Line #47 Heartwarming/QuantumLeap


1	Heartwarming moments in ''Series/QuantumLeap'', sorted by season.
2	----
3	[[foldercontrol]]
4	[[folder:Season 1]]
5	* The ending from "The Color Of Truth," where Sam's racist little old lady asks him to sit and have lunch with her in the café.
6	** Needs to be expanded on. Sam leaps into her black butler. Part of the episode is based on Sam trying to convince said woman that racism is wrong. The ending shows it's starting to take, after said old woman helped him get a black woman emergency treatment in a white hospital (she was moved to another hospital once her condition was stable, but it's still an important step).
7	* Part TearJerker, Sam is motivated to help out his leapee's sister, Cheryl, in "Camikazi Kid" because of the parallels between her future and his own sister's life of having married an abusive alcoholic.
8	-->'''Sam''': She was my sister- she ''is'' my sister... I should've known. Maybe I could have helped her, maybe I could've... saved her from a lot of pain.\
9	'''Al''': Yeah, but... it wasn't your fault.\
10	'''Sam''': Maybe not... but if I can't stop Cheryl from marrying Bob...it will be.
11	** You really get the sense that, all things considered, [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther Cheryl really loves her brother Cameron]]. In fact, seeing Bob almost run him over in a rage in the climax is what causes her to dump Bob.
12	** Near the end, Al announces his presence by singing along to "Let It Be Me" by the Everly Brothers on the radio. Sam smiles and joins in, and they sing a verse together before stopping and greeting each other warmly. With all the hardship the two go through, it's adorable to see them just be friends.
13	** What leads to Sam leaping out? Getting Cameron and Jill together by giving Jill her first kiss.
14	[[/folder]]
15
16	[[folder:Season 2]]
17	* In "Honeymoon Express," Al keeps pushing Sam to affect a major historical change (stop the U2 incident, in this case) in order to prove to the government the Project is working and keep funding intact. After Al finally explains all that to him, Sam initially brushes it off.
18	-->'''Sam:''' In case you haven't noticed, Al, I don't need the Project. They aren't leaping me around anymore; {{God}} is! ''(walks off, but then comes back)'' They shut down the Project, you won't be able to contact me.\
19	'''Al:''' I was thinkin' of tyin' a couple tin cans on a piece of string.\
20	'''Sam:''' When are they pulling the plug?\
21	'''Al:''' Now. This is our last contact.\
22	'''Sam:''' I-I don't think I can make it without you, Al.\
23	'''Al:''' I don't wanna hear you can't make it without me. Of course you can, if you had to!
24	* "Good Morning, Peoria": while it's also hilarious, it's nice to watch Sam and everyone else dancing to some catchy music.
25	* Al wanting to save Jimmy in "Jimmy" because he lost his mentally retarded sister to pneumonia while she was at a mental institution. Also just Jimmy's brother and nephew and how much they care for him.
26	** The full explanation, which doubles as a TearJerker:
27	--->'''Al''': There was a girl named "Trudy." She was retarded, Sam! Her IQ was lower than Jimmy's. And all the kids in the neighborhood, they used to tease her. Kids can be cruel. They'd call her names, like "dummy" and "monkey face." And I hated it. And I used to get in fights all the time over this. But that's what big brothers are for, right? My mother couldn't handle it. That's probably why she ran off with this stupid encyclopedia salesman. But my dad tried to keep us all together. He was a construction worker. He went from job to job, and then when it took him to the Middle East, I wound up in an orphanage and she wound up in an institution. When I was old enough, I went back there for her, but it was too late—she was gone, Sam. Pneumonia, they said. ''How does a sixteen-year-old girl die from pneumonia in 1953, Sam?!''
28	* Sam quoting ''Literature/DonQuixote'' to Al at the end of "Catch A Falling Star" to prove he's going to get over his crush on his old piano teacher.
29	-->'''Sam''': What matter wounds to the body of a knight-errant? For each time he falls, he shall rise again and woe to the wicked! Al?\
30	'''Al''': Here, your grace.\
31	'''Sam''': My armor, my sword.\
32	'''Al''': More misadventures?\
33	'''Sam''': Adventures, old friend.
34	* Al's interactions with Theresa in "Another Mother". When she's scared that Sam has leaped into her mother, Al does his best to befriend her and reassures her by convincing her that he and Sam are angels there to help her older brother. By the episode's end, he's bonded with her so much that he's reluctant for the leap to be over.
