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Quantum Leap (2022)
Season 2, Episode 5:
One Night in Koreatown
Written by Benjamin Raan & Deric A. Hughes
Directed by Tamika Miller
Original air date: 11/1/2023
April 29, 1992
Ben leaps into Daniel Park, an 18-year-old Korean-American working for his father Jin's shoe store in Los Angeles' Koreatown at the start of the 1992 LA riots.
Following Ben's blowup with Addison during the previous leap, Magic steps into the Imaging Chamber to assist Ben this time.
Tropes:
- The Alcoholic: Magic. Beth confronts Magic about a liquor bottle she found in the trash. Magic later opens up to Ben about how he'd fallen heavily into the bottle after the Project lost Ben and was shut down, and how Beth helped him out of it. At the end of the episode, Magic calls Beth and asks her to go with him to an AA meeting.
- Bedmate Reveal: A variation: Magic is shown making breakfast for himself and someone else, and looking at some fancy earrings. We see someone in a robe walk down the stairs to greet him, and it's revealed to be Beth Calavicci, who Magic is in a relationship with.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Ben, speaking Korean, calls out Jin on his racist behavior and stubborn attitude being the reason that they are trapped in the store during the riot, noting that he had suggested leaving before the streets were locked down. Jin's only response is to ask when his son learned to speak Korean.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Magic opens up to Jenn about his experiences during the race riots of the long, hot summer of 1967
. While visiting some family in Detroit while on leave from the Navy, Magic and his cousin Phil were pulled over and brutalized by the police.Magic: All they saw were two Black men in a car they assumed was stolen. I tried to explain I was on leave, but they decided we were part of the problem.
Jenn: What did they do?
Magic: Two of them pulled us from the car, threw us on the ground, put their boots on our necks and pointed their guns at us while the others beat us with their batons and left us on the street like we were no better than trash. It's a miracle we both survived. - Internal Homage: To "Black on White on Fire," which was about Sam leaping into the Los Angeles Watts riots of 1965.
- Mistaken for Thief:
- Jin tells "Daniel" to keep an eye on Dwain, who he believes is a thief due to racial profiling.
- After the shop is ransacked and Dwain calls Jin out for profiling him, everyone hears a noise coming from the back door. Thinking it's another looter, Jin immediately turns and shoots, hitting Sonny who had just returned with supplies.
- Not What It Looks Like: Beth confronts Magic over an empty booze bottle found in the recycling bin. Magic insists that he had found in the back of the pantry, emptied it into the sink and disposed of the empty bottle, though Beth remains skeptical. Magic's later conversation with Ben implies that he was being truthful.
- Nothing but Hits: The song heard immediately after Ben leaps in is "Poison" by Bell Biv DeVoe.
- Profiling: A theme of the episode.
- Jin automatically assumes that Dwain is a hoodlum because Dwain is black, and treats him with hostility. Dwain is actually one of the top students in his class, has offers from Ivy League schools, and is looking to go into business with Sonny selling designer shoes. Dwain specifically calls Jin out for this profiling while they're sheltering in the ransacked store.
- Similarly, Dwain is repeatedly profiled by the police, who try to attack him because they think he's another rioter due to his race.
- Magic tells Jenn his story about being beaten by cops in 1967 Detroit, who assumed that he and his cousin had stolen the car they were riding in because they were black.
- Suddenly Bilingual: Played with. Ben — who speaks fluent Korean — gives a Kirk Summation to Jin in Korean. Jin's only response to "Daniel" is, "When did you learn to speak Korean?"
- Thousand-Yard Stare: After seeing Dwain running from and hiding from the cops, Magic excuses himself and exits the Imaging Chamber with a vacant look on his face. Jenn and Ian note that the last time they saw Magic look like that, he'd been drinking.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Magic uses this when talking with Beth over an empty bottle of booze found in the recycling bin, stating that he had found it and emptied it into the sink rather than drinking it. A later scene implies that he was telling the truth.
