413 Temptation Eyes

Temptation Eyes


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    36
This isn't the best or my favorite episode; I can understand why not everyone would like it. But I did like it because Sam got to be with someone for awhile who could see who he really was. Poor guy, that happens for him so seldom. Sigh. :)

That being said, the chemistry between Sam and Abagail and Sam and Nicole was better. And him and Donna in "The Leap Back"...Hubba hubba. ;-)
 
Re-reading this thread after several years and noticing the thoughts of this episode having been a flat story I can understand that perspective now. The way I see it is that the entire point of Tamlyn being able to see Sam was to give him a well deserved break and there was more to the story than just the relationship. He was there as he has been in many leaps to stop a murder. Which has actually had me recently thinking, Tamyln's murder stemmed from the relationship she'd established with "Dylan" so then what happened the first time when it was actually Dylan there who probably never met Tamlyn? Perhaps she was on to Ross?

When the season 4 DVDs were released I was actually quite pissed off that they removed the song I Wanna Know What Love Is and replaced it with sound-alike music. Thank goodness for my high school stupidity which supplied me with a bootleg of the episode (the entire series really).


Now I think about it, it seems to me you are perfectly right: I could say nothing about her beyond the fact she is psychic. And, after all, her being able to see Sam for what he really is, makes things far less exciting. I mean, in "Catch the falling star" Nicole was an intense personality and than, we are never sure (neither is Sam) if she is capable to sense he is not really Ray. When he says in the last scene "I love you Nicole", she answers "I love you too", but she doesn't add "Ray" therefore we can imagine lot of things. In "Temptation eyes" the story is rather flat, from that point of view. :wavey

Respectfully I disagree with this. I found it a very unique angle that Sam was for once working as himself.
Your perspective of the Nicole story while creative is invalid, I'm sorry. If you remember she told "Ray" that she had so many students through the years that she couldn't remember individuals when she only vaguely recognized Sam's warm up exorcise but couldn't place it to a student. If by some bizarre miracle she could have seen Sam she would have had no idea who he was especially since he's very much not 15 anymore.


On a side note, my opinion of the Abigail relationship has changed from the perspective I shared here years ago (refer to my recent post in The Leap Back thread) though I still wholeheartedly dislike the trilogy and disagree with the chemistry.
 
Ever since they revealed the truth about Donna,I can't watch the episodes in which Sam's with a girl ever the same way again.
This was a nice episode except the part you figure out the real killer the second he's seen on the screen,though.
For a moment I thought Tamlyn wasn't going to make it.I recognize that actress from Stargate Atlantis 8)
As usual I didn't know the song which was used in original air so I need to check it.

Totally random point: When the camera lights were all over Sam's face in the beginning,I was like "Scott is a very good looking guy,indeed" :D
 
Ever since they revealed the truth about Donna,I can't watch the episodes in which Sam's with a girl ever the same way again.

lol, yep. Also, though I haven't actually kept an exact count, it seems to me like Sam actually sleeps around more on leaps after 'The Leap Back' than he did before it.
 
COZI TV retains the correct song!

As a (hormonally charged) 14 year old, this episode made a massive impression. The love scene with Foreigner playing stayed with me as a stand out point of the series.

Now twenty years on having re-watched the episode on DVD, I was absolutely gutted I Wanna Know What Love Is is missing! It just shows how much impact a powerful (if maybe a little cheesy) song with pertinent lyrics can have. It is hugely lacking without the original song. I just played it on YouTube while replaying that scene on the DVD. It was close enough. :)

The love scene and the back story of Tamlyn being able to see Sam as Sam made this the love episode for me. I didn't remember any other major love stories, although now re-watching the series there were plenty!

For that reason, even if watching it now Tamlyn is not the most interesting of characters and the killer screamingly obvious, this one will always hold a special place. That and the fact I think I probably have this episode to thank (or to blame?) for a lifelong obsession with Japanese women. :dreaming

I just saw this episode on COZI TV the other night (Wednesday, 16 September 2015 at 8pm ET/PT), and The song I Want to Know What Love Is did air during the love scene between Sam and Tamlyn. I hope you saw it.

Some trivia I found that should be placed in the episode: The above song was the US Billboard #1 song for two weeks in early February 1985, during the precise time "Temptation Eyes" was set.
 
This isn't the best or my favorite episode; I can understand why not everyone would like it. But I did like it because Sam got to be with someone for awhile who could see who he really was. Poor guy, that happens for him so seldom. Sigh. :)

That being said, the chemistry between Sam and Abagail and Sam and Nicole was better. And him and Donna in "The Leap Back"...Hubba hubba. ;-)

After re-watching this today, it does seem like Tamlyn saw Sam as himself from the very beginning, and if that's so, why did she suddenly in the middle of the episode yell out "Who are you?"
 