35	** Speaking of her older brother, as Sam and Al are chasing his kidnappers, Sam asks Al to stay with him even though he can't do anything to protect him. Al does and snarls at one of the guys--who's begun to advance towards the terrified boy--"[[PapaWolf You touch this kid]], and ''I'll kill you''".
36	* In "All Americans," Chuey (the best friend of the leapee) agrees to throw the football game to clear his mother's debt with a slumlord, even though there are college scouts present and the game is their best chance to get the sports scholarships that will enable them to go to college. He feigns injury to sit out and Sam tries to figure out how to change things. Al tells him to just quit, too, because Chuey would never try to damage his best friend's life under any circumstances.
37	-->'''Sam:''' They're that close?\
38	'''Al:''' Yeah. Just like you and me.
39	** For added heartwarming, Sam follows this up by resolving the problem of Chuey's mother's debt by successfully getting her together with his leapee's father, who's been obviously in love with her all episode.
40	* The ending of “Maybe Baby”: Sam and Bunny manage to get to Kristy’s mother’s house in New Mexico, with Reed getting immediately arrested by a cop due to him recognizing the guy who had previously scammed real estate investors out of millions. All that’s left to be done is to turn the baby over to her mom, which Sam manages to do while also convincing Bunny (who had gotten so attached to the baby, she doesn’t want to give it back) that everything will be fine. And as Sam proudly embraces both women, he leaps.
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder:Season 3]]
44	* Each moment of "The Leap Home, Part 1" that Sam reunites with a member of his family.
45	* Meanwhile, in "The Leap Home, Part 2", you have one moment towards the end (after Sam manages to successfully save his brother, Tom), that has a ''ton'' of unspoken implications[[note]]It's important to point out that Sam had leaped into one one of Tom's squad mates, Herbert "Magic" Williams, and Sam himself had previously tried to warn Tom about the date of his future death during an earlier leap into his own past self[[/note]]:
46	-->'''Tom''': Hey! Hey, it's midnight. It's April 9th, and I'm still alive! (grasps Sam's shoulder; looks him dead in the eye) And it's all thanks to you, [[WhamLine little brother]].
47	** Al agrees to help Sam abandon the squad's mission and go back to try to save Tom. The end of the episode reveals that Al was one of the [=POWs=] the squad was attempting to rescue, which he knew all along but kept to himself because he recognised that Sam needed to save Tom more right now.
48	--->'''Sam:''' You could've been free.\
49	'''Al:''' I was free. (''points to head'') Up here, I was always free.
50	* The ending to “A Little Miracle”: Sam and Al’s Christmas Carol scheme manages to successfully change Michael Blake. While he still builds his building, he makes a point of adding the mission he was planning to demolish into the structure. It also is revealed that he falls in love with the Salvation Army captain Laura Downey, who he kept butting heads with because of the mission; they get married six months later and have three kids. Furthermore, it’s heavily implied that ''God himself'' played a part in this conclusion:
51	-->'''Sam''': I wonder if he would've knocked on that door if you hadn't put the star up [above the mission].\
52	'''Al''': [[WhamLine I... I didn't put... I didn't put the star up there.]]\
53	(the two silently contemplate this)\
54	'''Sam''': Merry Christmas, Al.\
55	'''Al''': Merry Christmas, Sam. (Sam leaps)
56	* In "Future Boy," Sam's friendship with Moe "Captain Galaxy" Stein is very heartwarming, helped by Moe already seeming to regard his onscreen sidekick Kenny as a friend. They even bond over discussing time travel theories, with Sam visibly happy to have found someone who has a similar understanding of time travel. The music really sells how much that moment means to both Moe and Sam.
57	-->'''Sam:''' Well, lemme ask you, what would happen if, uh, you would ball the string, right? And then each day of your life would touch another day? And then you could travel on one place on the string to another, thus enabling you to move back and forth within your own lifetime, maybe?\
58	'''Moe:''' That's it. That's it! Then I could actually--\
59	'''Sam:''' --quantum leap?\
60	'''Moe:''' ''[thinking and smiling]'' "Quantum leap." I like that! I like that a lot!
61	** Moe is certainly a very dotty old man, but he's very friendly with the people he meets, he takes his status as a children's role model very seriously, and he is generally very optimistic. Even his "timonometer" invention is an attempt to patch things up with his daughter.
62	** At the end, Al says that Moe ends up having a happy retirement living with his daughter and entertaining neighborhood children with stories about the future.
63	** "Captain Galaxy's" final [[FourthWallMailSlot viewer letter]] before retiring comes from none other than a 4-year-old Sam Beckett, thus revealing that Sam had forgotten that he'd been a Captain Galaxy fan as a child, and that he'd spent the leap hanging out with and saving his idol.
