Sam leaps into Sheriff Clayton Fuller, the father of young Abigail, a little girl believed cursed by some because of a history of insanity in her family, and because she was close to two members of the same family shortly before their deaths. Sam must attempt to save her from the enraged survivor of the bereaved family, while also seeking to understand what is going on with Fuller’s wife, who seems to appear around them even though she is incarcerated in an insane asylum.
Written by Deborah Pratt . Directed by James Whitmore, jr.
Previous Episode: Deliver Us From Evil • Next Episode: Trilogy Part II
Comments:
There are multiple ways that we see the creators of Quantum Leap pushing the format of the show in this fifth and final season. Some of these experiments work really well, and others (if my memory serves) are a bit more iffy. We will get to them as we wrap up the season. For now, we are kicking off the first part of the three-part Trilogy story, in which Sam leaps into three different people in the life of young Abigail Fuller, at three different points in her story. Like a lot of the show, I’m pretty sure I’ve never actually watched this most epic of Sam’s adventures all the way through, so I don’t recall exactly how the various plot threads that are set up ultimately pay off.
Taken on its own, however (which of course is how all the original viewers would have experienced it), it’s a pretty good episode which has got some exceptionally creepy moments that are grounded by some memorable performances. These include young Kimberly Cullum as the exceptionally creepy Abigail Fuller. Or to be fair, Abigail herself isn’t all that creepy–she’s just a traumatised kid in the middle of a whole bunch of creepy events. It’s not her fault, I guess, that she’s in the midst of a plot pulled straight from The Bad Seed, which is all about a sociopathic, murderous little girl. I assume that Abigail will turn out to be more innocent that the character she is inspired by, simply because it seems strange if it turns out Sam’s mission is to save the life of a murderer. In any case, all that said, Kimberly Cullum is able to be simultaneously sympathetic and unnerving, which is no mean feat.
Another memorable performance from this episode comes from Meg Foster, which is all the more notable given she doesn’t have any dialogue at all. She plays Abigail’s institutionalized mother Laura, who just might hold be the key to the mysteries of Abigail’s past. This will presumably be explored in the latter parts of the story. but for now we have the bizarre visions (one presumes) of Laura that Sam keeps seeing. Having Meg Foster with her piercing blue eyes suddenly appearing before Sam in the night or through fire certainly makes for a striking image. But Foster isn’t just scary–she makes us connect to Laura and feel sad for her, particularly in the scene in the asylum. I’m glad she is in the rest of the story because I’m legitimately curious to understand her story. One presumes she’s not actually there at the strange times when Sam seems to see her, but who knows? During the climactic scene, you can hear Leta cry out something like, “No! Get away! I’ll kill you all!” Who is she talking to? Maybe, it actually is Laura, somehow present in the building and scaring Leta into starting the fire. Or maybe it’s one of those vaguely supernatural things where somehow multiple people are sharing the same vision.
The last performance I want to mention in particular is Scott Bakula himself. He is a reliable actor, but rarely an especially memorable one, even as the series lead. Here though, he does very well, giving us a Sam who seems especially agitated and angry at what is happening to his Abigail. Sam is far more stressed than he normally is, even in situations that are more dire, which though unusual is understandable, given the concern he has for his “daughter”. Sam’s heightened state actually serves to enhance the disturbed and unsettled quality of the episode–it almost feels like he’s under someone’s spell, although it’s not clear if it’s one being cast by Abigail, by Laura, or from some other source.
In the end, all three of these performances (plus lots of other elements that are done well) help to really draw out the episode’s most significant feature, which is the quiet way in which everything just feels wrong and off about the world that Sam has leapt into. There have been lots of other times when the leaping has brought Sam into dire situations, and certainly moments that were more overtly surreal, but never before have I seen the show be so quietly unnerving. Laura Fuller’s backstory (as the only survivor of her mother who murdered a bunch of children) and the fact that Sam’s leapee actually dies at the end all support this tone. It all helps to start out this three-part tale in distinct way, and I’m interested to see if it continues as the plot moves forward.
