301 The Leap Home

[alsplacebartender]

The Leap Home
November 25, 1969

Elk Ridge, Indiana


This time Sam leaps into...himself! Well, himself as a teenager back in Elk Ridge, Indiana on the family farm. Al tells him he is there to win a basketball game that was a turning point in many people's lives, but Sam wants to take the opportunity to prevent his sister from marrying an abusive alcoholic, his father from dying from a heart attack, and his brother from getting killed in Vietnam. This is Part 1 of a 2-part episode.


Written by: Donald P. Bellisario
Directed by: Joe Napolitano


Rate and comment on Part One of the third season premiere!

I thought it was a real great leap.But what Al said it was not meant to be like when he metioned Beth Sam didn't change Al's history.Also when Sam said it was different how just because this time it was Sam

[Vince Beckett]

This was one of the best episodes in the series and it was the perfect way to open the third season. Sam does not want to leap, but he has to.

[isz]

Almost an Excellent episode. the first 30 min of the episode were really great,but in the last 15 min(after Sam said he made it all up) the "magic" were slowly gone.
In the Bottom line just below excellencey. Probably One of my top 5 in QL,but also probably it's not in the top 3.
BTW Is there a story behind the name Lisa DPB loves so much?!
16 year old Sam had a crash on a cheerleader named Lisa,And of course we have Al's Lisa from a "leap for Lisa"...

[Al The Observer]

He also seems to favor the name "Tom".

[isz]

Originally Posted by Al The Observer

He also seems to favor the name "Tom".

O.K so...Is there a story behind those names concerning DPB or is just your way of being cynical?!

[Al The Observer]

I'm not being cynical. I was just mentioning the fact that DPB uses the name "Tom" for several of the characters in this series.

[ChickenStu]

Superb. Very moving. Had me in tears.

[Joe_Quarterback]

A great way to start a season. Sam has the chance to change the destiny of his siblings and his father, but, almost as happened with Al, he couldn't stop his father's inminent death a few years later and avoiding the runaway of his sister with Chuck.

It was like a prize for all the good he has been done 'til then. He doesn't want to leap, but as we all know, God, Destiny or whatever makes Sam leap moves him ahead to the next leap/mission.

Best Regards

Joe Quarterback

[Errowyn]

Al's speech of how he'd give anything to see his family again just for a few days always makes me cry. It makes me cry every time.

I can very much relate to Al when he says what he does. My little brother died in a senseless tragedy and sometimes like Al I'd give anything that I have just to see him for a day.

[Sam's Crow]

Originally Posted by Errowyn

My little brother died in a senseless tragedy and sometimes like Al I'd give anything that I have just to see him for a day.

Aww, I'm so sorry.

[CynthialovesQuantumLeap]

I have watched this Episode and it brings me to tears each time I watch it.
Errowyn, Let me say how my prayers are with you about your brother.
I feel the same about my Dad who died in 2006 I would give anything to talk with him again and hug him.
I know that there are many of us who wished they could do the same that Sam did.

[Micro]

This was the very first episode of QL I saw in the early 90s.. left me with a major *** moment... had no idea what QL was about at the time.

[jassian]

It's my favorite. One of my most favorite TV episodes ever.
I think everyone has that time in their past they would want to return to, when everything seemed perfect and easy, even if you didn't realize it at that time. Or some lost loved ones you wont see anymore *mentally hugs Errowyn and Cynthia* or people who will never be the same as they were back then. The sequence that Sam found out he couldn't help them and had to pretend he was lying was so touching for me! All the way.

Whenever I think of Sam wanting to go home I always think of the Elk Ridge Home not so much of the PQL home.

The actors for all the Becketts were amazing and touching, the 'double Scott' worked very well, although I wished the makeup had been a touch better around the eyes. And the lighting, the lighting! Lovely, especially considering the special requirements. It was a beauty and with and that beautiful set it felt like home for me too.

The only downside of me having seen it so often is me noticing every little glitch in it ... which doesn't stop me from enjoying it, every time.

[ohboy]

This was a very nice episode, all in all. Sam's face expressions were perfect, especially when he found out that he was home. His singing voice was also spot on! Great episode, and one of the best in character development.

This is what I would call Sam's "second childhood". (Ducks from projectiles)

[bluedana]

This is one of the best QL episodes, and one of the best episodes of TV period. It encapsulated the cost of leaping (knowing the future and having only limited power to change it), versus the desire to make everything right.

I thought that actress who plays the little sister, Olivia Burnett, was brilliant, and that porch scene was genius. In the original draft script, the camera was going to be just on Sam singing. But the way they filmed it, the POV was over Sam's shoulder from the back, and full on Katie's face (they're facing each other, Sam's playing the guitar). Katies face gradually goes from "Yeah, well, sing the song then" twelve-year-old snotty, to "Hey, I've never heard that before" stunned, to "OMG, he's from the future" serious, eyes welling up, mouth turning down, to full out crying, all in the space of two verses and a chorus.

And then Sam, himself in tears, recants to his whole family ("I made it all up" - when we know he didn't), and runs off like a sixteen-year old in a 40-year old's body, into the corn.

Oh, dear. Tissues.

