Leap Date:
August 13, 1956

Teaser:

After all this time leaping, Sam still hasn't learned to fly! He is once again a pilot - this time of a private jet taking a newly-wed couple through the Bermuda Triangle. When his co-pilot begins having strange flashbacks from a war mission, Sam must bring him back to reality while taking care of a woman who's appendix has burst.

Audio from this episode:

Al: Giant prehistoric lizard fish...

Place:

Flying in and out of the Bermuda Triangle and Hamilton Harbor.

Leap Date:

August 13, 1956

Name of person leaped into:

Francis Edward "Eddie" Brackett

Broadcast Date:

March 4th, 1992 - Wednesday

Detailed Synopsis:

Sam leaps in flying a plane. He is startled, drops a cigarette out of his month, and while bending to pick it up begins to nosedive the plane.  He looks around for help, and oh boy!

Captain Cooper comes back and helps him pull the plane up to altitude. Coop asks what happened, is the autopilot acting up again? Sam doesn’t understand some lingo, and Coop chalks it up to the fact that Eddie didn’t get military flight training.  He tells Sam to turn off the autopilot - they are going to fly to Bermuda the old fashioned way. Sam hesitates not knowing how to turn it off, and Capt. Cooper wants to know what’s the matter with him.  Sam blames it on being distracted by the compass twirling. Coop says that it must be a magnetic disturbance, and without a gyrocompass they’d be in big trouble.

Sam again shows that he doesn’t know how to do anything, as Coop asks him to radio to Bermuda.  Flight attendant Wendy comes up and checks if everything is ok, and says their passengers are upset. We learn that Grant Jr. and his bride are the passengers, and his dad is a handful so Jr must be as well.  We also learn that Wendy and Coop are married.

Sam goes into the cabin to tell them that the disturbance was because they hit an air pocket. (Which the crew knows doesn’t exist, but the passengers don’t). Sam checks his mirror image and struggles to read the name Brackett backwards.  Grant Junior lives up to his expectations by demanding to know why he is wearing his mai tai instead of drinking it.

Grant goes to the bathroom, and Sam asks his bride Michelle if everything is ok and congratulates her on her marriage.  She gets some sudden stomach cramps, and asks Sam not to tell Grant. Grant pressures Michelle into having another mai tai even though she didn’t want one.

Grant complains that if you ask a pilot to do anything besides fly from point A to point B, they act like you are asking for a favor.  Michelle says all she wants them to do is to get them to point B, and Junior says she is still thinking like Michelle Temple not Michelle Cutter.

Sam talks to Wendy as she makes the drinks, and Al arrives. He marvels over the plane, a Grumman Goose converted for executive use.

Once Wendy leaves, Sam yells at Al for taking so long to get here. He says it was more difficult since Sam is a moving target.  Al gives a history lesson about the plane, telling Sam that the Grumman Goose was used to chase down German U-boats in WWII.

Sam is anxious to know what he is doing here. Sam says he is not a pilot, giving doubt in his ability to handle this situation.  Al reminds him that he broke Mach 3, and Sam reminds Al that he then crashed.

Junior is the heir to a petroleum company, and they are bringing him and Michelle to Bermuda. Except they never made it there in the original history, they turned around and returned to Norwich, Virginia where they took off from. But Al doesn’t know why. Except it’s only an hour to Bermuda and 4 hours to Norwich, so why would they go back if they had a problem?  Ziggy tells them that Michelle has acute appendicitis. Sam asks if they are only an hour from Bermuda, why don’t they just go there, to the nearest hospital.  Al suggests that is probably what he is here to do.  The plane turns as they are talking.

Sam asks Coop why they are turning around, and he tells him that their compass is out and he can’t reach Bermuda on the radio, so they don’t have a choice - flying west they will hit the mainland with or without a compass, but flying blind towards the east they could miss Bermuda.  Sam notes the compass is settling down, and Coop says that’s because they are flying back out of the Bermuda Triangle. Sam tells him they’d be bound to spot Bermuda, but Coop says they don’t know how far off course the autopilot took them earlier.

