Quantum Leap Episode 17, titled “The Friendly skies” is the penultimate episode of the season and this time the team has to guide Ben without the help of AI Ziggy!
The Friendly Skies is the 17th and penultimate episode of the first season of Quantum Leap. This week, Team Quantum Leap is investigating how supercomputer Ziggy is the mole inside the organization.
How can Ziggy be the mole of Team Quantum Leap?
Leaper X is from the future and uses the same technology as Team Quantum Leap in the present. Basically, the same Ziggy they use. So Magic makes the executive decision and tells the team to unplug Ziggy so that they can go about their business and guide Ben through the Friendly Skies.
But does that solve anything? Well, yes…the team is harder-pressed now to guide Ben through the Quantum Leap without being spied on.
Ben is currently on a plane posing as a stewardess on an intercontinental flight. And the plane doesn’t have much time left before it goes down. In fact, the plane crash is one of the most notorious and deadly ones in the history of flight and the cause of the crash was never found that is until Ben happened in The Friendly Skies.
The Friendly Skies are not so friendly
So at first, I thought this episode was going to be harassment and a #metoo episode because both Ben, who has lept into the body of Lois, and her female colleagues are complaining about men not being able to keep their hands off of them.
During the episode, we meet several characters. We have Corey Zampol whose parents own the airline Ben is currently working. He has his own bodyguard, a former New York City police officer named Leslie and the crew member Ben interacts the most with is named Holly. Up until now, the Friendly Skies are moderately friendly.
Ben and Corey don’t get along at the start. Better yet, after a chat with Leslie, it looks like Corey doesn’t have any friends at all. Leslie is annoyed by his presence and even more annoyed that she has to talk with him.
The trouble in the Friendly Skies starts when Holly is bringing coffee to the pilot crew, Ben insists that he does it. Holly reluctantly gives the coffee tray to Ben. The pilot are a bit sexist, to be honest. The pilot makes a lot of comments that are sexual in nature and even if it fits the 1970s culture, it doesn’t make it right at all.
Little did we know that a few moments later that the crew will be found dead bar the co-pilot Paul. Apparently, he hasn’t taken a sip from his coffee whereas the rest of the crew did.
Paul wanted to let his coffee cool off a bit before taking a sip. Ben immediately urges him to throw away the coffee. The explanation Paul gives is very plausible of course or is it?
The hijacking of the friendly skies
Ben is suspicious and marks especially Holly as a suspect while he goes through her stuff. It was she who gave him the coffee tray plus she was reluctant to give Ben the coffee tray. So 1+1 is 2 thinks Ben.
But that doesn’t always fly in these friendly skies. Just because it is the most obvious, it doesn’t make it correct. When Corey sees Ben go through Holly’s stuff, he asks Ben what he is doing. To make sure Corey doesn’t panic Ben comes up with an excuse. But when the strap for the emergency supplies box is slit, Corey gets Leslie. Which proved to be the biggest mistake ever.
Leslie is one of the hijackers and her co-conspirator is none other than Paul. The other 2 hijackers are hired muscle so they are in it for the money.
Ben comes up with a plan to take down the hired muscle and he does it quickly and efficiently with the help of Holly. Unfortunately, one of the passengers gets shot when he tries to take down the second one.
Then they take down the conspirators Leslie and Paul by improvising a sleep gas using various chemicals that are present on the plane. How very MacGyver of them. At least the scene was reminiscent of the TV show.
Leslie and Paul are down for the count and now for the next problem. How are you going to land the plane in these friendly skies?
Ian and Ben reunited and it feels so good!
It turns out that Corey has no friends. The friend he thought he had, Leslie, turned out to be one of the hijackers. Which leaves Corey with little confidence and no friends at all. But Ben gives an inspiring speech and Corey is off to the back of the plane to fix it.
And at the same time, Ben realizes that he can’t do everything all alone and that he needs to learn how to rely on others. It’s not the first time that Ben has had that issue and I think going into the final episode that part of Ben’s character will play a large role in defeating Leaper X. Addison keeps an eye on Corey while he fixes it.
But wait, who is going to help Ben land the plane? It’s none other than Ian. Apparently, the imaging chamber can now have 2 people imaging at the same time. The best part was that Ben immediately recognized Ian.
Ian teased him about Ben no longer being at his side for trivia nights. And that other branches now win because he’s not there. It’s obvious that Ian misses Ben a lot, just like Jen in episode 15.
It makes me wonder what kind of person Ben is when he is with his friends. I think he’s very social and intelligent. Of course, we see that every week but never with Team Quantum Leap, unfortunately. The friendly skies are friendly once more.
The Leap into the future
The plane has landed and right before people are rescued by the airport workers Ben leaps but this time Ian can’t pinpoint his new location. He’s completely off the Quantum Leap grid. This is worrisome because how will they help Ben? Don’t they realize the season finale is next week?
All kidding aside, Ben has lept into the future and is greeted by Ian. Ian has indicated earlier in the episode that he is bothered by the fact that he is a future Quantum Leaper and that he is the one who tells Ben to leap.
When he greets Ben, he tells him that he has waited a long time for him. Apparently, the world has been struck by a nuclear winter. And that’s where the episode ends.
It makes me wonder if Ben has indeed gained momentum for one giant leap in the season finale. If so where would he go to? To the point where he can stop the nuclear threat that was visible in the final scenes of the episode? The friendly skies turned really dark as was the rest of the world.
Tune in next week for the first season finale review of Quantum Leap.
