Quantum Leap
Season 4, Episode 16:
Ghost Ship
Sam: Just what I need: A lifetime job flying in the Bermuda Triangle.
Written by Donald P. Bellisario & Paris Qualles
Directed by Anita W. Addison
Airdate: March 4, 1992
August 13, 1956
Sam once again finds himself behind the controls of an airplane when he leaps into the co-pilot of an air taxi, delivering a newlywed couple to Bermuda. A flight already complicated with the wife suffering from appendicitis and a pilot burden with trauma from World War II is made even worse by where their route is taking them: Through the Bermuda Triangle.
Tropes:
- Arbitrary Skepticism: It's Sam's turn this time to doubt something which isn't, given what he's seen but most especially that he's a time-traveller, all that outlandish: the Bermuda Triangle.
- Artistic License – Physics: Deliberate: After Sam almost crashes the plane, Cooper (upon fixing it) tells him to inform their passengers that what actually happened was that they had hit an "air pocket":Sam: No such thing as an air pocket.Cooper: Well, we know that. They don't.
- Ask a Stupid Question...: After the plane breaks out of both the lightning storm and the Bermuda Triangle itself towards the end, and approaches a landmass not too far off:Sam: Is that Bermuda?Cooper: What the hell else could it be in the middle of the Atlantic?!
- The Bermuda Triangle: The centerpiece of the episode: The path the air taxi is taking to Bermuda passes right through it, the Project keeps experiencing severe technical problems as it goes through it, and Cooper himself had a traumatic experience in World War II because of it. Not only that, but there are two separate instances of ships mysteriously appearing without explanation.
- Bottle Episode: This entire episode takes place aboard an air taxi, with only six characters throughout. In fact, Al winds up being missing for most of the final act when the Project completely loses contact with Sam.
- Call-Back: Right as the plane ends up in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle, Al's hologram conks out as the Project loses contact with Sam.
- Change the Uncomfortable Subject: How Sam's leap-out plays, given that it comes on the heals of the Wham Line.
- Coming in Hot: Variation: After a bolt of lightning takes out one of the plane's engines, Sam and Cooper have to fight to prevent the plane from crashing in the oceannote .
- Continuity Nod: Sam is very happy to remind Al that he doesn't have a good history with airplanes:Al: (reading off the handlink) Uh, [Eddie Bracket (the guy Sam leapt into) is] a fledgling, airborne limo driver.Sam: Maybe he is, but I'm not; in case you don't remember, I don't drive these things.Al: Well, you did great as a... as a rocket test pilot.Sam: I crashed!Al: Not before you broke Mach 3 first.Sam: Among other things!
- Cutting the Knot: Discussed: In the original history, Michelle died from complications from appendicitis during the flight when, rather than completing the voyage to Bermuda, the plane turned around and returned to Norwich, Virginia, despite the fact (at the point the plane turned around) that Bermuda was closer:Al: Well, uh, it's only an hour to Bermuda, and it's four hours back to Norwich, Virginia, so why, you know... if you got a problem... go all the way back?
- Doing In the Wizard: Attempted, then defied: After the plane had landed in Bermuda, and everything had settled down, Sam attempted to explain away all of the oddities that occurred during their time in the Triangle to both Cooper and Al as being the result of electromagnetic disturbances, and not anything supernatural. And then Cooper reveals he was rescued by the USS Cyclops the day he crashed, only for the ship to get torpedoed seven days later. Al then points out how this couldn't have happened...
- Flying Dutchman:
- Discussed: After Grant tells Sam that, as an act of gratitude for taking care of Michelle, he will always have a job flying for his family, Sam bitterly cracks to himself:Sam: Just what I need: A lifetime job flying in the Bermuda Triangle.
- While also doubling as a Ghost Ship, the USS Cyclops doubles as this as well, given how it not only picked Cooper up back during the war, but it's implied that was the ship Sam and Al had seen in the ocean during the leap.
- Discussed: After Grant tells Sam that, as an act of gratitude for taking care of Michelle, he will always have a job flying for his family, Sam bitterly cracks to himself:
- Ghost Ship: Well, obviously, but the USS Cyclops in particular fits the bill, due to it having rescued Cooper the day he crashed in the Bermuda Triangle... despite having gone missing in 1918.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: Grant Cutler Jr. starts off the episode as a bit of a jerk, with it being implied he has a bit of a bad history with this particular air taxinote , but it's clear that he does in fact truly love his wife, Michelle. He treats her health problem as serious as he can, and even admits to Sam in private that he'll never forget him for what he's done for Michelle, and that he is guaranteed to always have a job flying for his family.
