HOLOGRAMMATICAL ERRORS:
Hologrammatical Error #1: When Al is standing next to Miss Melony’s car at the hospital, his image reflects in the hood. (MPB)
Hologrammatical Error #2: When Al stands in Sam’s jail cell, fantasizing about being heard by young women, his long coat brushes against the end of Sam’s cot. (MPB)
HISTORICAL NITS:
Historical Nit #1: Miss Melony says they go to the cemetery every Saturday. But August 8, 1955 was a Monday. (MPB)
MIRROR NITS:
Mirror Nit #1: When Sam first looks into the mirror at Miss Patty’s, Jesse’s image smiles before Sam does. (IMZ)
Mirror Nit #2: When Sam looks at himself in the rear view mirror at the beginning of the episode, two images go past in the mirror, one right after the other. The first is Sam’s hat (although we don’t see Sam’s face), then Jesse’s face comes into view. You’ve got to watch for this one really carefully. (MPB)
Mirror Nit #3: When Sam gets out of jail at the end, the reflection in the glass of the courthouse doors is Sam’s, not Jesse’s. (MPB)
GENERAL NIT-PICKING:
General Nit #1: If Jesse and Miss Melony go to the cemetery every Saturday, why is Charles’s grave so weedy? (ARS)
General Nit #2: Miss Melony’s egg salad would be a bit old by the time she and Jesse get home, especially in 100° weather. Maybe that’s why she feels so sick after Clayton leaves--a touch of food poisoning, perhaps? (MPB)
General Nit #3: When Sam found Nell after
the car crash, he picked her up after minimal examination. Not a smart
move, when there may have been a risk of spinal or internal injuries. (LW)
PCR #1: Sam didn’t have much choice because:
a) he couldn’t send Miss Melony for help,
given her dizzy spells and her impending collision with a choo-choo;
b) It was unlikely anybody would come
along who could be sent for an ambulance (never mind that a 1950s ambulance
was more like a taxi with a siren, and so wouldn’t have been much help);
c) Nell was bleeding too badly to wait;
and
d) Sam had nothing available to work with
to immobilize Nell’s neck and back and no one to help him carry her back
up the hill if he did. (MPB)
PCR #2: Maybe emergency medicine isn’t
Sam’s specialty. (MPB)
DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS:
Detail #1: Notice that this Leap takes place on Sam’s birthday. (LW)
THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY:
"The Color of Truth" is pretty obviously derived from "Driving Miss Daisy." (MPB)
NAME THAT TUNE:
Nell selects a particularly appropriate hymn to sing while she’s driving. The lyrics say, "You’ve gotta trust God and give him time, no matter how long it takes. You can’t hurry my God. You’ve just got to wait." That’s the message Al keeps trying to give Sam, but Sam doesn’t want to listen. He wants to change everything and change it NOW. Impatience seems to be one of Sam’s major character flaws--then again, if it weren’t, he wouldn’t have Leaped in the first place and we’d have no show to watch. (MPB)
In Sam’s jail cell, Al sings "We Shall Overcome" (MPB)
FAVORITE QUOTATIONS:
Al: "I’ve seen things that would curl your hair--no pun intended."
Miss Melony: "Somebody has lowered the wick in your brain."
Sam: "You’re getting a little paranoid."
Al: "How do you think I lived this
long?"
QUESTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS:
Is there anyone out there who knows anything about old trains? The choo-choo that was going to squish Miss Melony seemed kind of old-fashioned, even for the 1950s, but I’m not a railroad expert by any means. Does anybody out there have a good sense of what a 1950s era freight train would look like?
Just an observation: Sam muses about how surprisingly comfortable it feels to "be" Jesse. How could he get that impression unless he were actually in Jesse’s body? Would this be one point for the mind-leaping school?