There’s a lot to be said for a good old-fashioned scary story. Quantum Leap Season 1 Episode 7 delivers on that with a first half full of spooky, inexplicable happenings and a second half unraveling them with mostly satisfactory explanations.
Yay for Janis’s return, however brief, although we’re still in the dark about whether she’s connected to future Leaper X Martinez.
Finally, anyone else miss Magic’s presence at HQ? Feels like a system lock-out should be something he’d be on top of, doesn’t it?
When scientific minds meet supernatural circumstances, the conflict between logic and faith rages. Here, Ben and Daisy represent those two forces, and both must bend a bit in their dogma in order to solve the mystery.
Meanwhile, when the science fails Addison, it’s interesting that it’s Jenn that helps her hold the faith.
For someone who doesn’t believe in the supernatural, Ben seems pretty spooked by the Gray home even before seeing Daisy.
In such close quarters, it’s wise to retreat to the water closet for a briefing with Addison, and I appreciate Addison pointing out that Ben’s presence in 1934 borders on the supernatural already.
Ben: Exorcisms aren’t real. And even if they were, I’m not religious. I don’t believe in possession.
Addison: Ben, you are literally possessing that guy’s body right now.
Ben: Okay, fair point.
The writers committed to a story with consequences. While there have been deaths in previous adventures, I didn’t expect Aunt Tessa’s murder. And, honestly, even knowing who killed her, I’m surprised Percy was able to get her onto that armoire.
Of course, as an encyclopedia salesman, I guess he might have built up some muscles.
Ben: What’s with all the encyclopedias?
Percy: I sell them. Door to door. Charles says it’s just an excuse to screw around with lonely housewives all day. To which I say, ‘I’m a salesman and a public servant.’
I would’ve liked to have seen Tessa and Daisy’s relationship explored more. We never see them in the same room except in the birthday flashback and when Tessa’s body is discovered. There’s no interaction in either instance. I’m curious about Tessa’s decision to leave everything to Daisy.
Timing is key to both Percy’s and Janis’s plans, respectively.
Percy gambles that Father Davenport will need a stiff drink to perform his exorcism.
Before revealing the jimsonweed, I suspected some sort of hallucinogenic gas was being released in Daisy’s room. It might’ve been a little technologically advanced for 1934 but probably not unheard of.
What if Davenport/Ben had been a teetotaler? Would Percy have tempted him with poisoned soup instead?
There are various perspectives on faith versus knowledge presented by the characters.
Daisy and Aunt Tessa approach the world with a staunch belief in the unseen. Daisy’s description of seeing Ben in Father Davenport as an “angel” indicates that some people may be able to see the quantum leapers in certain circumstances.
Ben: You taught me something today. Sometimes we need to step outside what we believe to see things for what they are.
Daisy: But if the demon isn’t real, then my uncle’s a murderer. I think I prefer the demon.
In Daisy’s case, she’s tempted to let her faith in the good in people blind her to their wrongdoings.
Doctor Watts comes to the situation as a man of science, but his faith in medicine wavers as he witnesses the events in the Gray house.
Ben: Doctor, are you starting to believe?
Dr. Watts: In medical school, we studied the words of Hippocrates. “To know is science. To believe one knows is ignorance.” I’m afraid this has gone beyond the realm of what I know.
Ben: When I was in school, I was taught to examine all the variables before drawing conclusions.
Dr. Watts: The Vatican teaches that?
(Because I was curious, I looked into the history of black medical doctors in the U.S. and found that Dr. James McCune Smith earned a medical degree in Glasgow in 1837 and practiced medicine in New York City, seeing both black and white patients.)
The dynamic between Dr. Watts and Ben is fascinating as Ben watches the doctor doubt in his own understanding of the human mind and body while masquerading as a man of religious faith.
Without Addison for guidance, Ben turns to sound boarding off Father Davenport’s mirror presence. It’s a strange thing to reconcile Ben’s recognition that Davenport’s still in there somewhere while he’s driving the priest’s body around.
Maybe just this once, I put my need to rationally and logically explain everything away, and try and be open to something I don’t truly understand.
Ben
The reflection’s reactions seem to indicate an actual dialogue going on. Mind you, it could also be a lingering side effect of the jimsonweed-laced gin.
And then there are those who have lost their faith — Charles, Lola, and Percy. The Great Depression drove many to desperation and others to innovation. For example, Charles spins his wheels while Lola and Percy make new plans. Mind you, for Lola, they’re revived old plans.
I’ve never had anything on my terms. The child I had to have. The man I had to marry. Getting a chance at my dream again? That was something worth believing in!
Lola
I’m not entirely unsympathetic to Lola’s plight. Of course, plotting her daughter’s gaslighting, poisoning, and murder is reprehensible. Both she and Percy are bad people, no question. However, that desperate times adage exists for a reason.
Daisy may speak of seeing angels, but she’s quite the paragon of religious conviction herself. She understands what has happened to her family, accepts that they feel forsaken, and still forgives her mother and uncle for their murderous intentions.
Despite being poisoned multiple times, having hallucinations forced on her, and being traumatized by seeing her murdered aunt’s body, she somehow holds to her faith that good will overcome.
So what is the ultimate message of this offering?
The team has faith that they’ll bring Ben home, that they have a better handle on the technology than Sam Beckett’s team had thirty years ago. They cling to that faith for Ben and Addison and their sense of team.
The words on Daisy’s wall — “OPEN MINE EYES TO SEE” — are words from Charles Wesley’s Prayer for Faith. They echo in Ben’s thoughts on what he’s learned from his time as Father Davenport and Dr. Watts’s remembrance of Hippocrates’s lessons.
What we know, we know until we know differently.
This could be the mantra of the season. We know Ben leaped. We know Janis was working with him. We know Martinez will leap someday.
But the why and how of all these known facts could significantly change the context. What is Janis warning Ben about when he leaps?
Is it simple coincidence that Daisy, the daughter, is poisoned here while Beth, the mother, was poisoned the last time we saw Janis on Quantum Leap Season 1 Episode 3?
Happy Halloween, folks! Be sure to watch Quantum Leap online with the lights down low, and the sound turned up. Enjoy those jump scares and join us next week when Ben is Ben again, just not Ben Song!
Diana Keng is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.