Quantum Leap -- Episode 9: Honeymoon Express

Sam Leaps Into: 

Tom McBride, a newlywed cop on his honeymoon.

Objective:

Stop his wife's ex-husband from killing him.  Help his wife pass the bar exam.

Date:

4-27-60

Location:

A train from New York City to Niagara Falls.

Memorable Quote:
If you don't prove you're back here, they're going to shut down the project.  ~Al
In case you haven't noticed, Al, I don't need the project.  They aren't leaping me around any more. God is.  ~Sam

Highlight:
All the scenes involving the Senate committee in the beginning and the end of the episode.  The guy who plays the committee head is great, and the ending is an inspired twist (and somehow at the midpoint of the episode I remembered what was going to happen even though I didn't remember anything else about the episode).  And Al's face at the very end there is priceless.

Lowlight:

The action sequence at the end has some issues.  For example, I don't understand why Sam stops the train only to ask the conductor to start it back up again.  And then he asks the train staff for a gun but then immediately tells Diane not to worry and that it's all over.

Other thoughts, observations, and questions I didn’t ask when I was in fourth grade:

• I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the all-important first leap in this episode: Sam saving Ginger the Cat from a tree for an old lady in 1957.
• This is the season 2 premiere, and Scott Bakula has some longer hair this time around.
• I mentioned in my Play It Again Seymour post how I was surprised that Sam fell so hard for Allison since I had thought he generally tried to keep himself from getting too emotionally engaged.  His behavior in this episode toward Diane is a big change from that previous episode and more in line with how I remembered him.  At times he seems afraid to even look at Diane let alone fantasize about running off with her, and he feels a sense of immorality in making love to a woman who he doesn't really know or love.  At one point he says to Al, "That woman is a complete stranger to me," but that didn't stop him last episode with Allison.
• I've been on trains in Europe, but I've never been on one with a sleeper car.  Looks like fun.  Good thing that we have some great high-speed rail in the U.S. so that......oh wait, we don't.
• Diane seems like a nice, well-adjusted young lady and so it's hard for me to imagine her marrying this French wacko.
• A poignant scene between Sam and Al when Al says it might be their final meeting since the Senate committee is likely going to cut funding.  And I like how Sam goes to give Al a hug but then remembers that he's a hologram.
• Whoa, it's Sam stabbing the French guy in the chest!  At first I thought he had been hit by a stray bullet.  I didn't know that Sam had it in him.
• What's a bigger stretch?  Quantum leaping through time, or a newlywed husband holding off his hot, aroused wife by asking her questions from her legal textbook? Most surprising of all may be that she doesn't seem to think his behavior is strange.

Final Analysis:

Strong episode here.  The plot is quite clever with a great beginning and awesome ending, the acting is solid, and the train is a memorable setting (reminds me a bit of From Russia With Love). It moves to the #3 spot in the Quantum Leap rankings.