Sam tells Coop that Michelle has stomach pains, and he thinks it's appendicitis. Coop orders Sam to check on Michelle again and to tell Junior they are returning due to mechanical problems.  Al beats up the handlink, saying it's not working right because they are in the Triangle. Al expresses his belief in the tales about the Triangle. He says that if he wasn’t a hologram, he wouldn’t be caught dead out here.  

As soon as they fly out of the Triangle, the handlink starts working again.  Sam teases Al that it could be the UFO that just passed them. Al believes him and looks for the UFO, saying the Triangle must have swallowed it up when he can’t see it.  Al seems genuinely freaked out.  Sam asks for what happened to Michelle in the original timeline - her appendix burst and she died an hour before they landed in Norwich.  Wendy asks Sam to look at Michelle.

Sam asks if he can take a look at her stomach, and she resists saying she is a married woman. Wendy adds that Eddie is also a married man. Sam squeezes around her swollen appendix to confirm Wendy’s pain. He tells them that it is her appendix and she needs to get to the hospital.  We learn that Eddie had a year of medical school before becoming a pilot, to explain why Wendy wants Sam’s opinion here. Grant makes mention of the british doctors, and Sam stops Wendy from telling them that they are headed back to the states.

Wendy confronts Sam about the fact that they are heading back to Norwich, and Sam tells her that she isn't going to make it back to Norwich. He asks her to give Wendy three aspirin, and a hot water bottle. There isn’t one on board, so he tells her to head up some towels in the microwave. At her confusion, Sam tells her just to soak the towels in hot water.

Sam rejoins Coop, who tells him the compass and gyro are back. Sam pleads for him to turn back towards Bermuda. He tells her that Michelle will die. Coop doesn’t believe him. Al gives Sam their location and the proper heading to get to Bermuda. Coop doesn’t trust Sam’s “instinct” on that either.

Al asks to talk to Sam in the gally.  Coop hears three men talking, about a compass and gyro not working. Cooper’s own voice joins the conversation, telling them to stay cool, that he knows the way just fine. The voices begin talking about a Liberty Ship and a U-Boat.

Al tells Sam that in 1944, Cooper located and sunk 7 U-Boats in the Bermuda Triangle.  Cooper and the three aircraft he was leading disappeared. Coop was picked up 8 days later by a passing tanker, and no one knows what happened to the other men.

Cooper continues to hear the voices play out the events of that day. Sam asks him if everything is ok. Sam has him try to reach Bermuda. He knows now that Sam’s heading was correct. Sam again implores that she will die if they don’t go to Bermuda.  Coop finally agrees.

Cooper asks Sam to take the plane so that he can go check on Michelle. Sam says he needs to use the John, and Al tells him to call it the head. Cooper tells him to wait until after he checks on Michelle.  Sam takes control, and Al tells him to handle it gently like a woman. Sam repeats this to Cooper, who asks him when the baby is due. Al gets the information that Eddie’s baby is due in one month. Al coaches Sam to keep the plane level, but things get a little rocky. Sam puts the autopilot on. Al tells Sam to vector around a thunderstorm ahead.  Sam proudly proclaims that he can fly, but Al shoots him down saying he can dial - they’ll have to wait until they reenter the triangle, and the equipment goes on the fritz again, to see if he can fly.

Michelle tells Cooper she is feeling a bit better.  He tells them they will land in Bermuda in about an hour, and Grant notes that Eddie told him that quite a while ago.

In the cockpit, Sam asks Al if Michelle makes it now since they have turned back towards Bermuda. He says the odds have increased a little but it’s not a sure thing. Al sees a Liberty ship out the window, and notes that even in the 50s there weren’t many left.  Sam points the Liberty ship out to Cooper when he returns but it is gone. Cooper is upset to find the autopilot on. Sam and Al are both surprised to hear that Michelle is feeling better.

Sam excuses himself to go to the bathroom, and Cooper hears the voices in his head talking about a Liberty ship headed northeast. They cross into the Triiangle, and the controls start spilling again.  Al gives us a creepy “We’re back.”

