The 'Quantum Leap' Season Finale Rocked. Will There be a Season 3?

By Dustin Rowles | TV | February 22, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | February 22, 2024 |

I had many reservations about Quantum Leap after its debut, but the series has grown on me over the last two seasons. Raymond Lee — as Ben Song — has been a solid anchor all along. At the same time, Caitlin Bassett and her character Addison have improved dramatically over the course of two seasons as Ben’s hologram/love interest.

I worried about how much the supporting characters in the control room would be able to contribute. Still, each — Mason Alexander Park’s Ian, Nanrisa Lee’s Jenn, and especially Ernie Hudson’s Magic — has brought to the show both more personality and deeper mythology. The latter concerned me the most because while the original Quantum Leap stuck largely to its self-contained stories, the reboot has leaned into the mythology.

It’s been surprisingly successful, thanks in part to a recurring character in season two, Hannah (Eliza Taylor), with whom Ben both fell in love and encountered on a number of leaps. The reason Ben kept leaping into Hannah’s timeline was not nefarious — as I had initially worried — but to change the course of her life in a way that directly intersected with the Quantum project.

Hannah originally came from a small town in the ’50s where a woman’s opportunities were limited. Ben encouraged her to explore her interest in physics, which led to Yale and a career in physics. Because Hannah and Ben would only encounter each other every 5 or 10 years, she continued to have a life — a marriage and a son — of her own, and Ben even gave Hannah information that would save her husband’s life. For a little while.

That sets up the final two episodes. In the first, Ben leaps into the body of a firefighter, where he ultimately saves the life of Hannah and her son, Jeffrey. In that episode, Hannah also provides Addison a “swap code” that she’s been working on for decades that will allow the Quantum accelerator to bring Ben home if someone swaps places with him.

In the finale, the control room in the present is eager to bring Ben home, but a billionaire tech entrepreneur — who we later find out is Hannah’s son, Jeffrey only he’s nearly 60 years old now — has taken over the control room and plans to swap himself with Ben because he blames Ben for his father’s death. In the present, the team attempts to stop Jeffrey from jumping into the quantum accelerator with he help of Al’s wife, Beth, and his daughter, Janis, who have the handlink from the original series, allowing Addison to continue providing support to Ben as his hologram while being locked out of headquarters (they even briefly bring back the old theme song, and it’s a rush of nostalgia).

Meanwhile, back in the ’80s, Ben is trying to convince young Jeffrey that Ben is not responsible for his father’s death so Jeffrey doesn’t grow up to become the evil billionaire tech genius. Ben does so by recruiting Jeffrey to help him with his current mission — save the life of an aging racecar driver who has a heart attack. Jeffrey, finding the value in saving a life, puts aside his resentment, and there is a butterfly effect that creates a new timeline, one where Jeffrey doesn’t grow up to become evil, hijack the Quantum accelerator, and murder Jen.

In the new timeline, Jen is still alive, but they still have the swap code, which means they must find someone who will switch places with Ben so that he can come home. Addison volunteers to swap places with the love of her life, but when she does, something interesting happens: There is no swap. The code doesn’t quite work, and instead of swapping places with Ben, she joins him in the past (one wonders if this was Hannah’s intention all along). Ben and Addison are now co-leapers, setting up a season three where the couple would leap from life to life, striving to put right what once was wrong.

Unfortunately, that season three may never happen. The showrunners are hopeful, and they have ideas for a third season, but the ratings really aren’t there (it ranks 10th among 12 NBC shows in the ratings). It’d be a shame, though, if the network canceled it because the reboot has really hit its stride. Let’s hope for the best because I’d hate for the series to leave three people stuck in the past — Ben, Addison, and Sam Beckett. The network ought not be allowed to cancel until Scott Bakula makes an appearance.