222 M.I.A.

M.I.A.


  • Total voters
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isz said:
I'm really curious - what is the deal with this name...

I don't know isz, I read and article once about the percentage of girls called Lisa in the United States, I can't actually remember what it was but it was really high!!

Over here its Sharon, over a certain age there are stacks of women called Sharon (or otherwise known as Shazza) For the blokes its Bruce, I actually thought the other day how many men I actually knew called Bruce as I thought maybe it wasn't such a common name after all, but I know several in my immediate neighbourhod including the nieghbours dog, so perhaps it is rather common

Is there are name like that in Isreal? Actualy perhaps we should move this thread to OTF.
 
jmoniz said:
According to the 1990 US Census, Lisa was the 11th most common female name (http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/dist.female.first). I'm sure that's probably one of the reasons it comes up so frequently - it's just a very common name.

Just as an aside, Albert was the 54th most common male name and Samuel was the 60th most common (http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/dist.male.first)

And DPB dad's name was Albert(His mother name was Dana) so i think that the main reason why DPB called the project observer - Albert.;)

Anyway, Bexter is probably right this topic is better be discussed in the Off-Topic Forum. :)
 
Ok, here goes my opinion:

Some of us (including me) got mad for Sam's attitude with Al. Sam changed his past, so he could marry Donna... But why the heck didn't allowed to Al to change his past? Sam broke his own rule in the first place and of course, we all went nuts for this.

Of course, Al really loved Beth, and quoting him "That's why my other marriages didn't work". The last scene made me almost cry. I envy Al for having such a lovely girl who waited for him, but of course, Beth was terribly alone and I don't blame her for what she did. She fell in love with the lawyer and got married again...

Great Episode, but Al didn't deserved this...

Best Regards

Joe Quarterback
 
There is a difference between what Sam did in "Star Crossed" and what Al wanted him to do in "MIA". In "Star Crossed" Sam was very upfront about who Donna was. In addition to trying to change his own past, he was also doing his best to do what Al and Ziggy told him had to be done on the leap. He didn't put that aside in order to fulfill his own wishes.

In "MIA", Al isn't telling Sam who Beth is - he's lying to him about it (a lie of omission). He also doesn't even bother to check to see what the odds are that Sam's there to do something else - just makes the assumption that it's to stop Beth from marrying Dirk. That almost ends up costing the life of Skaggs.

Al was deliberately decieving Sam about what he was supposed to do. Yes, there are episodes where it can be said that Sam acts selfishly to change something for his own best interest but when that happens he's very up front about it. He doesn't try to hide it from Al. I find no fault in anything that Sam did in MIA or episodes where it can be said he acted selfishly. I do find fault with Al's behaviour in "MIA" since he's deliberately withholding information from Sam so that his own life can be made better.
 
Now, that's a new point of view. Ok, Al was selfish and didn't check what was Sam's mission on that leap, and if it had worked out differently, Skaggs would be dead on that bar.

Al made a terrible mistake when he lied to Sam about what was his mission, I don't discuss that. But he saw a new opportunity to recover Beth and make the change for good. But, rules are rules, anyway (but for every rule, there's an exception, right?).

Best Regards

Joe Quarterback
 
Just watched this one again and I have to say that Al played a blinder here..The dance at the end was great and i just watch that the alternative ending could have been realised and Al would indeed return to her for however long. This is similar to Another Mother when Al says he'll be back to the little girl..Theres alot of scope for a future quantum leap series to explore..these stories might one day be concluded.
 
IL, I have no doubt someone's written an excellent Fan Fic exploring both of these stories, I have not read much fan fic, not time at moment, no time, but just ask I'm sure someone will direct you to them
 
I think Sam didn't save Al's marrage not because of the rules only, but because of all the conicidences. Maybe Sam truly believed that these two were ment to be together and thats what GFTW wanted. Sam himself, having got his chance at happyness and his soul mate, Donna, probably believes in 'matches made in heaven' and he believed that Al was not ment to be with Beth. Maybe he thought he was doing it in Al's best interests? Giving him the chance to actually find the one that was right for him?

Nonetheless this episode is my favorite and makes me cry everytime...my dad always laughs when he sees his 13yr old litterally crying her eyes out because of this episode. He tells me that it is just a TV show and just a character and i never have anything to retort.
 
