Quantum Leap (2022)

Season 1

Raymond Lee as Dr. Ben Seong
Ernie Hudson ( Ghostbusters ) as Herbert "Magic" Williams
Nanrisa Lee as Jenn
Mason Alexander Park as Ian
Caitlin Bassett as Addison

Quantum Leap (2022) [Season 1, Episode 1] July 13th, 1985 (60 min)
Shown 19 Sep 22

The original show started with Al Calavicci. This sequel show starts with the entire HQ team, the typical Found Family group from US TV shows. They are very diverse, but boss-man Herbert "Magic" Williams (Ernie Hudson - Ghostbusters ) is ex-USN and he answers directly to the Pentagon. Yes, these touchy-feely Liberals are basically pawns of the US military-industrial complex.

Ben makes an unauthorised leap without any backup. He becomes the getaway driver for a gang of armed robbers. He must help one of the gang become an informant and get a hospital to provide free healthcare for the robber's wife.

The authority figure, Cole (Michael Malarkey - Vampire Diaries ) the chief robber, is a CIS-passing white-acting default male person so he/him is clearly the villain.

Why is Addison such a bad hologram? It turns out that she was intended to be the field agent, and Ben was meant to be her hologram. Yes, not only did he run out on their engagement but he also stole her job. No wonder she has so much repressed anger against him.

Quantum Leap (2022) [Season 1, Episode 2] Atlantis (60 min)
Shown 26 Sep 22

Ben is a Japanese-American Astronaut on a Space Shuttle. The shuttle commander is a Latinx man, and the female payload specialist is Carly Pope . Yes, no evil white man this time.

It is 1998, and the shuttle's mission is to deliver the first stage of the International Space Station. When the shuttle gets damaged, it cannot land safely without repairs. Since the Cold War has been over for almost a decade, it would actually help international relations if the astronauts and cosmonauts worked together.

Herbert "Magic" Williams (Ernie Hudson - Ghostbusters ) investigates Janice Calavicci. Normally the big twists would take a few episodes, but this is all in the start of the Season.

Quantum Leap (2022) [Season 1, Episode 3] Somebody Up There Likes Ben (60 min)
Shown 03 Oct 22

Ben leaps into a boxer in the 1970s. It is usually racist to pretend to be Black, but Ben is ethnically Korean so he is allowed to do this.

The authority figure, the World Middleweight Boxing champion, is a CIS-passing white-acting default male person so he/him is clearly the villain.

It turns out that Ben spent the last six months working on the code he uploaded to Ziggy. This is what deactivated the safeties, and allowed Ben to leap back to before his own lifetime. Janice Calavicci is back in town, and she is the only one who knows the code's backdoors.

The focus of the new show is teamwork, rather than on the leaper who is having the great adventure. This means it is more like Team Knight Rider than the original version.

Quantum Leap (2022) [Season 1, Episode 4] A Decent Proposal (60 min)
Shown 10 Oct 22

Ben is a female bounty-hunter named Eva. She and her partner Jake (Justin Hartley - Smallville ) must find a bail-jumper named Tammy Jean Jessup ( Sofia Pernas ) and deliver her to traffic court for some unpaid parking tickets. Unfortunately she is involved in smuggling cocaine for a Mexican drugs cartel.

There is a subplot of romance. On the TV news is the Royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. Jake proposes to Eva, and Ben has to stall as he works out what Eva should choose. Ben is a romantic at heart, because he has memories of having a girlfriend even though he does not remember who she is.

Magic reveals his personal backstory. He was a US Navy SEAL in Vietnam, part of the failed mission to rescue Al Calavicci. Yes, the head of QL was once leaped into by Sam Beckett. Strangely, he does not mention being kept in the all-white room. Also, if he was born circa 1942 then he would be eighty years old!

Quantum Leap (2022) [Season 1, Episode 5] Midnight Run (60 min) AKA Salvation or Bust
Shown 17 Oct 22

Ben is in 1898, in a wild west town. He is in the body of Diego De La Cruz, former gunslinger and father of the Mayor of a town named Salvation. The town is being harrassed by Josiah McDonagh, a CIS-passing white-acting default-male bandit with a thousand-dollar reward on his head who has been hired by the railroad company to destroy the town. The smart thing would be to leave town. Unfortunately the town is the only safe space in patriarchal USA. For example, it is the only town that a Black woman can be a pimp in.

A Congresswoman from the oversight committee visits QL HQ, and starts to interview all the staff. The junior staff, all female or nonbinary, stonewall her. The security woman digs up some blackmail material. Will Mr Magic resort to blackmail, or will he just lie to and deceive the politician?

Quantum Leap (2022) [Season 1, Episode 6] What a Disaster!
Shown 24th October 2022

Ben is in San Francisco during an Earthquake. He must save his host's teenage son. This impacts Ben personally, since he remembers he was raised by a single mother who died when he was a tweenager.

