Quantum Leap was my favorite new show of 2022. My favorite Christmas gift was a really good bottle of mulled wine. I brought the two together when watching Quantum Leap 1×10 “Paging Dr. Song” because – as the episode reminds us – it’s all connected.
Okay, there’s a chance the QL Powers That Be are referring to, like, human connection and not fandom theorizing and spiced wine. But there’s a chance they could mean both, so go with me on this journey.
It’s All Connected
Before I break out the Post-It Notes, red string, and tin foil, let’s delve into the episode itself. “Paging Dr. Song” was, above all, about connections. For Ben (Raymond Lee), the episode was about how we are – as demonstrated by three unrelated patients in a hospital – connected to each other. Ben isn’t tasked with saving just one person; he has to save three. No pressure, right?
Luckily, he’s not alone. He never is, with Addison (Caitlin Bassett) in his corner. Of course, it’s not just Addison. The rest of the team is supporting and helping him from behind the scenes. After all, Addison wouldn’t get very far without the information she gets from Ziggy, thanks to Ian (Mason Alexander Park). Magic (Ernie Hudson) keeps the team focused. Jenn (Nanrisa Lee) helps keep them secret and safe (a phrase I find impossible to say without channeling my inner Gandalf). All while everyone tries to get to the bottom of Ben’s mysterious actions.
But while the team helps Ben get through his Leap of the Week, it’s Addison who keeps him going. He needs her, not just to explain how to use a crash cart, but to give him hope that he will help the seemingly helpless and make his way home.
As much as I love Quantum Leap, and as much as I’m intrigued by the overarching mystery, there’s a lot that is predictable from week-to-week (in a good way!). For example, when it’s revealed that Ben’s task is to save three random people, you know he’s going to find a way to save three random people. You don’t know how, and you rarely even know why the Leaps chose those three people. But he’s going to do it. If someone has lost hope, you know he’ll help them find it. Even if, as we saw in episode six, the underlying relationships aren’t salvageable. And whatever outfit the episode puts Lee in, you know he’s going to look damn fine in it. Which makes me wonder if they actually put him in a bra so he could feel his character’s discomfort…but I digress.
With the comforting knowledge that it will all work out in the end, you can often go into the episodes predicting the emotional beats that will necessitate having a box of tissue on hand. However, among the list of reasons that Quantum Leap is my comfort show every week is their ability to hit me harder in the feels than I expected. This week, I expected to become a bit of a weepy mess when Louis Tann (François Chau) had to say goodbye to his wife. But when Ben reacted to that moment by reaching toward Addison…knowing they wouldn’t be able to touch but needing the reassurance of her presence as they look into a possible future for the two of them, if he does make it home to her…
It’s moments like this that add a poignancy to the show, elevating it above a standard feel-good series. After all, when you love someone, you don’t know how much time you’ll have together. But there’s a good chance that – whether in five years or fifty – you may have to say goodbye. In a hospital, in bed…all too young, or at the end of lives well-lived…love doesn’t entirely shield you from goodbye. That goodbye isn’t worth missing all the days in between, but it’s natural to seek reassurance that, at the very least, this isn’t you yet. You still have the one(s) you love most, even in the face of someone losing their everything.
I don’t know how many of these tiny, real moments are scripted versus ad-libbed, but they get me every time. As good as the episode was, that was the defining moment of “Paging Dr. Song” for me. And if you think it made me into a bit of a weepy mess…well…you can’t prove it.
What’s in a Theory?
As good as “Paging Dr. Song” was in terms of emotion, it also sent me embracing my most conspiracy-theorist inclinations. But I can’t help but suspect that’s exactly what the writers wanted me to do. After all, they reminded me that everything’s connected while giving me that really fantastic face-off with Janis (Georgina Reilly) and Addison. Well, with various members of the team, really. Between the episode and the wine, it really got me thinking. (If speculation isn’t your thing, you should stop reading here. Nothing I write below is a spoiler because I know nothing about what this show has in store. But it might leave you, like me, looking for clues you otherwise might have missed. And overthinking. Doing so. Much. Overthinking.)
While I finish preparing my tinfoil hat, let me see if I can compile my questions – and answers – so far:
- Why did Ben Leap? (Answer: “To save Addison.”)
- Why is Ben working with Janis and not anyone else on the Team?
- Is there someone on the Team who can’t be trusted?
- What is Ben saving Addison from?
- How did Ben know Addison would need saving in the future?
- Who is the other Leaper? (Answer: Richard Martinez [Walter Perez])
- Why is the other Leaper leaping, how did/will they get the technology, and what do they want?
- Which is better: Ben in a suit or a tank top? (Okay, this one is probably unrelated to the overarching mystery. Probably.)
- Why did Janis agree to help Ben to begin with?
There are probably more to add (that I’ll remember approximately ten minutes after this review publishes). However, that last question, as we are reminded this episode, is really key.
