Quantum Leap
Season 5, Episode 16:
Evil Leaper II: Return, a.k.a. Return of the Evil Leaper
Sam: The Midnight Marauder scoffs at the odds!
Written by Richard C. Okie
Directed by Harvey Laidman
Airdate: February 23, 1993.
October 8, 1956
Sam leaps into a nerdy college student named Arnold Watkins, a self-proclaimed superhero called "the Midnight Marauder." He's there to stop a fraternity of college students from performing dangerous chicken races as a part of their frat initiations. Meanwhile, Al works with Arnold back at the Project Waiting Room to help resolve Arnold's childhood trauma.
All of this is put into jeopardy, however, when Alia the Evil Leaper leaps into Dawn, the girlfriend of Mike, the frat president.
This originally aired back-to-back with the following episode, "Revenge of the Evil Leaper."
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Situation: After Sam and Alia's leaping energies merge when they leap out at the end, it's somewhat unclear who leapt with whom. It's not helped by the fact that they both end up in a dungeon-like prison with a menacing guard mocking them, making it seem like Lothos might've captured them.note
- Because You Were Nice to Me: It's strongly implied that Sam's kindness in their previous meeting got to Alia, and she's visibly distraught at the thought of harming him.
- The Bus Came Back: Alia and Zoey return.
- Call-Back: When Sam shows up with a Studebaker, Mike sarcastically asks him if he's ever been in a race. Sam, who had previously raced as Cam Wilson, calmly says, "More than one."
- Cold-Blooded Torture: When Sam asks Alia what happened to her after their last meeting, she admits that Lothos forced her into unspeakable torture for her failure.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Arnold's antics are little more than a minor annoyance to the Chi Kappas, but when he gets them in trouble with the dean (and his girlfriend humiliates him in public), Mike settles on premeditated murder by cutting the brake lines in Arnold's car.
- Easily Forgiven: Sam is pretty forgiving of Alia, and is even willing to take her on as his leaping partner, even though she had previously falsely accused him/Jimmy of rape, and came closer to ending his/Jimmy's life than just about any other villain in the series. This is likely justified given that he picks up on the fact that she doesn't appear to enjoy what she's doing, and may in fact be forced to do it.
- Emergency Temporal Shift: Subverted with Alia. When it becomes clear that Sam is going to help Alia escape, Lothos attempts to leap her out. Sam's own leap ultimately overrides it.
- Enemy-Detecting Radar: Once she hears "Arnold" say the name "Al," Zoey is able to use her handlink to scan and confirm that "Arnold" is actually Sam.
- Excellent Judge of Character: In the Waiting Room, Arnold says that he trusts what Al says about things being taken care of in his absence, because, "You have the light of truth in your eyes."
- Fate Worse than Death: When Sam says that he thought Alia had died at the end of their last encounter, Alia says that what she went through was worse than death.
- Freudian Excuse: Al figures out that Arnold is so determined to be a superhero because both of his parents died in a violent incident when he was a child.
- Game of Chicken: A variation, in that rather than speeding towards each other, the participants speed towards a gorge, and the last to brake or jump out is the winner. Sam's purpose for being there is to stop these initiations, and he and Alia take part towards the end.
- Gender Bender: At the end of the episode, Sam leaps into female convict Elizabeth Tate. This is the lead-in for the next episode, "Revenge of the Evil Leaper".
- Genre Savvy: Alia's leap-in shows her getting over her initial confusion fairly quickly, and within two minutes she's helping Mike formulate a plan to make "Arnold's" life unhappy.
- Glamour Failure: Once they're aware that Sam is present, Zoey warns Alia not to touch him, as they don't want him to know they're there. It still happens accidentally.
- In Love with the Gangster's Girl: Invoked by Alia, who gets under Mike's skin by pretending like she had a steamy one night stand with "Arnold." She does this knowing that it'll lead to Mike and his cronies harming Sam or forcing him to take part in an almost-certainly fatal game of chicken.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Zoey happily reports that Mike eventually gets expelled from college after being caught cheating, and his own father refuses to employ him afterwards.
- Last-Second Word Swap: By way of Mike interrupting Sam when Sam is telling an officer about the frat initiation.Sam: They were having a chicken—
Mike: —picnic. A fried chicken box social. - Missed Him by That Much: Sam-as-Arnold is introduced to Dawn, and shakes her hand, about five seconds before Alia leaps into her. If the handshake had happened just a few seconds later, Glamour Failure would've engaged and they would've been aware of each other sooner.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Sam theorizes that he'd be able to get Alia to leap with him — or vice versa — if he holds onto her when he leaps, even though she's the only other leaper he's ever encountered. Sure enough, it works at the end.
- Open Secret: The Midnight Marauder doesn't really have a Secret Identity; everyone pretty much already knows it's Arnold and openly chide him for it. A portion of the episode is spent with Al working to help snap Arnold out of such a juvenile mindset.