Magic and the Security woman use facial recognition to track down Leaper X. He is a US Marine, but he appears clueless about their mission. It seems that his future self will become Leaper X.

Quantum Leap (2022) [Season 1, Episode 7] O Ye of Little Faith
Shown 31 Oct 22

Ben is a Catholic priest, called in to perform an exorcism on a young woman. Since Ben is an atheist, he seeks an alternate explanation for the incredible events. Of course, the doctor does not believe in exorcisms and instead prefers scientific treatments such as ECT and lobotomy.

One of the family members, including Elyse Levesque , could be a murderer. The authority figure, her husband, is a CIS-passing white-acting default male person so he/him is the obvious suspect.

Like in the Halloween episode of the original show, the hologram assistant gets locked out of the mission. Is this a demon interfering with the computer system?

Quantum Leap (2022) [Season 1, Episode 8] Stand by Ben
Shown 07 Nov 22

The title is a reference to Stand By Me , the famous movie based on the novella by Stephen King about a trek by a group of young boys. The big difference is that this time, the group includes a couple of girls. They are runaways from a disciplinary camp.

The authority figure, the camp's boss, is a CIS-passing white-acting default male person so he/him is clearly the villain.

Quantum Leap (2022) [Season 1, Episode 9] Fellow Travelers
Shown 02 Jan 23

Ben has leapt into the body of a bodyguard, like in the Marilyn Monroe episode of the original show. Carly Farmer ( Deborah Ann Woll ) is a singer, although it is not clear what kind of music she performs until the final song at the end. In the original show, the setting would have been a more central part of the story. This time the story is a simple stop-the-murder plot, which could have been set in any era. The suspects include Carly's estranged sister ( Karissa Lee Staples ).

The authority figure, Carly's manager, is a CIS-passing white-acting default male person so he/him is clearly the villain.

The season's overall story arc is making progress. Ben remembers why he leapt - to save Addison ( Caitlin Bassett ). She is less than happy to hear this, because she does not find him trustworthy and wants to second-guess his decisions. The harsh reality is that he does not trust any of his cow-orkers. Strange, since they are a diverse bunch - Black and Asian characters, with lots of women and a gender-non-binary person. So which one is meant to be the traitor?

The Asian woman goes south of the Brandt line, to kidnap someone from a non-extradition country. As usual with this kind of show, nobody cares about the legality.

Quantum Leap (2022) [Season 1, Episode 10] Paging Dr. Song
Shown 09 Jan 23

Ben is a female doctor in a Seattle hospital, like in Grey's Anatomy. His job is to save three patients. The problem is that the US healthcare system, in 1994 as in 2023, puts profits before patients. Worse, the head doctor is a CIS-passing default male person and he responds to Ben's disobedience - a sackable offence that might end in manslaughter charges - by calling Ben Missy. Yes, his condescension - a form of weaponised politeness - is deemed an excessive punishment for Ben's crimes. In an environment where everyone is a doctor, he gets called out for not calling her (a first-year resident) by her title.

Ben's job is to treat three patients. One of them is a lawyer, which would be great for starting a lawsuit that would save the other two from Big Pharma.

Back at QL HQ, the diversity team interrogate their suspect. They have trouble accepting the idea that Ben cannot trust their system.

Quantum Leap (2022) [Season 1, Episode 11] Leap. Die. Repeat.
Shown 30 Jan 23

Ben finds himself in 1962, even though he looks a lot younger than sixty years old. He is in an experimental nuclear reactor, intended to get sustainable energy from nuclear waste. The bad news is that the reactor is about to explode. The good news is that Ben can leap into another body, and get another chance to stop the explosion. The bad news is that he has a limited number of tries.

The twist is that the reactor has been co-opted by the US government, who want to use it to create nuclear weapons. In reality, this is the reason the US government made all their reactors use uranium fuel instead of thorium. Yes, ALL nuclear reactors are part of the military-industrial complex.

Dr Wolsey (Robert Picardo - Star Trek: Vgr ) keeps calling the female journalist by the wrong name. This is portrayed as a form of misogyny, but he is a very focused individual (probably neurodivergent) and the reality is that her name is irrelevant.

In the original show, Al Calavicci gave exposition. In this new version, his replacement Addison ( Caitlin Bassett ) spends all her time talking about her feelings and is very slow with the relevant info.

The team has to trust Janice Calavicci. After all, she knows more about this than they do.

Quantum Leap (2022) [Season 1, Episode 12] Let Them Play
Shown 06 Feb 23

Ben is a High School basketball coach in charge of a girls' team. He lets his daughter play in a match, but this is controversial because she is Trans. What side will the show take on the Transgenderism debate? Well, since one of the main team in HQ is a non-binary person then it is pretty obvious. This is a message episode, a real after-school special. The authority figure, a Karen who is mother to a spoilt CIS White girl, is a CIS-passing white-acting person.

The soundtrack actually has a few songs that are period-specific, including Firework by Katy Perry. A pity that other episodes do not have as much detail.