Of course, the end of the episode seems to be promising more disturbing vibes to come, as Sam goes from being Abigail’s father in one moment to her lover the next. Sam’s not necessarily doing anything wrong here–it’s not like he had any choice, after all. But for sure it’s got to feel weird for him, and without a doubt it feels weird for us int he audience!
Cast Notes:
• Max Wright (Doc Kinman) was Starveling in the 1999 version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Michelle Pfeiffer and Kevin Kline, which I enjoyed at the time, but was started to realize how much near-nudity it contained when I rewatched it fairly recently.
• Stephen Lee (Deputy Bo Loman) appears in all three parts of the forthcoming “Trilogy” of stories in Quantum Leap. He also appeared in an episode of Babylon 5, and in a couple of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes–The Vengeance Factor and Gambit part 1.
• Fran Bennett (Marie Billings) also appears in all three Trilogy episodes of Quantum Leap, and was an admiral in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (Redemption Part 2). She also played Troy Barnes’ grandmother in an episode of Community.
• Kimberly Cullum (Abigail Fuller) appears in two Trilogy episodes of Quantum Leap as two different characters. She was also in a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, Thine Own Self, where she played a little girl who befriended a damaged Commander Data.
• Meg Foster (Laura Fuller) is best known to me as Cagney from Cagney & Lacey, but only the first short season. She is the female lead in They Live, a movie with one of the all-time greatest lines of dialogue in it (relating to bubblegum). She was also in a not-very-good episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine called The Muse. She’s listed as a “Special Guest” in this episode, and like many of the others listed here appears in all three parts of the Trilogy story.
• W.K. Stratton (Larry Stanton) also appears in all three Trilogy episodes, and also shows up in two other episodes of Quantum Leap as different characters, including the very first episode, Genesis, and Good Night, Dear Heart from season 2. He was never in Star Trek as far as I can tell, but he was in an episode of Battlestar Galactica as someone named Lt. Barton.
• Beth Alyward (Delta) is uncredited in both this and the second Trilogy episode as a different character.
• Heather Lauren Olson (Violet Aider) is uncredited here, but credited as the same character in the third Trilogy episode. She was also in a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, Chain of Command Part II.
• Episode director James Whitmore Jr. makes his second appearance in Quantum Leap, this time as Sheriff Fuller, the guy Sam has leapt into.
• Writer Deborah Pratt is listed on IMDb and other places as playing Ziggy (uncredited) in this episode, but as far as I can tell she is just providing the narrator voice that she almost always does, and there is no sign of Ziggy.
Who and Where is Dr. Sam Beckett?
Sam is Sheriff Clayton Fuller in Pottersville, Louisiana, from August 8-10, 1955.
What does Sam have to do?
Sam has to prevent Abigail from being killed in a fire that is set by an enraged Leta Adair. Sam presumes also for much of the time that he is there also to save his leapee Clayton from the same fire, but int he end he doesn’t succeed at that.
What do we learn about Sam Beckett?
There’s not really anything new about Sam this time around.
What do we know about Al?
Similarly there is nothing new about Al revealed in this episode.
What about the experiment?
And there’s nothing new about the Project either, except maybe…
Okay, this is really under the category of Thoughts and Speculations, but I found it odd that Al arrives to see Sam with no information at all about the circumstances he has leapt into. Even if it’s true, as Al says, that the local records were all wiped out by a flood, why wouldn’t he know a bunch of stuff about the situation by talking to Clayton himself in the Waiting Room. My understanding is that usually, that’s how Al and the team are able to track down Sam in the first place. There could easily have been some explanation for this–Clayton fainted or or is unconscious or whatever–but there’s no reference to Al seeing Clayton or the Waiting Room at all.
This got me thinking…like any show, Quantum Leap has the odd continuity mistake, especially about the Project and the date that Al is from, and things like that. I’ve come to imagine that many of these can be excused by the idea that Sam’s actions are actually changing the future and changing the world that Al is from (we know this is actually happening, but we don’t normally see it impacting Al himself). There is no reason that all these changes have to be permanent; Sam is constantly changing history, who knows how many times the world has changed around Al?
