Almost every TV show overstays its welcome and jumps
the shark. "Quantum Leap" didn't and that's a
rarity. The final season looks very good in its
presentation on DVD and, while I haven't ploughed
through every episode yet it appears that the music
hasn't been replaced in the ones I've watched.
There's also no notification about the music being
replaced (as on the third and fourth season the
second doesn't count because Universal hoodwinked
everyone on that one). We also get an actual extra
in this set--the blue prints for two sets in the
show. You can actually zoom in on separate sections
to view them.
This episode features a number of classic ones
including the one where Sam encounters the "Evil
Leaper" in a terrific two part episode. Also, Sam
becomes "the King" (Elvis) just before he breaks
through to the big time and in the most fascinating
of the episodes written by Donald Bellasario Sam
becomes Lee Harvey Oswald (played by character actor
Willie Garson best known for "Sex and the City").
Sam and Al struggle to find out why he's leaping in
and out of Oswald throughout the time leading up to
the assassination of Kennedy. Here's where a great
extra could have been included by Universal as
Bellasario actually knew Oswald and served in the
military with him (an actor plays Bellasario
recreating their first meeting).
Now for a bit of bad news--we get the series once
again on dual sided discs. Unlike some previous sets
from Universal I haven't had a problem with these so
far so maybe they've finally figured out how to make
the darn things properly. Luckily these aren't
packaged facing each other (like many of the Fox
dual sided discs) but in individual slimline cases.
Unlike many fans of the series I disliked the
resolution in the final episode of the fifth season
and had hoped for something less open ended. It
would have allowed a terrific TV movie to tie things
up but unfortunately it never happened. I'm not
going to say anything else for those who haven't
seen the final episode. Some great guest stars
during the fifth season--Neil Patrick Harris, Brooke
Shields (even though I think she's a horrible
actress normally she does a solid job here), Dr.
Ruth, Terry Farrell, John Hillard, Michael Boatman,
Stephen Root and a young Jennifer Aniston in one
episode.
The show goes out in style with some of the best
episodes of the series.
In the 2-hour season premier,
Sam leaps into various points in
Lee Harvey Oswald's life in an effort to seemingly
prevent him from killing President
John F. Kennedy or find the truth about the events that
day. However, the objective is made more complex by the fact
that their minds are merging. Sam starts to believe he is
Oswald. If Al can't bring Sam back, it will be Sam Beckett
who pulls the trigger on Kennedy that fateful day in Dallas.
In the end, Oswald is the lone assasin of JFK. Sam makes
a final leap into
U.S. Secret Service agent
Clint Hill who climbed on the back of the President's
limousine during the
assasination. In the episode
dénouement Al reveals that an alternate history had
previously occured where
Jackie Kennedy also died and Sam's actual mission was to
save her.
Sam finds his patience tested
when he leaps into Nikos Stathatos in a lifeboat with a
bratty, self-obsessed heiress and end up stuck on an island
from which they will not be rescued for nine years...
Brooke Shields guest stars.
Sam leaps into Ronald Miller,
a legless Vietnam vet in a veterans' hospital who must save
the life of a quadriplegic soldier while still keeping his
wife from leaving him so that his eldest son can save a tank
troop in the Gulf War.
Michael Boatman,
Jennifer Aniston and
Judith Hoag guest star.
Sam leaps into Leon Stiles, a
dangerous criminal who has taken a mother and her young
daughter hostage. Meanwhile, Al must find the homicidal
Stiles, who has escaped from the project waiting room,
leaving Gushie to act as a temporary Observer.
Cameron Dye and
Beverley Mitchell guest star.
Sam is Maxwell Stoddard, an
eccentric grandfather living with his son and his family. He
must prevent his teenage grandson from running away and
getting caught up in the drug culture while also preventing
the grandfather from being sent to a mental institution for
his wild stories about UFOs.
Anne Lockhart and
Guy Boyd guest star.
Sam leaps back into Jimmy
LaMotta, but is perplexed when he finds that the happy
future he supposedly ensured in his previous leap is not
taking place, and his brother's marriage is falling apart.
Shortly thereafter, Sam finds something he never expected; a
female quantum leaper named Alia, apparently there to "put
wrong what once went right".
Carolyn Seymour and
Kristen Cloke guest star.
Sam leaps into a small
Louisiana town as a sheriff named Clayton Fuller whose also
the father of young Abagail Fuller, a girl accused by a
local townswoman, Leta Aider, of killing her husband and
daughter. Leta is the only surviving member of her deceased
family and believes Abagail to be cursed.