Herbert "Magic" Williams (Ernie Hudson - Ghostbusters ) investigates the person who sent Ben into his first leap. Of course, with time-travel there is always the bootstrap paradox.

Quantum Leap (2022) [Season 1, Episode 13] Family Style
Shown 27 Feb 23

Ben is the eldest daughter of an Indian immigrant family. It is 2009, and the family runs a restuarant. Unfortunately the place is about to burn down, which will destroy the family dynamic. The obvious suspect is the landlady, who wants unpaid rent and will happily commit arson for insurance fraud.

The restuarant needs thirty thousand dollars. If they can make five thousand dollars in one night, the landlady promises to extend the payback period. Of course, she is basically a gangster so she is not exactly trustworthy.

Luckily, Ben has a number of choices. He sets a groupon discount, which gets three hundred customers. The younger daughter wants to start an entirely new menu, which might be a good idea in the long run but is not something to try without perfecting it first. Some more distant relatives might also help out.

Herbert "Magic" Williams (Ernie Hudson - Ghostbusters ) confronts the person he thinks told Ben to leap. This person now has a crisis of conscience, and second-guesses their future self.

Quantum Leap (2022) [Season 1, Episode 14] S.O.S.
Shown 06 Mar 23

Ben is Operations Officer aboard the USS Montana. The Executive Officer (Brandon Routh - Superman Returns ) is the father of Ben's fiance, the hologram woman Addison ( Caitlin Bassett ). This gives her a chance to deal with some childhood trauma, by getting her father to undo the event that destroyed his career.

The year is 1989, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Cold War is still going on, and the Montana's Captain seems to be looking for a fight. Their ship is on manoeuvres in the East China Sea, and they are being shadowed by a Chinese submarine. For some reason, the Captain decides that sinking the Chinese sub and thus starting World War Three is a good idea. This is a Crimson Tide scenario.

Herbert "Magic" Williams (Ernie Hudson - Ghostbusters ) is a US Navy veteran. He gets info from the Chinese side, which is just as well because the US Navy's files have been doctored. Well, this is not the first example of a government cover-up that the team have encountered.

Quantum Leap (2022) [Season 1, Episode 15] Ben Song for the Defense
Shown 13 Mar 23

Ben is a Public Defender who has a massive workload of cases. One is a young man who is being pressured into pleading guilty to a murder he did not commit. The team at HQ must do some Cold Case work and catch the real killer.

Ben is also a Black woman, which is only relevant to the plot because she is having a conflict-of-interest affair with a Black lesbian in the District Attorney's office.

The authority figure, the District Attorney, is a CIS-passing white-acting default male person so he/him is clearly the villain.

The message of the week is that fair trials are unlikely.

Quantum Leap (2022) [Season 1, Episode 16] Ben, Interrupted
Shown 20 Mar 23

Ben is a private eye, paid to become an inmate in an asylum in 1953. He has to rescue a female inmate, who was put in there by her neglectful husband.

The authority figure, the Doctor (Patrick Fischler - Once Upon A Time ), is a CIS-passing white-acting default male person so he/him is clearly the villain. As is the chief guard. They have been conducting illegal experiments on the inmates ... in an era when lobotomies and electro-shock therapy were routine procedures.

Herbert "Magic" Williams (Ernie Hudson - Ghostbusters ) meets with Janice Calavicci again, and gets even more useful info out of her. This would have been a lot easier if she was a regular on the team, but the show mostly thrives on people NOT having information.

Quantum Leap (2022) [Season 1, Episode 17] The Friendly Skies
Shown 27 Mar 23

Ben is a stewardess on a transatlantic passenger plane that disappeared over the Atlantic. This seems similar to the real-life MH100 case, which at the time this episode was made had no proven cause.

The authority figure, the plane's Captain, is a CIS-passing white-acting default male person so he/him is clearly the villain. He pulls rank on everyone, pointing out that he is a decorated War veteran - just like Addison, US Army Captain. The moral of the story seems to be that a stewardess, who is basically a waitress, can fly a plane just as well as a US military pilot.

Herbert "Magic" Williams (Ernie Hudson - Ghostbusters ) has ordered Ziggy taken offline. This means the rest of the team must do the research manually.

Quantum Leap (2022) [Season 1, Episode 18] Judgment Day
Shown 03 Apr 23

Ben is himself, in 2051. He gets exposition from Ian, the sole survivor of the team, amid the post-apocalyptic ruins of the QL base in Los Angeles.

Ben leaps again, into himself in 2018. He and Addison go on their first date together, but he decides to go off-script and ruin everything. Martinez, AKA Leaper X, is going to try to kill her. His mission is to stop Project QL from destroying the timeline. Perhaps this means Martinez is the real hero.

The episode ends on a cliffhanger. Someone is leaping back to the Quantum Accelerator ... but we have to wait until Season Two to see who it is.