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I just finished watching the Quantum Leap season 2 second episode Ben & Teller, apparently a pun on the magicians Penn and Teller. This also references that in this leap, Ben’s (Raymond Lee) “host” is a seventy-year-old bank teller named Lorena Chavez.

First of all, commercials are back, which is fine.

After the intro, the show opens with Jenn (Nanrisa Lee) at a high stakes poker game, apparently cleaning up. Somehow Ian (Mason Alexander Park) knows where she is, peeks their head in the door, and whispers “Turtle Time.” This is a code phrase Jenn made up in case she became a leaper and needed to identify herself to Quantum Leap project personnel.

It’s sort of like in the 1971 film The Andromeda Strain when project personnel were called to duty with the phrase, “There’s a fire.”

Jenn responds to Ian with, “Tell me you’re not about to say what you’re about to say.”

They find Magic (Ernie Hudson) at a jewelry store asking the person at the counter if the earrings he’s looking at would be an appropriate first anniversary gift. So Magic is married or re-married?

Next stop is the project. It’s still there but everything is covered in plastic as if in storage. The audience learns that the project lost Ben for two years and were shut down by the Pentagon. Over the past year, they all went their separate ways apparently. Ian left one computer on passively doing a continual search for Ben kind of like SETI (more about this later).

Presumably, when the computer got a “hit,” it notified Ian via text or something. Ian got to the imaging chamber as we saw in the previous episode, but he only had a few seconds before Ben leapt again.

The trio mused among themselves “How can we tell him?” Since Ian already told Ben about “the three years,” they likely meant about Addison (Caitlin Bassett) now being in a relationship with Tom (Peter Gadiot). Oh, dear.

Okay, the government shut down Project Quantum Leap a year ago. So why is there still power to the system? Why is all the equipment still there? Shouldn’t the government have removed millions and millions of dollars of top secret technology and put it in a more secure location? After all, it’s been previously revealed that the project relocated from New Mexico (where Sam Beckett’s project once existed) to the Los Angeles area. Why is any of this still in one piece?

Ian said they had to bring the imaging chamber back up. But wasn’t it back up in the last episode? If they shut it down, is it really hard to turn on each time? Also, Ziggy is back up. Back in season one, when the team couldn’t trust Ziggy, Magic suggested turning it off and then back on again. Ian said it takes days or weeks to get Ziggy back up. Now it takes no time at all. As far as losing Ben for three years, Ian says that something about Ben’s last series of leaps messed up Ziggy’s tracking algorithm which is why it took so long to find him.

If it hadn’t been messed up, the project would have tracked him to his next leap immediately after the one that ended season one. Ben wasn’t missing for three years, it just took Ziggy three years to find out where Ben leapt next (which I mentioned in last week’s review).

Meanwhile, Ben leaps into the bank teller in the middle of a transaction, annoying a customer. After that, Ben receives support from the Assistant Manager Rebecca Egan (Janet Montgomery). Ben’s host has been fretting over when she’ll be able to see her first grandchild. He’s also still freaking out internally over the passage of three years since the project had contact with him.

Ben’s searching all around, seeing an archaic computer monitor and a calendar saying he is in May 1986, later learning the bank is in Tucson, Arizona.

The male white bank manager chides them for “clucking in the henhouse.”

Actually, I can confirm this happened, at least in the 1980s. In the mid-1980s, I was working with a female professional. We had gone through the same graduate program but she got her degree a year or two before me. She mentioned that a male instructor we both took made a comment about women having a “hen party.” Even in the ’80s, I, a white male, found that pretty rude.

I was grateful that this was the big “stereotype” for the episode (well, mostly). This week’s writer didn’t find it necessary to go too far out of their way to get the audience out of science fiction and adventure and into “voyages into progressivism and representation that have no relation to the plot.”

During her conversation with Ben, Rebecca looks up and sees her brother Sean (Graham Patrick Martin) walk into the bank with some shady looking characters. Rebecca says that the last time she saw him, he took her car and disappeared for several days. She worries he’s shown up to “borrow” more money. However, the leader of the group Ganz (Andy Bean) makes it clear they’re here to rob the bank.