64	* In "Shock Theater," a bout of electroshock damages Sam's memory and causes him to keep shifting between different people he's leapt into.
65	-->'''Sam:''' Who are you?\
66	'''Al:''' I'm Al. I'm your buddy. I gave you your first break. And you're the only person that believed in me when I gave up believing in myself. You brought me on this project.
67	** Al and Dr. Beeks are using emergency power to talk to Sam, who has taken on the personality of "Kid" Cody. During the conversation, Al tells Sam about how he leaps in and out of people's lives, fixing things.
68	--->'''Sam:''' So I'm a good guy?\
69	'''Al:''' ''[smiling]'' Oh -- oh yeah. You're a ''damn'' good guy.
70	** There's also the end of the episode: after successfully getting Sam shocked again, he proceeds to leap again. When he regains consciousness, it is made immediately clear that Sam's brain is fixed, due to him noticing Al (much to the two's relief). [[HappyEndingOverride And then Al and Sam realize they've effectively switched places;]] [[OhCrap Al is the leaper, Sam the Observer...]]
71	[[/folder]]
72
73	[[folder:Season 4]]
74	* During "Permanent Wave", as a bedtime story to Kyle, Sam acts out [[ContinuityNod a Captain Galaxy and Future Boy story]] with him.
75	* In "Raped", Sam leaps into a rape victim and believes he's there to power through the trial and earn the victim justice, but the case falls through. Afterwards, Sam and Al discussing how, in the future, the family (the [=McBains=]) moves away shortly after the trial, presumably due to humiliation when the attacker reappears to exact revenge for putting him through the trial by another rape. Sam makes short work of the attacker (including possibly the most satisfying groin attack on film). The parents come out and with the following exchange one just knows the family is going to be alright:
76	-->'''Dad:''' Sweetie, what happened?\
77	'''Sam:''' He tried to do it again, only this time, I wasn't pinned inside of a car.\
78	'''Dad:''' [stunned] You did that yourself?\
79	'''Sam:''' Don't act so surprised, Dad. I mean, after all, I am a [=McBain=].
80	* In "Unchained," Sam finds himself chained to a prisoner named Jasper and suddenly in the midst of an escape from the chain gang. As they try to evade a corrupt warden, Sam winds up having to tell Jasper about Al. After securing their freedom and about to part ways, Jasper comes running back.
81	-->'''Jasper:''' Say goodbye to Al for me!\
82	'''Sam:''' He can hear you.\
83	'''Jasper:''' Thanks, Al! ''(runs off)''\
84	'''Sam:''' ''(smiling)'' Thanks, Al.
85	* "Temptation Eyes". Sam falls in love with a psychic who sees him as his true self and has a blissful two weeks with her. Considering all the emotional torture he goes through--as well as being separated from a wife he doesn't even remember--it's wonderful to see him in a love story, as brief as it is.
86	[[/folder]]
87
88	[[folder:Season 5]]
89	* In "Harvey Lee Oswald," Oswald's personality has completely taken over Sam's personality by the time Kennedy is showing up in Dallas. Al is horrified to watch Sam/Oswald setting up the sniper shot and tries to snap Sam back to himself. Just before Oswald can pull the trigger, Al realizes something: "Sam! You're 10 years old, back on your farm! Your dad is still alive!" It's ''Sam'' who says "Dad?"...and leaps out of Oswald...
90	** ...into Secret Service Agent Clint Hill, who jumps onto the limo just as Kennedy gets shot. It veers into DownerEnding mode for Sam until Al points out that, in the "original" timeline, Jackie was killed too: [[BittersweetEnding Sam was meant to save her]]. The episode ends with [[TearJerker a montage of Jackie leading the nation through mourning]].
91	* After Leon Stiles forces his way out of the complex in "Killin' Time", Al decides to have Gushie take over for him as Sam's observer as he goes after Stiles himself. And when Gushie asks if Al is sure he wants to this?
92	-->'''Al''': For five years, I've been watchin' Sam Beckett risk his life for total strangers. ''Think about it.''
93	* From "Star Light, Star Bright": "Gushie, if I should suddenly pop out of existence, I want to leave everything to my first wife, Beth." ''Dawww!''
94	** Sam's belief in the UFO he saw and the leapee's theories about it. Al tries to walk him back, claiming he's not objective.
