Lee Harvey Oswald Pt.1 was the first episode of Quantum Leap’s fifth season to air, with Sam struggling to cope with the rich vein of communism he encounters when he leaps into the so-called assassin. In this episode Gerry and Iain discuss the truth about capitalism.
Sam leaps into Alik Idell, the alter ego of supposed presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. Initially posing for a photo with his wife, Marina (Natasha Pavlovich), Sam soon finds himself leaping to other points on Oswald’s timeline, struggling to separate his own thoughts from Oswald’s.
At a training camp in Asia, Sam encounters a Sgt. Lopez (Reni Santoni) and when an evening out with Joda (Rodney Kageyama) and Mariska (Donna Magnani) takes a turn for the worse, it requires Al to intervene and prevent a deadly escalation when Lopez and Sam get into a brawl.
Lee Harvey Oswald Part 1 was directed by James Whitmore Jr, the ninth of his fifteen episodes for the show. Donald Bellisario again got the writing credit.
In this episode Gerry and Iain considered whether Oswald was truly evil.
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Lee Harvey Oswald Part 1 was released in 1992. It is 47 minutes long and originally aired on the NBC network. It can be viewed on NBC’s Peacock streaming service in the UK and in the United States. The show is available on DVD and Blu Ray in other countries.