Janis had a life before Ben threw a spanner in the works. Sure, she wad disappointed not to be part of her father’s former project. But we have no reason to think she was willing to do anything and everything necessary to make it happen. Post-Ben, however, she’s not only not part of the team, she’s uprooted her entire life, fled to another country, and found herself locked up anyway. I’m not entirely sure she’s not exactly where she wants to be at the moment, but that’s neither here nor there. When Janis was originally envisioning taking up her father’s project, I doubt her current circumstances were what she had in mind.
Pondering all these different pieces and how they might fit together, I considered a possibility that hadn’t occurred to me before. (And, yes, this is where the tinfoil hat comes in.)
What would cause Janis to put their freedom and/or life – depending on who this shadow organization is and what they want – in danger for a complete stranger? Even going so far as to drug her own mother so she could steal her dad’s old equipment? Sure, maybe there were problems in that mother/daughter relationship before that moment, but let’s not pretend drugging your parent isn’t a pretty big deal. Also, whatever hopes Janis might have had to one day join the Project officially? Her actions have to have ensured those are pretty much dead. At least in her mind. (I don’t rule out a possible future in which she joins the team, personally.)
Janis didn’t know Addison or Ben before this all began. So whatever he told her had to be pretty darn big. Maybe not 12 Monkeys, extinction-level event big. But it would take a certain kind of person to blow up their entire life to maybe save the life of a single person they have never met and possibly never will. I doubt there’s many people out there who would be willing to do it. I’m not even sure Ben would do it (though I think he’d give it some serious thought). Janis doesn’t seem to me to be the volunteer martyr type.
Which means the threat Ben is fighting is probably bigger than we know. Or at least it impacts Janis more directly in some way. Possibly someone close to her is somehow affected – either directly or as a numbers game. The problem with that is that Ben (at least currently) doesn’t remember a big threat. Just a personal one: He has to save Addison. But Ben has forgotten far more than he currently remembers.
Putting the Pieces Together
When Ben announced that he needs to save Addison, it’s natural to assume that he needs to save her from some sort of external threat. But as we learned in episode 3 and were reminded this episode, Addison can take care of herself. Quite possibly better than Ben, actually. At least when it comes to physical self-defense. And Addison isn’t just physically capable. She’s also very good at thinking on her feet and problem solving. It would have made her a great Leaper, but it serves her in good stead as the voice in Ben’s ear, as well.
When Addison reminded Ben that she can take care of herself, and that she won’t be facing her mysterious fate in the future alone, it got me thinking. There are two ways one can interpret “Save Addison.” Save Addison from an external threat or…an internal one. What if Addison does something in the future that Ben needs to stop?
Before I go any further, let me make one thing absolutely clear: I don’t for a single solitary second think Addison is now or will be a bad guy. Not willingly, and certainly not irredeemably. The show can’t play with my shipper heart like that. But this episode also reminded us that people react differently to losing everything. Those reactions aren’t always logical, rational, or healthy. And Ben would only know the outcome of…whatever he’s trying to prevent. Not the how or why. At least until he gets to that specific date. So it could be that she does something that has inadvertent consequences, or she tries and fails to do something…with disastrous consequences.
Either way, Ben needing to save Addison from essentially herself would put a couple pieces together.
- Why did Ben Leap? (Answer: “To save Addison…from herself.”)
- Why is Ben working with Janis and not anyone else on the Team? (Everyone on the Team loves Addison and he might be worried they wouldn’t believe him – or be willing to risk his life AND hers to help her. Particularly if he only has a tiny piece of the picture.)
- Is there someone on the Team who can’t be trusted? (In last week’s review, I broke down why it couldn’t be Magic, Ian, or Jenn. I never considered Addison. Who, again, can ABSOLUTELY be trusted and will DEFINITELY be saved and I WILL ACCEPT NO SPECULATION OTHERWISE. But for now…okay, discretion is sometimes the better part of valor.)
- What is Ben saving Addison from? (Answer: Herself.)
- How did Ben know Addison would need saving in the future? (Answer: … I still got nothin’.)
- Who is the other Leaper? (Answer: Richard Martinez [Walter Perez])
- Why is the other Leaper leaping, how did/will they get the technology, and what do they want? (Answer: ?????)
- Why did Janice agree to help Ben to begin with? (Answer: Whatever it is, it’s bigger than just saving Addison.)
It would also answer a new question from this episode:
- Why is it so important that Ben stop telling Addison anything? (Answer: The show implies that another Leaper can somehow overhear and learn something they shouldn’t. But what if the reason is that Addison might discover something she shouldn’t? Time travel always raises the question of whether knowing your fate could cause it to happen.)
It’s a theory. Or it’s just a really good bottle of wine. I guess future episodes will let us know which.
I love the way you broke this episode down, thanks!! I enjoyed the episode, and we go further down the rabbit hole, so to speak. But what was that at the end, when Addison’s reflection was that of someone else?? That one has me stumped!