Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime,
Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator...
and vanished.
He awoke to find himself trapped in the past,
facing mirror images that were not his own...
and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better.
His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time,
who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear.
And so, Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life,
striving to put right what once went wrong...
and hoping each time that his next leap...
will be the leap home.
So you got a little Lee Harvey Oswald in you.
You can handle that.
What if I got a lot of Lee Harvey Oswald in me?
What if I assassinate the president?
You're not gonna assassinate the president. This is '57.
That doesn't happen for another six years.
Fifteen minutes ago, it was six years from now.
And who's to say that's not gonna happen again...
Were you ever approached by a foreign agent in Japan?
Are you a foreign agent, Al?
That's your name.
How-How did I know your name?
Wait. You didn't mention the Russians. They were behind the assassination?
That's one theory.
Another one is that Oswald was just pretending to be with the K.G.B.
He was really with the C.I.A. or the F.B.I.
Wait. Wait. Wait. Why was the K.G.B. even interested in Oswald?
Oswald was a radar operator with Macs-1.
He knew all the frequencies, all the codes, the intercept procedures.
He's taking over my mind.
Well, that's impossible. He-He can't take over your mind.
I'm reacting like him. I'm-I'm talking like him. I'm thinking like him.
I don't know where he stops and I start, Al.
When you told our consulate that you wanted to defect, you said...
"I am willing to share all knowledge I acquired
"in the United States Marine Corps.
"I do this to repudiate my former country...
"and to demonstrate my loyalty to the Soviet Union."
My first duty assignment was with Macs-1 in Atsugi, Japan.
I still don't get how you do this.
Well, it-it-it is a little difficult to explain.
You think I'm too stupid to understand?
Well, nobody understands it, except Dr. Beckett.
Try me.
Try you. Okay.
Let's start with the string theory. What's the string theory?
String theory?
It helped close the conceptual gulf between relativity and quantum mechanics.
It postulates that subatomic particles are not points,
but strings, about one Planck length long.
The rate at which strings vibrate can generate
the properties of all known particles.
Hmm? How did I know that?
Most of our time, we spent watching for bogies out of China or North Korea.
However, occasionally we would run a plot for, uh, Race Car.
- Have you seen Race Car? - Many times.
Landings, taking off.
It had long and droopy wings.
The tips sagged...
so that when it landed, it sparked the runway.
What is Race Car's official designation?
U-2.
The "U" stands for utility.
Our officers told us it was a weather plane,
but scuttlebutt had it that it was a...
a secret spy plane flying missions over China and Russia.
Is this Race Car?
Yes.
- Where'd you get this? - From a friend.
You have friends, don't you?
No. Not really.
- Not a girlfriend? - Not anymore.
We'll have to do something about it, Lieutenant Guri, eh?
Da.
How high Race Car flew over, uh, these missions?
We estimated around angels 9-0.
Oh, that's 30,000 meters.
- And the range? - I don't know that.
It would stay out at least 12 hours, sometimes more.
But, of course, it could have landed before returning to Atsugi,
but I don't think so.
Can you tell us about Race Car radar-jamming equipment?
Didn't know it had any.
Photographic equipment?
So you know nothing about Race Car defensive capabilities?
Uh, Sam? Now Oswald is you.
Can you give me any performance figures on U-2?
- I mean, he's not completely you. - It had a short takeoff...
But when I asked him if he understood--
around... 500 feet, no more.
- Sam? - He climbed out at about 45 degrees...
through angels 4-5, which was as high as our MPS-11 tracked.
- What are you telling them? - Anything else?
- Code names and frequencies. - No!
We were Coffee Mill, and of course, the U-2 was Race Car.
Sam, zip it!
We usually used 218.5 as our main channel.
Now, Comrade Oswald.
God! Now you're him and he's you. Holy mackerel!
Why don't you write all this technical data down for us.
No. No. This evening after dinner.
Eh, you stay at the Hotel Berlin, are you not?
I believe so.
Yeah. The food there is inedible.
Why don't you ask your intourist guide, uh, what's her name?
Rimma Shirokova.
Yeah. Tell Rimma Shirokova to take you to Najinski's.
They serve this wonderful venison with a-with a mushroom stew. You would love it.
And now, you would be so kind and wait in the other room for a moment.
Sam, I know Oswald is influencing you, but this is ridiculous.
- Al? - Oh, it's about time.
Hey, you gotta control this Oswald stuff
before you give away every secret in the government.
It just came out, okay?
I think I could have stopped, but some part of me that didn't want to.
