Family conflict hits close to home for Ben, who’s reminded of his own mother by the matriarch trying to look out for her two daughters and run a restaurant.

Spoilers.

Viewers get tons of great stuff in this episode, including intriguing forward motion on the meta-plot and excellent insights into the characters. Magnificent guest cast as well. The show takes the incredibly well-worn trope of family drama and an overbearing parent and makes excellent use of it, throwing in some timing twists as well.

Especially early in the episode, the arrogant, stubborn mother is especially aggravating and frustrating – a testament to the actor’s wonderfully skilled performance. By no means unique, the family strife comes across and genuine and incredibly well played.

One of the best tweaks of the formula occurs when the fire Ben is striving to prevent happens halfway through the episode. Another: the restauranteur/food critic/financier set up as the solution to their dilemma instead comes down with food poisoning. Naturally the baddie who started the fire gets her comeuppance, and the family comes out on top after all.

The episode also follows up on the previous bombshell: Ian is a Leaper. Not only that, we learn that they convinced (will convince) Ben to leap early and without warning anyone else on the team. My initial reaction to this revelation was utter dismay. I envisioned melodrama, angst, and soap opera galore. To my overwhelming joy and most pleased surprise, the show goes in the exact opposite direction. Yes, the rest of the team tries to figure out what will happen and why, and no one is more anguished than Ian. But there are neither accusations nor recriminations. So very heartening and refreshing.

Especially initially, though, Ian doesn’t deal well and is overwhelmed by guilt and confusion. Looking for some clarity, they seek out their most recent ex who left them due to their job with the Quantum Leap program. In another refreshing instance of avoiding angst, the takaway from the reunion is the ex assuring Ian they would never deliberately hurt anyone, least of all a friend. They must have had a good reason. This doesn’t solve the problem but helps Ian feel a lot better and more confident. They return to the team at a particularly opportune moment.

Which means the show currently has three Leapers in play: Ben, Ian, and the apparently hostile Leaper who remains mysterious so far.

Of note, and most encouraging: Ben has so far leapt into four women in thirteen episodes, 31% of the leaps so far. Plenty of room for improvement, but not bad. Aside from Ian semi-seriously lamenting that they missed the first one, in all those leaps, gender was wholly irrelevant to every storyline. Ben leaped into a bounty hunter, a doctor, a reporter, and a chef. It played absolutely zero role in any of the plots that Ben was a woman.

Compare that to Sam leaping into eight women in ninety-seven episodes, a mere 8% in five years. With one exception (that being “evil” Leaper Liz Tate), in each episode, the whole point was that Sam was a woman (gasp!) dealing with women’s issues. Two faced prejudice in their professions, one was a beauty queen, another was a mother saving her son, one was raped, another about to give birth. The last was Dr. Ruth talking about sex and gender. Each episode was incredibly well done, perhaps even groundbreaking for the time, and Scott Bakula was unfailingly amazing. Both the intent and execution were fantastic, yet for the most part, Sam went back to being a man. And any of those issues could just as easily have applied to a man. Even the pregnancy, although less ‘easily’. But it could still have applied to a trans man.

So on the one hand, the original show was well done and didn’t shy away from issues. On the other, however, the updated show is taking it to the next step by showing that gender shouldn’t be an issue. People are people. Kudos for that. Kudos also for family banding together and helping each other in the end.

Verdict: Tied with last week’s for the best episode of the series so far. 9/10

Rigel Ailur

http://www.BluetrixBooks.com