205 Blind Faith

Blind Faith

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Al's Place Bartender - Brian Greene
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Jul 10, 2002
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Blind Faith
February 6, 1964

New York City, New York


Sam leaps into a blind pianist who must save his girlfriend, Michelle, from her overprotective mother...and a serial strangler.

The mother claims he is not really blind when she finds him reading the back of a dog food box. But then Sam does go blind and has to try and save Michelle in the dark.


Written by: Scott Shepherd
Directed by: David G. Phinney


Rate and comment on this episode!
 
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Great episode. Sam lives the life of a blind man and actually goes blind. He didn't leap in blind, so that means it's his body leaping, not just his soul.
 
Vince Beckett said:
Great episode. Sam lives the life of a blind man and actually goes blind. He didn't leap in blind, so that means it's his body leaping, not just his soul.
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i have always believed that too vincent.
i love this episode, one of my favs.
 
This episode could have been great unless the much too mushy and hmm...hard to believe ending. you can't change a point of view in a matter of seconds,Sorry.
 
I thought this episode was great I love how towards the end Sam actually has to deal with being blind for real that was a really clever idea of Scott Shepherd.
I also loved how Machelle admired Andrew so much, I wonder if they ended up getting married, she really seemed to love him and I think they were a cute couple.

I was just randomly thinking about this episode and I was thinking of when Al first appears in the episode and he tells Sam:
"Sam, Andrew Ross is the Ray Charles of classical Music"
I found that a funny comparison because as it happens Ray Charles was also blind. I wonder if Shepherd did that on purpose and that's why he made Andrew blind.
 
This probably makes me a bad person, but I LOVE the mother in this episode. She's so wonderfully snarky, all that bitterness and resentment wrapped up in one person. (Also, she reminds me a lot of Meryl Streep by her looks.) I love how, from her point of view, her smothering Michelle makes total sense, given the times they're living in and her own experience. She's just SO bitter that the really good lesson she's trying to teach gets lost and perverted. I don't have a problem buying her change of heart in the end; it's not like she says, "Oh, well, you're blind for real. I was wrong, have a wonderful life together." She just rationalizes being able to pull away from Michelle and Andrew ("I should have a life, too"), which still isn't a healthy mother-daughter relationship. She goes from bitter smothering to bitter aloofness. I love that none of the characters is perfect; the real Andrew apparently was not above pressuring Michelle to meet her mother.

Plus, I could watch SB in a tux playing classical piano all day long and twice on Sundays.
 
No you are not bad Dana, I like the mom's charactor as well its a erfect example of what can happen when a young mom is abandoned by her husband and left alone to raise a baby. Plus the actress Jennifer Rhodes is really good, she plays Grams in Charmed and after it took long enough I finally recignized her in this episode as the same woman.
 
bluedana said:
This probably makes me a bad person, but I LOVE the mother in this episode.
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I can't say that I love her, but I thought they did a great job of presenting her point of view.

Overall, I'm not crazy about this episode, though. For me the way that Sam just happens to go temporarily blind is too contrived.

Plus, I could watch SB in a tux playing classical piano all day long and twice on Sundays.
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You know what they say--"Every girl crazy 'bout a sharp-dressed man." :D And Al in white... <swoon>.
 
For me the way that Sam just happens to go temporarily blind is too contrived.
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This is probably the only show where I don't mind the constant deus ex machina type conclusions. I figure the exploding flashbulb was just GFTW's way of pulling Sam's butt out of the fire and salvaging Andrew's career. So in that sense, it kinda has to be contrived, and I'm willing to suspend my disbelief. It's definitely not as satisfying as when Sam gets where he needs to be through his (or Al's) own ingenuity, though, so I don't completely disagree with you, there, Snish.
 
The thing that irritates me about this episode (besides cringing at the way the mother treats her daughter - just because I understand it, doesn't mean I have to like it) is a really SMALL thing. Al could have told Sam at any time that he would be able to bring in a music stand with music; that Sam was actually a classical pianist that had played Carnegie before; et cetera et cetera. But he just says, "Don't worry about it" until Sam is actually on stage in a panic. Just what was the point of that????

I love the names of the doggie treats and Al teasing the dog with "Your mother's afraid of CATS!!!"
 
Snish said:
I can't say that I love her, but I thought they did a great job of presenting her point of view.
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Yeah I don't like her attitude and the way she slaps her daughter for standing up and disagreeing with her point of views. That scene kind of made me wish Sam had not been busy playing a concert so he could set her stright about hitting her child.