- Our Time Travel Is Different: This episode expands on the Evil Leaper lore, showing how different it is from Sam's leaping.
- Alia leaps in a flash of red light instead of blue like Sam.
- Though Alia is stuck leaping just like Sam, it's intimated that Lothos has a degree of control over where and when she leaps. Zoey even says that Sam's "appearances follow the random event theory." At the end, Zoey even asks Lothos to "pull Alia out, now" and Alia's leaping energies begin glowing.
- It's also strongly implied that Alia is somehow able to leap outside her own lifetime, a feat hitherto only seen in "The Leap Back"note , and not seen again until "The Leap Between the States" and the sequel series.note
- This episode establishes that if a leaper is in contact with another leaper when one or both begin leaping, then they will leap together.
- Out-of-Character Alert:
- Alia almost tips her hand by using the word "macho" in front of Sam (before either leaper knows that the other is there). When Sam expresses confusion, as it's 1956 and it's not a slang word yet, she says that she learned it in Spain. Similarly, Alia is confused for a moment when Sam mutters, "Oh yeah, it's the Fifties."
- Zoey overhears "Arnold" talking to thin air and saying the name "Al." A quick scan by Lothos confirms that it is indeed Sam, thus giving the evil leapers the upper hand.
- Out of Focus: Dr. Beeks is mentioned, and Arnold (in the Waiting Room) assumes that Al's handlink is her. But Beeks isn't seen at all, which is jarring since she's the Project's resident psychiatrist, and a big part of the episode is working through Arnold's childhood trauma (which sees Al acting as a therapist instead).
- Plot Hole: Part of the leap's success relies on Arnold stopping his reckless behavior after Sam leaps out, and Al works with Arnold on this back in the Waiting Room. The problem with this is, as we've seen before with Frankie La Palma and Lee Harvey Oswald (and would see one episode later with Angel Jensen and Clifton Meyers), leapees don't retain memories of their time spent in a Waiting Room.note
- Plot-Irrelevant Villain: You could remove the evil leaper storyline from the plot and the episode would be a fairly standard Quantum Leap episode. The most that Alia does is conspire with Mike to make Arnold's life worse, and then get under Mike's skin later on to help push Sam into dying in a game of chicken. The stakes aren't anywhere close to being as high as they were in "Deliver Us From Evil."
- Previously on…: The episode starts off with "Evil Leaper I: Reprise," which quickly recaps the plot of "Deliver Us From Evil."
- Set Wrong What Was Once Made Right: Discussed. Sam's actions right after the initial leap-in saves Arnold's life, as Arnold died in the original history. Alia later tells Sam that her apparent goal is to undo this.
- Split-Personality Takeover: Sam starts experiencing the "Midnight Marauder" part of Arnold's personality, to Al's consternation.
- Super Window Jump: While psycho-synergizing "the Midnight Maurauder's" personality, Sam dons his cape and goes out of his dorm window, even after Al points out that there's a door.
- Terminator Twosome: Discussed when Sam discovers that Alia is there, and deduces why she's there.Sam: It's Arnold, isn't it? Isn't it?
Alia: [realizing] You saved him, didn't you?
Sam: And now you're here to change that.
Alia: He has to die. - Third Line, Some Waiting: There are three plotlines in play:
- The first is Sam's mission, which is apparently to stop the frat initiations.
- The second is Al working with Arnold back at the Waiting Room, to talk him out of being a "superhero" so he won't do any more reckless stunts after Sam leaps out.
- And the third involves the return of Alia and Zoey.
- The Vamp: Alia-as-Dawn's initial plan with Mike is to seduce Arnold in order to embarrass him. Later, after Alia knows that Arnold is Sam, she pretends to dump Mike while seductively saying that Arnold is really good in bed, in order to get under Mike's skin and make Sam's mission harder. Sam, who doesn't know that Alia is there yet, is incredibly confused.
- Vehicular Sabotage: One of Mike's cronies cuts the brake lines in the car Sam uses at the end.
- Villainous Demotivator: Lothos forcing Alia to undergo torture, combined with the emotional toll that her brand of leaping has taken, makes her more than willing to collude with Sam to escape.
- We Will Meet Again: At the end, as Alia begins to dual-leap with Sam, Zoey vows that she will find and kill Alia herself.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We don't learn the ultimate fates of Arnold or Dawn, as the usual time for Al's exposition is filled by the drama of Sam trying to dual-leap with Alia. The most we get is Zoey cackling about how Mike's life is ruined after getting expelled, and Al reading the 100% probability that Arnold avoids dying in an accident.
- You Remind Me of X: When talking with "Arnold" about how he cares for people, Alia says that he reminds her of someone, with the Dramatic Irony implication being that she's reminded of Sam.
