Quantum Leap S4 E13–15

4–13 Temptation Eyes

Out of the race and into, a news reporter, who is breaking some story about a grisly murder. Sam is live on air on a San Francisco news channel and struggling through info about how he received an anonymous tip about the 6th victim in the Chinatown strangler case. His cameraman wants better work from him, so they can get a move to a big network. Sam’s mirror reflection shows him as a heavy set, no neck guy who, not to be mean, but who isn’t going to get a shot to be a network anchor with those looks.

Sam helps a young woman gain access to the murder scene. She’s a psychic who’s helping the police, which seems likely. The woman is having a full vision of exactly what happened, how the murder went down. Alas, she can see everything but the murderers face. Too bad, since that’s the part that would be, you know, pretty helpful. Tamlyn the psychic (weirdly, being that I’ve never heard this name in my life, is played by an actress also called Tamlyn) meets Sam outside and despite Sam’s ogre-like visage, agrees to go for a drink with him.

It’s 1985, so set just seven years before the episode aired, making it basically the same time. For some weird reason, to me ‘85 seems way earlier than ‘92 whereas 2015 seems like the same time as 2022. I don’t know, time is weird. Anyway. Turns out Tamlyn didn’t foresee the other murders because she was teaching a (psychic?) course in England. She talks Sam into believing that everyone is a little degree of psychic but Al thinks all this is bullshit. However when Al says tell her to make some more tea so we can talk, she says hey, I’ll make some more tea. Spoooooky!

Al tells Sam, the guy he leaped into is an older reporter, with a career circling the drain. So it doesn’t make much sense that the murderer is tipping off Sam because who cares about Sam. Of course, Sam is there to stop the murder of Tamlyn. In two weeks! That’s a way longer time than usual. Returning from the kitchen, she asks ‘Sam’ if he likes orange spice tea and whaaat she says Sam not Dylan? She’s like ‘weird, why would I have called you that?’ Huh. Al points to the big hole here, if she’s so psychic how come she can’t see her own death, eh?

Sam can’t just take her out of town or a bunch more women will get murdered. They have to stay in town and solve it together. Tamlyn is feeling a strange energy in the room and staring right at Al, who gets creeped out and goes home. Sam comes with Tam to the police station to look over some suspects and the cop is right away onto the idea that Sam is just there to hook up with Tam. She’s very pretty and Sam already seems in love with her.

At the station she looks over a huge book of faces. Well not looks at, rather, waves her hands over the book until she gets a strong feeling about one of them. She goes on about how the killer is wearing a mask or something and the police are like OK great, this guy he’s the guy! APB through the whole city, get every cop looking for him! Why the hell are the police using this psychic to solve the case? This makes zero sense. They needed to drop in some backstory about how she’d successfully identified a bunch of other killers because otherwise this seems totally bananas.

Down at the TV station the camera guy is like so yeahhh you two boned last night hehehe. Sam doesn’t tell him to get bent, but he doesn’t love the creepy camera man’s leers and winks. Back at her place Sam and Tam chat about how she first got her visions after her mother died and as they stand looking into a mirror for some reason, Tam is like wait a minute. Who are you?! I see the real you! She tells Sam that she’s had recurring dreams of dying and a man reaches down and saves her and that man is Sam! Al appears telling Sam not to tell her anything because it’s going to destroy the timeline or something. But Sam is like, fuck this, nobody has seen me forever, I’m telling her everything. Al is super pissed and bails.

Sam tells her fully everything. She’s going to be next to die. He knows this because he’s a time traveler who leaps around solving things, as part of Project QL. She still isn’t going to die for two weeks, which means this is the second night they’ve chatted and she’s like, OK yeah I couldn’t see the future for myself because I’m in love. With you! And Sam is like, I understand because I’m in love with you too. What the fucking fuck? They go to bed together, to the sounds of I Wanna Know What Love is, which, classic ‘80’s.