And you know about that part.
Uh, I was just thinking out loud.
How bad is it?
It depends on how much you told them.
I think I told them everything Oswald knew about the U-2.
Gary Powers.
The Russians shoot him down next May.
And that incident extends the Cold War for years.
That must be why I leaped in here, Al.
To stop the Soviets from getting U-2 data from Oswald.
Oh, no. Ziggy doesn't think so.
There's a 96% probability that you didn't give the Soviets anything on the U-2...
that they didn't already have.
But they shoot Powers down, right?
Yeah. It was just a lucky shot with a Sam-2. A 100-to-1 shot.
It had nothing to do with anything you-- uh, Oswald told them.
Thank God.
Well, then why am I here in Russia?
Ziggy's working on it. I personally think it had some--
You think it has something to do with the conspiracy?
Yeah.
Why don't you change that record, okay? Well, I still believe it.
Al, in all of these leaps so far, we haven't uncovered any conspiracy,
and we have not proven that Oswald was not the assassin.
Well, maybe this one will.
Yeah. But I can't keep wandering around leap after leap like this.
We gotta-- We gotta take the initiative somehow!
Right! Well, what do we do?
Oh, you're not becoming Oswald again, are you?
I don't actually... become Oswald.
I just sort of drift along next to him and his thoughts come out.
Oh, you're not drifting, are you?
No. I'm theorizing. Or trying to.
- Oh, sorry. - That's okay.
I was just thinking though,
what if I prematurely exited that first leap into Oswald?
The one where Marina took your picture?
Yeah. What if I leaped out before I had a chance
to put right what once went wrong?
Well, success doesn't have anything to do with leaping.
I said before I had a chance to undo the wrong?
Why would you leap before you had the chance?
If I knew that, I'd know how to get off this leaping yo-yo
so I could do whatever it was I was supposed to do.
- Which is stop the assassination. - Well, let's hope that's it.
Sam, Ziggy says you're on the right track.
It's just gonna take time to test your hypothesis,
but you should continue and play this scenario out.
- Like I got a big choice. - I didn't finish.
But you gotta play it out just the way Oswald did. No changing history.
- So tell me what I'm supposed to do. - You go to your hotel room.
Yeah.
And then before you have dinner with your intourist guide...
you commit suicide.
- I don't like this, Al. - I don't like it either.
But Ziggy insists that you continue doing exactly what Oswald did...
on October 21, 1959.
Which means that in a couple of minutes,
you have to slash your left wrist with a razor blade.
Yeah. Well, maybe we should just skip that part.
- What are you afraid of? - What am I afraid of?
Well, you're not gonna die.
- How can you be so sure? - Because Oswald didn't.
- Olga saved him. - Olga? Who's Olga?
Your intourist guide.
Wait a second. I thought that, uh, Major Kosenko said that somebody--
that her name was Rimma something, right?
- Shirokova. - Shirokova something.
Yeah, but Oswald called her Olga in his diaries,
and maybe that was his nickname for Rimma.
And maybe I've already altered history
and nobody named Olga or Rimma or-or any name like that...
is gonna come through that door after I slash my wrist!
Okay. Well, maybe not.
For all we know you may be here to stop Oswald from slashing his wrist.
- Let's see. - Exactly.
Uh, okay,
if Oswald doesn't attempt suicide, the Russians kick him out of the country.
He never meets Marina--
Wait a second. Wait a second. Wait a second.
The Russians kick him out of the country?
Yeah. Oswald's six-day visa expires tonight...
and the Russians won't extend it.
Maybe that's why he attempted suicide.
Doesn't that kinda blow your K.G.B. conspiracy theory?
Well, maybe. But it reinforces my C.I.A. theory.
Because if Oswald was C.I.A., the Russians wouldn't want him in the country.
So that's why he commits suicide, right? Because it's in the C.I.A. manual.
- What difference does it make? - What difference does it make?
We're talkin' about trying to find the truth out here.
And what if the truth is that at age 19, Oswald was not a C.I.A. agent,
he was not a K.G.B. agent.
Maybe he was just some-some frustrated loser, right,
who was trying to get recognition any way he could.
Maybe he thought the best way to do that was by defecting.
But then when the Soviets didn't want him,
he didn't have anybody else, so he slit his wrists.
No. Uh-uh. No, no.
See, the Russians wanted defectors in '59.
I cannot believe that the Russians had Lee Harvey Oswald
on an "A" list for defectors.
I mean, he was a kid, right?
If I remember correctly, he never even graduated high school.
