Liberation
(16 October 1968)
Sam is...Margaret Sanders, protesting parent
The Mission...Stop women's liberation protester Diana St. Cloud being shot and keep Margaret's marriage together whilst trying to open up her husband George's eyes to the inequality faced by women.
This is another episode I fondly remember watching while growing up and it's another example of Quantum Leap tackling a big social issue. We open on Sam leaping into a protest and I love the way of Sam seeing his new host body in this one by him suddenly being handed a photograph (and one that will come back to haunt him). After some heckling the police break up the protest and everyone is hauled off to jail.
It's here that things get a little muddy plot wise as it's Sam standing up to the aggressive police chief Tipton (Stephen Mills) that inspires protest leader Diana (Deborah Van Valkenburgh) to pursue more violent means of getting her message across. So much so that Sam's mission becomes the prevention of her shooting but in that case what was the original history? Did Diana originally reach that conclusion herself following her assault by Tipton in the cell? With a violent father in her past surely it was only a matter of time before she decided to take a more violent approach. Could this be a self fulfilling prophecy in that Sam had to leap in to set in motion the actions that he himself had to counter? It's certainly one of the messier situations he's been in.
The final showdown takes place at at gentlemen's club in which the women's libbers stage a sit -in...except they don't sit and it's one of the most unpassionate protests ever committed to film. Margaret's daughter Suzi (Megyn Price) heroically saves Chief Tipton from being shot by Diana despite putting his life in danger in the first place by handing Diana the gun that she had bought. Sam gives a typical QL speech about the virtues of using the law to change things. To sit and talk instead of using violence. The ending to this scene is particularly interesting as Diana is led away by police still ranting and Suzi has regrets ever following her and it's at this point a lesser production would have faded to black but Sam takes Suzi aside and convinces her that there was nothing wrong with Diana's views, just her actions. In fact, following her release from jail, we learn that she still played a big part in the movement.
The other plotline here is with Margaret's husband George (Max Gail) who is a more sympathetic figure than you would expect. He could have been made a misogynistic, bully of a man that Margaret and the kids would be well shot of but instead he's kind and caring (in his own way) but, like Sam, a man out of time. As Al points out, he was brought up a certain way and it's going to take a lot to change his whole way of thinking but there are signs that he is starting to understand. One of the ways he does so is with a little nudge from Sam as two people vie for a promotion at his office - Tipton's son Peter (Bill Calvert) and Evy (Jordan Baker). Evy, despite having seniority, is afraid to put herself forward due to looking bossy but she impresses George with her ideas after a chat with Sam. After this latest rewatch there was an exchange from the dinner party that I rather enjoyed as Peter bemoans that his wife Dora (Mary Elizabeth Murphy) bought a set of encyclopaedias missing three volumes. "I don't need to know everything" she quips back. It's played a little ditzily but could be a nice zinger if spat back in the manner of either comedies today or the fast moving ones of the 1940s. I could certainly imagine Joey from Friends saying it.
There are the usual jokes about Sam wearing women's clothes and never wanting to see a bra again after he burns his and he leaps out during an uncomfortable kiss from George which has potential for looking homophobic today but then the idea of kissing someone, male or female, you don't want to is a comedy trope. Al is also quite cringingly sexist when he first shows up in the prison cell.
Overall I still like this story. Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell are as good as always with Sam being as harassed as ever trying to keep a number of plates spinning and makes a decent fist of trying to explain the issues of the time and societal changes from a suburban perspective. There are a couple of plot niggles as explained above plus the sit-in protest at the club is conveniently explained to George like it was common knowledge and also how did Suzi escape her locked room?
As I write this, the long awaited reboot of Quantum Leap is set to air on the 19th September 2022 (the same day as the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II which is quite the juxtaposition for you) so there may yet be more episodes for me to comment on rather than the two I have left. although it has taken me nearly a year to sit down and do this after writing initial notes last November. We know from the trailers that the new leaper, Dr Ben Song, will definitely be leaping into a woman at some point, in particular a 1980s rock star, and it will be interesting to see how much of a Trans angle is put on things. There are elements in the original series which certainly felt like it could be further explored.