- History Repeats: Although he doesn't outwardly mention it, Sam starts to notice some parallels between Cooper's story of the fate of Shark Flight and their own present situation during the climax:Cooper: But they're out there! I've seen 'em, they're beckoning me... Chuck, Deeter, Max. They want me to join 'em. That's why all this is happening. The... the instruments, the... the squall line, the Liberty ship, the music.Cooper: But after we sunk the sub, I picked up a song... on my bird dog! I thought it was Radio Bermuda and tried to home in on it. But, just as I was about to get a fix, I lost it.Sam: (notices the song cutting out, giving way to static) ...what happened next?Cooper: A lightning strike!Sam: Lightning?!Cooper: It set my engines on fire!
- I Let Gwen Stacy Die: During World War II, Cooper was part of a group of four fighter planes, Shark Flight, that were responsible for sinking seven U-Boats in the waters of Bermuda. However, while in the Triangle, all four planes went down, with Cooper being the only survivor. As of 1956, he was still convinced it was his fault, even though (as Sam pointed out), they went down because of lightning.
- It's All My Fault: Downplayed: Michelle soon admits that she was having her stomach pains before even boarding the plane, but she decided to try and keep it quiet so that she didn't ruin her and Grant's honeymoon.
- Lying to Protect Your Feelings: After Michelle comments that her stomach pains are almost gone, and that she's starting to feel dizzy and cold, Sam just tells her to get some rest before going into the galley... where he admits to Wendy that Michelle's appendix has burst.
- MacGyvering: After Michelle's appendix bursts, Sam has the idea to make a DIY IV drip with some water from the galley, salt, a spare needle, and (with help from Wendy) an emergency oxygen mask.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Immediately upon leaping in, the second Sam notices he's once again piloting a plane, he unknowingly causes the cigarette in his mouth to fall out and land on the floor. He bends down to get it... only to accidentally push the plane's yoke forward, causing the plane to begin nosediving into the ocean. Or, in other words, Sam's first act upon leaping in is to almost accidentally crash a plane.
- Not So Above It All: It turns out that Al is deathly afraid of the Bermuda Triangle, which Sam gives him grief over... only for the episode to prove Al's fears justified.
- Ruptured Appendix: The secondary conflict of the episode: Michelle Cutter was experiencing stomach pains prior to Sam leaping in, writing them off as just being cramps. However, as Al soon reveals, she's experiencing appendicitis, and needs to get to a hospital, with the closest one being in Bermuda. In fact, it gets to the point where her appendix bursts, and Sam has to construct a makeshift saline IV drip to stabilize her long enough for them to reach Bermuda.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Not only did Cooper experience the loss of three of his squadmates during World War II as a result of crashing in the Bermuda Triangle, but he has to go back through it in order to deliver a newlywed couple to Bermuda, and damn near almost crashes again. In fact, it gets to the point where he lapses into reliving diving upon a U-Boat, all while Sam tries in vain to get him to snap out of it, and once he does, he has no memory of doing so.
- Shown Their Work: The ship that rescued Cooper during the war, the USS Cyclops
, did in fact exist... and did in fact go missing in the Bermuda Triangle in 1918. - Something Only They Would Say: After Sam tells Cooper that he almost crashed the plane into the ocean when he was diving on an imaginary U-Boat, Cooper immediately calls him out on making up stuff, before Sam parrots what he was yelling right back at him, which causes Wendy to realize it's true (as Cooper had previously said such a thing in his sleep):Sam: You were back in the war reliving your last mission!Cooper: That's real funny, Eddie, why don't you just get on the bird dog and see if we can tune in Bermuda before we run out of fuel?!Sam: "U-boat, 1:00, runnin' for the squall line! Follow me!"Wendy: (mortified) Oh, my God.Cooper: I never said that...Wendy: Yes, you did... in your sleep.
- Stock Footage: The air taxi is clearly Cutter's Goose from Tales of the Gold Monkey.
- Technology Marches On: After determining that Michelle's appendix had burst, Sam quietly heads to the galley to try and find an angiocatheter, only to then realize he doesn't have access to onenote .Wendy: (notices Sam scrounging around the galley) If you're looking for the aspirin, I've got it.Sam: No. I'm looking for an angiocatheter.Wendy: A what?Sam: An angio- (closes eyes; plants forehead onto the overhead cabinet) No, not in '56.
- Trauma Button: The Bermuda Triangle turns out to be one for Cooper, due to being the lone survivor of Shark Flight (after he had promised to get the others home). Throughout most of the episode, Cooper keeps replaying the radio conversations he had with them they day they crashed (with it being implied he's actually hearing their ghosts tempting him to join them).
- Wham Line: Right at the end, when Sam brings up how Cooper had spent eight days in the ocean after crashing in the Bermuda Triangle during the war, Cooper admits he was actually picked up by the USS Cyclops on his first day, only for the ship to get torpedoed a week later. While Sam admits how weird of a coincidence it was that Cooper was the survivor of two separate incidents in the Triangle, Al pulls up some information from the handlink:Al: (uneasily) Uh, Sam, the USS Cyclops... disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle in 1918... 26 years before Cooper was picked up.
