Episode Report Card Keckler: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Blazing Furrows
By Keckler | Season 3 | Episode 9 | Aired on 11.11.2003
While his Qrew works, Quantum decides to get drunk. He walks up to the saloon bar and greets the keep, who asks him what's his pleasure. Quantum professes just to want a place to sit out of the sun for a bit, as he's only "passing through," and the barkeep offers him coffee on the house. Quantum accepts. The barkeep asks where he's headed. Quantum spins some yarns about a ranch and a brother down south, and the barkeep buys it. The barkeep notes Quantum's interest in an old oval portrait behind the bar. "See the resemblance?" the barkeep asks, and poses. Quantum says he does, and looks at the plaque beneath the portrait. "Yer not tellin' me yer related to Cooper Smith," he says. Like he even knows who that is! The barkeep says he's the only direct descendent of the man who "overthrew the Skags." A Skag looks up briefly from his sweeping. Quantum comments that the barkeep must have a lot of stories. You know what kept going through my mind in this scene? How Quantum would have experience getting info out of people, when he didn't even know what info that was, while trying to fit seamlessly in, because of all his Quantum Leap-ing.
At that moment, the local rabble walks in, itching for trouble. Quantum notes the wary look on the barkeep's face and asks, "Friend of yours?" "Not particularly," the barkeep mutters. "How about some service?" the guy we saw in the hanging scene demands. He's wearing one of those Western top hats that always make me think of two things -- the Mad Hatter, and Slash from Guns 'n' Roses. I think there's an unwritten rule that the guys who wear those kinds of hats are usually bad. Or at least very shifty and untrustworthy. The barkeep sets up a bottle and some shot glasses, which the Skag brings over to the Rabble's table. "Why don't you join us?" Top Hat asks the Skag. "You know I'm not allowed to do that, Mr. Bennings," the Skag answers. Isn't "skag" a slang term for an ugly chick? "It's Deputy Bennings," Deputy Ass Hat says, and then adds that he's got the power to bend local ordinances. With his foot, he pushes out a chair threateningly. The Skag sits, and Deputy Ass Hat pours him a drink, commenting that he's sure the Skag could use one after what happened last night. Everyone in the bar, including Quantum, looks wary. Deputy Ass Hat says, "Let's drink to the dearly departed. To dead Skags!" His rabble laughs. The Skag doesn't. Deputy Ass Hat tells him to drink up. The Skag barely takes a drink before he coughs and sputters. The rabble laughs. Deputy Ass Hat says he thought "[his] people" could hold their liquor. "Your friend had a few in him the night he killed Clay Stanton," Deputy Ass Hat comments. The Skag says, "He didn't drink." The You Said Something Stupid and Now You're Going to Pay brass quartet plays as Deputy Ass Hat begs his pardon.
The Skag tries to get back to work, but Deputy Ass Hat stops him because he didn't think he heard him right. "Yer tellin' me that a sober Skag had the nerve to shoot a man? I find that hard to believe. Maybe you could demonstrate," Deputy Ass Hat suggests, pushing his gun across the table toward the Skag. Lying on the floor, the cameraman films -- an angle that I'm sure Berman was uneasy with, since he apparently didn't like the Nostril Cam in "Crossover." That's right, I'm watching DS9 DVDs! -- Quantum touching the holstered gun at his hip. Seriously, where did they get the guns? Or the Western garb? It's not like they could shuttlepod or transport down in their regular clothes and buy gear off some local general store. Even if it was done in another town, their jumpsuits would still be mighty conspicuous. Their fashion plates would be on the earliest Pony Express. Deputy Ass Hat horks a loogie on the floor -- how rude, not even using a spitoon! -- and keeps daring the Skag to shoot him right between the eyes. Quantum gets up from his stool and says, "Excuse me, do you think I could get some more coffee before you shoot him?" Heh. The Skag takes the cup and scurries off. Deputy Ass Hat takes exception to being interrupted in his vastly engrossing game of Skag Baiting. Escorted by the barkeep, the sheriff walks in and asks if there's a problem. Deputy Ass Hat gives a rather slanted account of the goings-on, and Sheriff John Brown comments that he saw Quantum at the undertaker's. He suggests it's a little hot for coffee. Quantum takes the hint and leaves. Sheriff John Brown tells Deputy Ass Hat to make sure Quantum leaves town. As an afterthought, he also orders Deputy Ass Hat to leave the Skag alone. Deputy Ass Hat shrugs his relative compliance.