Quantum Leap Season 2 Episode 7 Review: A Kind of Magic

In the seventh episode of the second season of Quantum Leap, Ben leaps into the body of a young woman in Salem, Massachusetts. She is about to be on trial for witchcraft, the event also known as The Salem Witch Trials—a dark page in history.

The devil has come to Salem

When Ben leaps into the body of Elizabeth, the town of Salem is in a state of panic. People have died under mysterious circumstances and the town’s first instinct is to tell people that the devil has come into this town and has appointed witches to do his bidding. Ben wouldn’t be Ben if he could stop it.

During the priest’s preaching about witchcraft and the devil, Ben talks to a lady named Goody who has just lost her husband to a mysterious illness. And the magistrate’s son William who fell ill. The town is going mental with the preacher going on about the deal with the devil and says witchcraft is the problem.

While the town is in a state of panic, some of the girls are pointing to Ben and Goody and they are put on trial with the magistrate as the judge.

Meanwhile, at Quantum Leap HQ, they are investigating what will happen in Salem. And it is Ian who has to fight off Jen to get to Ben. During the trial, Ziggy calculates that William will jump in to help out the women on trial. Instead, William lies and the women are jailed. Including Morgan, a woman who tries to help but is accused of witchcraft and is jailed with the other 2.

When prison smells of sulfur

While the women are in prison, they all smell sulfur. Is this the witchcraft the town is afraid of? As they wait for their doom, the jailer comes by and with the help of Jen, Ben manages to talk him into him. He tells him that his wife is pregnant and Morgan adds to it that his wife came by the shop to help with something against nausea. Nausea is a sign of pregnancy and thus the jailer is convinced. He picks a fight with Ben but sneakily gives him the keys to unlock the jail.

The women are on the run and hope that the shop will still have money, food, and water. There are horses too says Morgan.

When they arrive at the shop, they find out that it has been raided. The money is gone, one of the horses is missing and the water has coal in it. But, says Ben, that is to clean the water rather than have it diluted.

Morgan flees the scene and leaves the Goody and Ben behind. There was only 1 horse left. They are saved by none other than William, who has been hiding in the shadows wearing a hoody to be unrecognizable.

Goody is not the reason for the Quantum Leap

William helps the 2 with money and transportation to Boston. Which is not far from Salem. The mob starts looking for the women and when the magistrate sees William at the transport, he asks what he is doing there instead of being in bed. William comes up with the excuse that he wanted an apple. They have an exciting moment when an apple falls off the wagon. The magistrate walks over and gives William the apple saying he dropped one.

When they are on their way to Boston, Goody says that she has never been to Boston and that Salem is the only life she knows. Jen appears as the hologram and tells Ben to stop. There is a lot of screaming and it turns out that Morgan has been caught by the angry mob.

Ben stops the wagon and wants to save Morgan. But Goody tells him that she is not worth saving. Morgan left the 2 of them behind and there is nothing left for her in Salem. Her husband has passed and so have her parents. But Ben convinces her that she is worth saving.

They are too late and so they decide to go back to Salem to save her. And they get help from an unexpected friend. It is Addison who comes to the rescue. She tells Ben that there is rain coming. As Ben reveals himself to the crowd and gives a speech for it to rain. And the rain starts to fall.

When Ben is done, he deduces that the well smells of sulfur and that is the reason for the town’s malice rather than witchcraft. Goody tells the people to throw the burned wood which is now coal into the well to cleanse the water. And when all is done, Ben leaps to his next adventure which is an archeologist in Egypt.

My thoughts about this episode

A Kind of Magic was a fun episode. I have a theory that Goody might be Hannah’s grandmother. If that is true then Ben could very well be the person who inspired generations of women of that family to develop their science skills.

If my theory proves to be correct then the Quantum Leap project was started in 1692. This is crazy but this is Quantum Leap and there are no coincidences so we can’t rule out my theory until the upcoming episodes prove me wrong.

The other part I liked was the argument between Jen and Ian as to who gets to help Ben during the leap. It reminds me of the time when we fought over the remote control at home. But this is about time travel of course. I wish we could time travel, I would have hidden the remote control in a lot of different places.

And the last part I liked was that Addison broke her word to save Ben. The conversation they had was funny, it was about moving on. So I am hoping that that conversation has broken the ice a bit between the 2. The show hasn’t been the same since they separated.

In the future, I would love to see the 2 back together and Ian, Jen, and Magic back on comms controlling Ziggy.

Quantum Leap Season 2 Episode Reviews

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