In this weeks episode of the Quantum Leap Rewatch, Cory and Tom sing and deadly tune as they discuss season 4 episodes 15 & 16, “A Song for the Soul” and “Ghost Ship.”

A Song for the Soul:

Sam leaps into a teenage singer named Cheree, one third of a girl group named the Dovettes, trying to make their way into the music business, along with her friends Paula and Lynelle, whom Al says he is here to save. Lynelle’s father, Reverend Walters, disapproves of her singing, aside from in his church, and in the original history, he and Lynelle have a blowout and the two never speak to each other again. Complicating matters is that the girls have been singing in shows at a local brothel owned and run by an unscrupulous man named Bobby Lee, who according to Al eventually gets charged with rape of a 13 year old girl.

Sam, after hearing Lynelle sing, believes that while he is there to save the father and daughter relationship, he is also there to get the Reverend to approve of her singing. Bobby Lee brings the group a song for them to sing to win the talent show at his club. Sam pushes Bobby Lee to leave before Lynelle’s father comes home but he is too late, as the Reverend kicks him out of the house.

Sam and the girls go to the club to practice and afterwards, Bobby Lee starts flirting with Lynelle, which quickly turns to sexual assault as he forces himself on her. Sam come to the rescue and Bobby Lee sends them away, refusing to let them sing there unless he gets an apology.

Sam works on finding a bigger agent to come hear the girls sing and eventually succeeds. Unfortunately, they need a place to perform and unless Sam apologizes, Bobby Lee’s club is out of the question. With goading from Lynelle and his own desire to get her discovered, Sam agrees and the group performs.

The Reverend shows up but leaves after they win, overhearing Bobby Lee talking about their next steps for the girls. Sam goes to talk with him, and while the Reverend is despondent, Lynelle comes into the church, singing, and cementing their father/daughter bond, as Sam leaps.

Ziggy’s Data Retrieval:

Harrison Page played Reverend Walters. He starred in other TV shows such as Sledge Hammer!, CPO Sharkey with Don Rickles, JAG and the 1993 series Ultraman.

Lynette was played by Tammy Townsend. She appeared in the film Love Overboard with Carl Anthony Payne who played Clinton in A Single Drop Of Rain. She currently stars in the series KC Undercover with Spider-Man: Homecoming and Greatest Showman star Zendaya.

T’Keyah Crystal Keymah played Paula. She started in That’s So Raven and later appeared in Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens as Tech Terry. She was also on In Living Color for 140 episodes.

Bobby Lee was played by Eric LaSalle from the TV series ER. He’s was also famously in the Eddie Murphy comedy Coming to America as douchey boyfriend Darryl. Recently, he was in Logan as Will Munson.

This episodes unsung hero is Tiffany Jameson as Cheree, and that’s all she ever did.

Ghost Ship:

Sam leaps into Eddie Brackett, a young pilot learning the ropes courtesy of veteran pilot and war hero Captain Cooper. The two are flying a young spoiled rich kid and his new wife to Bermuda, only Al arrives to inform Sam that in the original history, the new young wife Michelle died due to an appendicitis. Unfortunately due to the mysterious properties of the Bermuda Triangle, the plane’s navigational instruments aren’t working and believing that they are off course, Cooper decides to head back to Norwich where they took off from, some three hours away. Sam tries to convince him to try and find Bermuda which is only one hour away, but Cooper overrules him, saying that if they can’t find it due to malfunctioning instruments, it doesn’t matter if they’re only an hour away.

Sam tells Al to help them by finding a heading to Bermuda as Michelle’s symptoms worsen, leaving Sam to try some makeshift remedies to help her. Sam convinces Cooper, with Al’s headings, to turn back towards Bermuda, so that they can save Michelle’s life. This results in Al and Sam losing contact and Cooper reliving his past when he fought in the war on many missions in the triangle, his last of which resulted in him losing his entire squadron, with him as the only survivor.

As they venture further into the triangle, Cooper’s flashbacks get more intense and he starts diving the plane down towards the ocean, reliving a past mission. Luckily Sam manages to get through to him with his wife Wendy, resulting in Cooper remembering his lost memories of his last mission. As Cooper struggles with the memories, believing that his crewmates are calling for him to join them in death, Sam struggles to right the plane as they fly through a storm, fight against a fire in the plane engine, and attempt to regain altitude by throwing out everything in the plane they could. Cooper overcomes his past and manages to land the plane in Bermuda, saving Michelle’s life, commenting on how he remembers now how he was picked up after his last mission by a uboat named Cyclops. However, Al explains that that boat mysteriously disappeared in the triangle in 1918, well before Cooper would have been flying missions, as Sam leaps.

Ziggy’s Data Retrieval:

Carla Gugino played Michelle in this episode. Most recently, she can be seen in the Netflix series Haunting of Hill House. She has also appeared in Gerald’s Game and Watchmen as Silk Spectre. She was also the voice of Kelor in Man of Steel.

This episodes unsung hero is Mark McPherson. Aside from occasional appearances on TV shows and minor roles in movies, his latest project is called Get Spy from 2015, a comedy TV show about a group of inexperienced spies. He played MadDog Delacroix.

Kiss With History:

cyclops-mystery
The USS Cyclops was built for the United States Navy several years before World War I. The loss of the ship and 306 crew and passengers without a trace within the area known as the Bermuda Triangle some time after 4 March 1918 remains the single largest loss of life in U.S. Naval history not directly involving combat. As it was wartime, she was thought to have been captured or sunk by a German raider or submarine, because she was carrying 10,800 long tons of manganese ore used to produce munitions, but German authorities at the time, and subsequently, denied any knowledge of the vessel. The Naval History & Heritage Command has stated she “probably sank in an unexpected storm” but the ultimate cause of the ship’s loss is not known.

Whats Next?

Next weeks episode discussions are “Roberto!” and “It’s a Wonderful Leap” .

Thanks:

We give thanks to some dedicated fan sights. For more information on Quantum Leap, please take the time to check out The Quantum Leap Wiki and Al’s Place.

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