We cut to what seems like the next morning, but when Al gets there he’s making fun of Sam’s heart boxer shorts and Sam explains they were a Valentine’s Day gift, so two weeks have passed? It’s not clear if Al hasn’t bothered to check in during Sam’s little honeymoon here, but he has no news about who the killer is, so that’s great. After all these leaps encouraging Sam to get laid (and cheat on his wife that Al knows is a lovely lady) Al seems really squeamish about Sam’s fling here.

Sam seems to think he can just stay here forever, which, hmm, that poor guy in the waiting room is going to be kinda screwed if that happens, fair point Al. Ziggy finally has something, no idea how, but the murderer is hiding out in a motel close by, Sure, lets get the plot back on track here. Sam sprints down to the motel but the dude already cheesed it. Sam chases him down an alley and does some kung-fu to disarm and subdue him. But wait, Tam still dies/there’s twenty minutes left. This isn’t the guy!

Let’s take a moment for Al’s jacket here, special mention. He’s wearing a shirt and tie, no big deal, but then a purple sort of admiralty looking plush jacket with silver furry snakeskin lapels and collar. It’s pretty spectacular.

At the office, the camera guy is like hey buddy thanks a lot for leaving me alone on my birthday last night. But hey, no worries, he stayed up late and partied with his old friend Jack. Jack Daniels! Haha! What a hilariously tragic birthday! Enough worrying about the cameraman’s drinking problem, they get a call from the killer! Tam is going to be next! They head to Chinatown to confront this head on. The cameraman comes along to film the whole thing and they let her lead them towards her own doom!

Of course Sam must be the hero, and heads off alone, leaving Tam with the creepy camera guy and he’s going to be the murderer somehow right? Yup, seconds after Sam leaves Tam gets flashes of cameraman murdering the last girl. He starts telling Tam that she’s not going to break up their (ineffective, pathetic, local news) partnership and grabs her and he gon kill her.

It would have been helpful if Al had maybe stayed with Tam but yeah, he didn’t. They run a track on the cameraman. He was in the military, a specialist in audio stuff like for example, recording a call and then pretending it was live! I guess cameraman’s end game is that he shows them solving the murders and that gets them a move to a big station? I mean, not super likely dude, maybe just be happy with the job you have, it seems fine?

In the few minutes, from forcing her to go with him, cameraman has somehow got Tam across town and up to the roof of a deserted factory. He just pulled her by the arm the whole way here? It’s not close to where they were, it’s literally on the wrong side of the train tracks, you can see the whole city from the roof. Not close. So he dragged her here and nobody was like hey, what’s goin’ on here?

Never mind that, Sam has made equally good time and in a flash is on the roof, confronting her even though it seems to be several miles from the alley he was just in. Cameraman manages to lift Tam up (bear in mind he has no gun or weapon of any sort) and sort of get her over the rooftop fence. I mean, she could just hold on to the railing it’s not certain death if he drops her, she’s gripping it tight.

Cameraman tries to explain that this whole thing was an accident, the first girl at least, she banged her head and oops she was dead so he came up with the totally sound idea to call Sam and pretend to be a serial killer. I guess season five of The Wire got their ideas from Quantum Leap.

Cameraman tags on a little bit about how the hookers he killed deserve to die or whatever and pushes Tam away and jumps to his death. He falls for a whileeee, like Sam must have sprinted up 5000 steps to reach the roof. He’s definitely going to explode on impact.

Tam is safe and she knows it’s time for Sam to leap. Sam tries to tell her that maybe he’ll come back and the sort of weird thing about this is, she could easily look him up, right now, in 1985 and he’d be seven years younger than now but essentially the same guy. But I guess, with no memory of what just happened? Anyway, he’s off.

