Quantum Leap (TV Series)

A Single Drop of Rain - September 7, 1953 (1991)

Scott Bakula: Dr. Sam Beckett, Billy Beaumont

Photos 

Quotes 

• Ralph Beaumont : Let me make it simple for you. Things are damn tough here in Clover Bend. But the folks, well, we're tough too. We can take just about anything the good Lord dishes out, so long as we look it square in the eye. You get my meaning?

  Dr. Sam Beckett : [as Billy]  So you don't want me raisin' false hopes with all this rain talk. Is that it?

  Ralph Beaumont : The drought's dried up a lot more than soil around here, Billy. It's dried up a lot of soul, most of 'em, and it ain't gonna take a whole lot of your hot air to blow us all away.

• Dr. Sam Beckett : [in some kind of prayer]  I don't know who's running this show. I don't know why I was chosen. I bounce around from place to place. I do everything I'm supposed to do. At least the best way I can. But I don't know how to do this one. I mean, you gotta help me. I figure you owe me. For a couple of times anyway. You make it rain. You hear me? You make it rain!

• Admiral Al Calavicci : The cutting edge of meteorology work is done at Defense and Agri-Tech...

  Dr. Sam Beckett : So?

  Admiral Al Calavicci : And those morons, they guard their computer secrets like a little virgin guards her, her... stamp collection.

• Dr. Sam Beckett : Mom, I want you to throw this town the biggest picnic they've ever seen.

  Grace Beaumont : Picnic? Why?

  Dr. Sam Beckett : Why? Why? Why, because it always rains on a picnic!

• Grace Beaumont : Ralph's a lot like the country around here. It'll give you sustenance, but it'll darn sure make you work for it.

  Dr. Sam Beckett : Doesn't he know how rough that is on Ann?

  Grace Beaumont : I doubt he's ever thought much about it. He figures his life hadn't been easy, why should anyone else's?

  Dr. Sam Beckett : Well, maybe because he loves her.

  Grace Beaumont : When did you get to be such an old softy? Yes, he does love her. Do you still?

  Dr. Sam Beckett : She's my brother's wife.

  Grace Beaumont : That doesn't quite answer my question, does it?

  Dr. Sam Beckett : No, I don't love her. I just want them to be happy.

  Grace Beaumont : Well, you've made me happy. And, if you manage to make it rain, you'll make the town happy. But Ralph... that just might be a bigger miracle than the rain.

• Dr. Sam Beckett : Now, Annie. I'm sure that Ralph is really a very wonderful man.

  Annie Beaumont : Billy. Springtime is wonderful. Sunsets are wonderful. Babies are wonderful. Ralph... is Ralph.

  Admiral Al Calavicci : Ouch.

• Dr. Sam Beckett : Have you ever looked at a beautiful building? And noticed the columns, and the... domes and windows, and, you know, stuff like that? And... you never looked at the foundation, did you? Not once. Never even thought about the foundation. But without the foundation, the whole building would topple down, and there wouldn't be any more domes or windows or columns or... Maybe you should think of Ralph like he was a foundation.

  Annie Beaumont : Okay.

  Dr. Sam Beckett : Okay?

  Annie Beaumont : Okay. He's a pile of posts that are better off buried and you don't even notice until they rot. And then you either replace 'em, or you move on. Well, thanks, Billy. I never quite saw it that way.

• Dr. Sam Beckett : [talking to the sky]  Al. I don't know where the hell you are, but you better get your butt down here, and fast!

  Vernon Coutis : [turning round a corner]  I'm glad you haven't lost your religion, boy. But you gonna have to brush up on your prayers some.

• Dr. Sam Beckett : [to the villagers]  In honor of this very special occasion, I'd like to pause for just a moment, if I might, and recognize my apprentice and my assistant, Clinton Levering. I'd like to ask Clinton, if he wouldn't mind, to prepare the cloud seeding solution for me today. Clinton?

  Clinton Leveret : [laughs]  Doc...

  [he takes Sam aside] 

  Dr. Sam Beckett : What?

  Clinton Leveret : What?

  Dr. Sam Beckett : Come on, how many times you seen me do it?

  Clinton Leveret : Er, probably a hundred.

  Dr. Sam Beckett : So what's the problem?

  Clinton Leveret : [chuckles]  Ye ain't never done it the same way twice.

• [Sam has asked Clinton why he would still follow a quack like himself, i.e. Billy] 

  Dr. Sam Beckett : If you want to follow somebody around your whole life, follow somebody that's good, somebody that's worthwhile.

  Clinton Leveret : Doc, y-you picked me up out of shantytown in East St. Louis. I'd never seen a sunrise. Or-or bathed in clean water. Or even had a full belly till I met you. You taught me how to walk tall. I think you're plenty worthwhile. Huh, besides, you know good and damn well I'm waitin' for someday.

  Dr. Sam Beckett : Someday?

  Clinton Leveret : Yeah, someday, you know. You always tell me, "Clinton, someday this whole thing's gonna work, and the rain's gonna fall. And when it does, I'm gonna nail my boots to that patch of ground and turn this whole shootin' match over to you."

  Dr. Sam Beckett : You believe that?

  Clinton Leveret : Sure I do. I believe in you, Doc.

• [Al is giving Sam instructions for mixing the cloud seeding solution] 

  Admiral Al Calavicci : All right. Next, you add acetone.

  Dr. Sam Beckett : How much of this stuff?

  Admiral Al Calavicci : Uh, I don't know. AH! When you put that in it gets very unstable.

  Dr. Sam Beckett : Maybe I'll get lucky and it'll blow up.

• Dr. Sam Beckett : Why do we even bother?

  Admiral Al Calavicci : 'cause that's what we do. We're professional botherers.

• Dr. Sam Beckett : Clint!

  Clinton Leveret : Yeah!

  Dr. Sam Beckett : "Someday" is here!

• [Sam has provoked Ralph into a fist fight, to get him to admit his love for Annie] 

  Ralph Beaumont : I loved her in second grade before you ever saw her! I loved her in high school when she was sweet on you because you played quarterback.

  [fighting] 

  Ralph Beaumont : I used to flatten the tires on Daddy's truck so you two couldn't go parking.

  [more fighting] 

  Ralph Beaumont : And still you, you took her away from me.

  [punches Sam] 

  Dr. Sam Beckett : And she... was... wonderful.

  Ralph Beaumont : And after, after you left town, I still loved her. I'd hug her and I'd kiss her, and I'd look into her eyes, and they'd be hollow and sad, 'cause I just wasn't you, Billy. Damn it to hell, I still loved her. And after I made love to her, and after I'd asked her to marry me, she still wanted you. And I wished to God that I was you. I still love her.

  Dr. Sam Beckett : Don't tell me. Tell her.