Sam again leaps into the life
of Abagail Fuller... this time as her soon-to-be husband
Will Kinman. Sam begins to fall for her himself, but a lynch
mob led by Leta Aider may hang her if Sam doesn't find the
runaway child Abagail was babysitting.
Sam leaps into Larry Stanton,
a lawyer who defends Abagail on trial for the murder of Leta
Aider, the woman who accused her of killing her husband and
daughter almost twenty-five years earlier. Secrets are
revealed, the family history comes unraveled, and surprises
are in store for Sam as he discovers the heritage behind
Abagail's daughter, Samantha Jo Fuller.
Sam leaps into his hometown
as Willie Walters, one of three brothers who are robbing the
town bank in order to pay off a loan. Sam must uncover the
reason the bank lent money to these farmers who could not
possibly pay it back, while trying to prevent the brothers
from being killed when they try to escape.
Sam finds himself between the
proverbial rock and hard place when he leaps into a bigamist
named Martin "Marty" Ellroy, with a 50% chance of picking
the right family to stay with.
Sam leaps into Margaret
Sanders, a housewife who must convince her husband that the
family can survive and even thrive with feminism. He must
also persuade the daughter that advances for women must come
about through nonviolent means and persuade a woman working
in the husband's firm to be more assertive about her ideas
for the company.
Max Gail guest stars.
As the famous sex doctor
Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Sam must help a woman stand up to
the sexual harassment of her boss and get his coworkers
together, while the real Doctor Ruth helps Al deal with his
fear of abandonment and his inability to tell a woman that
he loves her.
Sam leaps into an eccentric
artist named Lord Nigel Corrington who lives a strange,
gothic lifestyle. He has only a few hours to save his wife
from a grisly death, supposedly at the hands of a vampire,
while dealing with Al's own conviction that his host
actually is the walking dead.
As a nerdy college kid who
dresses up as a superhero named Arnold Watkins, Sam must
stop a fraternity from holding chicken races as part of
their initiation. While back in the waiting room, Al must
convince Sam's host to give up his dangerous lifestyle and
help him deal with the murder of his parents. However, the
sudden return of the Evil Leaper makes the task
significantly harder.
Neil Patrick Harris guest stars.
Leaping into Elizabeth Tate
in a women's prison (accompanied by Alia), Sam must keep the
reformed Evil Leaper from being caught by her former
Observer while also trying to keep his host from being
executed for the murder of a fellow inmate.
During its original airing, in a
2-hour movie format with the preceeding Return of the
Evil Leaper, the conclusion of this episode included
a special extended preview of the final four episodes of
the series, Goodbye Norma Jean, The Beast
Within, The Leap Between the States, and
Mirror Image. The preview was hosted by Scott Bakula
and Dean Stockwell from the Living Room set of the
episode The Leap Between the States.
On the Quantum Leap Fifth Season DVD
collection, Return & Revenge have not been
restored to their original 2-hour movie format. To
compensate, Return has been extended to include
the full first act of Revenge, thus giving us
5-10 minutes of duplicate scenes.
Sam is Henry Adams, a
Vietnam War
veteran living in the forest with an epileptic fellow
veteran who will die unless he gets his medicine. However,
he is opposed in this task by the sheriff living in town,
who served in the same unit and doesn't want to face his
past.
Breaking all the rules of
Quantum Leaping, Sam leaps along his genetic line and finds
himself in the
American Civil War as his great-grandfather, Captain
John Beckett, of the
Union Army. While helping the underground railroad
smuggle a family to freedom, Sam must also win the heart of
his great-grandmother, or he may be erased from existence.
As
Elvis Presley, Sam must help a struggling female
musician, but at the same time must ensure that he doesn't
prevent the king of rock n' roll from being discovered.
Last brush with History: Sam is preceded onstage at a
talent show by a blond seven-year-old with sunglasses and a
saxophone, introduced as "Little Billy C. from Hope,
Arkansas". Could it be future President
Bill Clinton?
Sam arrives at a mining town
as himself on the date and exact hour he was born on.
Patrons of the town bar look familiar from past leaps, but
with different names, other patrons seem to be leapers, and
Al the bartender implies that he might be God, Fate or Time.
While trying to figure things out, Sam has to help save some
trapped miners, regain contact with Al, and decide whether
or not to continue leaping.
For this final episode, the original
version of the opening credits theme, as used in the
first four seasons, was brought back. (However, on some
later versions, the fifth season theme is used — even
though the visuals are still from an earlier season.)
Bruce McGill,
who played Al the Bartender in this episode, also
appeared as Weird Ernie in the very first episode.
