Quantum Leap
Season 2, Episode 10:
Catch a Falling Star
Al: Sam, this is Syracuse. It's way, way, way, way, way off Broadway. For Syracuse, you can go out there and sing. Besides, even if you can't, how could you pass up the chance to be a star? To stand in the spotlight... To know that every eye is focused just on you...
Written by Paul Brown
Directed by Donald P. Bellisario
Airdate: December 6, 1989
May 21, 1979
Sam finds himself in the role of an understudy to the alcoholic leading man of Man of La Mancha, and is tasked with making sure he doesn't suffer from a career ending injury in three days time. But complicating matters is one of the other performers of the musical: Sam's old piano teacher, Nicole.
Tropes:
- Actor Allusion: John O'Malley, the leading man of the theater production of Man of La Mancha, is played by John Cullum, who actually did star in productions of the musical in real life.
- Bait-and-Switch: Sam briefly is convinced that Nicole can see him as himself, not Ray. And when Nicole meets up with Sam after the performace, she comments that it's "been so long".Sam: How did you know it was me?
Nicole: Did you think I could ever forget you, Ray? - Bittersweet Ending: Downplayed: Sam manages to save John, perform in his place, and make up with Nicole, but at the same time realizes he has to let go of his chance of being with Nicole. But he's going to be okay.Al: (as Sam ascends up the stairs) You gonna be all right?
Sam: (to Al) What matter wounds to the body of a knight-errant? For each time he falls, he shall rise again and woe to the wicked! Al!
Al: (walking with Sam) Here, Your Grace!
Sam: My armor, my sword.
Al: More misadventures.
Sam: Adventures, old friend. - Black Comedy: When explaining to Sam what happened to John O'Malley, Al describes his fall as him "[doing] a Gerald Ford impersonation".
- Bootstrapped Theme: Al reveals that Sam listened to Man of La Mancha nonstop when they built the Imaging Chamber, outright stating "The Impossible Dream" became their song.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: During the credits, we are treated to a curtain call of all of the episode's cast.
- Broken Win/Loss Streak: After Sam catches John, the latter is asked if he can still perform. John then decides (after it first looking like he still will) that "after 763 performances of Don Quixote, [he] shall... not sally forth tonight."
- Career-Ending Injury: In the original history, three days after Sam leapt in, John O'Malley showed up drunk to a benefit performance of Man of La Mancha and wound up falling off of the stairs at the top of the stage. He broke his leg and hip, and as a result it killed his career.
- Catch a Falling Star: Duh.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Despite being under the belief that he slept with Nicole, and being completely okay with not saving him, Sam still rushes out to catch John the moment he stumbles off of the stairs.
- Could Say It, But...: When hanging out with Nicole back at her house, Sam (pretending to be Ray) talks about having a piano teacher as a kid, and how he had a crush on her:Sam: (embarassed) I, uh... I can't believe some of the dumb things I did.
Nicole: Aw, she probably thought you were adorable.
Sam: I don't know what... she thought. She never embarrassed me by letting on that she knew. ...she was really great. - Deadly Euphemism: "John? Break a leg."
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Invoked: When Al is arguing with Sam over his feelings towards Nicole, that he can't let her know who he is, Sam openly begins comparing his life to that of Don Quixote.Sam: I can't have a life! All I do is live someone else's life. Right their wrongs, fight their fights- Geez, I feel like I'm Don Quixote!
- Expansion Pack Past: As it happens, Al has a bit of history when it comes to the theater:Al: Hey, it got me outta the orphanage. Other kids, they went into boxing or they studied or they stole. I thought I'd give the theater a try.
- Foreshadowing: After Sam decides to cut John off due to how drunk he is while the cast is at the bar, John shoots back "I will decide when I have had enough!"
- Green-Eyed Monster: Michelle almost indirectly causes John to break his leg due to being upset Nicole got the part of Dulcinea over her.
- Half-Truth: "I'm not the Ray you fell in love with back at Juilliard."
- Hidden Depths: Al did some acting back in the day, speaking of performing on stage and his experiences with summer-stock.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: While stewing, Sam admits that (for all his genuine love of helping others) he is annoyed over how, at best, he just gets to live pieces of other people's lives.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- Sam is shocked to hear that Al was once an actor.
- Sam leaps out the second the final note of the musical is hit. In other words, once the show is over, Sam is gone.
- Loophole Abuse: When Sam has to take part in rehearsing, Al shows up with a copy of Man of La Mancha. "You got a photographic memory. Start reading."
