“Camikazi Kid – June 6, 1961” is episode eight of season one of Quantum Leap.
At the end of the previous episode, “The Color of Truth – August 8, 1955”, Sam leaped into a car that was being raced in an underpass. He loses the race and checks himself out in the mirror. A teenager.
Sam arrives at a burger place; he’s Cam Wilson, 17 and a hot rod jockey. Three older boys in the same jacket throw chips at him and say it’s a shame he wasn’t racing for pinks. A convertible arrives and the woman calls Cam – Sam – over. She tells him they’ve been accepted into the Peace Corps. This is Cam’s older sister, Cheryl, and her fiancee, Bob. They’re going to go to Tonga right after the honeymoon.
A girl, Jill, passes and has her bag taken and tossed around. Sam grabs it and hands it back. She runs off and Cheryl follows, reassuring her and saying when Jill is older they’d want to go out with her. Jill wouldn’t have any of them. But maybe Cam. Sam is currently being bullied by the three, who strip him and toss him into a dumpster. Al comments to him. Bob hoots for Cheryl, and Jill asks her not to tell Cam.
Sam is climbing out as Jill finds his clothes. She seems kind of pleased he got pantsed for sticking up for her.
Sam heads back to Cam’s car and his apparently usual order. Al tells him it’s 1961; Sam is not impressed. Al says Sam is there to stop Cheryl from marrying Bob. They never made it into the Peace Corps, because Bob stopped Cheryl. And turned out to be a mean drunk. She had more than her share of ‘accidental’ falls. This hits home for Sam, because the same happened to his sister the first time she married.
Sam returns home and Cam’s father tells him his mother is looking for him. It seems the cleaner found a Playboy. The mother seems more concerned that the cleaner was upset and that they might lose their fourth recently. And Cheryl needs help tomorrow.
Cheryl calls him in and tells Sam that Jill has a crush on him. By the sounds of it, it’s returned. Cheryl is finally doing what she’s always dreamed of, and finds it a little scary. Sam says she’ll do great. But suggests that she doesn’t get married until after. Cheryl says Bob won’t go unless they get married. Sam is trying to warn her off, but the wedding is in three days.
Sam and Jill are working on Cam’s car. Sam can tell by the sound what the problem is, but thanks to his memory he can’t remember how to do anything about it. He manages to get Jill to do it. Al, meanwhile, has been watching Cheryl’s lingerie party. An end in itself.
Bob is already not being great for Cheryl, but she needs something to realise just what sort of man he is. Which is where Sam comes in, and he has to come up with something.
It’s already been revealed that Al likes women. All women. But he also respects women and has principles when it comes to them. It’s likely lucky for Bob that Al is a hologram, because Al really doesn’t like men like Bob.