503 Nowhere to Run

[alsplacebartender]

Nowhere to Run
August 10, 1968

San Diego, California


Sam leaps into a soldier who has lost both legs in Vietnam. He is there to keep the soldier's marriage together and to prevent his angry roommate in the hospital from committing suicide.


Written by: Tommy Thompson
Directed by: Alan J. Levi


Rate and comment on this episode!

All in all, through out the series I have to say that this is the one that truely touched me as a human being. It was the scene with Al and the paralysed soilder. For even though I am to young and never lived through the times of Vietnam, each time I read a story or hear something to do with the Wars of history. I am deeply sadened with the stories of how people on both sides were killed for doing a job that their country called them to do.

They sacrificed their life and left their families to protect their country. And I can not find the right words to express how that makes me feel as a person, but it really effects me. So this and The other stories that QL produced that made the story hit home in this way, like Vietnam part 2. Are the ones that get my highest vote.

Ruthie

[Vince Beckett]

Good episode. It shows what people in Vietnam came home to, which is really sad.

[lalala12345678910]

A Bad Episode!!!

[Sam Beckett Fan]

I loved this episode. it took me till the second time for me to see how great it was, but i think that just makes it all the more better. I found Billy to be annoying but I loved Kiki and how she read Sam's palm. I loved how she picked out all those details. That He had enough lifeline for two people and that he was not there by accident but on a mission. I also loved how when he asked her if she saw all that in his palm, she said not all of it and looked into his eyes.

It was very different seeing Sam having to struggle as a man with no legs, but it was also a very good desplay of the horror's of war. this was a very good episode and had a very good message about the war and how the men who faught for our country and their families were affected by it. Which is desplayed in two scenes:
1.) When Julie first arrives at the hospital and She and Sam are out in the yard or whatever that outdoor area is called, and as she talks to him about A friend of Ron's that died in a helecopter crash and then his mother in the hospital. She has her back to him and at one point he decides to address it
"What about you, are you going to be ok?"
"I don't know what you want me to say, I'm here."
"Are you? Why won't you look at me?"
"I have to go back to the hotel and check in, I'm sorry I can't do this anymore."
and she leaves in tears.

2.) He's at the bar with Julie and A hippe guy knocks over Sam's glass of beer.
"Oh man, I am so sorry."
"Don't worry about it"
"Well here at least let me get you another....*he looks down at Sam's legs* beer....Peace"
And he backs away with nervousness. It shows real well how a man with a war injury was a big deal back then and can still be today. Al also explains how the war will leave it's mark on the world forever as he tells Billy about the wall with all the names of the men who died for their country.




This episode was at the top of my list, its one of my favorites, Jennifer Antison and Scott were great together in this episode, and when she was giving him that massage before Julie appeared, I was jellin' on her, whoo, I would give anything to be in her place at that moment, and unlike her, would need a short sleeved shirt to be around his Hotness!!!!!!Damn!
and I was very happy to find out that Ron and Kiki got married and that Kiki was actually the mother of the son that saved his tank crew in the gulf. I also wonder somthing now, I wonder if Ron maybe got fake legs eventually like before be married Kiki, Cuz the lutientent in Forrest Gump also lost his legs in the Vietnam war but he for replacements eventually. So I wonder if Ron ever did?

[cookiemom6067]

I agree the massage scene was HOTTTT. Mmmm, baby!

It seemed a little sloppy to me that Al (or Ziggy) didn't check the mother's name, honestly.

[Sam Beckett Fan]

It was Al that did not check the mother's name
"I never bothered to check the mother's name I just assumed..."
but wouldn't you have done the same thing. "The guy is married so who else is he going to have a kid with?" Although in this case since he's a war man Al should have consitered divorce because wars did ruin marriages sometimes.

[isz]

A really good episode,It was hard for me to decide wether vote it to be "Excellent" or "Good",but in the end i choosed only good,because as much as good as this episode was - it had it's problems.one of the problems i 'll mention is what cookiemom mentioned - that Al or Ziggy didn't know who were the mother's of Ron's 3 sons - it's not just sloppy it annoying,because during the all series you always hear what an advance computer Ziggy is,but most of the time she was "wrong" in her prediction and some serious details - so you gotta choose - Is she's an advance computer or not. she can compute so many variabels and so many scenarioes in a matter of seconds ,but somehow she's,almost always wrong. So what is it?! after a while it just losing it's crediblity.
Except,that i want to mention Jennifer Aniston Hair...
It's just looked too wierd to me.