But the charactor was very well written and Jennifer Rhodes did an excellent job of portraying the charactor and making us feel her point of view. Despite that I understand where she got it from, she looked at life in a totally selfish and stupid way and it was wrong for her to see her daughter's life the same way. The point of being a parent is to raise your child to be better than you were so she should have taught Machelle to fend for herself and handle whatever life throws at her strongly which thankfully she ended up learning from Andrew, both the real him and Sam. Because if a blind man could live life with such a good attitude why couldn't she just because he mother treats her poorly.

cookiemom6067 said:
Al could have told Sam at any time that he would be able to bring in a music stand with music; that Sam was actually a classical pianist that had played Carnegie before
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Not necessary he's forbidden to tell Sam anything that he does not already remember, he stated this in Genesis and suggested it in Disco Inferno. Unless they changed the concept since then(DPB in real life, not the project).
 
I think I agree with Snish, I wasn't overly fussed on this ep, The mother drove me nuts and I wanted to give the girl a slap myself for not telling her mother to take a long walk of a short jetty. Very easy to have this opionion sitting on a couch munching pop-corn, chips or whatever, so wonder if I really was in that situation what I'd do.
 
Sam Beckett Fan said:
Not necessary he's forbidden to tell Sam anything that he does not already remember, he stated this in Genesis and suggested it in Disco Inferno. Unless they changed the concept since then(DPB in real life, not the project).
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If it was forbidden earlier, it's still forbidden at the concert.
 
I think Al was just being a bit mean. In other episodes, he's told Sam that he can read music (Song for the Soul), and that he can sing "well enough for Syracuse" (Catch a Falling Star). No reason why he couldn't have said clued him in at least that he could play the piano, even if he hadn't worked out the sheet music situation. Al almost makes up for it, in my eyes, though, when he shows up in white tie. Oh, dear.

(Why, yes, I am shallow. Why do you ask?)
 
bluedana said:
I think Al was just being a bit mean. In other episodes, he's told Sam that he can read music (Song for the Soul), and that he can sing "well enough for Syracuse" (Catch a Falling Star). No reason why he couldn't have said clued him in at least that he could play the piano, even if he hadn't worked out the sheet music situation.
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It does come across as mean if you think about it. I think they intended it to give the viewer a bit of suspense--"How can Sam pull this off?" Or even to be humorous--Al is making Sam sweat but we know it will come out all right so we don't have to take it too seriously. It would have been very straightforward, cut-and-dried with no suspense, if Al said, "Sure, you can play piano at that level, and I'll bring you sheet music that no one else can see." I guess that's more of an external explanation. Within-story, I guess you would have to say that Al is a bit of a frat boy sometimes.

Al almost makes up for it, in my eyes, though, when he shows up in white tie. Oh, dear.

(Why, yes, I am shallow. Why do you ask?)
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Aw, shucks, I didn't think you cared. :D

P.S. Scott is too good for Syracuse. ;) I'm from upstate New York--I can say that.
 
Yeah I guess you make a fair point Dana but like Snish said I think they were going for a msyterious edge like forcing you to worry about whether Sam will look like a fool at the concert. Kind of like How the Tess Was Won where Sam was not lept in wearing glasses like he does with Dr. Ruth, Dreams etc. because they wanted to leave us wondering why on earth Tess was picking on Doc and did not show any regard to him even when he(Sam at this point) revealed his feelings for her. They did not want us to know until the end that Doc was a nerd figure. So perhaps they wanted a simular effect in this ep. That is a big part of tv shows, they want you to feel for the charactors cuz thats how they keep you watching. So they may not have intended it to be Al keeping a part of Sam's life from him.
 
I think they intended it to give the viewer a bit of suspense--"How can Sam pull this off?" Or even to be humorous [snip] I guess that's more of an external explanation. Within-story, I guess you would have to say that Al is a bit of a frat boy sometimes.
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I think your point is spot on.
 
:bow Does eveyone else agree when I say how sexy Dean Stockwell looks at the beginning of this eppy when he pops in the first time wearing that black suit with that blue shirt. wow, he still is sexy for that age!:p
 
margarita_salt said:
:bow Does eveyone else agree when I say how sexy Dean Stockwell looks at the beginning of this eppy when he pops in the first time wearing that black suit with that blue shirt. wow, he still is sexy for that age!:p
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I agree - Dean stockwell is sexy anytime!!!
 
margarita_salt said:
:bow Does eveyone else agree when I say how sexy Dean Stockwell looks at the beginning of this eppy when he pops in the first time wearing that black suit with that blue shirt. wow, he still is sexy for that age!:p
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Sorry I am a Scott drooler. But Dean was a decent looker too in the QL days.
 