4–14 The Last Gunfighter

Sam is in the old west! He’s just shot a guy who falls to his death from the top of a building. Now a guy is ready to shoot him because Sam killed his three brothers! But it’s OK, Sam is just part of an old west reenactment town show. He’s an old guy, in 1957 which means he’d have been really doing this stuff in the real old west, turn of the century. And that’s the case, these fake gunfights are based on Sam/Grandpa’s old stories.

Straight away a woman (his daughter?) is pouring cold water on the stories despite the fact that grandson seems to worship him. Old grandad is a liar seems to be what everyone in town thinks. Jeez, how about letting the old man impress his grandson, what’s the big deal? Killjoys. Al tells Sam, he’s in Coffin, Arizona and the town used to be wide open back in the old days. Apparently Sam and his gun fighter partner rode into town, got into a shootout with the four Clagget brothers and cleaned up that town. Grandpa was then beloved for a long time, but after many years of his tall tales, everyone hates Grandpa now as a drunk liar.

Now a chap from TV has shown up in town and wants to buy Sam’s stories and put together a show based on them. Nice! Apart from this jackass sheriff dude is all like Grandpa is full of shit and shouldn’t get a TV show wah-wah. And here’s another guy who concurs. It’s Sam’s old gunslinging partner, riding into town with a score to settle! And he’s going to kill Sam at high noon tomorrow! Oh Boy! This could be bad for the TV and also, bad for Sam getting lead inside his guts. Double also, the grandson is going to head into a life of crime and degradation when he sees Grandpa exposed as a liar and also shot dead.

Sam tries to make peace with Pat (his ex-partner) about why Pat is here and what really happened. I mean, seems pretty clear that Sam’s guy lied and Pat is mad about that. Pat wants Sam to give up the TV deal, even after Sam explains that the money is going to go to his grandson, so he can go to college. Which seems totally fair, but ole Pat is like, nah, fuck that, I’d rather have respect put on my 80 year old name for the last few years of my life, than let a kid have a chance at a better life. Which is super reasonable.

Instead of showing up to a gunfight, Sam could just tell the police this guy is planning to kill him and have him arrested, pretty sure, since the guy fired his gun all over the bar with people present and is talking about killing Sam. Instead the two of them get drunk together and tell stories and Sam thinks, hey we’re all good now. Spoiler alert, they’re not all good. Sam still gon die.

The next morning with a terrible hangover, Al tries to teach Sam how to be a quick draw artist. It’s based on knowledge he gleaned from a stripper in New Orleans, who had guns as part of her (highly dangerous?) act. Al has on some gun-slinging outfit from I don’t know when, future Westworld, pink pants, straw boaters, skinny tie, duster. Sam can practice all he wants but he’s going to be going against a pro gunfighter in a couple of hours, so this is all kinda pointless. Pat strolls up and is like, we both know I shot all 4 of them Clagget boys! Sam is ready to turn tail and run from town like a yella belly, but he can’t do that because then his grandson will be crushed and become a criminal and get killed in a bar fight. Of course.

Sam is starting to come around to the idea that he’s a younger guy than Pat and just practically, physically, he must be able to outdraw him, because he’s simply in better shape and younger people have better reactions than old folk. Ziggy does not agree, giving Sam a 7% chance of winning a gunfight. At noon the grandson shows up wearing the gun belt! He’s ready to challenge ole Pat even though he’s just a kid! Ziggy says lil Stevie is going to get killed in a gunfight with Pat! What the fuck timeline is that where this 80 year old gunslinger decides to go ahead with a duel with a 12 year old boy and shoot him dead? Dark timeline! Also, one where Pat presumably gets the electric chair.

Thankfully the episode doesn’t end with a child being murdered, instead Sam takes his historic old gun down from the wall and goes to meet Pat in the street at 12 paces. It really feels like the sheriff should stop this. They do a nice job of framing it like old westerns, building music, camera shots from down low under the gun, narrowed on their eyes.

