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August 28, 2003 Guestvision By: MikeKraken
A Genesis of Another Kind (or: Everything That You Ever Wanted to Know About the Evil Leapers) The evil leapers: this new enemy of Sam and Al shows up in the fifth season of "Quantum Leap", and they had their own trilogy of sorts (one of two during that season). The confused Alia, her vengeful observer Zoey, the wise-cracking Thames, and the mysterious Lothos make up some of the counter-parts to Project Quantum Leap. Let’s see what we know about them, and what has been invented in lieu of the show’s continuation.
Origins Where did these people come from? When Dr. Sam Beckett, one of the "good" leapers, first discovered that he was not alone in the world of time travel and met Alia, that’s the same question he asked. However, Zoey, Alia’s holographic observer, interrupts and tells her not to tell him anything about them. Well, what are we, the fans, supposed to work with? Are they from Sam’s past, present, or future? Judging from their inability to lock onto Alia immediately, in the similar fashion of Project Quantum Leap ("Al, where have you been?"), we can say that they both exist at least in the same time. However, from what we see in "Revenge of the Evil Leaper", evil leapers have a forty-eight-hour window in which to accomplish their mission so that they may be retrieved, and we see this happen at the end of the episode. There is much speculation, and, as a result, much great fan-fiction written, derived from the snippets of information we get about this other project. Some say it comes from the handlink left back in 1945 from "The Leap Back", while others think that the truth serum that had Sam babbling about Quantum Leap in "Star Light, Star Bright" led to building a separate, secret time-travel project by the U.S. government. Quantum Leap: The Virtual Seasons says that Lothos used to be a man who built his theories off of Dr. Beckett and became the machine himself. Some of the role-playing games say that other people built the project, just to have Lothos the computer take over. No matter from where the evil project originates, they presented a new challenge for Sam and Al. It is unfortunate that we did not see more of them, and that goes for the series as a whole, as well.
Alia From what we know of Alia, she was only doing what she had to in order to stay alive. Unfortunately, that means that she wreaked havoc in the lives of innocent people... or does it? What if some of these people deserved to have their lives ruined or lost? Perhaps the evil project isn’t evil after all, just maintaining balance in the world, and Sam just got into Alia’s conscience. Nonetheless, when Alia had leaped into Connie LaMotta, and Sam convinced her not to kill him, as Jimmy LaMotta, she and Zoey seemed to be in pain and disappeared, sending Sam back two days, and somehow preventing any of the wrong-doing by Alia and Zoey. Was this Lothos’s doing? It seems to be a minor loop-hole, but probably was just to give the viewers a good feeing that the LaMotta family was going to be just fine. Alia was tortured for her failure, as she tells Sam in "Return of the Evil Leaper". Does this mean that the other project ensures loyalty through physical (and mental?) torment? I find it slightly surprising that Alia would even consider trusting Sam. After all, he lied to her, which caused her to suffer terribly. If anything, she should have been vengeful, like Zoey. This, however, may be her true self shining through, a forgiving woman with the forces of good. Nobody knows what happened to Alia after she leaped out of Angel Jensen. She was possibly shot by Zoey’s shotgun, but somehow Ziggy knows that Alia became free after leaping out. Since Angel ended up in Project Quantum Leap’s Waiting Room, as opposed to the evil project’s Holding Chamber, does this mean, perhaps, that Ziggy now can obtain a brainwave lock on Alia, as she does with Sam?
Zoey From what we’ve seen, Zoey lives in an apartment building (the hunk in bubbles), and is basically the female, evil equivalent of Al. Her outfits are almost as gaudy as the dear admiral’s, but then again, Thames has that gold suit. Maybe this indicates that in the future (ie. beyond Project Quantum Leap), people dress even worse than Al Calavicci. Though she and Alia may seem sweet and innocent at first, when we find out that they are adept at "home-wrecking and adultery", after having "clawed" their "way out of Hell to land simple assignments" as such, we know that they will return someday to make Dr. Beckett and Admiral Calavicci pay. We probably didn’t expect Alia to fold so quickly, and Zoey’s hatred burns quite deep when she and Sam leap together: so deep that she herself leaps, taking on Thames as her observer. The correctional facility in "Revenge of the Evil Leaper" is indeed the perfect place for her to exact vengeance on Alia. What about Sam? He’s the influence here. Thames even says that she "should have been eliminated years ago". This indicates that Alia has always been weak in his eyes, so why would Zoey trust her around the good Dr. Beckett at all? Zoey should be blaming herself for not keeping a closer eye on Alia. Then again, how would you feel if your apprentice, whom you taught "every twist, every nuance, every sinful lie" suddenly turned on you and joined the opposing team?
Thames Though this character does not present himself until the third episode, it gives us a greater insight into the evil project. Yes, Gooshie substituted as the observer for Sam, but the transmission was far from perfect, and yet, Thames comes in clear as a bell, (probably so that we wouldn’t be annoyed during the whole episode,) but most likely because Lothos’s technology is more advanced than Ziggy’s. Thames is similar to Zoey, except that he has no personal vendetta against Alia. Of course, he is a subordinate of Zoey, from what we can see (as was Alia, apparently), but he seems to fill the hand of Lothos that Zoey doesn’t sit in. Zoey claims that she insisted on sending Alia because she "owed" the younger woman, and even went against Lothos in doing so, which Thames remarks is unlike her. He’s goofy, he’s pompous, but Thames is a great addition to the evil leaper team.
Lothos Who is Lothos? Is he simply Ziggy’s evil counterpart, or something more? Apparently, Lothos can send Zoey and Alia "back to" their "worst nightmare", implying that this "very efficient", "artificial intelligence unit" who "doesn’t make mistakes" doesn’t tolerate blunders from his leapers or observers. It almost seems like it is Lothos who decides what tasks are to be carried out by the leapers, which is similar to Ziggy, except that if the evil leapers do not accomplish their objective, they are punished severely. He once told Thames during a deep-input session that he regretted ever sending Alia. When Thames relayed this to Zoey, he went on to say that it was Zoey’s destiny, that "he" always wanted her to carry out "his" plans. Do "he" and "his" refer to Lothos? More than likely, which would indicate that he is the highest power at this project. That being said, this would indicate that there is nobody in charge but this computer. If it was, indeed, a separate government project, then it must have gotten out of control. What if it is Project Quantum Leap, in the future, and Lothos is just an evolved form of Ziggy? We may never know. As I said, many fan-fiction stories and RPGs have various views on the origins of the evil leapers, each of them interesting in their own merits.
Wrath of the Evil Leaper I have been fascinated by the idea of this alternate project ever since I first saw "Deliver Us from Evil". Strategically, it would have been better to air this episode during season four, and bring back the storyline in season five. Perhaps if the show had continued, we would have seen another instalment of these enemies in season six. What is it about evil that entraps us so? Is it simply a way of us getting the demons out? I know that some of us enjoy seeing Sam and Al tortured just to have them win in the end. It would be interesting to see some of the post-series fiction turned into episodes for the new "Quantum Leap" series, altered accordingly, of course. If we’re lucky, and the new series goes through, perhaps we shall see Zoey and Thames again. One can only hope!
... Mike. ^_^ |