There is some men who will always be sexy no matter what age, i remember watching Sean Connery in Medicine Man and there was one scene where I just thought, if that man kissed me, I swear I'd faint. Lucky i was sitting down watching it 'cause I'd have gone weak at the knees.
 
bluedana said:
This is probably the only show where I don't mind the constant deus ex machina type conclusions. I figure the exploding flashbulb was just GFTW's way of pulling Sam's butt out of the fire and salvaging Andrew's career. So in that sense, it kinda has to be contrived, and I'm willing to suspend my disbelief. It's definitely not as satisfying as when Sam gets where he needs to be through his (or Al's) own ingenuity, though, so I don't completely disagree with you, there, Snish.
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I have to agree with you - GFTW does not ever intend for Sam to make things worse for anyone, and so had to intervene.

It would be interesting to make a note of just how many times GFTW intervened to prevent Sam's "meddling" from having a lasting effect. One such incident that comes to mind is the ********* ;)
 
Trudy said:
Lightning McQueenie, what incident? Inquiring minds want to know!
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Michelle's mother caught "Andrew" (Sam) reading a box of dog food - interesting trick for a blind man. This obviously wouldn't have happened in the original history, and she would most likely have ruined Andrew's career had GFTW not blinded Sam, thus making "Andrew"'s story believable again when Michelle's mother tried to expose him.
 
Trudy said:
Oh, yeah, that! I thought you were talking about another incident in another episode I forgot. Were there any other incidents in other episodes where GFTW interfered directly?
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Well, as I was saying before the forum so rudely censored me, in "The B**gieman", GFTW resets the entire leap :p

I'm sure there are more cases as well, I just can't think of them off hand.

Actually, I do believe that the Evil Project Quantum Leap's inception was from Sam explaining his project under Sodium Pentathol - it's just too big a coincidence having the Evil Leaper appear in the very next episode. I think GFTW must have intervened to put Sam up against her, to at least slow down the rights they were putting wrong... Makes me wonder how they would have finally been defeated had the series progressed...
 
I fear I'm the only person who didn't like "The B**gieman" episode. I thought it was way over-the-top. So I can't blame GFTW from erasing that history. ;)

And it's too bad we didn't get any more of the series. I was just a wee one when the series first aired, so my first exposure to Quantum Leap was as a slightly-older wee one on USA Networks. Why did the series end up getting cancelled? I'm going to assume poor ratings, but there's usually a bigger story than that.
 
Trudy said:
I fear I'm the only person who didn't like "The B**gieman" episode. I thought it was way over-the-top. So I can't blame GFTW from erasing that history. ;)

And it's too bad we didn't get any more of the series. I was just a wee one when the series first aired, so my first exposure to Quantum Leap was as a slightly-older wee one on USA Networks. Why did the series end up getting cancelled? I'm going to assume poor ratings, but there's usually a bigger story than that.
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A combination of the ratings falling and the show being taken in a direction that many did not like (e.g. evil leapers, leaping into the lives of real people...)
 
Lightning McQueenie said:
A combination of the ratings falling and the show being taken in a direction that many did not like (e.g. evil leapers, leaping into the lives of real people...)
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Also, NBC was making some really dumb decisions around the time QL was cancelled (1993). Cheers had its swan song in '92, and the shows (along with Cheers) that made NBC the #1 network in the '80s---The Cosby Show, Night Court, The A-Team, St. Elsewhere, Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, L.A. Law, Family Ties, The Facts of Life, and I believe others I'm forgetting now---were either long gone or on their last legs. The shows NBC used to replace the old ones (with the exception of a Friends here or a Seinfeld there) were nowhere as good. Apparently the network thought its success in the '80s would carry over to later decades. It was wrong.
 
OhBoy4 said:
Also, NBC was making some really dumb decisions around the time QL was cancelled (1993). Cheers had its swan song in '92, and the shows (along with Cheers) that made NBC the #1 network in the '80s---The Cosby Show, Night Court, The A-Team, St. Elsewhere, Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, L.A. Law, Family Ties, The Facts of Life, and I believe others I'm forgetting now---were either long gone or on their last legs. The shows NBC used to replace the old ones (with the exception of a Friends here or a Seinfeld there) were nowhere as good. Apparently the network thought its success in the '80s would carry over to later decades. It was wrong.
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Whoops! Cheers said good-bye in '93, not '92. My apologies.
 
