From: jms@tardis.Tymnet.COM (Joe Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv,rec.arts.sf.tv
Subject: QL: Deliver Us From Evil
Date: 11 Nov 92 22:02:29 GMT
Followup-To: rec.arts.tv

This post contains spoilers for the 11/10 episode of Quantum Leap

Once again, I expect to see several posts from several people who do not
understand how "mortals versus the Devil" stories work.

Given that the Devil (Satan, Lucifer, whatever name you want to use) is
omnipotent and that humans are mere mortals, then human race hasn't got a
chance, and we were all wiped out many millenia ago.  Right?

Doesn't make for a very interesting story, does it?

It works a lot better when humans can compete with the Devil and have a
realistic chance of winning.  Take for instance "The Devil and Daniel
Webster", the song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", and many other
stories.  A single person, with strong convictions, can defeat the Devil in
a fair fight.  (At least temporarily.  An immortal being can treat utter
defeat as a minor setback, since there will always be another battleground.)

One plot device I've seen used many times is the idea that when the Devil is
defeated, all the pain and suffering that was caused by the battle is
eliminated as a reward to the humans.  For instance, in the Halloween
episode, all the deaths caused by the evil Al's interference were cancelled
by returning the time-line back to the way it was before the Devil showed
up.  (I have no sympathy for the people who said "it was all a dream".
That's a cop out, and it implies that the person saying it lacks the ability
to grasp implications of what was going on.)

"Turning back the clock" is not an instance "deus ex machina".  It is a well
established, well respected plot resolution of the traditional Good versus
Evil battle where Good triumphs.

Now for some personal opinions.

Alia is not a demon from hell.  She is an unfortunate wight who was unable
to resist the Devil's temptations, and ended up as a sufferer in Hell.

The Devil, having seen that God was using Project Quantum Leap to make right
things that had once gone wrong, decided to fight back.  Based on the Rules
of Combat With Mortals, the Devil was abliged to operate using similar
equipment; a time travel machine, a sentient computer, a project observer,
and a confused human pawn.  Zoe was recruited from the ranks of Satan's
minions to deliver the orders to the human on their team.  They lied to
Alia, telling her that if she were to complete certain assignments (which
include killing other people), that she would be allowed to leave Hell and
return to her previous life.  (Alia, being naive, actually believes this.)

As further concession to The Rules, the Devil is required to go through
Lothos and Zoe in order to give commands to Alia.  (At this point it is not
clear that the home base for Lothos is in the Future or in Hell.)  Unlike
Ziggy, however, Lothos has full control of who the leaper inhabits.

The leap into Connie was a means to an end.  The desired goal was not to
break up the marriage and to institutionalize Jimmy.  No, that was just an
interim step in the process of luring Sam back so that he could be
destroyed.  The Devil's ulterior motive was to get Sam in front of the gun
so that he could be shot.  (Direct intevention between the Devil and Sam
failed in "The B**g**m*n", so this time it was human versus human.)

Sam was able to detect a little good remaining in Alia.  By appealing to her
humanity, he was able to stop the shooting, which was the critical objective
of her assignment.  This means that the entire assignment was a failure, and
the Omnipotent Referees declared "Game Over".  Alia and Zoe were forceably
removed from the scene.

The time line was restored to what it was before Alia had started ignoring
Frank to concentrate on Jimmy.  That is, everyone was returned to the day
when Sam leapt in, but this time Frank and Connie were still in love and
Jimmy was not being pressured to learn.

By persuading Alia, Sam won and the result is that everything was put to right.

One more thing - the people who complain the loudest that certain details in
this episode were not explained are the ones who haven't been paying
attention.  Don wants to do several episodes of Sam battling the evil leaper
group, with a little bit more revealed each episode.  In order to do that,
some things have to be kept secret until later.  Patience, people.
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