From MadCap's Couch - Quantum Leap: "The Boogieman"

So, the last time that we left Dr. Sam Beckett, he had just leaped out of a Casablanca homage and into the body of the woman...

...so, are you ready for Quantum Leap to not only get weird, but spooky?

Like Sam, we are traveling to another point in time and space. In this case to the episode The Boogieman in Season 3. The good thing about classic Quantum Leap (as opposed to QL2022 - yes, I know I need to catch up, get off my back!) is that a great deal of it is self-contained episodes where you can slip in at pretty much any point in the series other than a few minor arcs and you won't really be completely lost for context about what is going on.

In this particular case, Sam Beckett leaps into the body of horror author Joshua Ray on October 31, 1964... and it is about to go down in the spoopy-est of ways. Let's begin!

Now, The Boogieman is at the beginning of Season 3, but there's really not much I have to catch you up on. Even if there were (at least in the version of the episode I watched), there is a handy little intro that catches you up on the basics: Sam is unstuck in time, Al shows up and helps as a hologram that only Sam and see and hear, and Sam sets right what once went wrong while hoping that each leap will be the leap home.

Sam appears in a candlelit sitting room in an old, dusty house. Finding a book with a publishing date of 1857, Sam thinks that he's leaped outside of his personal timeline - something which should be impossible via his own theory - and begins to investigate the house he's found himself in. At the top of the staircase, he is spooked by a figure in a devil mask and falls down the steps, seemingly rendered unconscious.

Following the credits, a woman calling Sam "Josh" comes to his aid. The person in the devil mask is revealed to be a kid - a young Stevie King - who apologizes profusely scaring him and leading to an injury. It seems that Halloween is coming and Sam notes his host's reflection in the mirror (another face not his own, alas) before leaving. It seems that "Josh" is big into Halloween, Sam's inner monologue mentioning how Quantum Leaping makes him feel like the incredibly life-like scarecrow sitting on Josh's lawn.

Speaking with his fiancée Mary, "Josh" learns that he's a writer (specifically a horror writer - I can relate) that is apparently working on a book and the pair are making a haunted house in a house that is already haunted according to local legend. As Sam heads up to speak to a contractor - Tully - working on the house. Tully proves to be the Crazy Ralph for the evening, warning Sam about "Old Scratch". To punctuate this point, a goat pulls the man's ladder out from under him and he falls to his death via broken neck.

Talking to the police, Sam insists that the goat was responsible even if the nearest farm was twenty miles away. Al pops in to listen in and give Sam half a conversation to run with and confuse the others with. When the cop and Mary leave, Al insists that Ziggy said nothing about Tully getting killed off. He does fill in some blanks about what Sam's doing here - specifically that tonight at midnight, Mary will be found strangled in the haunted house that she and Josh were getting together for the local church.

"I don't think we should have hired that Chaim Witz kid to be the scarecrow, Mary..."

Sam, naturally, is not pleased with the thought that he may have to murder an innocent person. Al brings up that she might not be innocent after all, which does nothing to settle Sam. Also, Josh has a Black Mamba snake, which... not sure how you'd get that even in 1964 without the government coming down hard on you, but alright. In Josh's office, Sam finds that a new line has been typed for Josh's latest novel - one that describes the death of Tully by the goat, something that was not written by Sam and clearly had not been there before. Al thinks that it's Mary, being that she's the only other person who could have done it.

While Al goes to have Ziggy work out a plan, Sam and Mary speak to the town gossip - Dorothy Jaeger. Mary leaves for a moment to get candlesticks from Dorothy's car and, after she returns, Dorothy steps away to get some punch. Al pops in again to tell Sam that Ziggy has confirmed that he's 100% there for Mary. As Sam and Mary talk about potentially stopping the haunted house, there is a scream from the kitchen and they find Dorothy dead, bitten by the black mamba that somehow got loose. Sam attempts to kill the snake, but it escapes down a vent. Interestingly, the sheriff had been there just before... and Sam finds his matchstick on the floor.

Back at the house, in the study, Sam and Al try to work out what's going on. Al still thinks that Mary is the culprit, but Sam disagrees. There's something "hinkey" going on (as Al calls it), and this is no better illustrated than Sam seeing that Josh's latest manuscript has a new paragraph describing Dorothy's murder. Unfortunately, Al's existence as a hologram comes back to bite their efforts as Mary pops in just in time to hear Sam ask Al if he thinks Mary is a demented psychopath, which she does not take well to at all, quite angry.

As she shouts at him, the skull on the fireplace mantle begins to shake and eventually flings itself at Sam, who dodges it nimbly. Mary freaks out a bit at this... and begins to have a seizure. Doctor Sam Beckett puts a belt in her mouth (by the way, real world note here: never put something in the mouth of a seizure victim. Ever) and they get her to the hospital. The decision is made to check Mary's house - 966 Salem Avenue (and, yes, the numbers by her door are altered by the breeze). Sam and Al keep debating whether or not Mary is innocent or not and Sam finds the church bulletin and they learn that all the victims thus far have been on the Deacon's list.

The sheriff pops in and believes that Josh is the murderer. However, Sam has just as much circumstantial evidence to put against him as he has against Sam, the two having a bit of a stalemate for the time being. Also of note is the sheriff's tattoo, which he claims to have gotten on a drunken night in the Navy (sarcastically claiming to be a warlock).

Dean Koontz?! What are you doing here?!?!?