Indiana Leaper said:
Just watched this one again and I have to say that Al played a blinder here..The dance at the end was great

I adore the dance at the end as well, but - shock horror! - I have to say that it actually wasn't totally original.
A very similar scene takes place in the Spielberg movie "Always" (1989 - a year before MIA was made) with Richard Dreyfus and Holly Hunter. His character is a ghost rather than a hologram, and the tune is "Smoke gets in your eyes", but the dance is very reminiscent of the one we all know and love.
I think Don must at least have been inspired by it. Too close to be coincidence in my book.
I know this is heresy, and am putting up the defensive wall against the rotten tomatoes that are no doubt headed my way, but still, I felt it had to be said.
And after all, there have been plenty of subsequent films and tv shows that have 'borrowed' elements of QL in turn.
What is it they say? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
 
leaper1 said:
A very similar scene takes place in the Spielberg movie "Always" (1989 - a year before MIA was made) with Richard Dreyfus and Holly Hunter. His character is a ghost rather than a hologram, and the tune is "Smoke gets in your eyes", but the dance is very reminiscent of the one we all know and love.
I think Don must at least have been inspired by it. Too close to be coincidence in my book.
I know this is heresy, and am putting up the defensive wall against the rotten tomatoes that are no doubt headed my way, but still, I felt it had to be said.

I call it "putting on my asbestos jammies" when I say something that's likely to draw fire. (Taken from an episode of Wild Wild West... long story.)

And I thought I had seen all of Richard Dreyfuss's movies! It is a tad disappointing to hear that the scene wasn't an original inspiration of DPB's, but still, it's nonetheless a great scene. Some of the best scenes are actually homages to other films, like Al singing little Theresa to sleep in "Another Mother" or Sam's Casablanca bit in "Play It Again, Seymour."
 
Snish said:
I call it "putting on my asbestos jammies" when I say something that's likely to draw fire. (Taken from an episode of Wild Wild West... long story.)

And I thought I had seen all of Richard Dreyfuss's movies! It is a tad disappointing to hear that the scene wasn't an original inspiration of DPB's, but still, it's nonetheless a great scene. Some of the best scenes are actually homages to other films, like Al singing little Theresa to sleep in "Another Mother" or Sam's Casablanca bit in "Play It Again, Seymour."

Hehehe, I used to watch Wild Wild West years ago! Great line.
Here's the reference on "Always" Check it out, it is a good movie.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096794/
I have it on video, but hadn't gotten round to watching it until a week or so ago. I must confess my first thought was that they had 'stolen' the dance idea from QL, until I looked it up and realized that the film came before the ep, albeit not by much.
And yes, absolutely it is a great scene.
It is even a great scene with the music spoilt on the dvds. With the music intact, it is a brilliant scene.

By the way Snish, I've been meaning to ask. What does your sig line come from? Is that another Wild Wild West quote? It is a neat line.
 
leaper1 said:
By the way Snish, I've been meaning to ask. What does your sig line come from? Is that another Wild Wild West quote? It is a neat line.

Thanks. It's one of Dean Stockwell's better lines from Battlestar Galactica this season. (One of the reasons I love that show--he always gets great lines.) It does sound like it could come from WWW though!

(OT digression) "Asbestos jammies" isn't actually a quote from WWW--it's something the fans made up from one of the episodes in which the bad guys wore these fireproof suits that did look sort of like hooded pajamas. So they became asbestos jammies, just the thing to wear to a flame war. (/OT digression)
 
I just saw this ep again. I like it so much. I would like to give Al a hug. He looks so sad. Very emotional.

Can somebody tell me what M.I.A. meens?
 
I just saw this ep again. I like it so much. I would like to give Al a hug. He looks so sad. Very emotional.

Can somebody tell me what M.I.A. meens?

M.I.A. stands for "Missing In Action" - in other words, somebody goes out on a mission and doesn't come home. Nobody can say for sure if they are captured, injured, dead or alive.
 
I just saw this ep again. I like it so much. I would like to give Al a hug. He looks so sad. Very emotional.

Can somebody tell me what M.I.A. meens?
Missing in action
Al was a prisoner of war ...this episode alway gets me upset. I love Al. I hate that is heart gets re-broken.I wish there was something Sam could do kinder for Al. I intellectually get it--:cry but emotionally I felt hurt for Al.
 
Missing in action
Al was a prisoner of war ...this episode alway gets me upset. I love Al. I hate that is heart gets re-broken.I wish there was something Sam could do kinder for Al. I intellectually get it--:cry but emotionally I felt hurt for Al.

You haven't seen the series finale, Mirror Image, before have you?
 
Who was the one person who gave this just a "Good" rating? I think this might actually be my favorite Quantum Leap episode, though I'll have to finish re-watching the series (again) before I start knocking the episodes into a set order of favorites.