Sam checks on Michelle, and everyone seems to think she is fine now. Sam asks Wendy to get her a blanket, and she says she is cold even though it's hot in here. Sam looks in the med kit for an angiocatheter, but realizes that doesn’t exist in 1956. {First marketed in 1964} He tells Wendy that Michelle’s appendix has burst. That is why she feels better. He says he needs to get a saline IV into her, but there is no saline solution or IV.

Sam asks Wendy to add salt to some cold, previously boiled water to make saline, and to boil more water to sterilize a syringe. He also needs tubing and a funnel of some kind.  Al tells Sam he doesn’t have time to be fixing dinner, and Sam updates Al that Michelle’s appendix has burst.  She is going into shock. If he can get the saline solution into her, it will elevate her blood pressure until they reach Bermuda. Wendy comes back with a douchebag to use for funnel and tubing.

We cut to Sam, Grant, and Wendy surrounding Michelle, who has been out for 10 minutes.  Grand holds the bag up as saline is being run into her via makeshift IV.  Michelle comes to, confused at the sight she sees. The handlink goes crazy again.  Al tells Sam that he has changed history - now the plane and everyone in it disappears. Cooper continues to hear the voices from the day he lost his crew.

As Al continues to blame the Triangle for all of their problems, he fades out. He tells Sam that he isn’t disappearing, Sam is.  They lose contact.

Grant confides in Sam that he is scared, asking if Michelle is going to die. He tells Eddie he’ll never forget what he did today, and will make sure his dad won’t either, saying he will always have a job with them.

Sam goes back to check on Cooper, to find that he has lost it. He is actively acting out the fateful day in 1944, talking about U-Boats and Liberty Ships. Coop takes a nosedive. Thunder is crashing.  He seems to come out of it, asking Sam if he got Bermuda on the birddog. Wendy comes to check on Cooper, and along with Sam they tell him that he took a dive and he doesn’t remember. Sam told him he is back in the war reliving his last mission. Cooper doesn’t believe him, but when Sam recites the lines Cooper said, Wendy recognizes them as lines Cooper says in his sleep.

Sam pushes Cooper to remember what happened that day, even though he previously has blocked it out. Coop admits that he lost them. He blames himself for killing them. He thinks all of this is happening because they are beckoning him to join them.  Sam hears 1940s music playing over the radio. Coop says that after they sunk the sub, he picked up the same song.  A lightning strike set his engines on fire.  The same happens now. Wendy hits the fire bottle button, as Coop is not responding and Sam doesn’t know what is going on.  She effectively puts out the fire.  They drop altitude, and Sam begs Coop to help him pull up as he can’t do it himself.

At the last second, Cooper cooperates and helps Sam pull up before they dive into the water. He says they have to lose weight or they’ll never make it on one engine.  Sam and Wendy go to the cabin. Wendy stays with Michelle, and Sam enlists Grant to help him lighten the load.  They throw the luggage out of the plane. It’s not enough, so they begin to unbolt the furniture.  Out goes a chair.  Coop regains control.  Bermuda is in sight.

They speak to Bermuda on the radio, who says a doctor and ambulance is on the way, and offers assistance docking. Sam marvels that the instruments are working and everything is back to normal. Coop says they are out of the Triangle.  Al returns, saying that he is right.  Sam asks Al where he has been, then covers it by telling Cooper that that is what Bermuda is going to ask, where they have been.  Cooper replies, “caught in the Bermuda Triangle.”

Al blames their disappearance on the Triangle, but Ziggy says it was a power failure. Sam asks Al and Cooper both, if they really believe in the Triangle.  Cooper doesn’t think that everything that happened today could be a coincidence. Sam chalks it all up to coincidence, and says most importantly, it didn’t ALL happen the same way as 1944, because Cooper didn’t crash and wasn’t in the ocean for eight days in a Mae West. Cooper says he didn’t spend those 8 days in the water; he was picked up by the USS Cyclops the day he went in. Seven days later she was torpedoed and went down with everyone but him. The freighter Michael Z picked him up the next day. Twice in eight days he was the only survivor. Al tells Sam the USS Cyclops disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle in 1918, 26 years before Cooper was picked up.  Sam leaps.

