Quantum Leap was a very fine television program. The wife and I binged the whole series over the past month and I've come to the conclusion that the best episode is "Jimmy".

If you're not familiar (and it seems from a recent poll that many of you aren't), QL is the story of Sam, a genius polymath quantum physicist who builds a time machine that lets him "Leap" into the lives of other people within his lifetime (a Boomer's life).

Often this means the show is tackling a social issue, illustrating how idiotic bigotry is. The viewer sees a healthy articulate white cishet male genius being kicked out of the lunch counter or whatever, the bigots look stupid, we all learn a valuable lesson, etc

In Jimmy, Sam leaps into a young man with Down Syndrome, trying to hold down a job as a dockworker in the mid-60's.

Two things stand out about this Leap:

1. Almost no one in the story has an active, aggressive beef with Jimmy (with a notable exception)

Most of the people in his life pity him and want the best for him. The prejudice is passive and it takes the form of low expectations.

2. By virtue of how he is treated, Sam starts to involuntarily sabotage himself. He finds himself starting to conform to how he's scapegoates.

This takes the form of "clumsiness" that gets blown out of proportion.

-he makes a celebratory gesture after a successful first day and accidentally knocks his brother's lunchbox in the water.

(sigh) "Connie got me that as an anniversary gift"

-he's clearing dishes after work and his sister in law bursts into the kitchen. He drops a glass platter or whatever, and it shatters.

(sigh) "That was my grandmother's dish"

Sam then rants about how nervous he is and it seems cartoonish but this shit felt SO REAL to me.

Like, we're talking about a literal Quantum Physicist who speaks 7 modern languages, proficient in at least 3 martial arts, has a photographic memory, and he's struggling to hold down a job as a janitor, with institutionalization as stake.

To be clear, he's not failing because he's getting telepathic Down Syndrome (though mind melds are a phenomena in later seasons). He's failing because virtually everyone in his life is perched with a catlike readiness for Jimmy to screw something up.

This is the core of ableism.

Regular, abled person drops dish? Aw, geez, I'm sorry I startled you. Or Alright, you clean it up!

Jimmy the [r word] drops dish? Boy oh boy, that plate had one day til retirement. No, go away, you can't be trusted to clean it up.

The one person who has it in for Jimmy is a growly dockworker (Michael Madsen of all people) who is later revealed to have dyslexia. The implication is that he's terrified of being outed for fear of being associated with the [r word]

Also of note is Al's extremely personal connection to Sam's situation. It turns out Al's sister had a mental disability and was institutionalized (probably in the 1940's), and that before he was old enough to get her out, she died.

As in, the system killed her.

Al Calavicci is a full blown Admiral in the Navy with Top-secret clearance and he does not trust the system.

*Tbf he also has the virtue of literal foreknowledge; he *knows* that if Jimmy is institutionalized, he will never get out.