After the break, we see Addison and a group of soldiers in a burned out town doing some sort of sweep. They’re fired upon and one of the soldiers go down.

My predictions during this were:

1. This is a simulation.
2. Addison is the leader of the op

Both predictions were accurate. If Addison were in some real operation on foreign soil, it would have been harder to bring her back into the project. Not that there is anything wrong with a female as the leader of a military combat team, but given the nature of representation as the show’s absolute top priority, it was pretty much demanded.

The op ended, Addison expressing her displeasure at their performance. Then someone shows up in civilian clothes making humorous quips.

My predictions were:

1. This is Addison’s boyfriend Tom.
2. Addison trained him, meaning he’s a former student of hers.

Again, both are correct. No, it’s not impossible, and in fact, it’s likely that Addison trained Tom, but since he ends up as the leader of the QL project later on, I found it odd that he seemed to have a higher rank.

Tom approaches Addison and tells her that they found Ben. She looked pretty sick about it. He tells her the rest of the team are at headquarters now and that for Ben, it’s like no time has passed. Addison doesn’t know if she can go back to her old job. Tom, ever supportive and a great guy, tells her to do what her heart says.

Headquarters? In the first season, Quantum Leap was generally referred to as “the project.” I guess this is another change.

Back at the bank robbery, the crooks zip tie the doors shut (presumably, they’ll cut them later when they need to leave) and spray paint the bank security cameras. Too late since all their faces have already been captured. Also, one of the robber’s sister is a bank employee, so there is that.

Tracking is back up and Ben’s immediate environment is on the project’s monitors. Ian, in the imaging chamber (he has a few comical missteps) says that in the original timeline, the police storm the bank and eight people die.

Still stunned, Ben wants to see Addison. Ian nervously tells Ben everyone is fine, but Addison isn’t immediately available. He also says that they thought he was dead and had a really nice funeral for him.

Back to the leap, Ian says the bank manager has triggered the silent alarm. If the thieves don’t finish their business and leave before the cops arrive, people will die.

The gang only find $8,000 on payday Friday when there should be a lot more money. Ganz wants to get into the vault but Sean argues saying this was supposed to be a five minute snatch and grab.

On Ian’s advice, Ben tells the crooks they should leave before the cops get there and even gives them directions on which streets to take. Too late. The cops arrive. Really, even if they left right when Ben said, they’d have run into the arriving police cars so there wouldn’t have been time anyway.

A pregnant lady is hyperventilating and the bank guard was injured in the initial assault. Ben, still calm and cool, advises the pregnant woman about breathing into a handy paper bag. The phone rings. It’s the police negotiator. Ian says in the initial timeline, no one answers and the police storm the building.

So Ben tries to answer it. Ganz stops her but Ben suggests that talking to the police would buy them time. Ganz tells Ben to do it.

The cop at the other end, Detective Reynolds (Chris Johnson) is a total jerk. Throughout the episode, he acts very atypically for a trained negotiator. He’s arrogant, dismissive, and confrontational. He does everything in his power to escalate the situation to where a violent conflict is inevitable.

Yet another stereotype, and this one was completely avoidable. The message is white male cops are arrogant, hostile, violent, and will always escalate a situation to where people will get killed.

Of course, if the negotiator had been reasonable and did his job correctly, the episode wouldn’t have wrapped up at the forty-two minute mark. so this is not only a stereotype, it’s crafting the plot for the sake of time. That’s why a lot of television mysteries are so easily resolved by the audience. There just isn’t the time for a proper setup and execution.

In this case, Ben does the talking for the bank robbers saying that they’ll send out two hostages as a sign of good faith. Ganz doesn’t like this, but Ben reasons that sending out the pregnant woman and injured guard will help, and it avoids bigger problems should either have a medical emergency. Ganz agrees.

Ganz pressures the misogynistic bank manager for the code to the vault (most of the time when I go into a bank, during business hours, the vault is kept open). He says he doesn’t remember. Yes, he remembers but he’s being not only stubborn but stupid. All that money is insured, which means the bank and the customers don’t lose a thing. Also, for the sake of keeping the customers and employees safe and unharmed, I’d be willing to bet the manager has been instructed by the corporate office to totally cooperate with the criminals during a bank robbery. Another point where  events are written to further the plot, but illogically.

