Nowhere to Run was the fourth episode of Quantum Leap’s fifth season to air, with Sam coming to terms with life in a military rehabilitation facility and trying to keep his suicidal roommate alive. In this episode Gerry and Iain discuss standards of care.
Sam leaps into Ron Miller, a Vietnam veteran who lost both of his legs in the war. At a rehab facility back in the US, he meets volunteer Kiki Wilson (Jennifer Aniston), who take a particular interest in him. After an introduction from Cmdr Hartig (Norman Snow) he encounters dastardly orderly Holt (Gene Lythgow) before being taken to his shared room, where he meets Sgt Billy Johnson (Michael Boatman), a fellow veteran paralysed at war.
When Miller’s wife, Julie (Judith Hoag) tells Sam she’s leaving for another man, it seems he might have failed in his objective. However, a greater wrong presents itself when a new electric wheelchair presents Johnson with the opportunity to end his own life, if Sam can’t intervene in time.
Nowhere to Run was directed by Alan J. Levi, the fifth of his six episodes for the show. The writer was Tommy Thompson, the ninth of his thirteen Quantum Leap stories.
In this episode Gerry and Iain considered the perils of moral certainty.
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Nowhere to Run 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.