From MadCap's Couch - Quantum Leap: "Double Identity"

... I mean, okay, he is good-looking, but...

Last time, Sam Beckett found himself helping a rock n' roll legend get his start only to then find himself under a woman and with his pants missing. Or, as Sam will eventually call it...Friday.

And then Wednesday...

and then Tuesday...

...yeah, this joke really only works if you know the time slots that Quantum Leap was originally aired in. See, kids, back in the yesteryears of television, we actually had to watch things live as they aired. Because of this, sometimes shows would-

EDITOR'S NOTE: He rambles on like this for a while. For the sake of your sanity and mine, I have edited it down. Trust me, there is no need to thank me.

- an ice cream social!

Anyway, let's get into Double Identity.

The episode picks up right where the last one left off. Sam gets up and does the customary glance in the mirror to find out whose face he's wearing now. "Frankie" is a bit of a handsome devil as Sam notes.

"...hey, messing up the sheets is my job!"

It also seems he's at an Italian wedding. While Teresa, the woman Sam found himself with, deals with a mafia don named Geno - Sam finds himself having to not only speak Italian... but sing it. And Sam either can't do so or that's another casualty of his Swiss cheese memory. Luckily, Al with a happening Hawaiian shirt, does speak Italian and is able to coach Sam through a totally convincing rendition of "Volare".

Geno believes Teresa is having an affair and puts a man on the job to find him out. Ziggy is apparently causing some issues in the future, meaning Al is sweating like a pig in the Imaging Chamber. All that Al is able to tell Sam is that Frankie is a mafia hitman, which disgusts and terrifies Sam. Ziggy apparently has a theory to retrieve Sam back to his own time with a 97% certainty. All that Sam and Al have to do is to follow Ziggy's instructions to the letter.

Sometime later, Sam is heading out with Frankie's brother and sees Teresa at a salon. Striking inspiration, he decides to go in for a haircut. Teresa expresses some concern that Frankie's visiting her... particularly since Don Geno will be hot under the collar if he finds out about what they're doing... and who just so happens to swing by. Luckily, Frankie's father and brother manage to convince him that there's no funny business... after an interrogation with a razor blade and some Italian.

Luckily, Al pops in just in time to keep Sam from getting a Sicilian necktie and even gets to curry some favor from the Don in the process.

It seems that Sam - or rather, Frankie - has been contracted to find the man having an affair with Teresa for the Don. 

The Italian remake of Sweeney Todd had some problems in production...

Al pops in to tell Sam that Ziggy is preparing to leap him back home, telling him that he needs to plug in a hairdryer at a specific address at a specific time - 22:28 Greenwich Mean Time. However, he has to also be at the same place he entered into 1965 in when this happens, something that Sam says is impossible.

Also, for a third fun thing, he has to replicate the event that he was engaged in when he arrived, meaning that Teresa has to be there with him.

Sam gets his brother to go plug in the hairdresser for him while he convinces Teresa to meet her back at Don Geno's attic by activating her horny brain. She gets there, but unfortunately the Don's henchman see them heading up into the attic and Geno heads out with a vengeance and a gun.

Sammy better run! Better run!

Editor's Note: We confiscated his KISS mp3s. You're welcome.

... you're a jerk, Frank.

There's a bit of romanticism as Sam and Teresa gear up. Primo and Segundo plug in the hairdryer and cause the Northeast blackout of 1965. In the attic, Sam confesses some of the truth to Teresa, saying that he can't really lie to her. She replies that men lie to her all the time. He boosts her confidence... which is helped largely by the fact that he's Scott goddamn Bakula and as they make out, the blackout continues across New York and into Canada. Geno arrives with his vengeance and a gun-

Editor's Note: MadCap, stop it.

"Anyway, here's 'Wonderwall'..."

Geno is about to put a bullet in their heads when the blackout happens. Sam takes the opportunity to wrestle with him, trying to get the gun from him... and a bright light flashes... and Sam finds himself in the very same attic, but from a different perspective. Now, he is Don Geno and Frankie is back with a concussion. Sam, now as the Don, asks the pair if they love each other and they affirm that they do. Sam knows that he's there to make sure that they stay together, but he needs to do it in a way that assures that Geno can't enact his vengeance on them after he leaps out.

Sam goes to the Bingo Hall where Frankie's grandmother is playing, getting the priest to announce the union of Frankie and Teresa... they are to be married with the Don's blessing. Sam leaves them with his blessing and an instruction to Frankie that he's out of the hitman business. Everything seems hunky dory... but Sam still hasn't leaped. Al - now in a fur coat and hat - returns to tell Sam that both of Ziggy's ideas have failed. However, Al has an idea... announcing a winning Bingo number. Sam does so, giving Frankie's grandmother the win she has so desperately sought.

A bright light flashes... and Sam finds himself seated at a diner in a suit, the mirrored wall across from him shows an African American man... and several angry looking white men around him.

As Sam himself would put it... "Oh, boy..."

However, that is for next time. This time, Double Identity is not too bad. We're a bit up from How The Tess Was Won in terms of anything going on actually having any relevance to why Sam leaps.

Teresa is... okay. Just okay. Better than Tess, but that's not saying much.

The double leap is particularly notable being that this is, apparently, the second episode of the entire show that was filmed following the pilot. Showrunner Donald P. Bellisario apparently wanted this episode pushed back further into rotation so as not to confuse new viewers who were already given a great deal of information from Genesis. Honestly, this was a good call. Sadly, this is the only instance in the series (yeah, I've been spoiled) where we see a leapee get returned to their own body and seeing the immediate after effects. Although, from the look of what happens to Frankie, they have a bit of missing time as though nothing has happened since Sam leaped into them. Al does mention that the person that Sam leaps into shows up in the imaging chamber... which is something I really don't want to cover in a review... so who knows exactly how it works?

Double Identity is a pretty good episode overall. Nothing super great, but we have comfortably settled into a good formula with the show by now. The writers have shown that they're willing to play around with it, but we have a pretty good idea of what will happen when Sam Beckett leaps into a new time and place, setting right what once went around and hoping that each leap will be the leap home. Plus, we get good performances from both Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell, which is always a treat.

Let's see what we're in for next time, as Sam Beckett learns The Color of Truth.

See you then!