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In this weeks episode of the Quantum Leap Rewatch, Cory and Tom test their Swiss cheese brains and hit a home run as they discuss season 4 episode 1 & 2, “The Leap Back” and “Play Ball”.
Return Module:
We discovered that Al’s Place has a page that covers deleted scenes, but there isn’t apparently a way to get there from the main page. Check out the so-called “syndicuts” by clicking here.
The Leap Back:
Sam leaps into himself as a lightning strike at the exact moment of leaping causes him and Al to switch places with Al becoming the Quantum Leaper trapped in the past and Sam as the intangible hologram. The problem however is that the pair have no contact with the future as Al’s handlink is now a useless piece of hardware and Sam has NO handlink to signal to his team to open the imaging chamber door.
As Sam regains his memories, he remembers a way to open the door and the two send a letter to be mailed at some point in the future, instructing Gooshie on how to help them. As the imaging chamber door opens Sam regains the memory of his wife, Donna and rushes through for a long overdue reunion.
Ziggy and the rest of the future team work on getting information about why Al leapt into a WWII prisoner of war veteran named Tom Jarrett, a slow task due to the fact that the computer had only been programed for the years of Sam’s lifetime, not Al’s.
Al meanwhile is doing his best to do what they think he is there for: to keep Tom’s former girlfriend Suzanne from marrying the local boy, Clifford, who stayed behind during the war. Unfortunately, he and Al have already had an altercation and Al has been sweeping the girl off her feet since.
In the future, Ziggy has discovered from news reports that Tom and Suzanne committed suicide. As Sam returns to the past to tell Al, the two discover Suzanne knocked out in the forest, a short ways away from Tom’s car, and realize that it was, in fact, an attempted murder and NOT a suicide as Al himself also gets knocked out.
With seconds to spare and Al trapped in the past, and Sam unable to reawaken Al, Sam makes the difficult decision to leave and use the accelerator chamber to leap himself into Al, switching their places and allowing Sam to stop Clifford from pushing the formerly unconscious lovers to their death over a cliff. Having saved the day, and once again possessing his Swiss cheesed memory, having lost all memory of his time back in the future, Sam leaps.
Ziggy’s Data Retrieval:
Tina is played by Gigi Rice. She also played Vivica in Night at the Roxbury, and has had other appearances in CSI and the John Larroquette Show.
Clifford is played by Robert Prescott who was also Kent in Real Genius. You may also recognise him from Spaceballs.
Ziggy was always referred to as a he throughout the series, but has a female voice in this episode. Ziggy is still referred to as he, thought, when Sam says “why did I have to give HIM Barbara Streisand’s ego?” Ziggy is voiced by Deborah Pratt.
This episodes unsung hero is Dean Denton. He has acted consistently up to present day but nothing to note really.
At the end of the episode, Al refers to the next leap where Sam is a stand-up comic, this is not the next leap.
Play Ball:
Sam leaps in Lester Doc Fuller, a former major league baseball pitcher playing now in the minor leagues due to an incident years prior where a pitch he threw killed a batter. Al tells Sam that his job is to get Doc back into the majors but Sam is more interested in a fellow teammate, Chucky Myerwich, a young and up and coming pitcher who has a heavy drinking habit and a temper to match.
Seeing a bit of Al in Chucky, Sam has Al try and find Chucky’s dad Warren (whom Chucky had said died) and upon meeting him, learns that he walked out of his son’s life when he was young because he was unable to support them, but continues to follow his son’s baseball career from afar, refusing to meet his son, feeling it is too late to repair their relationship.
Meanwhile, Sam has been trying to avoid Margaret, the female owner of the team after he learns that Doc basically slept his way onto the team. After yet another proposition from Margaret, she offers him the chance to start as pitcher in the next day’s game in which a scout is due to be there, watching for potential players. Seeing this as a betrayal, Chucky lashes out at doc and ends up drunk at his girlfriend Bunny’s house, who also happens to be Margaret’s daughter. Sam tries to go and get Chucky out of there but is caught in a compromising position with Bunny and Margaret kicks both he and Chucky off the team.
However, before the game starts the next day, the Immigration Department shows up and arrests two of the players for being in the states illegally and Margaret has no choice but to let Sam and Chucky back in. Chucky suggests Doc start out and all goes well with the game going exactly as it did in the original history. Deciding that he must be there to do something different, Sam takes himself out of the game and has Chucky come in to pitch. After a game winning catch, Al reveals that Sam changed history as now Chucky is offered a shot at the major leagues, Doc is offered a job as a pitching coach there as well, and Warren ends up changing his mind and shows up to reunite with his son as Sam leaps.
Ziggy’s Data Retrieval:
Warren is played by Casey Sander. He was in Home Improvement, Grace Under Fire and Big Bang Theory.
The Announcer is Royce Applegate who also played the Sheriff in Color of Truth.
Billy is played by Michael Bellasario, half brother of Troian. He also played a little boy in Camikaze Kid.
The unsung hero here is Owen Rutledge. He’s been in a handful of films but nothing major.
Bunny is played by Courtney Gebhart who was in The Flash ‘90 as Janie Jones in the episode Tina Is That You.
Chucky is played by Neal McDonough. Most prominently, these days, he’s known as Damien Dahrk in the Arrow-verse. He also appeared in Captain America as DumDum Dugan, he’s done some cartoon voices, notably Bruce Banner and played Lt. Hawk in First Contact. One of his first roles was as Lou Gherig in “The Babe Ruth Story”.
The umpire is played by Hank Robinson, he’s the same umpire from Genesis Part 2.
Whats Next?
Next weeks episode discussions are “Hurricane” and “Justice”.
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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