Interesting story including the introduction of a leapee with a name change.
Clearly "Chuck Danner" was a wanna-be and had no self-respect, the exact opposite of Joey DiNardo. It would have been interesting to see the persona last a bit longer in the episode, to have gotten to see more of the contrast.
It also would have been helpful to the story to have learned a little more about the past relationship of the childhood friends and what had happened when DiNardo had seen the murder since this situation set the scene for the leap. This is something however that probably would not have fit into 45 minutes(which is about what an episode runtime comes to if you eliminate how much of the hour was actually commercials during airing) which is understandable. There is a lot in this series that must be forgiven considering this factor.
The whole Nicky Bellimi twist was pretty clever and revealed that Sam hadn't necessarily fallen into his tendency of over romanticizing when he'd automatically assumed he was supposed to rekindle the relationship between DiNardo and Lorraine. My memory of my first watch is fuzzy but I may have figured it out, anyone who is paying attention would find it suspicious that Bellimi had actually sent her that kind of distance to get closure with an ex. Otherwise however he had performed well.
One thing that bugs me about this episode is the scene where Al told Sam to lose Lorraine to save himself/DiNardo, it was suspiciously careless. It had seemed more like an opinion than something that came from Ziggy or there might have been prior warning that she'd be run off the road. In this case the more tactful approach of just having Sam offer to take her to the airport where she was headed anyway probably wouldn't have helped for obvious reason however didn't seem to be considered.
Another example of Al making such a suggestion would come later in season 4's
Justice when he convinced Sam to turn away the negro gentlemen seeking voter registration which seemed to make little to no difference as the young man's lynching was only delayed but correct me if I am wrong. Though that was better thought out and Sam's belief system clearly got in the way as he will never submit to a role that challenges it.
This Lorraine incident made far less sense, was quite messy and seemed unnecessary.
Al: "She's one of those people, she's got some little synapse connections missing in her brain. She's dizzy so it's hard to get a lock on her."
This is something that has me curious, so I tried to research it but holy crap the concept of synapse connections is complex as hell! I for the most part don't understand a bit of the descriptions that have been presented in search results other than that they are the communication line between neurons. I believe it's kind of like what's between you and the person on the other line of a telephone.
The passage I came across that made any sense to me and seemed to sound like it almost matches Al's description was this on a concept called 'Synapse pruning':
Synapse numbers in the brain vary over time. Periods of massive proliferation in fetal development, infancy and adolescence give way to equally massive bursts of "pruning" during which underused synapses are eliminated, and eventually to a steady, gradual decline with increasing age. The number and strength of synaptic connections in various brain circuits also fluctuate with waking and sleeping cycles, as well as with learning. Many neurodegenerative disorders are marked by pronounced depletion of specific types of synapses in key brain regions.
Source:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101117121803.htm
Apparently from birth to adulthood synapse connections in various areas such as motor, emotional and memory are molded from experiences and environment and any kind of deprivation in childhood can permanently result in lack of certain synapses. This could possibly explain displays such as
The Great Spontini where Sam can't seem to accept the non-existence of a Hallmark family life such as Al's upbringing.
There is also something called 'silent synapses' the only part of which I could understand is that these are inactive in "most typical situations".
I haven't however found anything that could explain Lorriane's seemingly unique circumstance which Al had seemed to imply with his description.
Of course the main reason for watching this episode is Scott's performance of 'Somewhere in the Night'. A beautiful song which actually almost feels as though themed around Sam and Donna. The duet version with Lorraine was also very nice, she has a lovely voice. His singing always manages to steal the episodes in which they occur.
Tidbit: Having injured his foot on the set of
Runaway Scott's limp both here and in
Future Boy is real and the excuses for it in each written in as an accommodation. If memory serves, the injury was also present in
Private Dancer but because the episode required dancing he had to perform on painkillers instead of being accommodated.