Synopsis by Stacie Wilcox

Personal Review by Matt Dale:

A fun episode, although elements (Al’s superstition butting heads with Sam’s scepticism, with ultimately Sam proven correct – or is he?) are a little too reminiscent of A Portrait for Troian? to come off as truly original. The guest characters are all a little uninteresting and/or unlikeable too, although Gugino is sweet as Michelle. The plotline is clear and gives plenty of room for action, though, and Bakula as always plays the confusionwell, but the episode overall is just a little uneven. Source

Project Trivia:

This is one of the few times Sam isn't in the United States. Another time being "Lee Harvey Oswald" and others.

Al believes the Bermuda Triangle is interferring with the Handlink and Ziggy, as he begins to lose contact with Sam.

Sam Trivia:

Nervous when he flies alone.

Doesn't believe the myths about the Bermuda Triangle that Al tells him.

Sam remembers that he was a test pilot in "Genesis."

Sam's Outfits:

Navy blue pants, light blue shirt, blue tie, black shoes, a sliver watch, and a wedding band.

Al Trivia:

Al does believe there is something screwy going on with the Triangle and is very superstitious about it.

We are also get a further understating of the fact Al was in the military by knowing about the liberty ship and telling Sam about being in the service.

Al's Outfits:

Peach suit with a brown, tan, and white shirt that has squares on it.

Miscellaneous Trivia:

The "Oh, Boy" Sam says was redubbed from the leap-out in "A Song For The Soul" as it is much clearer in the episode.

The plane being flown is called a Grumman Goose. The shots of the Grumman Goose in flight were lifted from footage shot for the first episode (and re-used throughout) of Tales of the Gold Monkey, a show that Bellisario produced. The plane in the original show was named Cutter’s Goose, for pilot Jake Cutter. In this episode, the pilot is named Grant Cutter. It is entirely possible that the Cutters are related and Grant inherited the plane from Jake, setting the two shows in the same fictional universe. Source

The USS Cyclops is a real American ship that was lost at sea. Prior to World War I, the collier supported U.S. warships in European waters, off the Atlantic seaboard and in the Caribbean as a unit of the Naval Auxiliary Force. In early March 1918, while returning from a voyage to Brazil, Cyclops disappeared with all hands. Numerous ships sailed to locate the collier, as she was thought to have been sunk by a German submarine. Her wreck has never been found and the cause of her loss remains unknown.

The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is an urban legend focused on a loosely defined region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and ships are said to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The idea of the area as uniquely prone to disappearances arose in the mid-20th century, but most reputable sources dismiss the idea that there is any mystery.

Guest Cast Notes:

Scott Hoxby as Captain Cooper: Born on June 10, 1955 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He is an actor, known for The Living Daylights (1987), Cliffhanger (1993) and Stormy Monday (1988). He was previously married to Caroline Goodall, who was in the Quantum Leap episode, "The Wrong Stuff."

Kimberly Foster as Wendy Cooper: Born on July 6, 1961 in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, USA. She is an actress, known for Dragnet (1987), Dallas (1978) and Quantum Leap (1989). She has been married to Laurence S. Zimmerman since 1994. They have two children.

Carla Gugino as Michelle Temple Cutter: Born in Sarasota, Florida, to Carl Gugino, an orthodontist. She is of Italian (father) and English-Irish (mother) ancestry. Gugino moved with her mother to Paradise, California, when Carla was just five years old. During her childhood, they moved many times within the state. But she remained a straight-A student throughout high school and graduated as valedictorian. A major modeling agency discovered Carla in San Diego and sent her to New York to begin a new career when she was 15. New York was more than she could handle at that young age, so she returned to LA in the summer, modeling and enrolling in an acting class at the suggestion of her aunt, Carol Merrill, known from Let's Make a Deal (1963). During her free time, Carla enjoys yoga, traveling and spending time with her friends in Los Angeles. After appearing in Troop Beverly Hills (1989) and This Boy's Life (1993), she received recognition for her starring roles as Ingrid Cortez in the Spy Kids trilogy (2001–2003), Rebecca Hutman in Night at the Museum (2006), Laurie Roberts in American Gangster (2007), Det. Karen Corelli in Righteous Kill (2008), Dr. Alex Friedman in Race to Witch Mountain (2009), Sally Jupiter in Watchmen (2009), Dr. Vera Gorski in Sucker Punch (2011), Amanda Popper in Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Emma Gaines in San Andreas (2015), and Jessie Burlingame in Gerald's Game (2017). Gugino also starred as the lead character in the crime drama series Karen Sisco (2003), the science fiction series Threshold (2005–2006), the supernatural horror series The Haunting of Hill House (2018), and the crime drama series Jett (2019), and also appeared in The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020).

