Wow! This is about the seventh or eighth time I saw this episode and, unlike some other episodes, I don't learn enough additional info by repeated viewings. The concept in this one is great and it DOES make sense despite a few holes in the story that would not neatly fit into the concept unless this was extended for another episode. But, actually, this is the SECOND part of the previous episode which is somewhat dependent on the viewer having watched "Deliver Us from Evil" -- an episode from season 5 (Season-5, episode 7)--in which Alia (the "evil" leaper, makes her debut.) Alia is a time traveler like Sam except her role is to make WRONG what was once RIGHT--the polar opposite role of Sam's reasons for leaping. The issue with THIS episode (Revenge of the Evil Leaper) is there are too many identity changes, most of which are made even more confusing because there are gender AND racial changes involved (ie. The black, male prison warden is taken over by a white female. This gets even more strange when the black male warden sexually assaults the prisoners at this all female prison. Enter actress Carolyn Seymour who is portraying this male role, and things get very strange. Confused? It's a challenge to grasp all parts of this episode while watching, let alone trying to write a logical explanation here! I suppose DB didn't want another three-part story since they just concluded "Trilogy" five episodes ago. However, it's my strong opinion this should have been a three parter as well. The risk with three-part "to be continued" episodes is losing some viewers who didn't like or missed the first and/or second parts. So.....four points for the CONCEPT, but nothing else.
Quantum Leap (TV Series)
Revenge of the Evil Leaper - September 16, 1987 (1993)
User Reviews
Review this title2 Reviews
Stereotypes galore in a most uninteresting, all-serious plot
FlushingCaps12 August 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Here we have Sam and Alia leaping together from the previous episode's dilemma into a women's prison where they are being mistreated by a guard almost immediately. They don't know if Sam leaped into Alia's mission or vice-versa. They soon find out that Alia has gone into Sam's world.
First thing to do is get Sam and Alia alone-accomplished surprisingly easily as the guard lets them go into a storage room and be alone for several minutes. Sam hypnotizes Alia so her control computer and observer Zoey cannot locate her brain waves and find where she leaped. This works, although the evil one does learn they are at this women's prison in Ohio in 1987.
Sam is supposedly there in the role of prisoner Liz Tate, there to save Alia, who is Angel Jensen. They were in solitary because the guards believe one of them just killed another prison, a woman named Carolyn.
Sam needs to find out who really killed that woman, while confined to the prison. To make things worse, Zoey has become another time traveler, taking the place of the black man who is the warden, Clifton Myers.
In the warden's office, Sam and Zoey touch, and we see a quick transformation to their characters then they switch back. So Zoe knows what role Dr. Beckett is playing, but somehow doesn't figure that the other woman prisoner he was with would be her partner Alia. Sam figures out the woman he saw was Zoey, but not right away.
Zoey, tells Liz (Sam) that she will have 24 hours in her cell block to find out who committed the murder, while Angel (Alia) is put back in the black box solitary room, which causes the claustrophobic woman great distress. But then Zoey (Cliff) looks in the mirror at the big black man's reflection of the character she now inhabits, and decides she wants to have some sexual fun with Liz (Sam).
A guard comes for Liz shortly before her "date" with the warden, telling her that her friend in solitary is going crazy, and Sam rushes to her aid.
Along the way we see more dialog from the waiting room as Al is trying to get the two women there-Liz and Angel-to help him figure out who committed the murder, but their memories are, as they always say, "Swiss-cheesed."
Using the help of a friendly guard, to whom Sam told the truth about who they were, the two prisoners almost break away from the prison, but are caught by the warden (Zoey) who is about to shoot both of them. We get some real fantasy/science fiction activity here to prevent them from being killed, and of course it all works out for the good guys and bad for the killer.
What's wrong with this episode? Practically everything. The hypnotism scene makes it seem like all you have to do to hypnotize someone is tell them to close their eyes and imagine they are somewhere else. A few of the guards are ridiculously easily overcome by the good guys, and this long search when the whole prison guards are looking for them is quite farfetched in how easily Sam and could move along without being detected, always slipping behind a pole or something into the darkness with each passing vehicle, never getting into the headlights.
My biggest complaint involves the actions of Zoey. To figure out what prison character is now inhabited by Dr. Beckett and Alia, she becomes a time traveler, taking the character of the warden. She now has her own hologram observer, and when she directs him to talk to whoever's in their waiting room, he reports there is nobody there. But the real warden Myers should be in there, because Zoey is in his place at the time.
