Quantum Leap
Season 2, Episode 13:
Another Mother
Teresa: That's not my mommy, that's a man. So's the guy in the yucky shirt.
Al: This is my favorite shirt! This is cutting-edge stuff!
Teresa: It's yucky!
Written by Deborah PrattAl: This is my favorite shirt! This is cutting-edge stuff!
Teresa: It's yucky!
Directed by Joseph L. Scanlan
Airdate: January 10, 1990
September 30, 1981
Sam leaps into Linda Bruckner, a recently divorced mother of three, who lives in Scottsdale, Arizona. He's there to stop the suspicious disappearance of Linda's 15 year old son, Kevin, later that evening. Meanwhile, Linda's youngest child Teresa can see Al, and sees Sam for who he really is.
Tropes
- Anything but That!: Al is less than pleased to learn that Kevin and his friends are "Demons and Dragons freaks".
- Awful Truth: Al can't bring himself to admit to Teresa that, chances are, they will never see each other again once Sam leaps.
- Aww Look They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite the customary bickering between siblings, Susan is sincerely relieved that Kevin is okay after his ordeal.
- Broken Masquerade: Downplayed: One of the complications of this episode is the fact that not only is Teresa young enough to see Sam as he is, but she can also see Al.
- But Now I Must Go: At the end of the episode, Sam senses that the leap-out is about to happen, and lets Al know. Al sadly tells Teresa that her mom is about to come back, and that he and Sam are about to leave. But he promises to try and figure out a way to visit Teresa again.
- Children Are Innocent: While Ziggy says that it's because people under 5 years of age "exist in a natural alpha state," Al surmises that Teresa can see Al and Sam because small children are naturally pure.
- Creepy Stalker Van: The killers in this episode drive one into Scottsdale, and drive around looking for a child to abduct.
- Depraved Bisexual: Implied with Kevin's kidnappers. It's pretty clear what one of them is about to do before Sam/Linda shows up, but when the other one sees her, he gets a sleazy grin that makes it obvious that he's just as pleased to get a chance at her too—they pin her arms and rip her dress before Sam's skills kick in and he disposes of them.
- Disappeared Dad: It's mentioned that Linda's ex-husband ran off with "some bimbo," and Al even calls it a midlife crisis.
- Engineered Public Confession: A variation. Kevin's friends convince Jackie to seduce Kevin while they hide out in a closet listening in, so that he'll confess to being a virgin. When he does, they make fun of him for it, and say they're going to spread the news around school the next day.
- Everything's Better with Sparkles: In this episode, whenever Al's hologram is re-centered someplace else, he leaves behind magic-looking sparkles.
- Exact Words / Half-Truth: Al was correct in telling Teresa Sam was there for Kevin. He just opted to spare her the real explanation...
- Extremely Short Timespan: Sam leaps in on the morning of September 30, 1981, saves Kevin later that evening, and leaps out the next day around midday when Kevin stands up to his friends in the lunchroom at school.
- Gender Bender: Sam leaps into suburban mother Linda Bruckner.
- God Guise: When Al explains to Teresa that he and Sam are there to help Kevin, Teresa asks if they are angels. Rather than try to explain quantum leaping to a five year old, they decide to go along with it.
- Hypocrite: Despite being just as virginal as Kevin, one of his so-called friends happily participates in the stunt to humiliate him.
- I Know Kung Fu: Right as Sam is being accosted by the two kidnappers, he remembers that he knows how to fight:Al: You know judo, you know karate, you know, uh, uh, mui thai, you know tae kwon do...
- I'll Kill You!: Said by Al with Tranquil Fury when one of the killers starts climbing into the back of the van where Kevin is tied up.Al: You lay one hand on this kid, you slimebag, and I'll kill you. I don't know how, but I'll kill you.
- In Spite of a Nail: In order to keep Kevin from going out and disappearing, Sam refuses to let Kevin go see Raiders of the Lost Ark. Kevin sneaks out anyway, as he's determined to lose his virginity to Jackie, and eventually ends up in the exact same predicament as in the original timeline.
- In-Universe Soundtrack:
- When Sam leaps in, "Call Me" by Blondie is playing, and it promptly stops when Sam unplugs the radio in Linda's kitchen.
- Jackie has "Give Me the Night" by George Benson playing on a cassette tape when she talks to Kevin at her house.
- It Will Never Catch On: A downplayed example, but Susan is stressed out about missing that evening's episode of Magnum, P.I..note Sam tells her that it'll be on for the next eight years and she'll have plenty of time to watch it.
- Just in Time: One of the kidnappers has begun advancing towards the terrified Kevin when he's blinded by the headlights of Linda's approaching car, which then runs the van off the road.
- Kids Love Dinosaurs: At the end of the episode, while Sam is waiting to leap out, Al entertains Teresa with holographic projections of dinosaurs. Teresa is able to name all of them.
- Lethal Chef: Downplayed: Sam winds up having to buy pizza after accidentally burning dinner.