- Not exactly the kind... - Sam.
of disillusioned American intellectual or scientist,
that the Soviets like to parade in front of the world press, right?
- Sam. - He's not anything like that at all.
- Sam, it's time. - What? Time--
to commit suicide?
No, not commit suicide. Attempt suicide! Attempt! Attempt!
Now all we have to do is follow Oswald's diary.
Let's see. October 21.
Okay. Um,
"I must leave country at 8:00 p.m. tonight...
"as visa has 'expird.'"
He spells "expire" without the "E." Hmm.
"I am shocked! My dreams!
"I retire to my room. I have $100 left.
"I have waited for two year to be accepted.
"My 'fondis', F-O-N-D-I-S, uh, dreams are shattered...
"because of a petty official, because of bad planning,"
uh, "I have planned so much.
"7:00 p.m. I decide to end it.
"Slash 'rist' R-I-S-T."
I don't care how he spells it. I'm not gonna do it.
- Oh, well, you have to. - I'm not.
Uh, "soak 'rist' in cold water to numb the pain.
"Then slash my left 'rist.'
"Then I 'plaug.' Plaug? Plaug? What the hell is a plaug?
Who cares what it is? Al, I'm not gonna do it.
Okay. All right. Wait a minute. "Plaug rist into bathtub of hot water.
"I think when Olga comes at 8:00 to find me dead will be a big shock.
"Somewhere... a violin plays."
Easy, fella.
Marina?
"If I am alive and they have captured me,
"I believe that the embassy will come to your assistance."
Well, you don't need this, do you?
The administration increased its crackdown on Cuban exile hit-and-run raids.
The raids based from Mexico, the Caribbean and the southern United States...
are a stumbling block-
I shot a man.
I don't know if I hit him or not.
It should be on the news.
General Walker.
That-That must be why I-I left you that note.
In case they caught me.
But they didn't.
I'm too smart for them.
He was a fascist, like Hitler.
Don't you see?
If someone had killed Hitler before he came to power,
millions of lives would have been saved.
Yes, you can.
He lived alone.
I'm listening to the radio!
Sam. Sam, it worked. It worked.
It... almost worked. It's April 10, 1963.
And that's only a month after your original leap into Oswald.
If I killed him, there should be something on the radio.
Killed him?
- I buried it. - Killed who?
Wrapped it in that raincoat and I buried it.
Gooshie!
What the hell's he talking about?
Holy mackerel! Sam, you leaped into Oswald...
just seconds after he tried to blow General Edwin Walker's head off.
- Tried? Tried? I missed? - Not you. Oswald!
The bullet splintered the window and then punched into the wall
just inches above Walker's head.
It was an easy shot.
He was just sitting there working at his desk.
How could I miss?
You didn't miss him, Sam! Oswald did!
You don't have to yell, Al. I can hear you.
Oh! Oh.
Well, that's better. Sam, you're scaring the hell out of me.
Uh, you were acting--
you were acting like Oswald's mind was still merged into yours.
President Kennedy's popularity slipping from the high it showed...
during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
- The White House confirmed plans-- - It is.
- No, it can't be. - Only this time it's different.
No, but Ziggy said it would be gone.
Yeah? Why would it be gone?
Well, Ziggy computed that the reason that you were leaping
back and forth in Oswald's life...
was because the part of your mind that's in him
and the part of his mind that's in you were trying to, uh, reunite.
- So, what did you do? - I didn't do-- I didn't-- Nothin'.
Ziggy is-- Well, Ziggy figured that if we could reconnect your minds,
then we could get the leap back on track.
So through, uh, D.N.A. typing,
Ziggy identified, you know, the little mesons and neurons in Oswald's brain...
that biologically matched yours, and then we put Oswald in the accelerator
and we leaped those little things back to you.
You can't leap isolated mesons and neurons
without drawing other neural energy with it.
- More neural energy? - Yeah.
Sucking up more of Oswald's mind.
That's why this leap is different. There's more of him in me.
More?
There's more?
I can't destroy this.
- This is my plan. - Oh, no, Sam.
I planned this like a military operation.
Reconnaissance photos, time tables, escape routes.
Even my political justification for the execution.
- Sam. Sam, look at me. - It should have worked.
Sam, look at me!
My aim was perfect.
It was an accident that I missed.
He dropped his head at the last second, or he'd be dead.
He'd be dead,
and the world would remember Lee Harvey Oswald...
as the man who executed General Edwin Walker.
"Hands off Cuba."
Hands off Cuba. Hands off Cuba!
