Quantum Leap (2022) - Episode 1x08 - Stand By Ben - Review
In a fantastic midseason finale, a great cast of young guest stars and the Leap itself shine, while serial developments remain literally trapped in an elevator.
In 1996, Ben Leaps into a 16-year old boy—also named Ben, what fun—one of four plucky teens trying to escape an abusive boarding school and their terrible home lives. In the original timeline, the kids crash a stolen car and die of heat exhaustion while lost in the wilderness. However, thanks to Addison’s guidance, Ben’s perseverance and wisdom, and the teenagers’ burgeoning friendships—not to mention Chekov’s Local News Anchor Uncle—they survive the ordeal and are able to expose the abuse suffered by students at this horrific school, putting right what once went wrong!
The biggest challenge for the new Quantum Leap has been balancing its high-concept procedural engine with its core mysteries and serial developments. These are not unique problems, but Quantum Leap’s spin on episodic TV requires viewers to adjust to a new time, place, and identity each episode. Most procedurals can rely on centring its storytelling in a workplace—like a hospital or a police station—but QL spends time in different genres with different kinds of people in ways that other shows don’t ever have to manage. It feels like the folks at Quantum Leap HQ serve this function, but they never interact directly with Ben (beyond Addison, as a hologram). And the writers have struggled to balance making us care about the Leap of the week with both the broader ensemble (who we mostly only see at work) and the serial mysteries.
Procedural Storytelling: This episode doesn’t actually resolve that tension (the present-day cast are not well served), and yet it was still my absolute favourite Leap to date. Part of me feels that this episode was fantastic in spite of the present-day plot, which in some ways detracted from the rest of the episode (see serial developments below). The show needs to be more effective about how it uses the rest of the cast. This was (for me) the best Leap so far, but not the episode with the best balance of elements.
As for what made the Leap work, the teens, who didn’t seem to know each other well before their escape, were thrown into the crucible—a great way to reveal who people really are. As the characters got to know each other, we got to know them too. Each of the guest cast felt distinct, interesting, motivated, and I actually cared and wanted them to succeed. The emotional investment was real, and if you want someone you know to check out the new QL, I’d recommend this episode as an entry point.
Otherwise, as much as the Uncle’s news team was a bit Deus Ex Machina, it emerged from their bonds and problem solving. Even the ‘and-they-lived-happily-ever-after’ infodump at the end worked here; the expositional payoff felt more earned than usual. This was such a good and heartfelt episode, bringing us back to Quantum Leap’s roots.
Serial Developments: Our first big mystery has been solved! Ben remembers his reason for Leaping, which, in retrospect, makes an enormous amount of sense. Of course he Leaped to save Addison (whatever that means). His whole vibe is about how much he loves the people around him and wants to be a good friend, partner, etc. Perhaps his Leap was itself a modification of the original timeline—a timeline where Addison dies during her adventures as a Leaper. How or why Janis is involved remains a bit of a mystery (they can’t resolve everything in episode 8), but at least we now know more!
Otherwise, it was an odd choice to make the midseason finale a bottle episode for the present-day cast. With Jenn and Magic trapped in an elevator (mere moments after locating Janis and her homebrewed imaging chamber), the writers used a tried-and-true bottle episode staple: Characters have time to work on personal issues (i.e., Jenn’s difficult relationship with her father). Usually, these stories help bring characters who hate each other together, resolving some kind of conflict, but Magic and Jenn are already pretty close. Instead, Magic gives Jenn some advice based on his own experience of fatherhood. While I appreciate the importance of fleshing out the rest of the cast, given that they were just about to go solve a central mystery (and even now I am not as invested in Jenn as I want to be), it felt much more like a stalling tactic.
Perhaps more frustratingly, I’m hard-pressed to connect the Stand By Me send-up to Jenn’s arc, and in some ways, it actually kind of undermines the entire premise. If the point was that the kids were suffering abuse at school, at least in part thanks to their parents’ cruelty and neglect, I’m not sure why the episode wanted Jenn to forgive her father his trespasses too. Bad parents (and bad parental-child relationships) may have been a common theme, but the resolutions left us in different places. The kids now have their found family, but Jenn chooses to reach out to her disappointing conman of a father. Ben does at least provide us with one connected thematic thread, suggesting that Leah should forgive her parents for her own wellbeing (not for them), but Jenn’s sudden development just doesn’t quite align thematically with those concerns.
Legacyquel Baggage: In my dialogue review of the pilot with Myles McNutt on Episodic Medium, we reflected on the kinds of expectations a sequel (rather than a reboot) series sets up. In constantly referring to Sam and Al, in providing several characters as connective tissue (Beth, Magic, Janis), the audience has an expectation that the show will (at some point) point us in the direction of Sam. I know a lot of people were hoping that Ben’s motivation for Leaping was to save Sam, but in Episode 4, we learned that Magic revitalized the Quantum Leap project with the express goal of saving Sam (who once saved him), so that doesn’t really work anymore as Ben’s motivation. If it were, all Ben had to do was go along with the project as intended.
We also know that an original draft of the pilot (the version that became Episode 6) included Scott Bakula as Sam Beckett in a small role—thanks to Bakula’s posts on social media1 as well as the via the original version of the sequel pilot script, recently posted online (and specifically posted on Reddit for discussion). Based on the changes the show underwent from script to pilot to refilmed pilot, I am increasingly beginning to suspect that Bakula wasn’t lying for effect. I don’t think we’re going to see Bakula as Sam in this new series, at least not until later seasons (if at all). Which means that some of my initial hopes and expectations have been dashed. I’m not sure how to feel about that, as part of what drew me in was the promise of some resolution for Sam.
And yet, at this point, I am invested enough in Ben and Addison (and Ian and Magic and even Jenn) to want to continue watching this version of the show, whether or not we ever get to see Sam again. Ben is a great character and his dynamic with Addison is a lovely twist on the OG Quantum Leap’s buddy-friendo-comedy duo. I wish we could see more of Ian, which is a great problem to have, since it means I care.
I do have some quibbles about what could be improved, mostly based on what I read in the original pilot script (see: infodump discussion above), but I’m going to save those for future posts. Given that Quantum Leap won’t return until 2023, I’m hoping to write some post-midseason reflections, including a review of that original pilot script, and possibly even do some Leap Back retro reviews of the OG Quantum Leap!
Thanks so much for joining me on this journey, and see you on the Next Leap.
“In January, the pilot was sold and a script was sent to me because the character of Sam Beckett was in it…” Of course, he was written out when Bakula turned the role down.