I'll admit, despite having watched Quantum Leap in its entirety several times, this episode still gets me worked up. Even knowing what happens in Mirror Image, seeing Al's desperation to be with Beth again only to be shot down by Sam in the end is absolutely agonizing. Add to the fact that Sam refuses to do so because he's not allowed to change their futures -- and yet insists on doing the same for his own family in the first two episodes of season three -- and the episode is even more heartbreaking.

I think this episode had even more of an impact on me after reading "Pulitzer" simply because everything Al had to deal with after coming back from Vietnam was spelled out on page. Having Beth there, I think, would have helped a lot; Al had no one he could depend upon when he came back from Vietnam and it's clear that he really needed it.
 
Jumping in on a thread nobody has posted on in awhile. This episode and The Leap Home episode are a couple of the most moving ones. It gave me a new perspective on Al's character. On the surface there is this womanizer but underneath is someone who has had to deal with a very painful past. I wanted to give him a big hug and make things okay for him. I understand the comments about how it's not right Sam would tell Al he can't change things for himself but changes things for him and Donna to get married. However, Sam does have partial amnesia and through most of the series doesn't remember he is married or remember the events in the different leaps clearly. And as has been pointed out, Al wasn't up front about Beth being his first wife; Sam was much more straightforward about what he was doing. The tables are turned somewhat in The Leap Home when Al tells Sam some things weren't meant to be and he can't change things. It makes the characters more human to have them want to make things better for themselves and/or their families.
 
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This is a very emotional episode and the ending was very moving. But overall I think it's flawed. The emotion is driven by Sam's refusal to try to change Beth and Al's past, yet the very next episode makes something of a hypocrite out of him. I also don't see the general harm in Sam simply telling Beth "I have it on good authority, through my police contacts, that Al is still alive." Beth still might have married the lawyer guy, but that would have been a much more practical approach then whatever Al was trying to get Sam to do, and far less harmless.

Ironically, I think Beth might have ended up marrying Dirk because her "ghost dance" with Al convinced her he really was dead after all and was saying goodbye to her!

Finally, the actor who played Dirk looked like too much of a skeeve for Beth to marry.
 
This is a very emotional episode and the ending was very moving. But overall I think it's flawed. The emotion is driven by Sam's refusal to try to change Beth and Al's past, yet the very next episode makes something of a hypocrite out of him. I also don't see the general harm in Sam simply telling Beth "I have it on good authority, through my police contacts, that Al is still alive." Beth still might have married the lawyer guy, but that would have been a much more practical approach then whatever Al was trying to get Sam to do, and far less harmless.

I like this episode and it is extremely moving but I agree with you that it's flawed. Both for the reasons you've given and also just story-wise. The Al/Beth part of the story is very compelling and emotional. I mean, we know who Beth's husband is as soon as she tells Dirk her last name, even though Sam doesn't, so we're waiting for the moment when it's revealed to him and meanwhile Al is slowly coming apart at the seams through the episode. But the other part of the leap, the Skaggs backstory is kind of meh to me. It's not really well-developed -- it's really just there to drive the other part of the story.

Finally, the actor who played Dirk looked like too much of a skeeve for Beth to marry.

lol, he really does. And of course he really is. He knew Beth was married, that her husband was MIA and he took advantage of her vulnerability.
 
The Al/Beth part of the story is very compelling and emotional. I mean, we know who Beth's husband is as soon as she tells Dirk her last name, even though Sam doesn't.

Do we? Maybe if you've watched later episodes in the series before, but I don't believe that any point in the first two seasons before this episode Al's last name is ever actually used...
 
Do we? Maybe if you've watched later episodes in the series before, but I don't believe that any point in the first two seasons before this episode Al's last name is ever actually used...

I'll have to watch 'Honeymoon Express' again but I'm pretty sure he is addressed as Admiral Calavicci at least once in that episode. In which case, yes we do know. But it's been a while since I've watched that episode though, so maybe I'm wrong about it being mentioned in it -- maybe he's only addressed as Admiral.
 
I'll have to watch 'Honeymoon Express' again but I'm pretty sure he is addressed as Admiral Calavicci at least once in that episode. In which case, yes we do know. But it's been a while since I've watched that episode though, so maybe I'm wrong about it being mentioned in it -- maybe he's only addressed as Admiral.

I'm pretty sure he's only referred to as "Admiral" :)
 
This is a very emotional episode and the ending was very moving. But overall I think it's flawed. The emotion is driven by Sam's refusal to try to change Beth and Al's past, yet the very next episode makes something of a hypocrite out of him. I also don't see the general harm in Sam simply telling Beth "I have it on good authority, through my police contacts, that Al is still alive." Beth still might have married the lawyer guy, but that would have been a much more practical approach then whatever Al was trying to get Sam to do, and far less harmless.