Hands off Cuba!
Oh, I don't truck with communist propaganda.
What makes you think this is communist propaganda?
Oh, because everybody know that Castro is a communist.
I'm not Castro.
No. But y'all are supportin' him, aren't you?
No. I'm supporting Cuba.
Although, I must admit that I admire him...
the same way I admire George Washington.
Ellie, we only have a half hour.
Y'all are comparing Fidel Castro to George Washington?
Uh-huh. Castro is doing what Washington did,
leading his country in a revolution.
- It's not the same. - No?
- No! - Well, why not?
I don't know.
- It's just not the same. - Ellie!
- I'll be right there. - I'll order you a salad.
Gee, I don't want you to miss your lunch.
Oh, it'll be good for my figure.
Uh, so how do you equate the American Revolution with,
uh, the communist takeover in Cuba?
We kicked out King George.
Castro kicked out Batiste. It seems the same to me.
- But it's not. Castro is a communist. - Hands off Cuba.
Well, whatever he is, Castro just wants Cuba to have...
the same opportunity for self-determination that we did.
- Hands off Cuba. - Y'all sound like you know him.
We've had the same teacher.
Would you like to join the Fair Play for Cuba Committee?
I'm secretary of the New Orleans chapter.
I could sign you up right now for only a dollar and a quarter.
Y'all have social functions?
Well, now, we don't. But that is an awful good idea.
More folks will come to a dance than will come to a political meeting.
Course, once you got 'em in there--
You are something, Ellie. You are really something.
Hey, you know my name, but I don't know yours.
I only know half your name.
The other half's La Forge. Ellie La Forge.
Hidell. Alex Hidell.
- Y'all are married. - Yes. My wife lives in Dallas.
Y'all didn't tell me y'all were married.
Fair play for Cuba!
- Traitor! Traitor! - Fair play for Cuba!
You see this fellow. He is a communist.
- Fair play for Cuba! - Communist!
And he wants to do to your country what he did to us in Cuba!
- Fair play for Cuba! - Communist!
Gooshie, you got a lock on him? Now just hold it there-- Uh-oh!
A couple of days ago, he tried to join us.
He said he wanted to fight for Cuba! To bring down Castro!
- Liar! - Okay, Carlos.
If you want to hit me, hit me.
- He's doing exactly what Oswald did! - With pleasure.
Freeze! Up against the wall and spread 'em!
He's a communist!
- Up against the wall and shut up! - Sam, can you hear me?
It's the 9th of August, 1963.
There's only three months until the Kennedy assassination,
Sam, and each leap is putting you closer.
If you leap into Dallas on November 22 and Oswald is still in control,
you won't be able to change anything, Sam!
You've got to fight him! Fight him, Sam!
What's your name, boy?
- My name? - Dr. Samuel Beckett!
My name is Lee Harvey Oswald.
Three years ago, I said that, uh,
introduced myself in Paris by saying that I was the man...
who had accompanied, uh, Mrs. Kennedy to Paris.
I'm getting, uh, somewhat that same sensation,
uh, as I travel around, uh, Texas.
Nobody wonders what Lyndon and I wear.
I'm glad to be here in, uh, Jim Wright's city.
About, uh, 35, uh--
I appreciate your being here this morning.
Mrs. Kennedy is organizing herself.
It takes longer.
That's because she looks better than we do.
Looks like it's gonna rain.
What's in the package?
Curtain rods.
Ziggy computes the best option under the circumstances is to do nothing.
Well, Ziggy doesn't want to make another mistake.
Perhaps. But if Dr. Beckett leaped into Oswald to uncover the conspiracy,
then doing nothing is an effective course of action.
How the hell do you figure that?
Whether Dr. Beckett is himself or Lee Harvey Oswald is immaterial.
Either way, you'll be there to observe, to watch the sixth floor window,
the grassy knoll, the railroad overpass.
You'll see it all. You'll know the truth.
But I won't be able to stop it.
I realize that, Admiral, but you yourself said that wasn't what
Dr. Beckett was leaped back to do.
Well, what if I was wrong?
What if that's precisely the reason that Sam was leaped back?
Then Oswald would have to be the sole assassin.
That's right.
No conspiracy? No!
Just one angry, envious man who-- who wanted to propel himself into infamy.
But one lone man?
I know it's more comforting to believe in plots.
Because if Kennedy could be killed that easily by one sicko,
what hope is there for the rest of us?
Admiral, what are you gonna do?
I'm gonna try and find the truth.
Hey, Lee.