Excellent is an understatement.

[Janna Galaxy]

Originally Posted by bluedana

And then Sam, himself in tears, recants to his whole family ("I made it all up" - when we know he didn't), and runs off like a sixteen-year old in a 40-year old's body, into the corn.

Actually that reminds me of an interview I saw in The Quantum Leap Book. I think that Scott said something along the lines of "emtionally he's like a teenager".

Which I think is so true!

That is part of what makes him so endearing.

[Lightning McQueenie]

I wonder if this leap was meant to be GFTW rewarding Sam for following the rules in the previous leap? I wonder what punishment Sam might have gotten had he decided to save Al's marriage... If we remember the leap-out from "Star Crossed", he broke the rules, and leapt into having his face punched in...

[MichelleD]

Very moving episode--The porch scene when he sings "Imagine" and then runs off in tears through the cornfield where Al tells him he'd give anything to see his dad and sister again always chokes me up. I wanted to wrap Sam and Al both up and bring them home with me. It's hard to keep in mind sometimes they're fictional characters. :-)

[blue enigma]

Arguably the best episode in the series and a favorite. Scott Bakula gave a terrific, especially emotional performance in this. I love the entire scene on the basketball court when they're practicing and the moment when Sam realizes the guy in the gorilla mask is Tom. The whole exchange is wonderful.

[iMonrey]

Definitely a poignant episode but one that's hard to watch. That scene on the porch with Sam singing "Imagine" is a thing of beauty. But it's so easy to be roped in by this emotional idea of going back in time to see your own father and brother knowing they are soon to die. I think that's something almost anyone can relate to and it's heartbreaking. It's a completely different prospect than when Sam is in some stranger's life and Al pops and and says "Oh, unless you fix this, so-and-so will die tomorrow." There's really no emotional investment in that because we don't know those characters, but by Season 3 we know Sam well and can totally feel for his pain and what it must be like for him.

The other gut-wrenching scene is the very end where Sam is lifted up by his teammates and yells to Al to tell him about Tom and Al shakes his head sadly to tell him Tom still dies in Vietman, as Sam yells out "Tom!" just as leaps out. God that gets me every time! Strangely, though this is possibly the only time other than Mirror Image where Sam might actually leap deliberately, since he goes straight from there to Vietnam. He might not realize he's leaped on his own but he might have been responsible for this leap somehow, rather than GFTW.

[Donofrio_QLTD]

As a third season opener, this is a very good episode. A story where Sam felt exactly what Al had felt in "M.I.A.", the only difference was the sort of love that was played.

Very emotional and very dramatic... The only thing I didn't like was that sometimes it was a bit too overly-dramatic: Sam running through the field when things didn't get the way he wanted, being so self-cented just because this time it affected his life, the way he sometimes threw his tantrums, etc. Very moving, still.

My favorite part: When Al finally sets him straight after Sam told him that it was not fair. "Well, I think it's damn fair", Al says. "I'd give anything to be with my family again. Anything." I don't remember the exact line now, but it was something like that. Then the scene where Sam is having the Thanksgiving dinner with all the members of his family. Very powerful and amazing.

Classic moment: Sam singing "Imagine", of course. Outstanding acting from Scott Bakula as Sam's father and Sam Beckett on the same episode. That truly deserved an ovation!!

My rating: Good.

[Lightning McQueenie]

I wonder if Sam would have any recollection of being in the Waiting Room as a teenager? Could this be what sparked his interest in Quantum Physics - knowing that he actually will succeed in being the world's first time traveller? It's a bit like in Harry Potter, how Harry knows he can cast a patronus to save himself because he'd already seen himself do it

[iMonrey]

Originally Posted by Lightning McQueenie

I wonder if Sam would have any recollection of being in the Waiting Room as a teenager? Could this be what sparked his interest in Quantum Physics - knowing that he actually will succeed in being the world's first time traveller? It's a bit like in Harry Potter, how Harry knows he can cast a patronus to save himself because he'd already seen himself do it

That's a very good question, and one I don't believe they ever answered during the series - what does the Leapee think happened to them while they were away? The only time we ever get any insight into this is in Double Identity. Sam leaps out of Frankie and into Don Geno. Frankie thinks it's still the same day as the wedding, when Sam leapt in. So, I guess Frankie remembers nothing of the waiting room.

In Future Boy we find out Sam wrote to Captain Galaxy when he was four years old and had his own Quantum time string theory explained to him on TV.

[Lightning McQueenie]

Originally Posted by iMonrey

That's a very good question, and one I don't believe they ever answered during the series - what does the Leapee think happened to them while they were away? The only time we ever get any insight into this is in Double Identity. Sam leaps out of Frankie and into Don Geno. Frankie thinks it's still the same day as the wedding, when Sam leapt in. So, I guess Frankie remembers nothing of the waiting room.

In Future Boy we find out Sam wrote to Captain Galaxy when he was four years old and had his own Quantum time string theory explained to him on TV.

Although, in "Roberto", when Sam is making his last closing speech to the audience, he claims in the next episode "he" (Roberto the leapee) will talk about how he was held captive by aliens, so that would suggest that the leapees do have some memory of the Waiting Room too...