Quantum Leap episode review — 3.5 — The Boogieman

Original air date: October 26, 1990
Director: Joe Napolitano
Writer: Chris Ruppenthal

Rating: 7/10

I’m not really sure what to make of this one. I definitely found it entertaining, but I was ahead of the ball on one major twist, and the other one I wasn’t, but it felt kind of cheap and stupid, even if it was effective.

Sam ends up in the body of a hack horror author who’s setting up a haunted house in 1964 Maine. Right away, even before we learned his name was Stevie, I knew that the teenager helping out was going to be Stephen King.

But for the most part, it seemed like that was just going to be a little nod that the episode didn’t draw attention to. But the end was basically the Buddy Holly ending, and it was kind of frustrating, as it was far more telegraphed than that one. Though I do like that young Stevie has a saint bernard named Cujo, and drives Christine. So that’s a little fun.

Where this episode is weird is that a few people die, and Sam’s worried that he’s actually helping a murderer. And then it gets really weird when it turns out there’s an evil Al who’s been killing people.

In fariness to the show, Dean Stockwell’s demented performance is really, really good. He is very creepy, but obviously this ends up just being a dream or whatever because how were they going to write themselves out of that one?

When Sam wakes up, he saves the day really quickly, so it’s almost like most of the episode was completely pointless. Of course, when he mentions all that he saw, it gives Stephen King ideas for writing. So he saves a life and inspires a prolific author, all in the space of about two minutes.

It feels a little cheap, but it’s never not entertaining. As a mystery, it’s compelling. And even when it gets ridiculous with Al being evil, it’s still pretty fun.