Helping Out Mum - Quantum Leap
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Recap

Ben leaps into a cook in a busy kitchen. The manager’s barking orders and when he responds, “Yes, chef!” she corrects him with a nose tweak that it should be, “Yes, Mummy!”

Passing a mirror, he realizes his host is a woman.

He is caught taste-testing the food when his host’s sister Manisha comes in with the new dinner menu for the restaurant. The mother is hesitant, but Manisha insists it can work.

Jenn, Addison, and Magic show Ian the sketches Dottie made. Ian denies leaping. They point out the face Dottie drew looks older, so they hypothesize that if it’s them that leaps, it’s sometime in the future. They’re heartbroken that they were the cause of all this.

Ziggy alerts Ian of Ben’s whenabouts. Addison heads for the imaging chamber.

Addison places Ben in 2009. His host is Kamani Prasad, the oldest daughter of an immigrant Indian family in Portland, Oregon. Addison tells him the restaurant burns down that night and Sonali, the mother, dies of a heart attack a few weeks later. The family never recovers and the sisters lose touch with each other.

As he brainstorms ways the fire could’ve started, he’s grabbed by a gun-wielding goon. A woman behind the goon demands her money.

The woman claims the Prasad family owes her thirty thousand dollars in unpaid rent. Addison identifies her as Kathy Tanner, the restaurant’s landlord.

Ben tries to talk Kathy down by telling her about how the restaurant’s running a new promotion and will be full tonight. He promises her all the night’s profits as a down payment on the debt.

Addison informs Ben that Kathy’s the reason the restaurant burns down. In a few years, she’ll go to prison for burning down some apartment buildings she owns.

Ben connects the Prasad family with his own childhood. His mother had wanted to run her own restaurant one day.

At HQ, Magic finds Ian running probability scenarios to figure out why they would leap in the future. He orders Ian to take the day off.

At the restaurant, Sonali insists they should be able to get another extension, but Manisha recognizes they need to get Kathy some money fast. Ben recommends they sign up for Groupon and give a 2-4-1 deal to pack the restaurant.

Ben sits down at the computer in the office to set up the Groupon deal. Addison notes the many delinquent account notifications on the desk. Manisha comes in making a frustrated noise. Sonali has postponed her new menu until after they make the money for Kathy.

Manisha expresses a wish to be a real chef, bringing authentic regional Indian food to the upper levels of dining.

Manisha describes Sonali’s decline since their father passed, how she’s refused to change anything and it’s causing the business to stagnate.

Manisha leaves to get groceries. The Groupons start rolling out. Ben and Addison head back to the kitchen but Ben trips over a staff member lying on the ground in the hall. He checks for signs of life and the man awakens with a start.

He apologizes and says he’s having a hard time at home with a cranky baby. Addison notices another staff member leaving. Ben questions him and he insists on leaving to buy some limited edition sneakers.

There’s a shout from the kitchen. Ben runs in and finds Sonali holding her hand in pain. She has Carpal Tunnel but doesn’t wear her wrist braces. Ben insists she wear them for the rest of the day.

Voices are heard calling from the front for Sonali. She and Ben go out and meet the Kumar cousins, Paddy and Gauri. They brought sweets in honor of the one year anniversary of Sonali’s husband’s passing. Sonali accepts them and rushes them out the door. When Ben asks her about the abruptness, she insists the cousins look down on them and were only there, bringing methai from the most expensive shop in Portland to assert their superiority.

Sonali states that her husband knew how to deal with the cousins and with Kathy but now that he’s gone, she feels helpless.

Manisha returns and Sonali realizes she didn’t buy what was asked for. Manisha wants to make her menu. Sonali refuses. Manisha challenges her, saying she doesn’t believe in her. Sonali states she thinks Manisha’s dreams are unrealistic.

Manisha quits and leaves.

Ian looks up their ex-partner, Rachel, and asks her to have a coffee with her favorite pastries. She surprised to see them since they haven’t been in touch in years. She gives them forty-five minutes and takes the pastries.

