'Quantum Leap' Is Borrowing from 'The Time Traveler's Wife'

By Dustin Rowles | TV | December 15, 2023 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | December 15, 2023 |

HBO Max may have canceled its adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, but NBC is borrowing some of its elements without, so far, all the confusing timelines. Over the course of three different leaps, Ben has fallen in love with Hannah (Eliza Taylor). Not only that but in this week’s episode, “Nomads,” Addison posits that the reason Ben keeps crossing paths with Hannah is because they’re in love.

In the series finale of the original Quantum Leap, we learned that Sam Beckett was controlling the leaps all along and could’ve gone home anytime he wanted. If Sam had actually been able to control his leaps, that may mean that Ben has some unconscious control over his, too, and so Addison’s theory makes perfect sense. The question, however, is how does this end? More on that below.

First up, however, was this week’s episode, “Nomads,” which sees Ben leap to Cairo, Egypt, and into the body of a CIA agent in 1961. Ben is a spy, and Ben’s mission is to protect an asset. The leap itself is straightforward and ends with the asset being safely moved out of Egypt. There are a few moments where Ben and Hannah — who is helping Ben on the mission — think the asset is dead and Ben will be forever stuck in 1961. It isn’t a terrible thought, although they both agree that rescuing the asset is obviously the better option, even if it means Ben would be put back onto the leaping merry-go-round.

What the episode did solidify, is that Hannah very much loves Ben. Ben clearly has strong feelings for Hannah, despite some hesitation to sleep with Hannah, which we know is because of his lingering feelings for Addison, who also has lingering feelings for Ben but seems ready-ish to move on in her life with Tom. In fact, at the end of the episode, Addison believes that Tom is about to propose to her but he reveals, instead, that he thinks he knows how to get Ben back home.

Obviously, Ben is not coming back home because that would mean the end of the series, unless Ben returned home — and by home, I mean “the present” — in the body of someone else, which could definitely be interesting. That could even give the series the opportunity it needs for Ben and Addison to reconcile.

That is probably inevitable, too, because The Time Traveler’s Wife aspect of this is that Hannah — if she’s even alive in 2023 — would be very, very old. I’m not sure why Addison, Magic, etc., haven’t looked up to see what happened to Hannah or even if she’s still alive. Someone is going to have that epiphany at some point.

More likely, I suspect that there will be a real heartbreaker of an episode where Ben leaps into the year 2005 or so and says goodbye to a dying Hannah. If that’s not already the idea for the season finale, give me a call, Martin Gero. Maybe Ben can save the life of Tom’s first wife and say goodbye to Hannah in the same episode, freeing both Ben and Addison to be with each other again in the season finale where Ben leaps into someone else’s body in the present.

If the series is to do that this season, it will have a lot of work to do over the season’s remaining five episodes. The series does not return until early 2024.