Quantum Leap
Season 2, Episode 16:
Freedom
Joseph: Freedom is the greatest gift we're born with, and the hardest thing to hold on to.
Written by Chris Ruppenthal
Directed by Alan J Levi
Airdate: February 14, 1990
November 22, 1970
Sam finds himself in the life of a young Shoshone man who is trying to get his grandfather home to the reservation before he dies. Complicating the matter is a bigoted sheriff out for blood.
Tropes:
- Asshole Victim: Joseph openly states that Sheriff Taggart deserves to be scalped. And sure enough, Sam almost does it.
- Bigot with a Badge: Sheriff Taggart hates Native Americans for reasons never really explained.
- Bittersweet Ending: More on the "bitter" side of things, to the point of almost being an outright Downer Ending, but Sam managed to get Joseph back onto the reservation... right as he dies from getting shot by Sheriff Taggart.
- Call-Back: Joseph paints handprints on his horse to signify men killed in battle, then instructs Sam to do the same. He puts two, one for Roget and the other for Nick Kochifos. note
- Continuity Snarl: At the end of the episode during its original airing, Sam leaps into Frankie La Palma in "Double Identity", an episode which had already aired the previous season. This represents a continuity error, and the ending leap should have been into Melvin Spooner for the next episode, "Good Night Dear Heart". This was later fixed in syndication.
- Dirty Old Man: When the trading post clerk asks if he can get him anything else, Joseph requests “a fat woman and a narrow bed.”
- Face Death with Dignity / Dying as Yourself: Joseph is suffering from end-stage emphysema. He wants to die among nature on the Shosone Reservation rather than comatose in hospital bed.
- Foreshadowing: When trying to hammer it in Sam's head that he can't turn around and take Joseph to the hospital, Al mentions how Sheriff Taggart is going to shoot the both of them rather than let Sam get Joseph medical care.
- Insistent Terminology: Joseph emphasizes that the truck and the horses he and Sam use are borrowed, not stolen. His case isn't good since the rightful owners have no say in the matter.
- Joseph insists on using the words "Togo" and "Kenu", the Shoshone words for "grandson" and "grandfather", respectively.
- Magical Native American: Played with – When the sheriff finds Sam missing from the cell, Joseph says he turned him into a raven and he flew away. In actuality, Sam was hidden inside his bunk mattress and knocks out the sheriff when he investigates. Later, Joseph plays at using magic to light a fire, complete with a chant and mysterious hand motions, before whipping out a lighter.
- Mistaken for Thief: While trying to find his wallet while at the general store, Sam pulls out his gun, causing the clerk to throw his arms up.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Played with: Al talks Sam out of scalping Taggart at the last moment... but while he and Sam are distracted, Taggart gets up and gets a lucky shot off on Joseph.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations:
- Sam and Al have a conversation about general store candy. Al's side of the conversation is about using red licorice to do a Spaghetti Kiss with a girl, while Sam's is about his dad's favorite candy being peppermint sticks. Joseph joins in, agreeing about how George's dad liked peppermint sticks, while Joseph preferred cinnamon.
- Joseph's advice about leaping, which means something completely different to Sam. Al even lampshades it; is he talking to George, or is he talking to Sam?
- Pocket Protector: Defied - Joseph is shot while charging his horse at the sheriff. After being hit, he cites that if he were in a movie, this trope would have kicked in.
- Police Brutality: Sam leaps into the middle of a beating at the hands of the sheriff.
- Racist Grandpa: Joseph doesn’t have a very high opinion of white men, including this chestnut upon discovering their truck’s radio doesn’t work:Joseph: Damn white men... can’t make anything except more white men.
- Rage Breaking Point: Towards the end, right when Sheriff Taggart catches up to Sam and Joseph before they can cross the river into the reservation, Sam beats the crap out of him and, as he admits, comes this close to outright scalping him.
- Snow Means Death: Variation: The woods where Joseph gets shot in are snow-covered.
- Tempting Fate: Right before Sam and Joseph take off on their stolen horses, Al tries to assuage Sam's concerns about his health by remarking that Joseph could wind up outliving Sam. Sam is then promptly shot by Sheriff Taggart from the distance.note
- When I Was Your Age...: Joseph talks about his youth fighting in WWI, and mentions his own father’s recount of the Plains Wars of the 1870s.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We don't learn the fates of George, Suzanne, or Taggart before Sam leaps out.
Joseph: All of life is a series of leaps, for us grasshoppers.
Sam: I guess you could say so.
Joseph: Sometimes we see where we are going, sometimes we don’t. Have you ever leaped, and not at least survived?
Sam: No.
Joseph: The next time you leap, remember that.
