This is one of the series most unusual episodes. We open with Sam holding a hand gun standing just inside a window of a house. We see then a woman and a young girl, who we quickly learn are being held by him. We find out, thanks to a TV newscast that Sam has leaped into a young killer and it is 1958.
Meanwhile, the killer, Leon Stiles, somehow (it was never explained how they violated all we have learned about quantum leaping through the years) has gotten hold of a gun while in the waiting room and is demanding answers from Al that Al cannot satisfactorily give. Leon winds up getting the keys to Gooshie's car and leaving the facility, having no understanding that he is 40 years into the future.
Back in 1958, Sam's real mission is to stall until they can get Leon back to the waiting room or they cannot exchange times. Al tells Sam that Leon originally was killed by the sheriff, intent on revenge because one of Leon's victims was the sheriff's daughter. Learning that Sam's first act in stalling changes things so that the sheriff storms the house and the woman's daughter gets killed, Sam decides to let the daughter go, and just keep the woman hostage, hoping Al will be able to retrieve Leon before the sheriff storms the house and kills him.
Sam once again violates the usual rules of leaping when he tells the woman all about being a scientist from the future and not actually being Leon. He tells her his full name and convinces her, by being nothing like the man who tied them up on taking them hostage. He did this because he couldn't stand having them having to sit there in fear for their lives from him. So he told them what he really wanted-for his friend to come back and for him (Sam) to be able to go back and switch places with Leon.
How Al manages to corral Leon is what I won't reveal (it comes near the end) but I can say that letting him see Sam's image in a mirror didn't really help anything. There is a nice twist at the end where we see that merely getting Leon back to the waiting room is not quite all that needed to happen, and Sam was surprisingly helped to leap by someone other than Al.
The plot hole of Leon having a gun in the waiting room totally goes against the leaping we've seen. Sam started out in this all-white suit (shown weekly on the opening theme beginning in Season 4) and he leaps into his character's clothes while the other person goes into the white suit. Anything the character was holding is now being held by Sam-such as this show where Sam leaps in holding a hand gun. So why on earth did Leon also have a gun-was he holding two before he leaped? Even so, Sam should have been holding two in that case after the leap.
But the episode doesn't address this, and we just have to accept that they couldn't come up with any other way for Leon to escape from the waiting room, so they said, "We'll do it this way and hope the viewers aren't too trouble by this inconsistency."
I have to admire this episode for giving us a look at their 1992 view of the world in 1999. Apparently just a few miles from the Quantum Leap facility in the New Mexico desert, there is a big city strip populated by bizarre-looking hookers. It's not one of the great episodes, but it wasn't at all a routine episode either. I guess it merits an 8.
Meanwhile, the killer, Leon Stiles, somehow (it was never explained how they violated all we have learned about quantum leaping through the years) has gotten hold of a gun while in the waiting room and is demanding answers from Al that Al cannot satisfactorily give. Leon winds up getting the keys to Gooshie's car and leaving the facility, having no understanding that he is 40 years into the future.
Back in 1958, Sam's real mission is to stall until they can get Leon back to the waiting room or they cannot exchange times. Al tells Sam that Leon originally was killed by the sheriff, intent on revenge because one of Leon's victims was the sheriff's daughter. Learning that Sam's first act in stalling changes things so that the sheriff storms the house and the woman's daughter gets killed, Sam decides to let the daughter go, and just keep the woman hostage, hoping Al will be able to retrieve Leon before the sheriff storms the house and kills him.
Sam once again violates the usual rules of leaping when he tells the woman all about being a scientist from the future and not actually being Leon. He tells her his full name and convinces her, by being nothing like the man who tied them up on taking them hostage. He did this because he couldn't stand having them having to sit there in fear for their lives from him. So he told them what he really wanted-for his friend to come back and for him (Sam) to be able to go back and switch places with Leon.
How Al manages to corral Leon is what I won't reveal (it comes near the end) but I can say that letting him see Sam's image in a mirror didn't really help anything. There is a nice twist at the end where we see that merely getting Leon back to the waiting room is not quite all that needed to happen, and Sam was surprisingly helped to leap by someone other than Al.
The plot hole of Leon having a gun in the waiting room totally goes against the leaping we've seen. Sam started out in this all-white suit (shown weekly on the opening theme beginning in Season 4) and he leaps into his character's clothes while the other person goes into the white suit. Anything the character was holding is now being held by Sam-such as this show where Sam leaps in holding a hand gun. So why on earth did Leon also have a gun-was he holding two before he leaped? Even so, Sam should have been holding two in that case after the leap.
But the episode doesn't address this, and we just have to accept that they couldn't come up with any other way for Leon to escape from the waiting room, so they said, "We'll do it this way and hope the viewers aren't too trouble by this inconsistency."
I have to admire this episode for giving us a look at their 1992 view of the world in 1999. Apparently just a few miles from the Quantum Leap facility in the New Mexico desert, there is a big city strip populated by bizarre-looking hookers. It's not one of the great episodes, but it wasn't at all a routine episode either. I guess it merits an 8.
