Quantum Leap episode 3 takes on tough topics like PTSD from war veterans who fought in the war and were largely ignored in the 1970s!
In Episode 3 of Quantum Leap, we see Dr. Ben Song getting punched in the face by a boxer. It turns out that the leap took him to the 1970s when Song prepares for a big boxing night.
This fight could be the last fight
Ben wakes up and gets punched in the face several times. The fight of his life is tomorrow but Ben has no idea how to fight. He doesn’t have years of boxing training and will likely fall down on his first hit. But here is Addison, she knows what to do.
The story continues and Ben has lept into the body of Danny Hill, a boxer who has a shot at the title of Champion. Danny is coached by his brother Daryl, a war veteran who believes in Danny but comes clean after a while and said that he ran out of money a while back and went to see a few loan sharks since all the banks rejected him.
This is where Addison jumps in and tells Ben that if he loses the fight, Daryl will go down an even further downward spiral and takes his own life. So it’s up to Ben to help prevent that from happening. But Ben doesn’t know a thing about boxing, is right-handed while Danny is a lefty.
Addison takes advantage of Ziggy and displays the video of the fight and shows Ben where to strike and take down his opponent. Since Ben has a photographic memory, he should have no issues taking over Danny’s fighting skills.
The fight is eventually by Danny Hill and Ben leaps to the next episode.
The most interesting part of this episode’s setting is Daryl, Danny’s older brother.
War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing
As more often, Quantum Leap, has social themes and human interest stories that make you go hmm.
When Danny is on his way home, he gets threatened by his opponent over the girl Danny’s with, Angela. Daryl picks up Danny right on time to get out of there and make sure that Danny’s in one piece before the fight starts. And the two run off into the night in Daryl’s convertible.
When one of the perpetrators calls Daryl a child killer because he served in Vietnam. Daryl gets out of the car and assaults the entire group. Daryl is so blinded by rage it seems that he even punches Danny in the face. Danny calms him down eventually and the two leave.
Later after Daryl tells him that he gave up the gym to make sure that Danny can have his title shot, the police come knocking. The people who Daryl assaulted pressed charges.
Daryl goes into a fit of rage again. And almost assaults the police. Danny interferes but is taken to police headquarters as well for a night in jail. And this is where Danny brings up the words Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD .
Danny urges Daryl to get help but Daryl is in deep denial and has an aversion to doctors. “What are going to do? Give me a pill?” but Danny gets through to Daryl anyway and eventually when Danny wins the title, Daryl’s debt is repaid to the loan sharks. And it turns out that Daryl starts a support group for war veterans. One of the first of its kind.
I have to say that I was pretty amazed by the show’s writers that they came up with a daring themes like PTSD, war veterans, aversions to doctors and pills, and support groups.
Back in the 1970s, it were the Vietnam veterans who came back traumatized and damaged after the war they had to endure. The war never ended in their heads. And instead of giving help, they were largely ignored by their own government.
To make matters worse, anti-war supporters spat on the people who served their country in the face. Just like in Quantum Leap, people called the veterans baby killers and murderers.
Nowadays there are quite a few programs that are available while it is still far from perfect. And bills are still being denied for those who served their country in a war and need help after they come back from their tour.
I can only hope that the writers of Quantum Leap will continue down this path and make you think about the social themes that I just mentioned. It’s daring, it’s bold but it pays off to start a conversation about a taboo topic like PTSD and the war.
A horse is a horse, of course, a trojan horse
The supercomputer known as Ziggy is no more. Long live Ziggy. The computer was upgraded from what it was back in the original series recently but it still runs on the original code. And if you are a computer expert like Janice is then it becomes remarkably easy to hack.
In the second episode, we saw that Janice lured Magic and Jenn into a trap that was her house. But Jenn managed to download EVERYTHING to her portable hard drive.
As it turns out that was a trap. The download contained a trojan and Janice almost has full access to Ziggy the supercomputer at the Quantum Leap Project home.
Commenting on last week’s explosion; did you really think Janice would let you get away with all of her data? That would be too good to be true, especially considering the fact that she lured Magic and Jenn there. She was expecting them and ofcourse laid a trap.
While I was still celebrating that Magic and Jenn got out alive, that nagging feeling of something fishy going on just started to haunt me. And that nagging feeling was right. But we aren’t done yet. We are finally given a little hint of how cunning Janice really is.
Janice visits the one who kept her from the Quantum Leap project
Janice visits her mother and Beth opens the door. The two greet and Janice assures Beth that she is not being watched and that all cameras are dark.
A conversation between mother and daughter reveals that it was Beth who kept Janice out of the Quantum Leap project. Beth admits that it was her and she gave a good reason.
The Quantum Leap Project lost Sam Beckett forever and Al Calavicci never got over that. The Quantum Leap project hurt so many lives and Beth never wanted Janice to have to go through that pain. But blood is thicker than water and thus Janice wants in. Just as Beth tries to get up she falls over. The tea was drugged and Beth lost consciousness.
After she regains her consciousness, the most surprising thing happens: The first person to get a call from Beth is Magic. Magic and she must be in an alliance. Beth tells that Janice was at her place and that she drugged Beth.
Beth tells Magic that Al took items home that were top secret. One of the items was the original Handlink that Al used to communicate with Sam. But it can also be used for Ziggy the supercomputer and you can “talk” to Ziggy now.
So let’s see what we have here so far:
- Talks Ben into using the Quantum Leap Accelerator on himself.
- Lures people into a trap and then uploads a trojan on their own servers.
- Drugs her mother to gain access to top secret items from her father, including the original Handlink.
- Gains full access to a quantum computer.
- Probably will figure out where Sam is heading before Team Quantum Leap does.
That’s how cunning and skilled Janice is. All that without killing a single person. Only scared them a little bit.
Quantum Leap into loneliness
The most emotional scenes of this week were of Addison. She admits to Ian how hard it is now that Ben is leaping from era to era, body to body, and not able to remember her at all or the love they shared.
She can’t sleep, or think, and finds it very hard that the hologram is the best thing they can do for a relationship. She then talks about she misses watching the things couples do like ordering Thai food and watching The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
The non-sleeping takes its toll during the episode when Addison teaches Ben how to box and find his opponent’s weak spots. During a conversation, Addison faints mid-sentence and wakes up in a hospital.
She is told to take 2 days of rest but she only takes 2 hours. And she is back to Ben to help him get through the title shot fight.
The actress, Caitlin Bassett, is a gem. She has got quite an acting range. The emotions were felt during the conversations with Ian. Addison’s a woman with a strong character who is willing to go to great lengths to get her lover back.
