Quantum Leap episode review — 2.11 — A Portrait for Troian

Original air date: December 13, 1989
Director: Michael Zinberg
Writers: Scott Shepard and Donald P. Bellisario (story by John Hill and Scott Shepard)

Rating: 5/10

This is an odd episode. Sam ends up as a parapsychologist or something, and there’s some plot about ghosts. Specifically, a woman thinks she’s being haunted by her late husband.

Adding to the weirdness, a character is able to hear Al because of some device the person Sam now is, invented. And he’s convinced Sam is some kind of magician or ventriloquist adept at throwing his voice. This leads to a fight at the climax of the episode that overall isn’t that exciting.

It’d be one thing if the plot were only about convincing the woman that ghosts aren’t real, but Sam and Al almost seem to need some convincing here, and that makes this episode stand out as being more than a little silly.