More incredible, is that this hologram, this invisible woman, who can move about the prison at the touch of a button, see and hear everything said by whoever's around, decides that she can more easily find her two opponents in time travel by being the warden, a man whose every move around the prison would draw big-time attention from the prisoners as well as the guards who work under him. It would be obvious to an 8-year-old that someone who can move around invisibly and listen and see everyone's actions could find out some information much more easily that way than the way Zoey chose.
It's also disturbing to think that the evil leapers can purposely direct themselves to leap into a specific character and at a specific day and time, as Zoey did to find out the new identities of her two foes. Sam can never leap into any specific person, or time on purpose. His problems would be much easier if he could.
Because this was written by Deborah Pratt, we again have an episode with no laughs whatsoever. The drama parts were farcical, and this third episode to feature the "evil leaper" was the worst of the lot. I give it a 2, the second lowest score ever from me for an episode of this series.
First thing to do is get Sam and Alia alone-accomplished surprisingly easily as the guard lets them go into a storage room and be alone for several minutes. Sam hypnotizes Alia so her control computer and observer Zoey cannot locate her brain waves and find where she leaped. This works, although the evil one does learn they are at this women's prison in Ohio in 1987.
Sam is supposedly there in the role of prisoner Liz Tate, there to save Alia, who is Angel Jensen. They were in solitary because the guards believe one of them just killed another prison, a woman named Carolyn.
Sam needs to find out who really killed that woman, while confined to the prison. To make things worse, Zoey has become another time traveler, taking the place of the black man who is the warden, Clifton Myers.
In the warden's office, Sam and Zoey touch, and we see a quick transformation to their characters then they switch back. So Zoe knows what role Dr. Beckett is playing, but somehow doesn't figure that the other woman prisoner he was with would be her partner Alia. Sam figures out the woman he saw was Zoey, but not right away.
Zoey, tells Liz (Sam) that she will have 24 hours in her cell block to find out who committed the murder, while Angel (Alia) is put back in the black box solitary room, which causes the claustrophobic woman great distress. But then Zoey (Cliff) looks in the mirror at the big black man's reflection of the character she now inhabits, and decides she wants to have some sexual fun with Liz (Sam).
A guard comes for Liz shortly before her "date" with the warden, telling her that her friend in solitary is going crazy, and Sam rushes to her aid.
Along the way we see more dialog from the waiting room as Al is trying to get the two women there-Liz and Angel-to help him figure out who committed the murder, but their memories are, as they always say, "Swiss-cheesed."
Using the help of a friendly guard, to whom Sam told the truth about who they were, the two prisoners almost break away from the prison, but are caught by the warden (Zoey) who is about to shoot both of them. We get some real fantasy/science fiction activity here to prevent them from being killed, and of course it all works out for the good guys and bad for the killer.
What's wrong with this episode? Practically everything. The hypnotism scene makes it seem like all you have to do to hypnotize someone is tell them to close their eyes and imagine they are somewhere else. A few of the guards are ridiculously easily overcome by the good guys, and this long search when the whole prison guards are looking for them is quite farfetched in how easily Sam and could move along without being detected, always slipping behind a pole or something into the darkness with each passing vehicle, never getting into the headlights.
My biggest complaint involves the actions of Zoey. To figure out what prison character is now inhabited by Dr. Beckett and Alia, she becomes a time traveler, taking the character of the warden. She now has her own hologram observer, and when she directs him to talk to whoever's in their waiting room, he reports there is nobody there. But the real warden Myers should be in there, because Zoey is in his place at the time.
More incredible, is that this hologram, this invisible woman, who can move about the prison at the touch of a button, see and hear everything said by whoever's around, decides that she can more easily find her two opponents in time travel by being the warden, a man whose every move around the prison would draw big-time attention from the prisoners as well as the guards who work under him. It would be obvious to an 8-year-old that someone who can move around invisibly and listen and see everyone's actions could find out some information much more easily that way than the way Zoey chose.
It's also disturbing to think that the evil leapers can purposely direct themselves to leap into a specific character and at a specific day and time, as Zoey did to find out the new identities of her two foes. Sam can never leap into any specific person, or time on purpose. His problems would be much easier if he could.
Because this was written by Deborah Pratt, we again have an episode with no laughs whatsoever. The drama parts were farcical, and this third episode to feature the "evil leaper" was the worst of the lot. I give it a 2, the second lowest score ever from me for an episode of this series.
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