Let them play is one of the best Quantum Leap episodes since the reboot of the show. This week focuses on Gia, who encounters resistance, and bullying and finds friends in unexpected places.
Quantum Leap never shies away from controversial topics in the shape of human interest stories. This week is no different when Ben jumps into the body of coach Carlos whose daughter Gia is transgender and is hopeful for the girl’s basketball team.
Let them play
I have said it before and will say it again: Quantum Leap is a show with human interest stories against a science fiction background. This week’s episode of Quantum Leap is no different. Let them play was one of those episodes that broaden your horizons when it comes to transgenders.
The 12th episode of Quantum Leap season 1 titled Let them play revolves around Gia, a transgender woman in the basketball team her dad coaches.
Dad keeps telling Gia her time will come and when it does Gia scores a 3-pointer in the final seconds of the school’s basketball game and is deemed the hero of the team and school. And I loved that but I am a sucker for happy endings.
But that’s also where the trouble started. In the background, you hear the first few people talk about how the school cheated since Gia isn’t an actual girl. Which of course isn’t true.
Parents of transgender kids meetings
While Gia is trying to find a place at school, she has a place in a group where parents of transgenders and transgenders meet. While the parents talk about the struggles of dealing with the outside world and the nasty comments they sometimes receive.
Nasty comments could lead to the isolation of your child or them as parents since they would be repelled by the so-called people who claim to be open-minded but really empty-headed. As one parent commented: Have they ever even met a transgender? And it was a rhetorical question.
The scene where the transgender kids were playing and discussing The Hunger Games movies was telling; a conversation about what Katniss Everdeen should or shouldn’t do. So pretty much a conversation you would have on a normal day. And yes, I still love Hunger Games part 1. Not the rest of them.
But eventually, that’s what the parents wanted for their children: To be able to live a full and prosperous life instead of continuously having to fight against prejudice, hate, and bigotry. Or just let them play.
The Car Wash
The next day there is a car wash to raise money for the team. Gia’s parents drive her to the event. While she was still wearing a sweater, it comes off quickly leaving her with just a bra on. Ben says he wants to stick around to see what’ll happen. Her mother is more like: Don’t be that parent. But instead the two stick around.
That’s when the incident happens. At first, you see a bunch of girls having fun with the car wash. They fully accept Gia as one of their own. And then a bunch of guys, come in to bully and taunt her screaming at her that she will never ever be a real girl.
Of course, this is emotionally shocking. Not just for Gia but for the other girls as well. Gia, in a state of rage, throws a monkey wrench at the car but instead hits the wrong car. I guess that’s not a 3-pointer but a way to quickly get suspended from school.
Ben runs out of the car and Gia asks how he is here so fast with Ben replying: Oh we were waiting and watching in the car in case something happens. This adds to Gia’s already frail state and she runs off. Why couldn’t the guys just not let them play? That is beyond me.
Running away instead of letting them play
While the parents go into the headmaster’s office to discuss what happened at the car wash event. Gia sits and waits outside of the office with her friend Amanda. Gia asks Amanda the big what-if question: What if I get scouted for Stanford for a basketball scholarship instead of you? And you really have to admire the sincerity with which Amanda tries to answer the question. It turns out that Amanda has trouble answering that question because Gia is her direct competitor. And that’s it, nothing more.
When Gia overhears the contract her parents signed that only allowed her to train with the girls but never play and how her parents violated that agreement, she runs away. She asks her friend for help with money. Her friend however would have none of it telling her that a transgirl all by herself who has seen nothing from the world wouldn’t make it. Living out of a car and with nowhere to go because she has no job.
And just when she’s ready, her parents find her and talk to her. And the family reconciles. Ben and Addison directed all their energy towards reconciliation because the other option was that if Gia had succeeded in running away, she would have died.
She wouldn’t have been found either because the police didn’t realize that Gia wasn’t registered as transgender so her parents would have suffered for years not knowing what happened to her. Instead, they are back to being one happy family.
Ian reveals parts of his past in Quantum Leap
Back in the present Ian and Addison have a chat about being transgender. Ian explains that he had suicidal tendencies back when he was in high school. It was only when he found a spot in the computer club that he felt more comfortable with himself since he was accepted by the other members who later became his friends. The club gave him the handles he needed to succeed in life.
There is a great parallel with Gia in this part. Much like Ian, Gia also needed handles to deal with life. In her case, it was basketball that gave her the handles to succeed. Ian reveals that he lived a few cities away from where Gia lived and went to a high school that was near hers. He’s heard of her and Gia is one of his heroes.
Together with Addison, they use the holographic device to watch Ben coach the high school team with Gia as a starter. Yes, as a starter, and where Gia had to dress in the janitor’s closet, she now has a spot in the girl’s dressing room since the girls decided who gets to dress, not the school. Anarchy at its’ finest…..
Of course, Gia’s team wins and while they celebrate under the watchful eye of Ian and Addison, Ben leaps to his next adventure.
Meanwhile Magic finds out that Ian has lept in the past when a woman shows a sketch about her experience with someone who lept into her body. So what’s the real story here? I guess we’ll have to wait for the next episodes.
Quantum Leap’s Let them play is the most heartwarming episode so far
Quantum Leap’s Let them play is by far the best episode of the season so far. It is the most emotional one in my opinion. The writers actually managed to write a story about a leap that isn’t actually about the body Ben inhabits. It’s all about Gia. Meaning that Ben is taking a backseat.
It’s an interesting concept that I haven’t seen in any of the Quantum Leap episodes of the old show. So it’s quite original for the franchise to do so.
The Emotional Trans Group scene was also very powerful. The words spoken by the parents who are experiencing life with a transgender resonated with me even though I don’t have any children. And it’s quite clear that some people don’t have a way of “live and let live”. Instead, they resort to bullying. Like what happened to Gia during the car wash.
I sure hope that the episode Let them play will increase awareness about transgenders. It definitely was a heartwarming story.