[Sam Beckett Fan]

I can explain Ziggy not knowing about the mom and other stuff easily. She's a machine not God. Have you ever had problems with your computer and you can't seem to figure out what happened? Ziggy is just a machine like any other aside from having an ego and a voice. It's not perfect.

[JuliaM]

The fault also doesn't lie with Ziggy. Al never thought to check to see who the mother was, just assumed it was the wife Julie. There's an old adage with computers - garbage in, garbage out. The output is only going to be as good as the input. In this case, the input of who the mother is wasn't present so the output was lacking.

Except,that i want to mention Jennifer Aniston Hair...
It's just looked too wierd to me.

The was the style for point in time the episode was set. Should they have used an 80's hairstyle? Yes, some of the fashion from th past (heck, even prestent fashion) is a little weird, strange or off-putting. That doesn't mean it's a detraction from the episode if it's portrayed correctly for the time.

[Sam Beckett Fan]

Originally Posted by JMoniz

The fault also doesn't lie with Ziggy. Al never thought to check to see who the mother was, just assumed it was the wife Julie.

Yeah exactly I mentioned that a while ago I believe. Most of the time Ziggy does not give out information until Al asks for it:
"I never bothered to check the mother's name, I just sort of a assumed."
And you can't really blame him, wouldn't you think the same way "The woman is his wife so unless he is a slimeball cheater who else would he have a kid with?"
And as Julia also pointed out the information did not yet exsist.

And to comment on the Discussion of Jennifer Aniston's hair. I did not think she even had a style it just looked to me like she was wearing her hair down in a natural manner. Eaither way I thought she looked fine though.

[isz]

Originally Posted by jmoniz

The fault also doesn't lie with Ziggy. Al never thought to check to see who the mother was, just assumed it was the wife Julie. There's an old adage with computers - garbage in, garbage out. The output is only going to be as good as the input. In this case, the input of who the mother is wasn't present so the output was lacking.

Well As i recall in "the Leap back" you could see,that Ziggy is always in the background of the Observer and always monitoring what is going in the imaging Chamber and give predictions in real time of what is about to happend.so excuse me if i'm not "buying" Al's very weak excuse,that He never thoughts of checking the mother name with Ziggy...
For some reason it's hard for me to believe,that when they discover about Ron's son Heroic act in the Golf war,they didn't run into Ron's wife name/the son's mother name...
You tell me- If you a had a simple computer and you would try and find information about a Guy like Ron,don't you think,that after you'll find this information about him, you won't run into his wife name,also...

Oh...And what are you saying about Ziggy and Al hard time to find out what happend to Kiki's brother?! Especially after you see in the end of the episode she got a letter saying her brother plain will Land in 18 hours.
Unless Sam,somehow,changed her brother fate too...

Originally Posted by jmoniz

The was the style for point in time the episode was set. Should they have used an 80's hairstyle? Yes, some of the fashion from th past (heck, even prestent fashion) is a little weird, strange or off-putting. That doesn't mean it's a detraction from the episode if it's portrayed correctly for the time.

Don't take it the wrong way,people but every time i mentioning hairstyling,outfits and so on during QL episodes There is someone,who's taking it too seriously...Come on- All i said she looked weird to me,i didn't say anything else. It was just a note,And i didn't expect anyone to take it too seriously,not mentioning analyzing it. Come on...

[JuliaM]

Originally Posted by isz

Oh...And what are you saying about Ziggy and Al hard time to find out what happend to Kiki's brother?! Especially after you see in the end of the episode she got a letter saying her brother plain will Land in 18 hours.
Unless Sam,somehow,changed her brother fate too...

Kiki's brother was working a special ops assignement and Al states that it's hard to get the information on where he was and what he was doing in 'Nam. A similar problelm is encountered with Operation Lazarus in "The Leap Home, pt 2". As it is a top secret mission, it's not going to be just "lying around" where any computer can find the information. Al does say that they'll try to track him down in present day but, obviously, that's not the top priority on Al's mind.

Originally Posted by isz

Don't take it the wrong way,people but every time i mentioning hairstyling,outfits and so on during QL episodes There is someone,who's taking it too seriously...Come on- All i said she looked weird to me,i didn't say anything else. It was just a note,And i didn't expect anyone to take it too seriously,not mentioning analyzing it. Come on...

