and his need for medication. You have John and the darkness in his backstory and the way it colors his relationship with his family. You have the fracture in the friendship between Luke and his fellow vets, now on the opposite side of the law. And you’ve got Daniel who…is convinced that he saw Bigfoot (even after he sees Sam as Henry a second time). It’s not that the different areas are unrelated, but they really are different ideas and the episode doesn’t know where to put its focus.

You really see this in the ending, when most of the solutions to the various problems start to pile onto each other in awkward ways. Thus Luke needs to unpack all his long-buried emotional trauma with his wife before he can bother to save a kid from dying, but it also turns out that one short conversation is all it takes for him to completely change his tune about everything. Similarly, Daniel’s peril turns out to be just the thing for Roy to have to face his demons, and once he does he is depicted as more or less better. Quantum Leap has always had some trouble with emotional, psychological and relational breakthroughs that are bit too convenient and perfunctory, but The Beast Within is worse than normal.

And then there’s Bigfoot, who seems shoe-horned into the plot overall, and who makes an explicit appearance at the end that is the most awkward moment in the whole episode.

On the positive side, in isolation I like most of the ideas, and Sean Gregory Sullivan has got some good moments as Roy. But it’s not enough to make it a good episode.

Cast Notes:
• Director Gus Trikonis is also an actor, and appeared in the 1961 adaptation of West Side Story as one of the Sharks, Indio.

• Pat Skipper (Lucas “Luke” Marlet) played Dana Scully’s brother in a few episode of The X-Files. He also had small roles in some good movies like Seabiscuit and Oppenheimer.

• Eileen Seeley (Karen Marlet) was Martha Wayne in Batman Forever, and a sort-of love interest for Data in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Ensigns of Command.

• Sean Gregory Sullivan (Roy Brown) as a Minbari bad guy in one episode of Babylon 5 (There All the Honor Lies), and also appeared in The Umbrella Academy as Five when he’s an adult. He also played Andy Warhol in 54.

• David Tom (Daniel Burke) had a recurring part as Chip Diller in Veronica Mars, and played Billy Abbott in hundreds of episodes of The Young and the Restless.

Who and Where is Dr. Sam Beckett?
Sam is Vietnam vet Henry Adams, living in the mountains outside of town in Washington state, from November 6-7, 1972.

What does Sam have to do?
Sam is there to prevent fellow vet Roy from dying by getting him the medication that he needs, and later to prevent Daniel from dying while in the mountains looking for Bigfoot.

What do we learn about Sam Beckett?
Sam knows all about how to use a local plant in order to simulate the medication that Roy needs.

What do we know about Al?
Al is (typically) terrified of Bigfoot, just like every other paranormal thing that they encounter on Sam’s leaps. He hopes “that hairy devil can’t see holograms.”

What about the experiment?
There isn’t anything new this episode.

“Driven by an unknown force…” (God or Time or Something)
There’s no explicit reference to anything controlling the leaps, but when he’s in prison there is a moment when Sam looks up and says, “I’m open to suggestions.” Then, when Karen comes in, Sam adds to heaven, “Thank you.”

“Oh Boy”
The catchphrase is heard right at the start. Al then says “Oh boy,” when they see Bigfoot in all his glory. And then Sam gives a last long “Ooooh boy!” after he leaps into the Civil War at the end.

Sam’s Complicated Love Life
No romance for Sam this time!

The Many Loves of Al Calavicci
There’s nothing particular this time around.

Other Observations
• The opening narration is cute: “Over the years I have leaped into a lot of hairy situations. But this one was more than I expected. And even though I didn’t know who I was, I did know who I wasn’t. I wasn’t Bigfoot. Although, from the look of things, I wasn’t far off.”

• The sheriff keeps his photo album in his desk drawer at work, which is a little convenient for the sake of the necessary exposition.

• There is a flashback back to the war, which is an unusual sort of storytelling device for Quantum Leap–an extended flashback to a situation that Sam’s host was in, but not from that character or Sam’s point of view.

• There is a nice seen between mother and son, which includes some nice dialogue. After being asked if she still loves her dead husband, Karen replies, “Course I do. Your feelings for someone don’t change just because they die.” Then she goes to explain why she got married again: “Well, when your father died, I was scared. You plan to spend your whole life with someone and then suddenly they’re gone. Luke was your father’s best friend. We shared the same pain. ”

• But then it goes on to have Karen (the mother) implores her young son to “be there” for his emotionally distraught stepfather. It feels a bit…off.

• The story manages a pretty good dramatic set-up at one point–Roy needs the medication or he’ll die, but neither Sam nor Roy can go into town to get it without being arrested.

• There is a brief but cute moment where Sam wakes up to find himself looking a visiting deer. “Good morning. Can I get you anything?”

• Luke gets a funny line when he’s on the phone in his job as the sheriff: “I understand that, Mrs. Jenkins. But I can’t come up there every time your cat eats one of your birds. I’m sure he was a very nice bird.”

• The bit where Sam confronts Luke is a standard sort of Quantum Leap scene, but a nice one. “I know you’ve had a lot of things happen in your life that you’d just as soon forget about. But they did happen, and it seems to me like…now is probably a good time to…deal with it,” Sam says. Luke replies, “Deal with it…like you have? Look at yourself, Henry. Look at what you’ve become.” Sam retorts, “And what have you become, Luke?”

• The scene when Daniel falls is directed and edited in an exciting and tense and effectively stylised sort of way.

• There’s some neat direction also when Al uses the handling to reposition himself to see Daniel better, and then to make himself float downward through the rocks.

• And as I mentioned above, the scene where they convince Luke to help rescue Daniel is pretty weak–it’s an awkward fit. Referring to something else, my daughter made a comment that I think it applies here as well, which is that it feels like first draft writing.

• It becomes terribly obvious that Roy is going to help rescue the boy, although the scene is not bad and mercifully short

• Shocking ending as Sam seems to leap into the middle of the Civil War. I imagine that if I was watching this when it originally aired I’d have assumed this was some sort of modern day simulation of the war or something. But of course, we will find out next time that Sam really is in the midst of the Civil War!

Sam Leaps To
The Leap Between the States

Favorite Dialogue
There isn’t a lot of great stuff, but there is a nice turn of phrase when Sam is talking to Al about Luke’s troubles.

You know, it-it’s-it’s really crazy, Al. A man refuses to kill, and then…spends the rest of his life feeling guilty.

Special thanks, by the way, to this site for the episode transcriptions.

The Best Moment
The scene where Roy talks to Daniel, telling him wrestling story, is quite good and natural. The performance from Roy is really strong.

Previous Episode: Goodbye Norma Jean • Next Episode:  The Leap Between the States