Double Identity - November 8, 1965

Episode aired Apr 21, 1989
TV-PG
48m

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

748

YOUR RATING

Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell in Quantum Leap (1989)

Action Adventure Drama Mystery Sci-Fi

Sam leaps into a Mafia hit man who may not live long since he is romancing the godfather's girlfriend. Also an attempt to bring Sam home causes the 1965 East Coast blackout.Sam leaps into a Mafia hit man who may not live long since he is romancing the godfather's girlfriend. Also an attempt to bring Sam home causes the 1965 East Coast blackout.Sam leaps into a Mafia hit man who may not live long since he is romancing the godfather's girlfriend. Also an attempt to bring Sam home causes the 1965 East Coast blackout.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

748

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos12

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User reviews3

7.4748

Featured reviews

6Prismark10

Double Identity - November 8, 1965

This was the second episode filmed but pushed back to later in the season.

I can see why. It is an episode that is unsure of itself. It starts off as a pastiche of The Godfather and then confused as to how it will resolve the story as it has tied itself in knots because of the people Sam has leapt into.

Sam leaps into a mafia enforce, Frankie La Palma and he is making love to Teresa who is a hairdresser and squeeze of crime boss, Don Geno Frascotti.

Don Geno is not happy that Teresa might be cheating on him. Meanwhile Al thinks that Sam needs to be responsible for a major power cut as well as bring Frankie and Teresa together.

The story has a lot going for it. Sam is lost at first and he needs to sing at the wedding in Italian. There is some good comedy as well as peril in this one.

Trivia
The real Northeast blackout on November 9, 1965 was caused by the tripping of a 230-kilo volt transmission line near Ontario, Canada, at 5:16 p.m., which caused several other heavily loaded lines also to fail precipitating a surge of power that overwhelmed the transmission lines in western New York, causing a "cascading" tripping of additional lines. All together, 30 million people in eight U.S. states and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec were affected by the blackout. By the next morning power had been restored throughout the Northeast.

Goofs
The episode "Double Identity" (1.5) takes place in early November of 1965, yet a theater marquee says Doctor Zhivago (1965) is playing. It wasn't released in the United States until the 22nd of December.

Quotes
Dr. Sam Beckett: [reminiscing about the year 1965] I'm 10, in the fourth grade. Marcia Green sits right in front of me.
Admiral Al Calavicci: And you used to dip her pigtails into the inkwells.
Dr. Sam Beckett: We didn't have inkwells.
Admiral Al Calavicci: Oh, we did. I used to dip Hanna Gretz's pigtails. That was until I discovered it was a lot more fun to take Hanna into the cloakroom.
Dr. Sam Beckett: In the fourth grade?
Admiral Al Calavicci: I was... socially advanced.