'Quantum Leap' Unfortunately Goes There

By Dustin Rowles | TV | October 13, 2023 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | October 13, 2023 |

Because of the impending writers’ strike earlier this year, Quantum Leap finished production on season one of the series and immediately began working on season two. That’s why it’s one of the few network series with episodes this fall, although from what I understand, there are only five completed episodes.

The second season episodes feel like they’ve been written by a writers’ room that didn’t get a break. It’s not that they are bad; it’s that they are basic. They’re not exploring issues or intersecting with interesting moments in history. In last week’s season premiere, Ben has to prevent a Russian rocket from shooting down an American jet in 1978 during the Cold War. This week’s episode, meanwhile, feels almost like a staple of case-of-the-week network series episodes: The hostage situation in a bank.

At least it features another fun guest star. Manifest’s Melissa Roxburgh appeared in the season premiere, and this week boasts New Amsterdam’s Janet Montgomery in a very bad wig. Bad hair clearly makes a big difference in the way a person looks.

Obviously, it’s the 1980s. Montgomery plays Rebecca, the sister of one of the bank robbers. In the original timeline, police rushed in, and eight people were killed. In this timeline, Ben leaps into the body of Lorena, a woman in her 70s, which at least provides a comedic moment when Ben basically smashes through drywall (unfortunately, we were not privy to the grandmother the people in the ’80s were watching). The brother bank robber shoots the other bank robber in the back to protect his sister, but Rebecca takes the blame, saying she shot him in self-defense. The brother only gets five years. No one is hurt except the murderous bank robber.

The real disappointment this week, however, comes in the serialized arc. We learned last week that the Quantum Project lost Ben for three years (although no time passed for Ben) and presumed he was dead. They even had a funeral for him. We didn’t see his fiancée, Addison, last week, and I feared the worst.

The worst came to fruition this week. No, Addison did not die during that three-year gap. Sadly, that would have been more interesting than what actually happened: She moved on with her life and met Tom, a very nice man with a lot of confidence and zero jealousy. He says things to Addison like, “We will get through this. Together.” I hate him.

Ian takes care of hologram duties for most of the episode, but Addison jumps in at the end to tell Ben that she met someone. No time has passed for Ben, so he’s finding out that the woman he was engaged to a few days ago has been with someone else for the last year. He’s crushed but has little time to process his hurt before he leaps again. The audience, however, is left with the dreaded love triangle, knowing full well where this will eventually end up. The question is only: How long will it take for Addison and Ben to get back together? More importantly, how long will this prevent Quantum Leap from returning to its central mystery?

The end of the episode does not tease the next leap, which is annoying. It was one of the most enjoyable parts of the original run: Discovering who Sam will leap into in the next episode. The reboot hasn’t always done that, which may be because the series doesn’t always know in what order they will air the episodes. The preview tells us that it’s an Area 51 leap, though. Cool