I guess it's because everytime you do make a comment, it comes out as a negative. It doesn't seem as if you're weighing in the fact that this is a period piece and each episode should reflect the period it's set in with regards to hair and fashion.

Not for nothing and I certainly mean no disrespect but it seems as if every episode you review you find something negative to point out. Now that's certainly your right but it does beg the question, if you see this many "defects" in the series, why do/did you watch and how do you like it? I'm not saying that in order to like something you never see something wrong with it - it's more the point that you so rarely point out something positive but state all your negatives that leaves me scratching my head and wondering.

[Sam Beckett Fan]

Originally Posted by isz

so excuse me if i'm not "buying" Al's very weak excuse,that He never thoughts of checking the mother name with Ziggy...

Well I think it's valid because as I pointed out before if a guy is married than its pretty much a no brainer that hes going to have a kid with his wife unless he's a dirty cheating slimeball. So I can see Al assuming that Julie was the mother. I suppose that he could have consitered Julie divorcing him since War does stuff to everyone including marriage but it's still a valid way to look at the situation. Cuz with the sole fact that he ends up having kids, it would understandably occur to one that this particular marriage must have stayed in tact despite difficulties due to the war.

Originally Posted by Jmoniz

I certainly mean no disrespect but it seems as if every episode you review you find something negative to point out. Now that's certainly your right but it does beg the question, if you see this many "defects" in the series, why do/did you watch and how do you like it?

Yeah I noticed that as well and I tried to point it out in the Running for Honor thread but she seemed to take it a little offensively. I am sorry again Isz, if I sounded rude when I asked this same question in the Running for Honor thread. I would never mean any disrespect of anyone's opinions. Its just that while people are of course welcomed to discuss their dislikes, we are all here because we are diehard fans so this board focuses on the positives as any other TV show based message board does. Otherwise it would be an anti-(blank) community. Thats why it might appear strange to people that you seem to point out more negitives than positives. So when people point out something like that its not meant to be disrespectful, it just gets people curious.

[bluedana]

Kiki's brother was working a special ops assignement and Al states that it's hard to get the information on where he was and what he was doing in 'Nam. A similar problelm is encountered with Operation Lazarus in "The Leap Home, pt 2". As it is a top secret mission, it's not going to be just "lying around" where any computer can find the information. Al does say that they'll try to track him down in present day but, obviously, that's not the top priority on Al's mind.

Okay, I have a question about this. Did Al not know whether Kiki's brother returned from Nam, or he just didn't know where he was "now"? Because if Kiki got the telegram in the original history, then they'd know he returned. I guess I don't get why the secret special Ops thing was necessary.

As the the wife thing, in my head I can hear the conversation:
Al: WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME HE'D REMARRIED, YOU BUCKET OF BOLTS??!
Ziggy (snottily): You didn't ask, Admiral.

[Sam Beckett Fan]

I think its apparent that he did not know because when Sam opened the letter for her and announced that his plane was landing in ten hours Al cheered "YES!" as if he too had been held in suspence watching Sam open the letter.

[isz]

Originally Posted by jmoniz

Not for nothing and I certainly mean no disrespect but it seems as if every episode you review you find something negative to point out. Now that's certainly your right but it does beg the question, if you see this many "defects" in the series, why do/did you watch and how do you like it? I'm not saying that in order to like something you never see something wrong with it - it's more the point that you so rarely point out something positive but state all your negatives that leaves me scratching my head and wondering.

I'll write you what i wrote to SBF when she wrote something like that,too - In any show,no matter how much you like it,You'll always find episodes that won't "impress" you or you might even find'em really bad. That doesn't says you're not a real fan of the show.

Now I'm a big fan of QL,But you'll never see/hear me saying the all show is a master piece. And i won't say it's the best show i've ever seen on TV,and i won't say it's my favourite TV series,ever - it's not. it's on the top 3 because it had it problems.A lot of problems,to be exact. And well,me,for example, I liked "The X files" better and The real master piece made for televison in my opinion was - "Six Feet Under".
Is it making me a lesser Fan(or not a fan at all) then the rest of you?!

And one more thing - Most of the time i brings up the negetives of the episode as a way to explain the reasons i voted -Good/Avreage/Fair/poor and not Excellent. For some reason i thought that what criticsm and reviews are all about...
I guess i was wrong.

