The big reveal in Quantum Leap Episode 4 is how Sam lept into Magic and how the project died and was rebooted by Magic and his allies for research!
Meanwhile, Ben has lept into a female bounty hunter named Eva. And Eva was waiting at the cocktail bar for her target when Ben lept into her with the beautiful song “Don’t you want me” by Human League in the background.
But first a service announcement!
Quantum Leap snags full-season order
Despite mixed reviews, Quantum Leap was this fall’s highest-rated series launch. The show has snagged an extra six episodes. Due to the high production costs for the special effects, NBC could only go as far as 6 extra episodes. The only thing that would make me even happier would be a season 2 renewal.
I am very happy to hear that. I like the show, I like the themes they dare to bring up and I like the way the writers make you think about the themes. Themes like PTSS and veteran support. In fact, I wish there were more Feel Good Human Interest shows but let’s stick with Quantum Leap and the new crew that will do anything to get Ben home.
No means no!
When Ben Quantum Leaps into Eva, she is sitting at the bar and a guy is hitting on her. She throws a drink in his face when he doesn’t stop flirting with her. “You stuck up bitch!” is the last thing we see of that man.
Addison finds Ben and sees that Ben is in Eva’s body. She makes the comment about how Ben’s just been a woman for 30 minutes and has already been assaulted by pushy men. The two go through Eva’s purse and find a set of lockpickers, a taser, and a can of pepper spray. All the stuff a girl needs when visiting a nightclub.
When Jake comes in Ben naturally doesn’t recognize her. He has Eve’s body but not her consciousness. And it would really be nice if we can get some more clarity about what happens when someone leaps into you. What that’s like?
After the assignment, Eva and Jake go back to her dad’s shop. The door is open and it looks like a crime. Jake is the first to step out of the car to see what happened.
Don’t you want me baby
When Eva comes in to see what the damage is, she sees Jake on one knee and a ring. He proposed to her for marriage. But since it’s Ben in Eva’s body because this happens during a Quantum Leap, he doesn’t know what to do and said the magical words that kill almost any relationship: I need more time. Because we all know that that is a 99% no.
And throughout the episode, we can see how Jake keeps running after Eve. He wants clarity and to be honest he deserves clarity. You don’t just ask someone to marry you. You do that after you think things through. Like saying “I love you”, that’s not something you say. You mean it…
Eva and Jake are going after a woman who is due in court for parking tickets. Her name is Tammy Jean Jessup. Tammy’s story is that she wants to leave the country with her love Zack. And there is a parallel here between Tammy, Zack and Eva, and Jake. Tammy says all the right things that Jake wants to hear from Eva. While Zack is absent. Whereas Eva is just absentminded, so to speak.
While Tammy gets picked up by Eva and Jake. Members of a violent cartel are trying to kill Tammy. Eva and Jake just wonder why that is. When Tammy runs away during a tire fixing because the tire got shot after the three of them got away from the cartel.
Fun fact: Jake and Tammy are a couple in real life: Justin Hartley and his wife Sofia Pernas.
What you won’t do, do for love
So just when you think that Tammy is off to find Zack to run off to together. The world just seems a bit different. Tammy is actually more than a woman in love acting like a girl. Tammy is the head of the other cartel that sells and distributes cocaine in wholesale.
And when we see Zack for the first time, he is all tied up and not the intimate kind of tied up. He’s shot to death in cold blood by Tammy and that’s how we find out that Tammy is the head of the cartel.
After Eva and Jake manage to escape, Jake can’t handle it anymore. Eva is not clear as to why she didn’t say yes to his proposal. Despite her saying that she hasn’t said no and just needed more time.
Eva’s father wants nothing but the best for her daughter and gives her the advice that sometimes the best thing is the thing right in front of you. Much like the Purloined Letter. That what you seek is in the last place you look: right in front of you.
The whole scene triggers a memory from Ben before he steps into the Quantum Leap accelerator and he sees who he was dating before the leap.
Meet me at the railway station
Eva moves to the railway station to find Tammy and bring her in. The railway station because all of Tammy’s documents pointed to the railway station. Tammy however is looking for her suitcase to smuggle into Mexico. The suitcase contains money, passports, and a gun.
Apparently, Tammy managed to dodge border patrol and other checkpoints by getting off the train in Juarez, and at that point, it’s easy to cross the border without anyone spotting you. That way Tammy managed to set up relationships and distribution networks for drugs. And that’s how she became the head of that cartel.
When Eva tries to confront Tammy, Jake is held at gunpoint. Tammy is easily taken down with the taser that hits the suitcase. The case has metal elements and thus Tammy is electrocuted and the suitcase pops open. With all the money flying out Tammy looks in frustration but can’t do a thing about it.
Ben Quantum Leaps to his next adventure which looks to be in a Native American setting.
It’s right in front of you
During the episode we see Ben and Addison talk about a triggered memory from Ben in the previous episode. He has a girlfriend and doesn’t think that Addison and him could be together.
He says that he feels guilty and wonders if the girlfriend is mad at him. When we see more of Ben’s memory we see it’s Addison and that’s when Ben puts two and two together: Addison is his girlfriend.
We finally see what happens when Ben receives stimuli and triggers memories of his life right before he stepped into the Quantum Leap’s accelerator.
I find it very exciting to see how Ben and Addison piece together his memory. Now that Ben knows about him and Addison, it completely changes the dynamic between the two.
Because Addison is a constant and the knowledge that he loves her, he may remember more or dive into how Addison became the love of his life. The two of them could talk about it and we get to find out more about their relationship and as individuals.
Magic’s Quantum Leap past revealed
The most interesting part of the episode was the Quantum Leap team being hacked by Janice. Janice isn’t just hacking Ziggy, she’s hacking personnel files. And Magic’s file contains a lot of secrets and because he doesn’t want Ian combing through those files, because Ian asked if that’s possible, he takes Ian for a walk.
Turns out that Magic was lept into by Sam and saved Magic and Sam’s brother Tom’s entire platoon from dying. A spy gave information to the enemy Magic and Tom fought about their whereabouts but thanks to Sam they both survived.
Magic found out that he was taken over by Sam and tells him that it is like a nudge and after the adventure in Vietnam, he would follow Sam through his dreams and it is like he experiences what, Sam, experiences.
When Magic came back from Vietnam and started to work for the government he found out what happened to the Quantum Leap program and how Sam never came home.
Quantum Leap addresses what happens when lept into
This has got to be the most revealing part of what being lept into is really like. And I am so happy that the writers finally address this. So far, all we have had were the stories as told through Sam or Ben’s eyes. We never get to see what it is like from the person who gets lept into’s view.
Since I think all of the leaps are connected, I can just honestly say that we haven’t seen the last of Darren’s new PTSS support group or what happened to the family in the first episode with the getaway driver. Or Eva who got lept into this episode. I think at some point all the stories will come together but for what purpose?
I can only guess, but looking back at Sam’s trying to prevent the JFK murder in one of the biggest episodes of the original Quantum Leap, it drew a lot of criticism from fans back in the 1990s. The explanation by the writers was that some events just need to happen in order for the world to move forward. The murder of JFK was one such event.
Since Ian theorized that Ben is leaping and leaping in order to gather enough energy to make one huge leap could mean that the writers may want to restore or alter the original explanation of big events needing to happen and that Ben may just be the key to change big events. But that would mean that Ben is almost like a god and no man is supposed to be a god.
We shall see!
What do you make of this week’s episode? Do you think my theory about the big events has any traction? And what of the full season order? Are you happy about that? Drop me a line in the comments!