Kurt Deutsch as Grant Cutter, Jr.: Born on July 26, 1966 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for The Last Five Years (2014), The Human Factor (1992) and Quantum Leap (1989). He has been married to Sherie Rene Scott since March 29, 1998. They have one child.

Mark McPherson as Francis Edward "Eddie" Brackett (Mirror Image): Mark McPherson is known for The Nutty Professor (1996), Flying the Feathered Edge: The Bob Hoover Project (2014) and Melrose Place (1992).

Say What?

One scene of stock footage of the plane is mirrored, as you can see the logo on the plane is reversed.

Cooper calls the area they are flying over the "Bermuda Triangle", but it was not called that until several years later.

Electromagnetic intereference in Sam's atmosphere should have no effect on Al's handlink in the Imaging Chamber. Must be.... the triangle!

Sam turns one of the many knobs before Al tells him what to do, as if rehearsed.

Quotable Quotes:

Cooper: Tell them we hit an air pocket.
Sam: There's no such thing as an air pocket.
Cooper: We know that, they don't.

~Sam is left alone to fly the plane. Al helps him out with flying. He tells Sam to turn a certain knob. He does so and gets very excited and proud. Sam *confident*: I can fly. Al: You an dial.

Best Lines:

Sam is left alone to fly the plane. Al tells him to turn a knob. Sam is happy and excited about "flying" the plane.

Sam: I can fly!

Al: You can dial.

Best Scene:

Where Al gets all worked up about being in the Triangle and gets himself all turned around in the galley. He ends up losing Sam, although he was just standing there the whole time, and when he see's Sam again, Al screams and yells at him to never do that again. But Sam didn't do anything...

Production Credits:

Theme by: Mike Post
Music by: Velton Ray Bunch
Co-Executive Producer: Deborah Pratt
Co-Executive Producer: Michael Zinberg
Supervising Producer: Harker Wade
Produced by: Jeff Gourson, Tommy Thompson
Produced by: Chris Ruppenthal, Paul Brown
Created by: Donald P. Bellisario
Written by: Paris Qualles & Don Bellisario
Directed by: Anita Addison

Executive Producer: Donald P. Bellisario
Associate Producers: James S. Giritlian, Julie Bellisario
Coordinating Producer: David Bellisario
Story Editor: Paris Qualles
Director of Photography: Michael Watkins, A.S.C.
Production Designer: Cameron Birnie
Edited by: Michael S. Stern
Unit Production Manager: Ron Grow
First Assistant Director: R. John Slosser
Second Assistant Director: Kate Yurka
Casting by: Ellen Lubin Sanitsky
Set Director: Robert L. Zilliox
Costume Designer: Jean-Pierre Dorleac
Costume Supervisor: David Rawley
Art Director: Ellen Dambros-Williams
Sound Mixer: Barry D. Thomas
Stunt Coordinator: Diamond Farnsworth
Sound Editor: Greg Schorer
Music Editor: Bruce Frazier
Special Visual Effects: Roger Dorney, Denny Kelly

Panaflex ® Camera and Lenses by: Panavision ®

This motion picture is protected under laws of the United States and other countries. Unauthorized duplication, distribution or exhibition may result in civil liability and criminal prosecution.

Copyright © 1992 by Universal City Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The characters and events depicted in this photoplay are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Bellisarius Productions in association with Universal Television, an MCA Company