Ironically, I think Beth might have ended up marrying Dirk because her "ghost dance" with Al convinced her he really was dead after all and was saying goodbye to her!

Finally, the actor who played Dirk looked like too much of a skeeve for Beth to marry.

Actually this approach has the flaw that Al was listed as M.I.A for a reason. It means the appropriate authorities (who I don't see why an undercover cop would have connections with or the clearance to receive such information, not to mention how the hell would Jake know the name of Beth's husband, the whole mystery of the episode is that it's never mentioned) are unaware of his current location and activity thus nor whether he's dead or alive.
The only thing I can see this accomplishing is frightening her because this is information there is no way Jake or even Sam (since she doesn't know him either) should know.

It does however bug me how he ran out on poor Beth upon seeing the photo on the mantel which revealed Al as her M.I.A husband. Even in his refusal to try to reunite them he could have still kept his outing with her. Though this would have prevented him from his true assignment to save Scaggs despite that he obviously leaps upon success, the series never directly clarifies whether or not Sam could still leap if he fails. This also leads to a debate between the importance of Al and Beth's marriage vs. Scaggs' life since without having the identity of Beth's husband sooner, by the time he did Sam was forced to choose between them.

It annoys me quite a bit how this episode makes a huge hypocrite out of Sam even considering that he does not know that he'd succeeded with Donna. Still he made the effort to reunite himself with his own wife yet refused to give the same to his dearest friend.
Al is a damn loyal friend to both he and Donna to have kept his mouth shut on that subject in this particular situation. Though honestly I would have liked to see him throw at least the attempt in his face. Then in the very following episode Sam once again makes a hypocrite of himself and this time Al does throw it in his face as well as the fact that he was blessed with the chance to even see his family again, good for him.
Actually in that very same scene Sam angrily shouts: "Why can I help total strangers but not the people I love!?" when he in fact had just refused that chance.

Al is an amazing man and friend to not only never throw Sam's hypocrisy in his face but to also even at his own self sacrifice support Sam's personal quests of both Donna and Tom. It saddens me that Sam could have been so selfish particularly with Beth and Tom but it just shows us that he's not perfect and that he like Al had carried some deep scars from his losses. Something the two men have in common.

Though made several years ago this is an excellent point:
JuliaM said:
Al was deliberately decieving Sam about what he was supposed to do. Yes, there are episodes where it can be said that Sam acts selfishly to change something for his own best interest but when that happens he's very up front about it.

It's true that in Sam's personal pursuits of Donna and Tom he didn't lose sight of the person he was sent to help and straight up told Al what he was doing. In Vietnam it's not actually clear what the actual task was though the novel Mirror's Edge suggests that he could have in fact been there for Tom.

Al certainly made a mess of his attempt by not being straight forward with Sam and not making him aware of the true task. In fact doing so would have made Sam more likely to have been able to accomplish both getting Beth to wait for Al as well as save Scaggs but it doesn't excuse that Sam refused to try for his best friend what he bent the rules to recover for himself. As the saying goes 'two wrongs don't make a right'.
Not that Sam would have been able to accomplish it by that point even without Scaggs' life in danger since it would have been beneficial in the beginning to have introduced Jake as a friend of Al's, the honest approach he used in Mirror Image. It proves that the knowledge that Al is alive is believable to Beth coming from a friend of his.
Sam had come on very strongly upon first approaching her as Jake and even straight up (falsely) admitted to snooping into her records. Then he'd barely gotten away with the calalillies. She was pretty alarmed by his knowledge of something as simple as her favorite flower. So even by the point in which he'd gotten Al's identity she still could have been deciding whether not she trusted him. If he'd told her he knew Al was alive it would have likely come across as cruel or frightening as I had stated of iMonrey's suggestion.

This in fact is what kept Sam from succeeding here and the perfect set ups of each of Beth's run ins with Dirk is what caused him to doubt the attempt. The PQL rules were not at play here. There truly seemed to be no coincidence in Dirk's appearances including through his mother but what Sam refused to consider was Al's suggestion of the Devil working as God does through Sam.
Later the season 3 episode The Boogym*n does seem to support this.
"Who gave you the right to go bungling around in time, putting right what I made wrong!?"
We then have the evil leapers to support another force opposite the one which had enlisted Sam effecting lives. Whom we are even introduced to while they are on a mission to destroy a marriage. It could even be possible that Dirk was Alia. The line "She's (his mother) not sweet, she has a single son and wants grandchildren" is so suggestive it's just twisted enough to have come from someone intending to steer Beth away from Al.
(Though if Sam had touched Dirk at some point, which I don't recall for certain we'd have known).
Think about it, the fact that Al was even a POW was certainly not God nor a coincidence.
So while Sam was not in the wrong for this view, I don't buy that excuse for not trying.

