Quantum Leap 1.08: Stand by Ben
Oops! Here it is New Year's Day 2023, and I looked back at my LJ and found I'd somehow set this to private!
I think the Quantum Leap withdrawal might be setting in before we'd even have gotten a new episode, but the last one gave us a lot to chew on!
spoilers:
I think the Quantum Leap withdrawal might be setting in before we'd even have gotten a new episode, but the last one gave us a lot to chew on!
So Ben leaped to save Addison! Holy cow! That seems clearly to require knowledge of the future, though. Did some future leaper come back and tell Ben? Did a future Ben leap back and tell himself so he could prevent it? I'm leaning towards that.
I also have to ask why Ben involved Janis and cut out all the others: easier to ask forgiveness than permission? The forgiveness part clearly worked, since Addison in particular worked until she literally dropped, to keep him alive and leaping. But wouldn't Magic and the others have pitched in even if they knew in advance? I feel like they would have, but a) it doesn't matter if Ben thought any of them would have prevented him, and b) maybe he hoped he would get them in less trouble if he did it without their knowledge? I feel like he was wrong about B as well: Jenn has already been threatened with being sent back to prison, and it doesn't take much imagination to imagine everyone else getting sent to prison either.
Magic is still (or again) active duty, right? So he could get court-martialed. And I bet Addison and Ian could be in serious dren too, and possibly the many others who apparently work there.
It seems like at this point, the best thing would be to bring Janis in to share with the class, if they can persuade her.
I love that we got more background on Jenn! I'd been asking for that! I hope her father really is just lonely and not trying to get something else from her. I know too many people who have cut ties with parents for good reason to be fully comfortable with Magic's advice. And it seems Jenn's shady past was at least in part an inheritance from her father.
And Magic referred to being a father! Tell me more! How many kids? Still married? (Has he been wearing a ring? I need to pay more attention!) I'd like to see more of Magic, but I noticed that he's also busy making episodes for the other series he's currently in, The Family Business, where he seems to be a far less sympathetic character!
It was hilarious when Jenn and Magic quite reasonably asked Ian for help getting out of the elevator they were trapped in and Ian went on a tear about how everyone is bothering them and Magic just waited and then said, "Feel better now?" It seems like they do this periodically and have to get it out of their system.
Oh, yeah, and the main storyline. I was a bit nervous about an adult man leaping into the body of an adolescent boy on the run with three other adolescents. I did not expect the other kids to decide that it was just fine for Ben to talk to his invisible girlfriend since it seemed to lead to good results, but I liked it! This show does have a way of making me sympathetic to new characters really fast, and I was especially sorry to say goodbye to Leah. And I don't know about youth ranches in California, but if they're like the ones in Florida, teens actually die in those places. I hope viewers realize that. And race is often a factor in these places, which really didn't emerge from a story where the two boys who escape are white.
I have more questions! If Addison had to be quantum bonded (whatever that means) for Ben to be her observer-or, as it turns out, for her to be his-how can Janis do it? Does it just take a heck of a lot more work? It seems like it ought to take a heck of a lot more work simply because Janis doesn't have full control of Ziggy, just some access.
Ben seems to have a nasty habit of remembering things right before he's leaping; does the start of the leap somehow trigger memories? At least he got out the reason before the end of the episode; I was afraid they were going to leave us hanging with "why I leapt in the first place." But we still don't have enough of the why!
I, for one, am quite eager to see the second half of the season! But I'm not eager for January 2 because I have way too much to do before then.
And here's a tidbit! Janis's name came from fan alterations to the original Quantum Leap Wikipedia page (see note and link on this Quantum Leap Wiki page: fans named all four of Beth and Al's girls, and the show adopted the one name. We don't know if they might use others in the future. I think that's really cool.