- Lying to Protect Your Feelings:
- When Teresa asks why Sam and Al are there, Al claims it's to help Kevin out with his swim meet. No sooner does she leave the room, Sam asks Al for the truth. Cue Al grimly informing Sam that Kevin goes missing later in the day, and they Never Found the Body.
- When Sam realizes it's about time to leap, Al has the unfortunate duty to inform Teresa that they have to leave now. And when she asks if he'll come back some day, Al settles his gut and claims he will.
- Malaproper: "What's 'secular undercourse'?"
- My God, What Have I Done?: Jackie is horrified about how her actions have embarrassed Kevin. She later apologizes to him at school and helps him stand up to his so-called "friends."
- Never Found the Body: What happened to Kevin in the original timeline. All the authorities ever found was Kevin's bloody clothes in an abandoned van.
- Nothing but Hits: "Call Me" by Blondie, "Shake it Up" by The Carsnote , "Give Me the Night" by George Benson, and "He's So Shy" by the Pointer Sisters are all heard in the episode.
- Nothing Is Scarier: There's no backstory or names given to the killers in this episode, and they don't have any lines. There's also no ending exposition telling what becomes of them after Sam kicks their asses.
- Omniscient Database: Ziggy, per the norm, who somehow knows when Kevin's friend Ox loses his own virginity.Ox: Man, with a mother like that, I'd still be a virgin too.
Al: You are still a virgin, pimple-puss. (looks at the handlink) And you're gonna be a virgin for another six years. - Papa Wolf: Played with, since Sam has effectively leaped into a Mama Bear role. He becomes very protective of the Bruckner kids, and stops at nothing to rescue Kevin from the killers. Al as well, who tries to reassure Kevin even though he can't see or hear him and vows to kill his kidnapper even though there's no conceivable way that he could.
- Parental Sexuality Squick: Kevin admits to his mother (actually Sam) that the guys embarrassed him over being a virgin. Sam tells him it's nothing for him to be ashamed of—"I used to be one too"—only for Kevin to have a typical reaction to learning anything about his mother's sex life.
- Peer-Pressured Bully: Jackie initially has misgivings over messing with Kevin, but she's ultimately convinced to go along with it when one of Kevin's friends, who is class president, says he'll take her to the Mardi Gras dance where she'll be crowned dance queen. Jackie reluctantly agrees since she's already told her mother that she'll be dance queen, and comes to regret it later.
- Present-Day Past: 1981 in this episode doesn't look like two years removed from The '70s. Most of the home decor and characters' fashions in this episode look more like what was popular in 1989 when the episode was filmed.
- Production Throwback: Susan is a huge fan of Donald P. Bellisario's series Magnum, P.I., and is later seen watching the episode "The Black Orchid" on TV.
- Riddle for the Ages: The exact deal with the kidnappers and what became of Kevin's body in the original history.
- Sex as Rite-of-Passage: Kevin buys into the belief that a guy has to get laid, even though he's only a teenager. When "Linda" informs him "she" was once a virgin too, Kevin explicitly states that it's different because she was a girl.
- Shout-Out: While musing on Teresa freaking out at seeing Sam, Kevin does an impersonation of Rod Serling.
- Slut-Shaming: Kevin's friends do this when talking about Jackie. Kevin defends her, though, which leads to the rest of the plot.
- Struggling Single Mother: Linda — and at least for now, Sam — has to balance the needs of her three children more than anything, and it's clear that she's having trouble doing so by herself. When Sam leaps in, he finds a scene of complete chaos.
- Take That!: Kevin determines that Teresa's freakouts about her "mommy" are because of Sesame Street.
- That One Case: Not only was the situation for Kevin in the original history ultimately a cold case, but Linda was so distraught about her son's disappearance, she refused to let the case be closed.
- Unconventional Learning Experience: Played for Laughs: When Kevin, astounded by how Sam took out the two kidnappers, asks how his "mom" was able to do that, Sam covers by saying it was from Girl Scouts.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Kevin's friends are jerks, but they surely couldn't have anticipated him being abducted by a pair of rapists/killers after he fled their house in humiliation.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Al doesn't tell Sam what happens to the Bruckners after Sam changes history. He also doesn't explain what happens to the killers whose asses Sam kicked.
- With Friends Like These...: Kevin's friends' only goal in this episode is to taunt him for his awkwardness and virginity, and to make sure the entire school knows that he's a virgin.
- Writing Around Trademarks: Kevin and his friends are stated to be fans of Demons and Dragons.
- Virgin-Shaming: Kevin's "friends" goad Jackie into inviting Kevin over and getting him to admit that he's a virgin. They then all pop out of Jackie's closet, and gleefully crow about telling the whole school. Sure enough, they do so in the lunchroom the next day. But Jackie rolls her eyes, says, "You've got to be kidding me," and plants a Big Damn Kiss on Kevin in front of everyone.