[JuliaM]

Originally Posted by isz

And one more thing - Most of the time i brings up the negetives of the episode as a way to explain the reasons i voted -Good/Avreage/Fair/poor and not Excellent. For some reason i thought that what criticsm and reviews are all about...
I guess i was wrong.

A review does not always have to be the negative neither is criticism always negative either. Perhaps that's where people are getting lost. It's that you seldom bring up anything that you liked about an episode so it gives the illussion that you don't like the series.

You're right, not every episode is perfect. There are flaws in the series. I don't think anyone ever said that there wasn't. I think the real question was if you can only see the negative...why bother? Of course, it's your right to think whatever you want about the episodes and to say whatever your opinion is. On the other hand it's also my right and everyone else's right to question you on your opinion or to state an opinion that's the opposite.

[Sam Beckett Fan]

Originally Posted by jmoniz

A review does not always have to be the negative neither is criticism always negative either. Perhaps that's where people are getting lost. It's that you seldom bring up anything that you liked about an episode so it gives the illussion that you don't like the series.

Yes what Julia explained above me is exactly what I meant when I brought this up in the Running for Honor thread. That you had just struck me as not really a huge fan of the show because it seems you had nothing good to say about any of the episodes. That was then though now I have seen a lot more positives in your reviews.

When you review a movie or TV show what you disliked is important yes, but when people read a review they are more looking for what was likeable about it thats how a show or movie catches people's interests and ecourages them to see it.

Originally Posted by jmoniz

You're right, not every episode is perfect. There are flaws in the series. I don't think anyone ever said that there wasn't. I think the real question was if you can only see the negative...why bother? Of course, it's your right to think whatever you want about the episodes and to say whatever your opinion is. On the other hand it's also my right and everyone else's right to question you on your opinion or to state an opinion that's the opposite.

Adding to this, all TV shows have flaws hun thats what makes them interesting to talk about and thus what makes message boards like this possible. You just throw people off becuase some of your reviews seem to not focus on anything but the flaws. When we expect members here to talk more about what we love about Quantum Leap. I am not trying to tell you to change; Your reviews are fine the way they are you are very entiled to your method as I stated in the Running for Honor thread. I am just trying to help Julia prepare you in case others also question you.

[isz]

I'm pretty sure most(if not all) of the members/visitors here are fans of QL,or at least watched the show. and for some reason it hard for me to believe there are a lot of visitors in this site,that never watch the show or didn't Follow it,that visiting in the site because they want to decide whether give it a chance or not...
After all a site like "Al's place" is a site dedicated to the show and the Fans of the Show(This Site Do called "A fan Site,right"?!) and not the "Average Viewer".
So when i'm writing my reviews, i'm writing them after I read enough Reviews that already praise and glorify the episode. so i'm trying to add something else,something different and maybe unpopular among the fans - the negativities.
However, there is one problem - it seems All you choose to see is the negetivity in my reviews,though i wrote quite a lot of positive things in my episodes' reviews alongside the negetives(if any). But you(SBF and Imoniz) still choose to see only the negetives.

[Sam Beckett Fan]

Randomness, hehe. You know it a tiny bit bugs me that Sam never rolled his pants up to his knees because to everyone around him his pants are kind of just weirdly hanging there otherwise.

[Lightning McQueenie]

I went Excellent.

And just a side note... a computer is just a fast idiot.

[JuliaM]

Originally Posted by Sam Beckett Fan

Randomness, hehe. You know it a tiny bit bugs me that Sam never rolled his pants up to his knees because to everyone around him his pants are kind of just weirdly hanging there otherwise.

No, they weren't. When Sam "rises to the occassion" and Miller's reflection is seen in the mirror, his pants end where his legs do.

I will give that this is a bit of bad writing since Sam never did roll up the cuffs. Either his pants should have been visible when he stood (because otherwise it looks like they just "disappear" above his knee) or, if they wanted it plainly obvious that Miller had no legs, the pants should have been rolled up. That aside, everyone around Sam didn't see the pant legs hanging empty.

[Al The Observer]

On the bluescreen, blue knee-highs and rolled up pants would have made the image work, in my opinion.

[RossBeckett]

Originally Posted by bluedana

As the wife thing, in my head I can hear the conversation:
Al: WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME HE'D REMARRIED, YOU BUCKET OF BOLTS??!
Ziggy (snottily): You didn't ask, Admiral.

Yep, that's our Ziggy!

Steve B.

P.S. And Jennifer Aniston was incredible in that episode!