Villainess Review: Carla (Quantum Leap)

I am old enough to remember NBC's original Quantum Leap series, which starred Scott Bakula as the main protagonist, Dr. Sam Beckett, and Dean Stockwell as Al Calavicci. I still haven't watched the original, but when I learned about a reboot, I was in. The reboot series, which premiered on September 19, 2022, stars Raymond Lee as Dr. Ben Song, the central character who is in the same role as Bakula's Sam Beckett, and he is assisted by a hologram of his fiancee, Addison (who is similar to Stockwell's Al Calavicci). I still have the emotions I felt when the premiere made a tribute to Dean Stockwell, who passed away last year, but even so, I was still looking for that one-shot central villainess. It only took four weeks, but we have one!

The promo for the episode, "A Decent Proposal," was awesome for reasons I'll explain later. So far, Ben had leapt into a robbery conspirator, an astronaut, and a boxer, but regarding this episode, Ben's leap was a female bounty hunter named Eva Sandoval, who was in a relationship with her co-worker Jake (again, more on him later). Eva's bounty in the episode (which, mostly, took place in 1981) was a woman named Tammy Jean Jessup, who was supposed to appear in court regarding unpaid parking tickets. A visit to Tammy's apartment sees Tammy attempt to talk, bribe, and even "sob" her way out of appearing in court, but things get serious when a pair of armed men appear at the apartment, and have their sights set on Tammy.

Tammy escapes with Jake, Eva, and Addison, and it's revealed that the men after Tammy are aligned with a drug cartel known as La Serpiente. In addition, Tammy reveals that her lover, Zack, had been working for them through his nightclub, Carte Blanche, though the couple had been planing to turn in the cartel. We see Tammy's lovesick persona along with the clashing between Jake and Eva regarding the former's proposal, as Eva is described as being too focused with her job. As for Tammy, the group discovered that she disappeared, with the deduction that she was off to Carte Blanche in the name of love.

As it turned out, the assumption was only half-right.

The trio arrived at Carte Blanche to find Zack tied up and being confronted by La Serpiente, as well as Tammy...or is it Carla now? After all, that's what Zack called her: Carla. So it turns out that Carla is actually an evil drug queen, and she tortured Zack because he was going to turn the cartel in and expose her as the big bad boss. Zack's denial was only met with a few bullets in his body, courtesy of the cold-blooded Carla, who sent her henchmen after Jake and Eva. Addison revealed that a file from the present day contained suspicions that the cartel was run by a woman, and meanwhile, Carla was planning her escape--obtaining her briefcase full of money, a passport, and a gun. She sees her henchmen being detained by police, but she also sees Jake and Eva, leading to the villainess holding the former at gunpoint and threatening to kill him. Eva's attempt to talk down Carla comes up short, but Jake starts to mention how he and Eva met at Christmas, with Ben and Addison realizing that Eva's gift from Jake was a taser. Eva gets the taser, shoots it at Carla's briefcase, and the drug queenpin is arrested by Jake, and convicted of all of her crimes.

"A Decent Proposal" is the fourth episode of the Quantum Leap reboot, and aired on NBC on October 10, 2022. The episode's main villainess (the first one from the series), Carla, was played by the amazingly talented Sofia Pernas. I first saw Sofia Pernas in Disney+'s original film, Secret Society of Second-Born Royals, and I am a huge fan since she starred on the CBS/Paramount+ series, Blood & Treasure, as Lexi Vaziri. I had wanted Pernas to play a villainess, and boy, did she deliver with this role. Carla was your typical ruthless drug queenpin; she was manipulative even under her Tammy persona, but after her heel turn and reveal as the villainous Carla, we see her true ruthless and murderous nature come out. It's literally a tale of two personalities, and regarding Pernas, she was golden in her "Tammy" scenes, but showed out after her villainy was unveiled, as we see Pernas go all in on Carla's sinister personality.

Sofia Pernas was part of the main reason why I was excited for this episode, as the other part included Justin Hartley, who appeared as Jake. Hartley and Pernas are married in real life, and the couple's guest appearance was heavily promoted in the week leading to the episode. Of course, being a big time This is Us fan, I couldn't help by beam over Hartley's appearance; plus I'm a fan of real-life couples working together. It's not the first time; Hartley and Pernas also co-starred on CBS' The Young and the Restless together.

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Check out Carla's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!