Quantum Leap
Season 3, Episode 9:
Rebel Without A Clue
Written by Randy Holland and Paul Brown
Directed by James Whitmore, Jr.
Airdate: November 30, 1990
September 1, 1958
Sam Leaps into motorcycle gang member Shane "Funny Bone" Thomas of the Cobras Motorcycle Club. He must save the life of one of the gang's girlfriend.
Tropes
- All Bikers are Hells Angels: The bikers in the episode are all gang members.
- Bait the Dog: Dillon seems like a pretty chill leader, especially in comparison to the more outwardly aggressive Mad Dog. He's actually pretty twisted and violent, as well as content to kill both Sam and Becky to save face with his crew.
- Batman Gambit: After Sam rescues Becky, he knows the gang will be out looking for them and start at the diner, so he cooks up a plan. When they do show up, Ernie claims Sam stole his son's motorcycle and headed off a particular way. The gangs speeds off in that direction, but Sam and Becky were hiding in the diner the entre time.
- Continuity Nod: When talking about the hope he feels over seeing his son again, Ernie asks Sam if he's ever lost someone before. Sam recalls Tom and how he got him back.
- Continuity Snarl: At the end of this episode when it originally aired, Sam leaps into Agent Peter Langley from "Her Charm", an episode which had already aired the previous season. This represents a continuity error, and the ending leap should have been into Reginald Pearson from the next episode, "A Little Miracle". This was later fixed in syndication.
- Despair Event Horizon: Ernie's son was off in the Korean War and has been declared MIA. Ernie holds out hope that his son will turn up alive, but in the original history, he will learn in two years that's not the case, and die shortly afterwards. Becky sticking around in the end will help him through the grief, though.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Almost immediately after leaping in, Sam crashes his motorcycle and almost collides with the others, for good measure. Mad Dog takes this as a personal attack rather than an accident, so he picks a fight with the sole intention of killing Sam. Even when ordered to back off, Mad Dog cuts the fuel line on Sam's bike purely out of spite. Mad Dog later has first dibs when the gang is after Sam.
- Evil Counterpart: Dillon to Ernie's son. Both served in Korea and have a thing for motorcycles, but Ernie's son is MIA (and will ultimately be proven to be dead), whereas Dillon was twisted by his experiences into becoming a violent scumbag.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Dillon escalates to this when he believes that Sam and Becky are having an affair.
- Hope Spot: The Batman Gambit does cause the gang to leave the diner, but Dillon eventually wises up to being tricked and returns to get the drop on Sam.
- I Can Change My Beloved: Becky is with Dillon, and she spends a good bit of time insisting that any real misbehavior is just the result of him being drunk and thinking he's just a tortured soul in need of help. Sam and especially Ernie chastise this attitude. Through the course of the episode, she has to wise up.
- I Choose to Stay: In the end, Becky opts to stay with Ernie. Her decision to do so will save his life, after he learns his son isn't coming back.
- Kick the Dog: Dillon wants Ernie's son's motorcycle real bad, getting to the point of telling Ernie that his son is dead and will never be taking it back.
- Police Are Useless: Averted. The cops don't arrive until after Sam takes Dillon in the fight, but they do ultimately haul the gang off to jail so that everyone else will no longer have to deal with them.
- Rebellious Spirit: The gang are rebels, but what they are rebelling against is unclear.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Dillon served in the Korean War. Becky believes that his worst behavior is the result of what he experienced in combat.
- Tragic Keepsake: Ernie keeps his son's motorcycle in pristine condition. He won't even consider letting one of the bikers take it.
- You Keep Telling Yourself That: Ernie is insistent that his son will be coming home, even though the guy went MIA in a war that ended several years earlier. Sam tries to be delicate towards the man, but Dillon is outright insulting about it, and mocks Ernie for ignoring the truth.
