Quantum Leap
Season 3, Episode 14:
Private Dancer
Sam: [narrating] In ancient Rome, slaves were forced to fight armed gladiators to the death. If the slave survived, he'd be set free. In this crowd, he'd be eaten alive.
Written by Paul Brown
Directed by Debbie Allen
Airdate: March 20, 1991.
October 6, 1979
Sam is horrified and embarrassed to have found himself back in The '70s, this time as "Rod the Bod" McCarty, a Chippendales dancer. His mission this time is to help a deaf dancer named Diana Quinna from falling into a life of prostitution and eventual death from AIDS in 1986.
Tropes:
- All Women Are Lustful: Dear God. Sam leaps into the middle of "Rod the Bod's" act and spends the next few minutes being groped and kissed by all the women throwing themselves at him.
- Bilingual Bonus: Diana's rant in ASL to Sam, which she only does to demonstrate how it feels to not understand hearing conversations, roughly translates to, "You're bothering me, leave me alone. Ever since I was seven years old, I can do it myself."
- Bait-and-Switch: The episode starts off looking like poor, modest Sam is going to be forced into male exotic dancing for the episode. Instead, he doesn't get back onstage again, and the majority of his time is spent helping Diana.
- Break the Cutie: Diana fails her audition with Joanna's company, then finds her minibus being towed away. With no other options seemingly available, she seeks out Valerie, who sets Diana up on an escorting "date."
- Call-Back: This is the second leap in a row where Sam leaps into October 6 while his leapee is wearing an embarrassing costume. The difference is he's in a sexy Zorro costume rather than a Raygun Gothic spaceman costume, it's 22 years later, and his target audience is now sex-crazed women.
- Career-Ending Injury: According to Al, Rod had been an All-American split end for USC, but had a knee injury that ended his football career, and he ended up as a star dancer for the Chippendales road company.
- Cerebus Retcon: Hearing about what Diana goes through after becoming a stripper in the original timeline, compounded with everything Sam tells her about being better than a stripper, makes you re-think the Cringe Comedy opening, and what Rod's reality must be.
- Chippendales Dancers: To Sam's great embarrassment, Rod's career is as a dancer in the Chippendales road company.
- Choreography Porn:
- Sam's dance with Diana to Cheryl Lynn's "Daybreak" is very intricate, very fluid, and beautifully shot.
- Diana's final audition for Joanna is similarly intricate and fluid.
- Sam's earlier dance with Joanna is also full of elaborate moves that would give Tony Manero a run for his money.
- Cringe Comedy: Comes from the beginning, with the demure and proper Sam Beckett leaping in as "Rod the Bod" mid-act, getting groped by sexed-up women.
- Dance of Romance: Subverted; while Diana and Sam's dance to "Daybreak" is very tender, and ends in a kiss and hug, it's more out of friendship and affection than romance.
- Death by Origin Story: When Diana was seven, both of her parents died in the same car accident that took her hearing.
- Disabled Means Helpless: Generally defied by Diana, who can feel musical vibrations, and can read lips just fine. She also tells Sam that she avoids telling people she's deaf because it makes people feel sorry for her or get overly cautious around her, and says she doesn't need a hearing person to protect the "poor little deaf girl." That said, she also demonstrates to Sam what it's like when she doesn't understand someone, signing words that Sam doesn't understand. But as Al says, regardless of her being deaf, single girls without families always have it tough in New York City, and Diana proves to be no different; Sam even tells her that she is strong, but it's also okay to let people help her.
- Disabled Snarker: Diana doesn't suffer fools, and snarks at anyone she feels deserves it.Sam: You're not gonna walk home by yourself, are you?
Diana: I'm trying to.
Sam: It's too dangerous out there.
Diana: You want me to protect you?
Sam: Are you always this sarcastic?
Diana: Only with people who won't let me go home. - Eating the Eye Candy: More like devouring it — all the club-going women can't get enough of "Rod the Bod", even when he's not actually performing.
- Hand-or-Object Underwear: Embarrassed to have found himself as a scantily-clad Chippendales dancer, Sam scoots offstage while covering his crotch with Rod's Zorro hat.
- Hypocrite: Diana pretty much accuses "Rod" of being this when he tries to talk her out of stripping, and she says that he strips, implying that he is successful at it. He clarifies that while he does it, she's too talented to be a stripper. Furthermore, he sells an image. During his confrontation with Diana, she's getting ready to literally sell herself, as this is the first act of outright prostitution that she's going to engage in.
- Inspirationally Disadvantaged: Deconstructed. Despite being a wonderful dancer despite being unable to hear music, Diana is struggling considerably due to her deafness and her reluctance to tell people about it—people think she's ignoring them when she doesn't respond, resulting in her being fired.
- I Work Alone: Deconstructed. After becoming more-or-less self-reliant since the age of seven, compounded with living in The '70s as a deaf person surrounded by hearing people, Diana is fiercely independent, and angrily rebukes Sam several times for trying to help her. He then tells her that she is strong, but sometimes even the strong need a helping hand.
- Lives in a Van: Diana is homeless and lives in a Volkswagen minibus.
- Miss Kitty: Valerie, Mario's assistant, runs an escorting business on the side, and gives Diana a john's business card.
- Nothing but Hits: Necessary for an episode about dancers in the late Seventies. You've got "Ladies Night" by Kool & the Gang, "For the Love of Money" by the O'Jays, "Getaway" by Earth, Wind & Fire, "Another Star" by Stevie Wonder, and "Daybreak (Storybook Children)" by Cheryl Lynn.
- Not So Above It All: After grousing about being back in The '70s as a male stripper, and changing into more modest clothes, Sam puts aside his usual distaste for disco and happily dances (quite well!) with Joanna at the club. This is where he first sees Diana dancing.
- Pelvic Thrust: The other Chippendales dancers at the beginning. A few minutes later, Al cheekily does a little one when telling Sam to "shake your booty" while waiting on Ziggy.
- Reading Lips: This is how Diana is able to understand hearing people, and naturally it doesn't work when she's not looking at them. It also causes problems with her understanding Otto the bartender, whose big, droopy mustache partially covers his mouth, and it causes her to botch her audition for the dance company when Joanna turns away from her as she's telling everyone that she wants them to improvise their own routine.
- Running Gag: How do you escalate the running gag of Sam awkwardly hating the hedonistic 1970s and Al loving it? By having Sam leap into a Chippendales dancer mid-act.
- Slimeball: Mario is a very slimy club owner who wants to turn his waitress Diana into an "exotic dancer." He clearly thinks that having a "deaf stripper" would be some kind of novelty, says he has no problem with his dancers taking extra money for "favors" while off the clock, and thinks that Sam just wants Diana for himself.
- Tragic Dropout: Diana, who is an orphan, dropped out of high school and drifted to New York, where she dreams of becoming a dancer. At the end, Al says that she eventually completes high school.
- Unwanted Assistance: In order to prevent Diana from becoming one of Mario's bachelor party strippers, Sam agrees to dance at Mario's club for a few weeks. Diana, who has no money, thinks Sam is being patronizing and angrily calls him out for it.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We learn Diana's happy fate at the end, but we don't learn what happens to Rod, or if Rod and Diana even stay friends after Sam leaves.
- The World Is Just Awesome: Diana gives a beautiful speech on her own understanding of music.Diana: I know music in a way that you will never know. When I look around, I see music everywhere. There's the music in the stars. The way they sparkle. I feel them. There's music in the light as they dance on the water at night. And how the leaves chase each other, laughing like children that play. When I feel the wind on my face, the wind is my music.