What's the hurry?
The morning overcast has given way to blue skies...
and the local democratic party is predicting
a record-breaking big "D" turnout...
for President Kennedy and his first lady.
Mrs. Kennedy has been given a large bouquet of roses...
by admirers here in Love Field...
as she and the president stopped to greet this crowd,
which is completely covering the airport fence.
This motorcade will get off to a late start.
There are just too many people here in an amazing display
of goodwill to the Kennedys.
I think I'm gonna go down there and catch some of that parade.
I admire the president very much.
You admire him, but you're going to kill him.
That's what this is about. You're Secret Service and you're detaining me...
because you think I'm going to shoot the president!
I know you're gonna shoot the president.
What I want to know is: Are you acting alone?
I don't even own a gun!
You own a 6.5 millimeter Mannlicher-Carcano rifle
and an S&W .38 Special.
The rifle is wrapped in a blanket at Ruth Paine's house...
and the pistol is at your rooming house at 1026 North Beckley!
You ordered both of these guns through the mail under the alias of Alex J. Hidell.
- Marina. She told you these lies. - Marina told me nothing.
But when questioned, she'll talk about the shot you took at General Walker,
and she'll talk about locking you in the bathroom when Nixon came to Dallas...
'cause she was afraid you were gonna try and shoot him too.
I want a lawyer.
There's no lawyer here. There's just me and you and the truth.
I know my rights. I'm a member of the A.C.L.U., and I have--
You're going to shoot the president from the sixth-floor window
of the Texas School Book Depository.
- You're crazy! - Yeah, you're damn right I'm crazy.
I'm crazy enough to blow your brains out your ear if I don't get the truth.
A large police escort is now--
What color is her suit?
And now ticker tape is beginning to flow from the windows
and engulf the whole motorcade.
Here comes the first car with the police chief,
and here is the president of the United States.
The crowd is going absolutely wild.
This is a friendly crowd in downtown Dallas...
as the president and the first lady pass by.
There were some fears of demonstrations here in downtown Dallas,
but this crowd is radiating love to the president.
Dallas Police Department is working with some force
to ensure that an unfortunate incident,
similar to those that accompanied U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson
do not occur on this trip.
I don't believe in killing someone just because I disagree with their politics.
Are you acting alone?
I want a lawyer--
I'm deaf! I'm deaf!
You're going to be dead in a minute if you don't tell me the truth!
Okay. Okay. Don't hurt me.
I'm not gonna shoot the president.
- But... I know who is. - Who?
Hidell.
The guy who ordered the guns through the mail.
He's the one who--
- I'm lying, Al. - Sam.
There is no conspiracy.
I'm acting alone, and you've got to stop me.
But I can't reach you, Sam.
- He's taken over completely. - You have to.
You have to or it's gonna happen all over again.
You have to find...
Hidell.
Find Alex J. Hidell.
That's the man who's gonna shoot the president.
Sam! Sam, listen to me! Sam!
I've got to reach you, Sam!
Sam, what are the four fundamental forces
of interactions in quantum physics?
Sam.
Sam, explain the Pauli exclusion principle.
Sam, what is supersymmetry? And how does it apply--
This is never gonna work. It's all happening again.
It's November 22, 1963, and it's all happening again!
Sam! Sam! It's November 22, 1963!
Sam, and your dad is still alive! He's teaching you to drive a tractor, Sam.
It's-It's Elkridge, Indiana. You're 10 years old,
and your dad is teaching you to drive a tractor.
At this very moment, your dad is still alive
and he's teaching you to drive a tractor, Sam!
On the farm in Indiana!
He's still alive!
Dad.
No!
Just now we have received reports here at Parkland...
that Governor Connelly was shot in the upper left chest...
and the first unconfirmed reports say the president was hit in the head.
I repeat, an unconfirmed report that the president was hit in the head.
The president's wife, Jackie Kennedy, was not hurt. She walked into the hospital.
Thanks, Al.
If you hadn't reached me,
I would have shot--
No, it wouldn't have been you pulling that trigger, Sam. Not really.
And then when I...
I had a chance to save him, I leaped.
Why, Al? Why?
Oswald's mind finally reconnected.
And when it did, he leaped back
and you leaped into the nearest person that could accomplish your mission.
- But I didn't accomplish it. - Well, maybe you did.
I didn't save him.
No. But it doesn't look like that's what you were here to do.
Ziggy thinks you were here to save her.
Your Swiss-cheesed mind probably doesn't remember, but the first time...
Oswald killed Jackie too.