95	--->'''Sam:''' Are you kidding? If all scientists were objective, we wouldn't have the light bulb. I mean, we never would even have landed on the moon.\
96	'''Al:''' This is '66! You got three years before you go to the moon.\
97	'''Sam:''' I would not be traveling around in time. You gotta have the dream first, Al. Great scientists are never objective. And that's why people always think that they're loony, which is exactly what they think about Max. But don't you see? I mean, don't you get it, Al? You see, a discovery like this--I mean, it could mean... I feel the way I felt the first time I saw my time-travel calculations working. I'm so unbelievably lucky to be there on the cutting edge of solving one of mankind's oldest riddles. And now? Now, I have the chance to solve a second one in the same lifetime. I mean...nobody gets that chance. Nobody.
98	** Although it's [[MoodWhiplash immediately undercut]] when we see his leapee's family [[TearJerker see what looks like their father talking to thin air and reacting accordingly by putting him in a home]].
99	*** [[ZigZaggedTrope And]] ''[[ZigZaggedTrope then]]'' [[ZigZaggedTrope it's overcut]] by how the leap ends: the leapee's son and grandson bust Sam out (once it's clear they actually handed him over to the Washington men), the UFO returns, and according to Ziggy-
100	---->'''Al''': (reads from the handlink; looks up) Hop aboard, Sam.\
101	'''Sam''': What?\
102	'''Al''': [[TheAdventureContinues 98.6% chance the old coot is going to take the ride of a lifetime!]]
103	* The opening moments to "Deliver Us From Evil" when Sam is positively ecstatic to have leapt back into Jimmy and be with the [=LaMotta=] family. He even narrates that leaping is lonely, and it's clear that being around the [=LaMottas=] again makes him feel a sense of family.
104	* In "Trilogy," Sam and Al realize that Sam unintentionally conceived a child, Sammie Jo Fuller, with the woman he's been helping the past couple of leaps. At the end of the trilogy, when Al talks about the positive changes he's caused, Sam asks how he knows; Al responds, "She told me." He explains that, thanks to Sam, his daughter goes from writing tech manuals for a no-name computer company to being a member of Project Quantum Leap--and she has an idea on how to bring him home.
105	** However, Sammie Jo doesn't know that Sam is her father, and Al warns that, once Sam leaps out, his "swiss-cheesed memory" will cause him to forget it as well. Sam simply responds: "I'll remember."
106	* From "Promised Land," after Sam inquires a local couple about what the Beckett family in this time period.
107	-->'''Husband''': Everyone in this part of the county knows Tom and Martha Beckett. Fine family. One of their boys just came back from Vietnam.\
108	'''Sam''': ''(smiling)'' Tom.
109	* For such a divisive episode, "Mirror Image" has a lot of heartwarming moments.
110	** Sam's quick friendship with the jovial Miner Ziggy, who looks like Moe "Captain Galaxy" Stein, is effectively a revisit of Sam's brief friendship with Moe.
111	** The episode also effectively cuts to the quick of Sam's mission.
112	--->'''Bartender Al:''' [[ArmorPiercingQuestion Why did you create Project Quantum Leap, Sam?]]\
113	'''Sam:''' To travel in time.\
114	'''Bartender Al:''' Why did you want to travel through time?\
115	'''Sam:''' Because... I-I wanted to, um...\
116	'''Bartender Al:''' To make the world a better place?\
117	'''Sam:''' Of course, to make the world a better place.\
118	'''Bartender Al:''' To put right what once went wrong?\
119	'''Sam:''' Yes, but not one life at a time.\
120	'''Bartender Al:''' Ah, I got Mother Teresa here. Do you really think that all you've done is change a few lives?\
121	'''Sam:''' Basically, yes.\
122	'''Bartender Al:''' Well, at the risk of over inflating your ego, Sam, you've done more. The lives you've touched, touched others. And those lives, others! You've done a lot of good, Sam Beckett. And you can do a lot more.
123	** The almost SadisticChoice between going home or facing more challenging leaps:
124	--->'''Bartender Al:''' Where would you like to go, Sam?\
125	'''Sam:''' Home. I'd like to go home. [[GenreSavvy But I can't, can I?]] [[FriendshipMoment I've got a wrong to put right for Al.]] You knew, didn't you?
126	** The final line of the series, as Sam tells a little story.
127	--->"Instead of 'once upon a time,' let's start with the ending. Al's alive, and he's comin' home."
128	** And TheReveal (via title card) that Beth never remarried, and eventually had four daughters with Al. Given how gentle Al was with Teresa in "Another Mother" -- which he had acknowledged by wistfully telling Sam he would've loved to have been a father -- in addition to the kindness he shows Jessica in "A Tale of Two Sweeties," it's great to hear that he finally got to be a dad and settle down with a stable family.

Context Heartwarming / QuantumLeap