Quantum Leap (2022)
Season 1, Episode 12:
Let Them Play
Written and directed by Shakina
Original air date: 2/6/2023
Lakehill High School, 2012
Ben leaps into Carlos Mendez, who coaches a girl's high school basketball team. With less than a minute to go, Ben calls a time-out; Addison informs him that his team, the Lions, ultimately lost this game, and with it a chance to go to the regional championship. Ben makes the snap decision to pull an injured player and replace her with the benched #23, a girl named Gia. In the seconds that follow, the opposing team scores, but at the last second Gia makes a three-point shot that gives the Lions the game.
Ben is then stunned to hear a few boos from the crowd, and Addison informs him that the girl he just put in, Gia, is transgender. And also his daughter.
Tropes:
- An Aesop: Transgender children need to be loved and accepted by their communities and have the right to play sports or whatever they want to do.
- Call-Back:
- In "A Decent Proposal," Magic revealed that he would see Sam's face in dreams after having been a leapee himself. Dottie has the same visions.
- When Gia runs away, Ben says that she is not his first "runaway kid".
- Dark and Troubled Past: Ian reveals that they attempted suicide before they turned thirteen.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Upon hearing Dottie's poetry at the poetry slam, Magic realizes that Dottie doesn't remember meeting Ben because she was a leapee.
- Helicopter Parents: Played with. Gia's parents — and Ben, by extension — are well-meaning and supportive, but they're also overly protective of their daughter. Gia is horrified that they kept watch over her and intervene during the car wash, and she's humiliated to hear about their original agreement with the principal. She eventually calls them out and asks them to back off.
- Hope Spot: Gia and Brandi reconcile and she gains confidence…and then she hears that her parents had to agree to bench her when they first moved in. This results in her lashing out and running away.
- I Have This Friend: Ben tries to empathize with Gia, only to be reminded that he isn't himself. So he talks about his friend Ben Song, who was the only Korean kid at his school.
- It's Personal:
- Addison talks about the transgender ban in the military, saying that she regrets saying nothing about it, and just letting it happen to honorable people. She then tells Ben that Gia runs away and is never found, and they are NOT going to lose her.
- Ian develops a new algorithm for Ziggy to find out what happened after Gia's disappearance, partially because they considered Gia's buzzer-beater "iconic," but mostly because of their experiences with being nonbinary and wanting to commit suicide after not feeling like they fit in, and empathizing with what Gia is going through.
- Meanwhile, in the Future…: During the game at the end, the project team back in the future cheers Gia on while watching the Imaging Chamber feed on Ziggy's monitors. Addison even sneaks Ian into the Imaging Chamber so they can watch the game firsthand.
- Missing Time: Dottie uses poetry to describe experiencing this. That, combined with their visions of another face in the mirror, lead to Magic and Jenn realizing that someone had leaped into them.
- No True Scotsman: Brandi's mother scoffs at the idea that there might be churches that offer support and love to trans people.
- Nothing but Hits: "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO, "We Are Young" by fun., "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen, and "Firework" by Katy Perry.
- Obnoxious Entitled Housewife: Brandi's mother is a transphobic and nasty person, using her daughter as an excuse to shun and harass Gia.
- Reasonable Authority Figure:
- The referee at the basketball game at the end, who says "right on" when he sees that Gia is on the roster.
- Also, the teacher's union rep, who says that kids need to learn these kinds of life lessons, and that Carlos' job is safe in case the school district comes after him for playing Gia.
- The Reveal: Magic and Jenn learn who told Ben to leap: Ian.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Clearly averted by Ian, who recalls the events of the basketball game at the beginning of the episode as Ben had changed them rather than as the original history. Addison does know the original history, likely because she learned of it through Ziggy rather than having lived it herself.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!:
- As the school's basketball coach, Ben ultimately does this by letting Gia play despite orders from the school principal to keep her benched.
- Immediately after, the union rep shows up, explains that he was told to have "Carlos" pull Gia, but that he refuses to do it and would back Carlos up on the matter.
- Shout-Out:
- Gia and her youth group discuss The Twilight Saga and The Hunger Games.
- Miriam tells Gia to wash up for dinner and not play Angry Birds.
- Stranger Behind the Mask: Set up, but subverted: Dottie, the person who Janis apparently identified as being the one who told Ben to leap, has never been so much as hinted at on the show before. However, as it turns out, they were not really Dottie at the time.
- Think of the Children!: Margie, Amanda's mother, claims that her reason for not wanting Gia around is to protect her own daughter.
- Title In: "2012 Lakehill High School" at the beginning.
- Totally Radical: Ben awkwardly says "swag" after being reminded of the car wash.
- Trans Tribulations: Pretty much the entire point of the episode: a transgender teen wanting to be who she really is despite prejudice.
- Unwanted Assistance: Gia wants her parents to stop trying to protect her, and wants them to stop seeing see her being trans as a burden. She just wants to live her life normally.
- Very Special Episode: This episode focuses on the lives of transgender children and their parents and condemns the prejudice they face from their communities.
- Wham Shot: Dottie is apparently a decent artist, having sketched the person "driving" them during the week for which they have no memory: Ian.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Ben leaps out immediately after the Lions win the game, and we don't learn any details about what happens to Gia or her family.