This is a great episode. Favorite scenes: Sam/Scott playing Chopsticks and any time he's interacting with Chopin. Al talking about the girl who played the "oldsies with her toesies" and Al telling Chopin his mother was afraid of cats. :lol
 
lol I love the scene when Al tells Chopin his mother was afraid of cats. The whole thing is so Al.

Chopin was awesome and it was really lovely the way Sam interacted with him.
 
I just thought of something about this episode - Sam leapt into this situation to save Michelle from the strangler. Why didn't Ziggy pick up on the fact that Andrew's French neighbour would also be victim to the strangler and tell Sam to try to save her as well?
 
Another episode with a very classic vibe to it. The music, the scenes, the situations. It's very hard not to recognize anything from this episode. The characters were well-developed, but I didn't really like Michelle. Of course I hate the mother, haha!, but I didn't find her too unrelatable to reality, either.

Pete was very one-dimensional but fun. I found all the "suspense" parts really funny in this episode and even cartoonish to some extent (for example, when the French girl is strangled in the park, that was sort of a "well, wait a minute..." funny reaction). Didn't like how they sometimes used the same footage from a previous scene.

I thought the ending was a bit rushed. I agree with isz about the "you can't change a POV with a matter of seconds" opinion to a certain point: Sometimes, when the world crumbles to some people, and they are proved wrong about something (probably about who or what they never trusted, like in this case), they can actually change, if deep inside (very, very deep, indeed) they have a shred of goodness. That's what I think happened to the mother (she thought she may have misjudged him), so it may not be a cop-out, after all.

My rating: Average. Classic, but not one of QL's best, in my humble opinion.
 
Never really noticed before (it must have been the HD that made me realise this time!) but wow, that's some impressive piano playing from Bakula!
 
Bexter said:
There is some men who will always be sexy no matter what age, i remember watching Sean Connery in Medicine Man and there was one scene where I just thought, if that man kissed me, I swear I'd faint. Lucky i was sitting down watching it 'cause I'd have gone weak at the knees.
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I don't know if it's just me, but I thought Sam's hair was too long in that season. ;)
 
Sam Beckett Fan said:
Yeah I don't like her attitude and the way she slaps her daughter for standing up and disagreeing with her point of views. That scene kind of made me wish Sam had not been busy playing a concert so he could set her stright about hitting her child.
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I thought her character was too contrived though, like all of the sudden at the end the mother was like "I have my own life," and following Sam to Andrew's apartment - creepy.
 
I was just about to say that! ^ Yes, he played Doc's reflection! With glasses, too!

I loved the concerto part. Scott plays beautifully. The smothering mother reminded me of some helicopter parenting I've seen. I couldn't figure out why, if Michele was so miserable with still being under her mother's rule, she hasn't left and gone out on her own yet. I guess she was never taught how to be an independent adult. Shame.

Interesting twist with who turned out to be the Central Park strangler. I hate that Sam wasn't able to intervene in the French neighbor's death.

Al was great in this one. I literally laughed out loud at the scene where he teased Chopin and then laughed about it, insisting to Sam that yes, it was funny. Because it was. (Full disclosure: It takes a *lot* to make me literally LOL.)

This episode gets a Good rating from me.
 
The fantastic start to this season continues with a great little story. From the beginning scene with Sam playing chopsticks to racing through the park while battling temporary blindness this episode delivers on all fronts.

The stand out character here has to be Chopin. That dog is just too darn cute. The way he accepts Sam and then helps him at the end is wonderful to see. Michelle's mother, Agnes is an interesting character. She's cold and vicious and generally awful throughout the episode, but I did wind up feeling a little bit of sympathy for her. Ultimately, she's just a sad, broken woman, desperately trying to keep hold of her daughter to such a degree that she's suffocating her. I really felt for Michelle, though, as well. I'm glad that all parties here reached a good ending.

The only negative aspect to the episode is Pete, really. He's just so obviously the killer that he might as well have it written on his forehead. It's not just that he acts slightly off-kilter, it's also because this episode didn't have enough characters. There should have been at least one other male character to keep the whodunnit aspect of the ep alive. One other small drawback is Sam genuinely going blind for a while. Another part of the story that seemed slightly unoriginal. Although I did like someone else's thought on here that GTFW allowed this to happen so matters could be fixed with Michelle and her mother.

My rating. Excellent. One of my favourites from season 2.
 
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