Sam Leaps Into:
Billie Jean Crockett, a pregnant teenager.
Objective:
Keep her baby instead of giving it up for adoption.
Date:
11-15-55
Location:
Claremore, Oklahoma
Memorable Quote:
Sam, this is all happening in your imagination. ~Al
Go to Hell. ~Sam
Sam, this is all happening in your imagination. ~Al
Go to Hell. ~Sam
Highlight:
I liked the meeting between Billie Jean and Willis (the baby's father) on the dusty road. There's something real and raw about the scene, and you forget that it's just a young man talking to Scott Bakula in a dress.
I liked the meeting between Billie Jean and Willis (the baby's father) on the dusty road. There's something real and raw about the scene, and you forget that it's just a young man talking to Scott Bakula in a dress.
Lowlight:
I get that many of the townsfolk were down on Billie Jean, but the lady in the beauty shop yelling at her because she blamed her for her purple hair was a stretch.
Other thoughts, observations, and questions I didn’t ask when I was in fourth grade:
Final Analysis:
Decent episode and one where I don't have too much to say (as evidenced by the blank previous section). I liked the depiction of the small oil town and its crusty inhabitants, and Bakula does a great job playing the pregnant woman. While it was a good idea to have a pregnancy episode, it was a relatively mundane, slow go and I think they missed an opportunity to knock this one out of the park with a livelier and more clever script. Ranking it 20 out of 41.
I really like this episode. I like Al being indignant about Sam having labor pains and experiencing the pregnancy parts.
ReplyDeleteI don't love the purple hair lady screeching at Sam about the hair - that's a little uncalled for.
I had a very similar impression on this episode as you. The gimmick of having Sam pregnant and going through morning sickness, munchies, and hot flashes--and Al repeatedly insisting it wasn't really happening--got old fairly quickly for me but the social dynamic of a teen girl pregnant in a small conservative town in the 50s was compelling. The shame she suffered by the townsfolk, and especially her own family, made Billie Jean very sympathetic and it was a more interesting thought experiment to have a man (Sam) experience that than the jokey physical side effects of pregnancy. Like you, my favorite scene was Willis and Billie Jean talking on the dirt road about their futures. You described the conversation as raw, which I thought was accurate. I was disappointed there wasn't a follow-up in some way with him though and the fact that there wasn't left the ending unsatisfying on top of wildly uncomfortable to watch. I'll rank this one in between "So Help Me God" and "One Strobe Over the Line".
ReplyDeleteHow was Sam pregnant? How could he have possibly given birth?
ReplyDelete