Back at the hospital, Mary has recovered and seems to be in a better mood overall. She brings up how his attitude has changed a bit, him seeming more decisive now. Sam decides to continue his investigation, still trying to rationalize things and still believing that the sheriff is the likeliest suspect. Down a darkened road, an old pick up truck follows Sam for a while in a way that definitely isn't creepy. He gets spooked by a cat in his car, narrowly avoids a goat, and then gets run off the road by... Stevie, who is wearing the scarecrow outfit. Apparently, he was just trying to flag the man down for a ride, his car having broken down again.

Also, Sam mentions Christine... and mentions that the goat was there. Stevie claims to have not seen any goat and, when he looks into the car, Sam can't find the cat, either. Back in Josh's study, Sam begins reading from the book he found upon arriving at this place, learning a bit more demonology and getting a jump scare from a sudden appearance by Al. According to Ziggy, Mary is still who Sam is here to save and thus he decides to spring into action to stop the sheriff. When he calls the office, however, the man isn't there. They've been unable to find him for a half hour.

When he calls the hospital, Sam learns that Mary had checked out and was waiting for the sheriff! Heading out, he soon finds the sheriff's truck and the man himself dead following an accident... and that goat outside, braying angrily. When he gets out to confront it, Sam finds it has disappeared once again. Sam's inner monologue talks about Halloween growing up and how it was all harmless fun... and now, this night has brought only death. Getting back to the haunted house, Sam forcefully dismisses Stevie before heading in to find Mary is alright... and so is the sheriff. When Sam grabs the man's arm, he turns into... Al?! They attempt to flee, but the doors lock themselves.

Sam confronts Al - who Mary can now see - and Sam pulls out the full detective as he points out several inconsistencies in how Al usually operates. He didn't use the imagining chamber doors (phasing in and out like he usually does), he repeated lines from Tully that he could not possibly have heard, and (most damning of all) he was the only person who could have written the messages on the typewriter. The actual Al shows up through the Imaging Room door and has a minor freakout moment. Evil Al finally reveals himself...

Evil Al: "Ying and Yang. Good and Bad. God..."

Sam: "...The Devil."

Evil Al: "In the flesh, so to speak." 

Yeah, that's right. We not only have Doctor Sam Beckett taking on Satan, but we have Dean Motherfucking Stockwell playing Satan! ...yes, that is Dean Stockwell's legal middle name. Look it up.

Dean Stockwell is magnificent as Satan. RIP.

Al confirms that the Devil is in fact very real and he is apparently really, really, really pissed that Sam has been meddling around setting right what the Devil once set wrong. Satan tries choking Sam out and the room begins to spin around them. While Al is encouraging him, Sam attempts to throttle the Devil, who changes faces to be that of Tully, Dorothy, the Sheriff, Mary, and even the goat. The spinning soon becomes too intense...

...and Sam is once more on the floor of the haunted house, being comforted by Stevie and Mary following his fall.

Al, in his traditional suit, appears and Sam puts a hand through his image to ensure that he is actually who he says he is. Al thinks it odd, but tells Sam that he's there to save a man named Tully-aannnnnd Sam is charging up the stairs to save Tully from falling to his death. All's well that ends well, though, as "Stevie" is picked up by his mother and who is actually supposed to be is spelled out for us as he greets the family dog, Cujo.

Sam realizes he's inspired a few dozen different things from Stephen King's earliest works... and he leaps, finding himself on a bus, a woman speaking to him... and Sam walking out, realizing that he's in a blouse, skirt, and wearing makeup... it seems that he's "Miss Sugar Belle" and he's about to be going to a beauty pagent.

Sam's words? "Oh, boy..."

And that was The Boogieman. Not a bad episode, though... it's a little weird. That largely has to do with the ending. We have kind of had overtones from the beginning that something supernatural or religious in that vein might be pushing Sam along on his journey, but here we have kind of the opposite view where something supernatural is actively trying to prevent Sam from setting right what once went wrong. In this case, apparently, the Devil.

However, the way the final fight is shown and the fact that Sam essentially wakes up at the beginning of the episode kind of casts major doubt as to what happened, if indeed anything happened at all. We may be inclined to think the whole thing was just a dream, but then how did Sam know that Tully would be in the exact same place at the exact same time? The lack of the goat causing the fall honestly makes it all the more confusing to me, since... what caused him to trip and fall off the ladder in the "real" world?

This episode is not only noteable for Dean Stockwell doing a stellar performance as Evil Al/The Devil (there are little changes peppered here and there that make a clear distinction between the two after watching the episode a second time - not just the difference in the costume), but also for a few neat bits of trivia. The first is the fact that this episode is the first appearance of the colored-cube handlink to Ziggy that most people remember Al as having used. The second - this is the only time in the five seasons of Quantum Leap that Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell ever actually physically touch onscreen. Pretty neat.

Apart from that, the Halloween imagery is done well even if a few things (in particular the 666 and the mentions of Salem) are a little on the nose in making it obvious that there is something supernatural behind all this. That said, this isn't the last time that Quantum Leap would be talking spooky and out there, but that is a story for another day.

For what it is, barring the somewhat confusing ending, The Boogieman is a good episode. It has a good mystery to it, the music is great and helps the tension quite a lot at key moments, and it's always fun watching Scott Bakula playing the determined hero trying to save the day. If you're looking for a spooky fun 50 minutes, I would definitely recommend!

Next time, we'll be picking back up with those two crazy brothers and their '67 Chevy Impala as they try to take on the Devil... well, a Devil, at least. Sort of. Kind of. A bit. Next time, It's The Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester.

Be there!