Finally they draw and Sam gets there first, holding his gun on Pat but not firing. I guess the moral victory was enough in this not so old west. Pat comes back inside, disgraced, and Sam signs the TV deal and the grandson is going to be OK and have a good life! As a gesture of good faith, Sam gets Pat a job on the TV show, which is just as well because the real Sam in the waiting room is a drunk who has no memory of the real stories. They even get Pat a part in the show, which seems like an odd plan for an 80 year old who’s never acted, but who cares, Sam leaps off!

4–15 A Song For The Soul

Sam is doing a terrible job as a backup singer and oh boy it’s another one where he’s a lady. A black female singer. It’s 1963 and they three girls have to make their way home through some seedy neighbourhood where Sam has to kung-fu some guys to get them home safe. Sam gets everyone home safe, and Sam is impressed by the Reverend dad of one of the girls who is not happy with 15 year old girls being out in Chicago at 2am, which, fair.

The lead singer, Sam’s best pal, is sad about her mother dying not too long ago. This kid is rebelling against the Rev Dad, who she blames for her mothers death, even though it wasn’t his fault. Al has grim news about the kids future, she gets locked into a ‘slave’ (choice of words QL) contract with some local hustler, Bobby Lee and ends up drugs, booze etc, etc, usual QL stuff.

In the predominantly black church, Al is getting into it, in his best church attire. That bright red hat we haven’t seen for a while, matched with red billowy pants. Sam thinks he’s there to keep Rev Dad and kid in a good relationship, whereas Al/Ziggy think Sam is there to get the kid some success in a singing contest. Too bad it wasn’t the present day, she could just go on American Idol. Instead we have a weird practice session, where Sam, the middle aged white dude, dances and sings as a 16 year old black girl. I don’t know what to say about this. It’s very weird. Do not recommend.

Hey, it’s Dr.Benton from ER! OK, Dr.Benton is Bobby Lee, the seedy manager Al warned about. He’s creeping in the girls bedroom trying to sign (seduce?) the lead singer. It’s pretty weird that he doesn’t know them and came all the way into their house and up into their bedroom. The Rev comes home and he’s (reasonably) pissed that this creep is up in the bedroom trying to lure away his teenage daughter. They’re all fighting about the best course of action, because apparently the kid can’t see that ole Dr.Benton is not exactly someone you want to align yourself with here.

They do rehearsals at Benton’s club and he has fancy pink dresses for them all to wear. All seems great but uh oh, nope, in like five seconds Benton is halfway to raping the 16 year old in the backroom of the club. Sam saves her which, despite how she was trying to get away from Benton seconds earlier, she’s now super mad about. She says they have to apologize to Dr.Benton so they can still perform. There’s got to be a better way! All Sam can think of is appealing to Rev Dad to help her.

Rev Dad is reluctant to help with her singing, he’d rather she finish school. That’s great and all, but Ziggy says this is going to lead to very bad stuff for junior singer.

Benton is pretty great as an asshole, which I mean, makes sense given the role he’s most known for. Rev Dad shows up and instead of threatening and being mad, attempts to take a reasonable position with Benton about how she’s too young for this and they should wait until she’s 18. Benton isn’t having it. The stakes do seem kinda low here, Rev Dad can just supervise her and helicopter parent her, it’s not like he’s banned from the club. There’s a million examples of parents managing their kids to success in showbiz/sports etc. So yeah, she goes on stage with his support.

Seeing Sam with a beehive hairdo shimmying to Heatwave in a sparkly pink dress I mean, you couldn’t say he ever said no to a challenge during a leap. They win the contest, but this seems to indicate that teenager idol is headed off, away from Rev Dad to a life on the road singing, leaving Rev Dad alone and sad.

Sam comforts Rev Dad, giving him a bible quote about not giving up on your kids. And lo but she returns right away, singing her way down the church aisle. Literally singing a whole song that takes up the rest of the leap. They’re back as best pals, I guess? Unknown because she used all the time singing and Sam leaps off. Best of luck!