If Ross was so doubtful about psychics, why would he have killed Tamlyn in the original history? The real Dylan would have had nothing to do with her, he can't have believed that Tamlyn was really on to him.

I also agree with the fact that this leap was a "break" for Sam, and maybe it was interference from GFTW that allowed Tamlyn to see him, I think just being a psychic wouldn't be enough. But anyhow, the fact that he leaped in TWO WEEKS before the killing tells me that he was getting a vacation somehow.
 
After re-watching this today, it does seem like Tamlyn saw Sam as himself from the very beginning, and if that's so, why did she suddenly in the middle of the episode yell out "Who are you?"

No, she saw him as the leapee until the point where Sam was looking in the mirror and then she saw him as himself.

If Ross was so doubtful about psychics, why would he have killed Tamlyn in the original history? The real Dylan would have had nothing to do with her, he can't have believed that Tamlyn was really on to him.

She was working with the police, which still meant that she was against him. Maybe he just killed her on principle...
 
No, she saw him as the leapee until the point where Sam was looking in the mirror and then she saw him as himself.

Yeah probably, but what caught my attention was that when they first met, Tamlyn remarked that Dylan "looked younger in person." One could make the argument that Dylan did look like an older Sam.

I think that in "It's a Wonderful Leap" Angela did see Sam the whole time. Also if, as some have speculated, Sam was really put there by GFTW as a "vacation," then why Tamlyn would see Dylan first and then all of the sudden see Sam makes no sense to me. Why that moment? Yes it was an emotional scene but it wasn't the first one, and Tamlyn earlier had said that her vision gets cloudy if she's not calm. So if anything, an emotional state would "blind" her abilities. That part still bothers me a little, but then again I tend to hyperfocus on those details. :nut

EDIT: My anal-retentive self just noticed one more thing. During the "Foreigner" scene, there was a brief moment when we saw Sam's reflection in a window, and we always saw reflections from Sam's POV. So just because Tamlyn could see Sam as himself, does that necessarily mean Sam saw himself in a mirror too? And in "Mirror Image" Sam had not seen his reflection in over four years. Again, just nitpicking, could be a blooper for all I know :)
 
An extremely powerful episode this one, that showcases just how doomed our dear Dr. Samuel Beckett is in terms of forming loving relationships.

Temptations Eyes is, at its heart, a love story. And it works...for the most part. Almost everything about this episode itself I enjoyed. I enjoyed the whole serial killer angle (although it did almost feel like a subplot at times, though, something which was driving Sam and Tamlyn closer and closer together because the plot needed them to be together). Also, just to get this small gripe out of the way...the killer was obvious from the start. We could have done with another couple of prominent characters. Blind Faith had this problem, too (the killer being very obvious again there). But yeah, Dylan was too obvious.

Now, back to the real meat of this episode, Sam and Tamlyn. This is, as many of you already know, the longest time Sam has spent on a leap, and the episode showcases the passing of time well with that beautiful montage (although on my version of the DVD (region 2), the beautiful song by Foreigner, "I Want To Know What Love is", doesn't play. We only get to hear stock, background music, which is a shame). Anyway, basically, I bought the love story between them, and find the ending heartbreaking every single time...

Unfortunately, what stops this episode from becoming Excellent in my mind...is the little problem regarding Donna, and that Sam is married to her. Yes, I know I've never mentioned this as an issue before. But here, the love seems so strong. It feels like there's a...once in a lifetime, star-crossed lovers kind of vibe going on. But we know that isn't true. If this had been a season 2 or 3 episode, I wouldn't have had as much of a problem with it. But it isn't. This comes after the season 4 opener (yes, we've already seen Sam and Donna together when she was younger, but that was different, as Sam's gamble in that episode seems uncertain to work). It does feel as though apart from Don Bellisario, the other writers (including Deborah Pratt), weren't too keen on the idea of Sam and Donna being married in the future. I know it's better that way for Sam that he doesn't remember Donna (because he wouldn't like being unfaithful). But there's a heap of difference in just keeping up a pretence of being in love with someone, and actually falling head over heels for them. And yeah, I don't know. I just think this episode is too close to The Leap Back to fully work.

That being said, I do enjoy Temptation Eyes, and adore Tamlyn as a character.

My rating. Good. A great episode.
 
I just saw this episode on COZI TV the other night (Wednesday, 16 September 2015 at 8pm ET/PT), and The song I Want to Know What Love Is did air during the love scene between Sam and Tamlyn. I hope you saw it.


Yes it's one of the best musical moments of the series, save for Man of La Mancha. It really irks me that the DVDs overide it with generic music :realmad
 
One thing that bothers me about some of these episodes is the inconsistency when it comes to Sam & Al arguing about supernatural events. So to sum up:


Angels and psychics - Sam's fine but Al's skeptical
Vampires and ghosts - The exact reverse


There seems to be no consistency.