When I tell you this show is making me stressed. I went into Quantum Leap 1×16 “Ben, Interrupted” expecting…well, maybe not lighthearted fun, given the episode description. But I didn’t expect to be so tense. It’s only been a couple weeks since the last time the show stressed me out like this, so I really need these writers to give me a break. With only a couple episodes left in the season, however, I suspect this isn’t going to happen.
Love and Sacrifice
Ben (Raymond Lee) just loves Addison (Caitlin Bassett) so much, you guys. Even more than we realized, if everything Janis (Georgina Reilly) says is true. Which, granted, I don’t know that you can take for granted. But according to her, at least, Ben went into his first leap knowing he’d have only three chances to stop Martinez (Walter Perez). If he failed the first two times, he was resolved to prevent this final leap, trapping himself in the past. In a mental hospital that almost makes Bellevue during the same period seem like a country club by comparison.
I have to take a moment here to really commend Lee as an actor. Week after week, whatever each episode asks of him, he brings it. He always nails the earnest sincerity, which is harder than it sounds (at least without crossing the line into “tongue in cheek cheesy”). His dread and fear this episode was absolutely palpable, making an already tense episode even more so. We really didn’t want him to be stuck there, any more than he wanted to spend the rest of his life behind those walls.
Although I suspect he would have chosen differently if he’d known the supposed stakes. Just like Addison was willing to risk her own life to get him out of there. Granted, she doesn’t really believe Janis’s warning. But even if she knew for a fact that Janis was telling the truth, I have no doubt she would have fought to get Ben to leap. Even if she knew it would mean her death.
That’s love, y’all.
What the What?
This episode answered one major question that’s been looming all season: Who is the mole inside the Quantum Project? It’s Ziggy. Which leaves a few questions remaining.
Like what?
And what???
Also, what??????
I don’t even know where to begin processing this twist. And that’s only in part because I’m still trying to relax after how tense that episode left me. Yeah, I know I’ve said – several times – that Quantum Leap is the ultimate comfort show because you always know everything will be okay. Well, apparently, the writers heard I said that and responded, “Bet.”
Ziggy’s the mole. What? How? Why? What?
Yes, I know, I’m bringing all the questions and none of the answers. Don’t blame me. I didn’t do it.
It never occurred to me that Ziggy would be the mole, but I suppose it should have. If only because I had already ruled out everyone else. I knew it wouldn’t be Magic (Ernie Hudson). The show wouldn’t jettison the much-needed father figure of the hodgepodge team. Addison didn’t make sense. Jenn (Nanrisa Lee) had multiple chances to thwart the team, if she was the mole, and she didn’t take them. And I’d have led a riot if they tried to turn Ian (Mason Alexander Park). Which pretty much left Ziggy or Background Extra 5 as the bad guy.
But that really doesn’t answer the question of why Ziggy would be doing all this. It’s a supercomputer that helps answer questions and calculate probabilities. What’s it after? Unless it calculated some sort of probability for the future that it…kept to itself and…chose to act upon. This is all very confusing.
I also can’t help but wonder why the team doesn’t try to do more to stop Martinez in the present. At least as of their first meeting with him, they seemed confident that he hadn’t become aware of…whatever project he becomes a part of that helps him leap. Surely stopping him before he can even enlist would be the most expedient way to thwart him? Though I suppose there’s always the concern that you can cause the future you’re trying to prevent.
I’ve made a few predictions thus far this season, and after Quantum Leap 1×16 “Ben, Interrupted,” I’m pretty sure all of them have been wrong. So I won’t try to speculate on what the writers have in store with this Ziggy twist. With only two episodes left, I’m going to sit back and enjoy the ride.
I just need them to stop stressing me out like this.
I think the problem is that Ziggy does whatever it’s operators want it to do. At some point in the future, Martinez’s handlers run Project Quantum Leap and they have Ziggy pull up its files on what was done in the shows present/their past.