So what if, at this current moment in time, there is no Waiting Room? In the revived Quantum Leap series, they did away with the Waiting Room, and even sort of retroactively erased the idea of it ever being there at all (this wasn’t explicit, but is kind of implied by the lack of ever mentioning it). Now to be clear, I don’t like the idea of retconning out the Waiting Room–it was one of the many things I didn’t prefer about the revival series. But I mention it because it does establish a precedent for this idea.
So according to this theory (which again to be clear, I think is completely trivial and unimportant), during the events of this story, we are in a variation of things where Project Quantum Leap didn’t have a Waiting Room, and instead the people that Sam leapt into just disappeared into the ether or something. And that’s why Al doesn’t have any idea who Sam has leapt into.
Or maybe Clayton just fell off his little bench and hit his head, and so couldn’t talk to Al about anything that was going on.
Or maybe he bumped his head and died! It’s too awkward for Al to tell Sam this, so he omits this news. And this is why Sam had to leap out at a moment when Clayton was going to die anyway! Yeah, that’s brilliant! Or maybe…
“Driven by an unknown force…” (God or Time or Something)
There’s no direct reference in this episode, but Sam does say that whenever he leaps in to find himself looking at a dead body, he wonders why he has arrived too late?
“Oh Boy”
The catchphrase is heard twice, at the usual times–right after he leaps in at the start, and at the end after leaps into the next situation and realises that the woman he is sleeping with the is an older Abigail.
Sam’s Complicated Love Life
Sam’s leapee Clayton Fuller is married to Laura, but there is nothing romantic between them (as she is institutionalized). At the end, Sam leaps into the lover of an older version of Abigail, right as they are in bed together. But presumably we’ll deal with this in more detail with the next episode.
The Many Loves of Al Calavicci
There is nothing in this episode.
Other Observations
• August 8, 1955 is the same leap date as the episode The Color of Truth. On that occasion, Sam was in Alabama, and he also stayed until August 10.
• Sam mentioned in his opening narration that he has, as far as he remembers, leapt-in to the sight of a dead man twice before. I’m not sure off the top of my head which episodes this is. He was a mortician in Good Night, Dear Heart, but on that occasion he leapt into the middle of an autopsy on a woman, not a man. Can anybody fill me in?
• It’s always fun to see Sam working out things in his new environment, and here there are some good moments as he trying to figure out how to communicate clearly to his deputy.
• There’s some cute dialogue when Sam sits on the swing with Abigail and tries to comfort her. “”Well, I love you like…the stars love the sky. Like the… sea loves… the sand. Like the flowers love the bees.” But as things go along, her plaintive cries to be loved just become a little less sweet and a little more creepy.
• Sam promises Abigail to never go away and to always be there as long Abigail needs him. Characters in movies and TV shows are always promising this sort of thing, which I almost always think is extremely unwise.
• Funny line from the deputy: “You know, from my point of view, Bart didn’t look any better alive than he did dead.”
• I’ve mentioned a bunch of other cast members in my comments above, but Mary Gordon Murray is also very strong as Leta Adair, as is Travis Fine as Will. Really, everyone here is good.
• The flashback which reveals that Abigail hit Violet is disturbing.
• Hmm, Will is a stutterer. If he turns out to be evil, that’s not the best representation.
• Laura, a mental patient, is able to see Al and respond to him, but the others never know this. That’s an interesting detail.
• Oh my gosh…Sam just hit Marie with his car! That was pretty dramatic.
• The ending with the fire is pretty tense, but it really looks like Sam should have been able to get out of that building in time.
• The ending credits are over some pretty unnerving incidental music.
Sam Leaps To
Trilogy Part II
Favorite Dialogue
There’s not a lot of dialogue that really stands out to me in this episode, so I’ll pick a nice bit from Sam’s opening voice over narration:
Each time the same words echoed through my brain. ‘Too late. Why am I too late?'”
Special thanks, by the way, to this site for the episode transcriptions.
The Best Moment
The whole episode is good but I think my favorite moment is the first time Meg Foster shows up in one of Sam’s scary visions of Laura. It’s a really jarring, effective moment.
Previous Episode: Deliver Us From Evil • Next Episode: Trilogy Part II
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