The fact that Sam was later able to amend this alone proves that it was in fact achievable and a wrong. Sam is not able to make a change that isn't meant to be made.
Let's take Leap of Faith for example. Why wouldn't he have just been leaped in early enough to stop Tony from committing the murders? Then there'd be no trial for him to stand and thus a murderer is not made of Father Mac. Here's why, Tony's life was turned around when it had been threatened and then spared and Father Mac's eyes were opened when he had nearly taken a life. He begun rehab and made something of his life as well. Tony needed to see through the eyes of his victims to realize his wrong and Father Mac needed to be in the wrong to see what was right. To see how far gone had strayed from God and be lead back to Him. Recall he'd thanked Sam for stopping him from killing Tony.
Let's also remember that Sam was not able to save his father and sister.

I am glad that Sam was able to amend his failure to Al. It may have been Al's own fault not Sam's that the initial attempt was not doable in the end but Sam had no excuse to not have wanted to try. It's like Diane McBride had said when she'd replaced the chairmen of the committee: "Whether or not they succeed is not so important as the fact that we try."

In fact I wrote a short story several years ago about the day Al and Beth meet Sam at Star Bright and Beth who had believed the man who came to her in '69 and told her Al was alive in Vietnam had been a dream was mesmerized to find herself standing before him. She even confronts him about it.

blue enigma said:
I'll have to watch 'Honeymoon Express' again but I'm pretty sure he is addressed as Admiral Calavicci at least once in that episode.

Not he is not. He is addressed as simply 'Admiral'.
 
OK. Predictable? Over-the-top? Weird? Desperating? No clue of what's going on and why everyone and everything is acting the way they are? 3 acts out of 4 and you may still believe some of that... then comes the final BLAST and you realize that it never even mattered what you may have thought before because now you know that this isn't just an instant good episode, but a instant GREAT one with nothing but pure genius in it.

The best Quantum Leap episode EVER? Now, that's a hard one. I must say that, while this isn't my particular favorite QL episode, I reckon that it may just be the BEST one ever made. Nothing ever went wrong. Always a delight to watch. One episode my mother saw with me. She was in tears when Al disappeared with that leaping effect after he had kissed Beth and she whispered his name and began to cry. So was I.

An episode that developed Al to the fullest. If he hadn't grown on you before, with this episode he definitely did. It explained so much about him as a character, his behavior, his reasons, his ideas, his way of life, his roots themselves, and not only in the context of this episode, either. So emotionally intense. Very hard not to cry. Even some of the photography at the end is handled in such a way that it makes you produce tears and then hold them in your eyes, but masterfully crafted so you couldn't miss anything on the screen because of blurriness or something.

The episode that marked the rest of the series, especially some of the dark atmosphere that was very present and alive throughout most of the 3rd and 4th seasons. Best work by Donald P. Bellisario.

My rating: Excellent. Just because I couldn't rate it any higher than that. Not exaggerating.

My review of the season: Not my favorite one, even though I loved most of the episodes. Even "Sea Bride", the only one I voted "fair", I think, always had something good to offer. Definitely the season that had the most classic trademarks. Any episode people can recognize, even people who were never fans of these series, is without any doubt from this season.
 
I really didn't expect the twist about Beth so I really felt sorry for both her and Al. He is usually the comic relief part of the story,I mean except the parts he reveals his background.Yet this one is the most intense thing about him I have seen so far ( well,I had to change my mind after watching Leap Home P 2)

Also I have never seen a young Dean Stockwell until that frame
He was so cute back in the day :)
http://i.imgur.com/Z2KPNmn.jpg
 
I really didn't expect the twist about Beth so I really felt sorry for both her and Al. He is usually the comic relief part of the story,I mean except the parts he reveals his background.Yet this one is the most intense thing about him I have seen so far ( well,I had to change my mind after watching Leap Home P 2)

Also I have never seen a young Dean Stockwell until that frame
He was so cute back in the day :)
http://i.imgur.com/Z2KPNmn.jpg

If you are interested in seeing the young Dean Stockwell in that photo in action, see A Long Day's Journey Into Night. He can also be seen as a child in the 1949 version of Secret Garden.
 
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