Okay, I'm geeking out over this episode. Before I get into it, let's go over what happened.
Sam leaps into a Lady bounty hunter. Her partner is also her fiance. They are after this other woman, who at first seems to be just your average girl, but turns out to run some pretty lethal drug business. Ben and his partner successfully stop her.
The writers seem to be addressing many of the issues I brought up in the previous episodes.
- They spent a lot less time in the Mystery time line
- And by extension they are letting the Leap time line really develop and be satisfying.
Let's get something straight. Quantum Leap, to me, was never about the high octane action/thriller stuff. It was always about the human connection and relationships. It was about looking at events through the eyes of someone inside the action. Some of my most memorable episodes from the original series were when Sam leaps into a person who was facing grave injustice. For example when he leaps into a black man in a white only diner; or when he leaps into a white man in love with a black woman, or when he leaps into a soldier in the military suspected of being gay. These were awesome episodes. The writing was extremely smart. The thematic elements were on point. Just loved them.
I felt this episode is getting into that groove, while at the same time maintaining the mystery time line without having to dwell on it needlessly.
In this episode we get to do two things in the leap time line:
- Develop the character of the leapee's boyfriend. We get to see how much he loves the woman Ben leapt into and the struggle he goes through to understand why she didn't agree to his marriage proposal
- A bonus point is the boyfriend is not portrayed as some wimp who can't handle himself. He's a strong character all on his own.
- And that story-line helps Ben remember that Addison is the one whom he loves.
- I liked how they didn't spend many episodes teasing this revelation.
However, what I'm geeking out over is the revelation that magic was one of the men whom Sam leapt into in the episode titled, "The Leap Home". Damn, this was good. DAMN good. Could've been so appealing to me cause I'm just a big fan of the original show. It definitely tugged on my heart strings. I don't care if people complain about it, the show should be made for the fans and this scene, is definitely for the fans.
This revelation does two things:
- Establishes Magic's motivation and passion to keep the Quantum Leap project going. He wants to find Sam. This is awesome.
- By extension it establishes an emotional reason for the other characters, Ian and Jenn, to want to bring Ben home. They don't want him to be lost in time forever.
Could this have been done in a more effective manner? I mean probably. They could've done it in a confrontation with Janice, for example. We already established she's still plugged into Ziggy, maybe they could've gotten closer to kicking her out, but she outsmarts them. In the process of outsmarting them, she could've had a short video dialogue with them pointing out that Magic, out of all people, shouldn't stand in her way. This scene could be played in three layers. The first layer is to reveal Magic's relationship to Sam. The second layer is to play on the mystery of her involvement. And the third layer is to show she has access to classified material.
Two of these three objectives were done through exposition in this episode. But having this sort of hacking competition scene between Ian and Janice, could've added more showing and less telling.
The final thing I'd like to cover, is a feeling I have about the budget of this show. It feels like they are not running on a huge budget. I can see that in some of the special effects. For example, in one of the car scenes, Addison uses her device and we can see some projections. But then we don't see it any more. Why is that? I mean they ought to be consistent about it. I'm starting to think they just don't have the budget to complete some of these shots.
Maybe at the end of the day, this is for the best. The cheaper the show, the less likely it would get cancelled? But I don't know. I'm not into the business.
Any who, that's it from me. Over and Out.