Sam leaps into Floyd Emmett, a bus driver who is destined to be shot by Sarah, a young girl whom Sam discovers is being abused by her father. Sam struggles to find a way to help Sarah as well as to save himself from this crime, which appears to have no motive. It turns out the shooter was not Sarah but actually a janitor who was stealing school equipment (which Floyd had discovered) who went on to blame Sarah for his actions. Because of Sam’s intervention, Sarah is able to fight the janitor off before he shoots. At the same time, the close call for Sarah leads her father to get help for his anger issues.
Ted Slampyak – writer. Howard Cobb – artist. Vickie Williams – letterer. Scott Rockwell – colorist. George Broderick, jr. – editor. Created by Donald P. Bellisario.
Previous Story: Lives on the Fringe (Quantum Leap #7a) • Next Story: Getaway (Quantum Leap #8)
Comments:
Sarah’s Got a Gun is the second story in Issue #7 of Quantum Leap, so again it only takes up half the issue. But for the second time in a row, it manages to tell a full and complete tale in its relatively short page count. This means that Issue #7 of the this series is way better than Issue #4, which is the last time an issue was split into two like this. On the whole, I’d rather see a well paced-out full length issue, but if we have to have shorter offerings like this than they may as be well constructed ones, like this.
The story has got a great hook: as a bus driver in the 1950s, Sam is apparently destined to be shot dead by one of the young girls on his route. The mystery is why in the world this would happen, and indeed where young Sarah even acquired the gun to do the shooting. Sam thinks he knows when he sees that Sarah’s ill-tempered father has a gun that he keeps displayed in the living room, but that turns out to be big red herring–the real culprit is the odd janitor who keeps popping up to have confusing conversations about some encounter with the bus driver that took place before Sam leapt in. It turns out the guy was stealing school equipment, figured out that Sam was onto him, and decided to murder him and blame it on a confused little girl.
It’s all a little convoluted but still works thanks to the emotional hook of Sam and Al’s concern for the fact that Sarah is being abused. Of course they are trying to avoid Sam’s host (Sam himself) from being killed, but just as much on their minds is finding a way to help this poor girl. The layering of this issue on top of the otherwise fairly straightforward plot gives the story some meat to chew on.
And then on top of that there is the element that Sam’s host is extremely overweight, and thus a target of mockery from all sorts of characters, including the children he drives around. It’s a small detail but also adds a bit of depth to what is going on.
The story is also pretty funny, in spite of the serious subject matter. The two main panels that are used to highlight the chaos of Sam’s job driving a bus are both hilariously detailed.
Another humorous element is the fact that Sam as Emmett apparently inspires Jackie Gleason to create the character of Ralph Kramden from The Honeymooners–both is appearance, and his dialogue, “One of these days, Al, one of these days…!” I doubt that Jackie Gleason and Art Carney really roamed the streets of Queens looking for inspiration for the character, but the scene works as well as the other little “brushes with history” that the series used to give us.
As an added touch, Sam adds another catchphrase from the show–“To the moon!”–when he punches out Gable at the end.
Who and Where is Dr. Sam Beckett?
Sam is Floyd Emmett, a bus driver in Queens, New York, from May 19-20, 1953.
What does Sam have to do?
Sam has to prevent janitor Hal Gable from shooting and killing him as Floyd Emmett. Along the way, he presumably saves Sarah from a presumed lifetime of trauma involving having been blamed for shooting and killing her bus driver, teaches her to defend herself against an attacking man, and helps to prompt her father to get help related to his physical abuse of his daughter.
What do we learn about Sam Beckett?
Nothing new here.
What do we know about Al?
Nothing new here.
What about the experiment?
Nothing new here either.
“Driven by an unknown force…” (God or Time or Something)
No references here.
“Oh Boy”
There are only two–one at the start when Sam first leaps in (“Oh, boy…!”) and then a more straightforward “Oh, boy!” when Sam arrives into Willie Jackson at the end.
Sam’s Complicated Love Life
No complications in this issue.
The Many Loves of Al Calavicci
None are brought up, although Al describes himself as “proud” pervert.
Other Observations
• The second page of the issue jumps to Sam having completed his bus route and saying ,”Uh, thanks for playing ‘directions’ with the bus driver, pretending I didn’t know how to get here…uh, it was fun!” which I think is a clever idea.
• There is a great reversal when Al and Sam first talk. Sam asks, “Al, did you see the buses on her neck? I think she’s being abused! I’m here to save that little girl, aren’t I?” But Al replies, “No–you’re here to prevent that little girl from killing you!” It’s a great dramatic moment.
• As the bus driver, Sam sits next to young Sarah in the cafeteria–that would definitely have been considered weird, at least in the 70s when I was a kid, and I assume in the 50s as well.
• Sam tells Sarah to kick a man in the groin and run for help if she’s attacked, a moment which pays off nicely at the end.
• There is some odd punctuation in the lettering when Al refers to The Honeymooners, which reads When Ralph Kramden was gonna “pow” Alice “right in the “kisser” he wasn’t suggesting a new position!
• Gable shows up at Emmett’s house and reacts to something Emmett was typing up, but we never find out exactly what it was. Presumably it was a letter spelling out his suspicions of the guy as a thief.
• Al says of Gable, “There’s nothing worse than a guilt-ridden pervert! He should be a proud one, like me!” Bleah.
• So in the original history, Gable killed Emmett to avoid being outed as a thief. That seems like quite the escalation.
• For some bizarre reason, the issue ends with Sam leaping into the scene in the electric chair that was also how Issue #1 ended.
It’s actually the exact same art, by, I presume, issue #1 illustrator Mark Jones. This makes the second issue in a row that have Sam leaping in to a “repeat.” Why??! I wondered if it was done at the end of #6 to take the readers into the Quantum Leap #1 Special Edition reprint that was coming out around this time, but that issue is still being advertised at the end of this one, and it no point that I know of did they reprint issue #2, which is where the execution story appeared. So why did they do this? It’s really confusing.
Sam Leaps To…
First There was a Mountain, Then There Was No Mountain, Then There Was (Issue #1)
Favorite Dialogue
I like Sarah’s obviously sad line to Sam / Emmett:
Mr. Bus Driver, I know how you feel when all the kids pick on you for being fat. My daddy picks on me for being born.
The Best Moment
My favorite bit is right at the end. The same kid who we previously saw complaining of being sick on the bus runs up to Sam as the bus driver, and promptly vomits all over him, just as he is leaping out. It is pretty out of nowhere and made me laugh out loud.
Previous Story: Lives on the Fringe (Quantum Leap #7a) • Next Story: Getaway (Quantum Leap #8)
PakarPBN
A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a collection of websites that are controlled by a single individual or organization and used primarily to build backlinks to a “money site” in order to influence its ranking in search engines such as Google. The core idea behind a PBN is based on the importance of backlinks in Google’s ranking algorithm. Since Google views backlinks as signals of authority and trust, some website owners attempt to artificially create these signals through a controlled network of sites.
In a typical PBN setup, the owner acquires expired or aged domains that already have existing authority, backlinks, and history. These domains are rebuilt with new content and hosted separately, often using different IP addresses, hosting providers, themes, and ownership details to make them appear unrelated. Within the content published on these sites, links are strategically placed that point to the main website the owner wants to rank higher. By doing this, the owner attempts to pass link equity (also known as “link juice”) from the PBN sites to the target website.
The purpose of a PBN is to give the impression that the target website is naturally earning links from multiple independent sources. If done effectively, this can temporarily improve keyword rankings, increase organic visibility, and drive more traffic from search results.
