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.

A Portrait for Troian

• Sam finds himself in a cemetery, standing outside the crypt of someone named Claridge.
• Distracted by the thunder and lightning, he turns to look at the sky.
• When he turns back, he finds a woman standing in the doorway of the crypt.
• She asks if he heard him… that he was calling to her over and over again… “Troian! Troian!”
• Inside the crypt, Sam and Troian look at some kind of instrument that’s meant to register sound and she believes it’s proof that his voice can be heard.
• But she asks how that can be when Julian has been dead for three years.
• February 7, 1971
• Sam has leapt into Dr. Timothy Mintz, a parapsychologist that Troian has hired because she is convinced that her dead husband is haunting her.
• Sam and Troian make they way back to Claridge Manor, making a mess after running through the rain and mud, which displeases the housekeeper, Ms. Stoltz.
• Troian’s brother, Jimmy, is also living in the manor and tries to tell Troian she’s wasting her money on Dr. Mintz… that Julian is dead and he’s not coming back.
• Once Troian retires to her room, Jimmy accuses Sam of taking advantage of a mentally unstable woman.
• Ms. Stoltz returns with drinks for Sam and Troian and Jimmy takes a drink to his sister.
• Then Ms. Stoltz lets Sam know that he received a call from someone at the local paper saying they had found the clippings he was asking for and she let them know that he would drive into town tomorrow morning to get them.
• She ominously tells Sam that strangers are not welcome at Claridge Manor.
• What does that mean for him?
• Al arrives to fill Sam in on what’s going on…
• Apparently all of the Claridges in the family cemetery have died violent and unnatural deaths.
• Troian was once an artist who often painted images for the covers of novels that her husband Julian wrote.
• She hasn’t painted since Troian drowned in the nearby lake.
• Al is pretty sure that this Dr. Mintz has feelings for Troian.
• Sam is likely there to prevent Troian from drowning in the same lake two days from now.
• That night, Troian wakes up, thinking she’s heard Julian’s voice again, and she finds wet footprints and water stains leading from her room up to Julian’s study.
• Troian screams, alerting Sam and Jimmy…
• They find her sobbing after she’s found her final painting sitting on an easel.
• Jimmy says it’s the last painting she was working on for Julian’s last book… which she thought she destroyed by throwing into the lake.
• The next day, Troian and Sam sit by the lake as she talks about the day Julian died.
• He was posing in the rowboat for Troian’s painting and he fell in.
• Troian couldn’t swim so was unable to help or rescue him.
• She hears his voice only when she’s in or around the manor and wishes she could talk to him again… to say she loves him… to say she’s sorry…
• Sam, being a man of science, is certain that there is a practical and logical explanation for what is happening to Troian.
• He believes that someone is trying to drive Troian insane.
• Sam asks Al about Ms. Stoltz and Jimmy… but Al is convinced that the cause is absolutely paranormal.
• History shows that Julian is not the first drowning victim in that lake.
• Al says the estate has been haunted ever since Nathaniel Claridge discovered his wife Priscilla having an affair with the butler and drowned them in the lake as revenge.
• Jimmy rushes into the room and accuses Sam of altering the painting to make it look like there’s a ghost under the water.
• Al says it gives him the creeps and it becomes clear that Jimmy can hear but not see Al.
• Jimmy says that throwing his voice won’t fool him and accuses Sam of trying to drive Troian crazy.
• Later, when Troian thinks Julian is calling to her, she returns to the family mausoleum.
• While she’s there, the building begins to shake and she thinks that the spirit that called to her wants her dead…
• But it was just an earthquake.
• Sam is able to save her before she is seriously injured.
• Back in the house, Jimmy is trying to fix an old TV and he asks Ms. Stoltz if it was working prior to the earthquake.
• Ms. Stoltz declares that she never watches television.
• Once she leaves to tidy up the kitchen, Sam asks Troian where she found Ms. Stoltz.
• After Julian died, she advertised for a housekeeper to stay at the manor since the family would no longer be living there.
• Ms. Stoltz was the only one who responded to the ad, claiming she worked there when she was younger.
• Jimmy manages to get the television working again and Troian brags on him as being a genius when it comes to electronics.
• Sam points out that Dr. Mintz’s equipment may have detected the earthquake.
• The talk of practical explanations begins to anger Troian, who is still insistent that she hears Julian’s voice because he cannot let go of this life.
• Sam returns to the mausoleum to examine Dr. Mintz’s equipment that was left in there.
• Al returns and Sam figures out that the equipment is picking up brainwave transmissions.
• Meanwhile, Troian is in Julian’s study, still upset and trying to let go of Julian…
• But she again hears his voice, then sees the painting with the ghostly image under the water.
• Back in the crypt, Sam adjusts the equipment to detect low voltage battery emissions, leading him to discover a tape player.
• When Sam presses play, they can’t hear anything, but local dogs howl and Troian hears Julian again…
• Al says it would take an electronic genius to rig up something like this.
• Therefore, it must be Jimmy who is actually trying to drive Troian insane…
• Sam rushes up to Julian’s study, trying to find Troian, but is locked inside by someone.
• Al has Ziggy center on Troian, who is down by the lake and considering throwing herself in to prove her love for Julian.
• Al is able to whisper and convince her not to drown herself… but then Jimmy shows up and admits that he’s the one who wants her dead.
• He’s grown comfortable having power of attorney and spending all that money the way he wants to, so he really doesn’t want her to be proven mentally competent to start running her own life again.
• Jimmy figures it’ll all be a lot simpler if he just inherits everything once Troian dies.
• He’s about to throw her off the dock but Al is able to whisper a few things to freak Jimmy out.
• Jimmy shuts off the tape player he had at the dock, but that doesn’t stop him from hearing Al’s voice…
• But then when Jimmy throws Mintz’s equipment into the lake, he can’t hear Al anymore.
• Troian tries to run and Jimmy chases her… and another earthquake hits.
• He’s about to toss Troian into the lake again and they notice a body float to the surface.
• He throws Troian into the water just as Sam runs down and tackles Jimmy into the lake.
• Sam is able to save Troian from drowning… but Jimmy never resurfaces.
• Three bodies were dislodged from the lakebed by the earthquake… Julian along with Priscilla Claridge and the butler from over a hundred years prior.
• The woman from the local paper, Mrs. Little, is invited up to the house and Troian says that Ms. Stoltz can make tea.
• This triggers a memory for Mrs. Little… Apparently Priscilla’s maiden name was Stoltz.
• Sam goes to examine Priscilla’s body and finds that she is Ms. Stoltz… who is observing from an upstairs window and suddenly vanishes.
• Mrs. Little remarks that they both look like they’ve seen a ghost just before Sam leaps…
• And he leaps into a rerun where he’s a kid driving way too fast…
• Oh boy.