In the restaurant, Ben’s trying to keep up with Sonali’s pace but she insists on doing everything.

Ben asks Addison about what happens after the fire. An investor named Kevin Rasmussen buys it and sets up a restaurant. He’ll eventually be a big foodie influencer. Ben decides to get ahead of it and bring Rasmussen in to look at the Prasad restaurant before it burns down and get him to invest in them.

Ben calls Rasmussen and convinces him to come in.

Ben goes to tell Sonali and finds her alone in the kitchen, having taken off the braces, sent the other kitchen staff home, and with a towel wrapped around a cut.

He tries to get her to let him call Manisha but she is stubborn. Distracted, she grabs a hot pot and drops it. The towel comes away, revealing a deep cut. She passes out.

At the coffee shop, Rachel and Ian talk, but Ian can’t share what’s bothering them so Rachel gives up and heads to her meeting.

In the kitchen, Ben relives finding his own mother on the floor while looking at Sonali passed out. Addison finds him in shock and talks him back, sending him for a first aid kit. When he gets back, Sonali revives. He cleans and bandages her hand. As he’s doing that, he talks to Sonali about her expectations and how the pressure she puts on her daughters is about pride as much as it is about love.

They go find Manisha at Diesel’s Pizza where the family used to eat together monthly. It was their father’s idea of the coolest place to eat. They reminisce about him as they eat.

Sonali allows Manisha to add one new dish to the menu. They head back to start cooking and find the fire department there. The restaurant is in flames. The firefighters suspect a gas leak and then there’s an explosion.

Kathy’s there, talking with the firefighters. Ben confronts her but she’s unrepentant. She still expects the family to square the $30k. She doesn’t consider the insurance money as part of it.

Manisha and Sonali have given up but Ben has the idea to create a pop-up restaurant for the night, hopefully impressing Kevin Rasmussen enough to get his investment.

When Rachel comes out from her meeting, Ian is still at the coffee shop table. She comes over and they admit they have a hard time sharing but they’ll try if she’ll listen. Ian says they’re questioning whether they made the wrong choice joining the project, that they’ll end up hurting the people they love with their choices.

Rachel reassures Ian that she believes they’ll do whatever they think is right when it comes to helping people. Ian feels better and they hug.

Manisha and Sonali arrive at the pop-up restaurant site. Ben’s set up a huge outdoor, tented venue. Sonali’s reached out to Paddy and Gauri and the rest of the family for help with the cooking. She then asks Manisha to direct them.

The crowd is forming at the tent. Manisha asks Ben to let them in and he welcomes them, informing them they’ll be serving “family-style”. Addison heads back to HQ to see where Rasmussen is. Jenn isn’t able to track anyone that precisely but Ian returns just in time.

At the pop-up, everyone is loving the dinner but Addison has to tell Ben that Rasmussen isn’t coming. He has food poisoning. When the cousins ask why Sonali looks disappointed, she explains about the investor they hoped would help with the debt they owe Kathy.

When they learn about the debt and the opportunity for investment, everyone in the family offers to chip in.

Addison reveals the new restaurant thrives, Kathy goes down for insurance fraud in a month, and Sonali doesn’t have the heart attack that kills her.

Before he leaps, Ben sits down with Sonali to remind her that she’s put a lot of things to the side while she’s run the restaurant and raised her daughters. Now is the time to start living for herself. She decides to take the trip to Egypt and take the cousins with her.

Ben hugs Sonali and tells her he loves her just as he leaps.

He lands in a uniformed host on a navy battleship.

 

Show:
Quantum Leap
Season:
Episode Number:
13
Show Comments

Quantum Leap Season 1 Episode 13 Quotes

First of all, I’m very flattered. I didn’t realize you had a – slightly concerning – artistic streak.

Ian

But do you think people are ready for that kind of food? I mean, it’s so unusual for them. Americans don’t like things they can’t pronounce.

Sonali