Is Quantum Leap Teasing a Mole Reveal?
In a moment of calm in the E.R., Ben learns from his hologram helper and fiancée, Captain Addison Augustine (Caitlin Bassett), that he is there to save the lives of three people. Logically, Ben proceeds to the nurses’ station to inquire about the three patients by name, but they are not in the hospital’s patient database. Seconds later, a Code Trauma is announced over the intercom, and they learn that the victims of a train crash are arriving at the hospital. So many injured people, in fact, that the lead doctor announces: “If they can walk, they can wait.”
As Ben takes time to find his bearings in the chaos, the Quantum Leap writers, directors, actors, and crew are due the utmost credit in creating a scene that allows the viewer to feel as discombobulated and uncertain as Ben does. I found myself wondering in that moment how…if at all…Ben is going to pull this leap off. This tension went a long way in reminding us about all that is at stake, and all that Ben risks, by leaping. More than just his own life, the lives of innocent people hang in the balance, and nowhere is that more keenly felt than in medical drama.
It’s also in the medical arena where little escapes the notice of nurses. The nurse who Ben asks about the three patients puts two and two together when those three names appear on the list of the injured from the train accident. She questions the doctor’s psychic abilities and coins a new nickname for the leapee: Nostradamus. When Ben tells Addison that he plans on “saving lives without ruining Alexandra’s in the process,” he’s not joking…he’s walking a very fine line.
Beyond the three people that Ben is tasked with saving, he also must navigate a big problem with an experimental drug that the hospital is being incentivized to administer: an anesthetic called Respiratrex. The drug has been shown to cause severe adverse reactions in those with preexisting conditions. Ben chooses to alter the head doctor’s order for Respiratrex, which could lead to Alexandra losing her residency, at best, or tanking her whole career in medicine at worst. Hundreds of future lives hang in the balance as Ziggy reports that the original timeline and the continued use of the drug causes the deaths of countless innocent patients.
Ben has a lot on his plate in this episode. And now that Janis Calavicci (Georgina Reilly) is being held at Quantum Leap headquarters, the whole team is contending with their fair share of drama. If viewers are hoping that Janis’ capture leads to more information about Ben’s motives, then they are in for disappointment. In fact, Janis tells Addison that she has to tell Ben to stop talking, even if he remembers new details, because the only safe place for that information is in his own head.
We do learn from Janis that there are “other people” out there, likely the ones who sent the (maybe) evil leaper–Marine, Richard Martinez–into spacetime. If Ben talks to Addison about his memory coming back, then these “other people” can hear it–they are listening. The more these others know, the less likely Ben will be successful at saving Addison and solving the problem that caused his rogue-leap in the first place.
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