- Mondegreen Gag: After Al finds out that the guy Sam leapt into, Ray Hutton, once was in a production of Oklahoma!, it causes him to realize that was why he was humming one of the songs from it:Al: (singing) Chicks and dogs and pigs better scurry-
Sam: Ducks.
Al: (singing) When I- (to Sam) Ducks?
Sam: It's "ducks and geese", not "pigs and dogs". - Musical Episode: The setting is a theater performing Don Quixote and the musical numbers are done in the context of performances/rehearsals. The last act is mostly composed of the final performance.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Following John's fall, Manny comes clean to Sam about Michelle's lie about Nicole.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Shortform: When trying to talk Sam into resuming his mission of saving John, Al points out that he could still wind up leaping even if he doesn't. After Sam reveals why he's changed his mind, Al tries convincing Sam to save John not for John's sake, but for himself and Al's sake. Sam then points out that Al just said he could still leap out even if John still falls.
- Not What It Looks Like: After Michelle makes Sam think Nicole is sleeping with John, Sam heads over to John's place to find out the truth, and sure enough it does look like he got done with sleeping with someone, causing Sam to leave crestfallen. Shortly after Sam leaves, however, we see that it wasn't Nicole he was with; it was a woman named Anita.
- Oh, Crap!: This is Sam's immediate reaction to learning he leapt in right before being set to go out on stage at a theater. It then turns out he's the understudy, as the leading man then arrives before Sam has to go out.
- The Oldest Profession: Discussed: After Al describes acting as being the "second-oldest profession", he mulls over the topic a little:Sam: You were an actor?
Al: Don't say it like it was a disease. Acting is the world's second-oldest profession. ...maybe the first... Yeah, prostitution could be considered kind of a performance. In fact, there's a lot of acting goes into a good... - One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Variation: The day after Sam and Nicole hung out at her apartment and kissed, the two of them rehearse the scene where Don Quixote first meets Dulcinea. While they do the scene, Al (having shown up to help Sam with the lines) starts to pick up on how Sam is acting:Nicole: What do you want of me?
Al: What do you want of her? (holds up his book to Sam)
Sam: Nothing.
Nicole: Liar!
Al: I'm with her. - The One That Got Away: One of the major sources of conflict in the episode is in the form of Nicole, the piano teacher Sam had a crush on as a kid.Sam: She was the first woman I ever loved.
Al: How old were you?
Sam: I was 15 when she left for New York. I wonder what she's doing in Syracuse.
Al: I bet a lot of people ask themselves that question. - O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After Sam is tricked into thinking Nicole slept with John, he becomes dour, not particularly interested in preventing John's fall anymore.Sam: (sad; quietly playing piano) To right the unrightable wrong...
Al: What are you gonna do, Sam?
Sam: To love pure and chaste from afar... (to Al) I don't know. To try...
Al: You're gonna save John from fallin' down the stairway.
Sam: (bluntly) Let him break his neck.
Al: Ya know, even if you don't save him, you could still leap.
Sam: Who wants to stay? - Precocious Crush: Nicole was Sam's piano teacher back when he was a kid, and he crushed on her pretty badly. Al remarks it was puppy love, to which Sam retorts that a person usually gets over puppy love.
- Race Against the Clock: Variation: When Sam first leaps in, he's prepped in the makeup room, when the stage producer Charlie bursts in, yelling that he's on stage in 50 seconds.
- Resigned to the Call: The leap's closing lines reflect how Sam is disappointed to let Nicole (a piece of his old life) go, but he shall go on to more adventures with pride.
- The Show Must Go On: After Sam catches John following his fall, he concludes that he is in no shape to perform that night, meaning Sam gets to go on in his place.
- Spanner in the Works: Downplayed: Not only did Michelle lie to Sam that Nicole was sleeping with John, but she instructed Manny to tell Nicole that Sam was sleeping with her as well. However, at the benefit performance the next day, the makeup woman informs Nicole that Michelle and Manny slept together last night, and that "Ray wouldn't touch her with Don Quixote's lance".
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Shortform: When John makes a quick stop backstage to take a quick pull of booze, Al "tells" him he's giving a terrific performance, something John unknowingly parrots back to Sam before going back on stage.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Nearly defied at the last moment: Michelle, jealous over Nicole beating her out for the part of Dulcinea, ropes Manny into helping her trick Sam into thinking Nicole is sleeping with John. This breaks Sam's heart, prompting him to decide to let John break his leg the following night. And sure enough, at the start of the show, John arrives drunk and begins his way down the stairs... only to get caught by Sam at the last moment when he falls.
