Quantum Leap (2022) - Episode 1x09 - Fellow Travelers
In a solid mid-season premiere, Quantum Leap does what it does best: Connect Ben's life and choices in a kind of corny way to the case-of-the-week. Whodunit!?
In 1979, Ben leaps into bodyguard-to-the-stars Jack, who must protect (not an actual historically) famous singer Carly Farmer from being MURDERED; however, every time he saves her, a course-corrected timeline leads right back to another MURDER attempt. Whodunit!? Could it be Jamie, Carly’s substance using (possibly now sober) sister?1 And what about Trevor, Carly’s manager, who stands to gain millions from Carly’s death!? PLOT TWIST (and spoilers): Backup singer Loretta thinks she should have it all; it was Loretta all along! And so, with a healed musical sisterly relationship and a soon-to-be healed stab wound, Ben puts right what once went wrong.
Procedural Storytelling: With a quick ‘I only remember the vague sense of needing to save you, no additional helpful context, sorry’ from Ben, viewers are left to try and immerse themselves in the case-of-the-week (while potentially also secretly fuming that a midseason cliff-hanger didn’t lead to any ‘answers’). But then, Quantum Leap got an extra six episode order partway through the season, and this is the kind of across-the-season procedural plot stretching that can (and in this case mostly did) work. This isn’t The Winchester Brothers (of Supernatural fame)2 deciding to take a quick episodic side tour to a wax museum with a Paris Hilton Ghost while the literal Apocalypse (and Lucifer’s machinations) loomed large. The Quantum Leap episodic storytelling engine (and helpful amnesiac side effects) can easily work overtime to settle us into a weekly plot while serial elements take a break. And besides, it was a really solid standalone whodunit, and Deborah Ann Woll can sell me on anything.
Serial Developments: It also helps that the case-of-the-week emotionally resonates directly with challenges in Addison and Ben’s relationship. Ben decided not to trust Addison with whatever he was doing to ‘save’ her, which, understandably infuriates her. Cue several scenes of Ben as Jack the bodyguard failing to inform Carly about info relevant to the attempts on her life, and Addison getting increasingly frustrated about a lack of trust and agency. It was a bit unsubtle, but by the end, I was sold on the (corny as heck but still effective) connections between The Leap and Ben and Addison’s personal lives. Ben even gives an Emboldening Speech to help Carly overcome her fear of reconnecting with her sister that doubles as an apology for and path forward with HoloAddison (who is hanging out right behind Carly)! And it works! I haven’t always been impressed with the show’s attempts at managing dialogue between Ben-as-the-Leapee, Addison, and the people who can’t see Addison (it often looks like Ben is loudly and not subtly talking to himself), but this was good.
Otherwise, Jenn tracks down Janis and brings her in, which is fine. I am, however, much more invested in Ian’s obsession with True Crime. And while their dialogue about gender identity is a bit too on-the-nose (especially for a show that has not seriously contended with those exact same topics in any of Ben’s Leaps), I appreciate that it’s nice to be explicit about this much-needed representation on Network TV.
Legacyquel Baggage: For a potentially mythology-heavy kind of episode (a midseason premiere), Fellow Travelers was pretty light on legacyquel content. Or perhaps I simply find the explicit familial connection between Janis and Al (RIP) to be less compelling than the implicit promise of finding Sam. Either way, Al’s legacy (as a good man who saved countless lives), Janis’ connection to her father, and Janis’ opaque motivations are all addressed or at least lampshaded. Most interestingly, Janis teases Jenn with a key question: “Why did Ben come to me when he had all of you?… My dad had people he could trust at Quantum Leap. Do you?” The fact of being Al’s daughter should give the audience reason to trust her (as in, the legacyquel baggage is doing some of the work here), though, as discussed in my review of the original pilot script, it would’ve been a great deal easier to trust Janis’ motivations knowing that Sam is on her side.
Theory time! What if Ben looked at a variety of possible futures? What if he decided not to tell any of his friends because down that path always lies disaster? Or what about the theory that the US Military may be the villain here, a sinister future actor that will eventually use the QL Project for evil (i.e., for terrible military) purposes? We know that the Future Leaper is someone who does what the military tells him; what if Addison goes down a similar path? Then again, her frustration at not being trusted (and the denial of her agency to participate in making this decision) suggests Ben should have trusted her, so it’s hard to say who or what she needs saving from.
Embodiment & Identity Corner: In an episode that doesn’t take time to seriously contend with addiction, despite its centrality to the plot, it should be no surprise that Ben Leaping into a Black man is also not addressed meaningfully. However, in this particular episode, that’s maybe fine(?)—Carly’s 70s music scene appears pretty diverse and progressive—so it’s more about the show’s aggregate failure to engage on this topic, rather than any specific concerns raised by this particular episode.
Another element of embodiment addressed by this episode is that when Ben gets stabbed as Jack (as the 2022 show has argued), Ben is actually using Jack’s body rather than some kind of physical superposition and illusion over his body. So, when we see him in next week’s hook, he no longer appears to be suffering from a stab wound as a new Leapee. While the rules of the 2022 sequel are different than the OG QL, it’s been consistent (in its 9 episode run) in their application. Jack’s body is stabbed, not Ben’s.
And with that, welcome back to weekly coverage of Quantum Leap (2022)!
I don’t know that Jamie apologizing for past wrongs with an “I know I made myself sick for a long time” is a great way to hand wave away discuss addiction with any seriousness.
Is that a qualifier I need to give at this point? Supernatural aired for 15 seasons, only ending a couple of years ago, and yet I’m also talking about S5 which aired in… 2009 apparently!?