Ganz smashes the manager’s hand which oddly enough, makes him pass out.

Rebecca is the Assistant Manager and Ganz pressures her. She says she doesn’t have the code. Maybe that’s true, but her brother Sean panics and threatens to shoot her. Wow, he must really hate his sister. Maybe so. It was Ganz to took him off the streets six months ago, fed him, and took care of him. All of Sean’s rage is at Rebecca for judging him and calling him a mess up all the time.

Ganz stops Sean only to threaten to shoot Rebecca himself. Ben jumps in saying he has the code. What he really means is that Ziggy can get the code and Ian can recite it to him.

With Ian in the imaging chamber, it’s up to Jenn to work with Ziggy. But Ziggy’s got nothing, so Jenn goes on the dark web to get it. She tells Magic to turn his back so he won’t witness her committing a crime (like the Federal government ever worries about that), but he says he’s no longer a government employee. So he’s retired, too?

She finds the five-digit code and gives it to Ian. Ian recites four of the five digits before the hologram shuts down. Ben is left hanging.

In last week’s episode, Ben was able to correctly figure out what he needed to do during the leap and how to do it without any help from Addison, Ian, and Ziggy. If Ben were totally alone in this leap instead, it would have ended up in a disaster. Yes each story was written to satisfy the needs of the plots. It would probably have been more suspenseful if Ben had been in a “normal” leap last week, one where he’d normally need a lot of help, and managed to fumble through anyway.

At the project, the FBI have shown up led by Special Agent Alan Lee (Angelo Perez). He orders everyone arrested and the imaging chamber shut down. It is then that Tom and Addison arrive. Tom makes a quick phone call. Agent Lee’s phone rings and the FBI backs off. Apparently the Director of the FBI owed Tom a favor, but they only have a limited about of time before the government pushes back.

Ian really, really wants Addison to go into the imaging chamber but she says “no.” She plans to visit Ben soon and explain to him about her and Tom but then go back to her regular life. Oh, gee. That’s peachy.

In 1986, the crooks are happily looting the vault. Sean figures out that Ganz was going to do that all along and this was never going to be a five minute job. The cops are cooling their heels outside but are expected to call back within a few minutes (I must have missed when that was arranged).

This gives Rebecca time to complain to Ben about how she lost track of her relationship with her brother and how things had changed so fast. This foreshadows what’s going to happen between Ben and Addison (oh, duh).

Ganz tells Ben that when the cops call, to tell them to have a military helicopter (there are two at a nearby base according to Ganz) land at a park behind the bank. The plan is that the crooks take the money and the helicopter while the police enter the bank and take charge of the hostages. I guess Ganz is not only a former military chopper pilot but really well informed.

At the project, Addison sees Ben on the monitors and is shocked that he looks the same. No time has passed for Ben at all. Ian again tries to get Addison to go into the imaging chamber. Her excuse for not doing so is they’re in the middle of a hostage situation and it’s bad to switch horses in mid-stream.

At the bank, the phone rings and Ben explains the robbers’ demands. Reynolds is dismissive and then says that he needs an hour to make the arrangements. After hanging up, Ian tells Ben that Reynolds is lying. He’ll use the time to position snipers.

Ian may be a great computer whiz, but in the imaging chamber, they suck. They mention that Addison’s there and Ben wants to know why she isn’t talking to him. Ian provides a paper-thin excuse but then adds that when the snipers are in place and the police make their move, gunfire hits a gas main, the bank explodes, and everyone dies. It’s all gone from bad to worse.

Depending on which source you consult, this is indeed possible. That said, it’s not automatic, and the gunfire might just create a leak that could subsequently be ignited.

Anyway, that’s the official story.

Ian says that headquarters is working on a solution but it could take some time. Ben can’t wait. He’s got to get the people out of the bank now. He wonders if there’s some other way out of the bank. Rebecca says no, but Ben keeps pushing suggesting old construction, some abandoned project, and so on.

Rebecca recalls an expansion project that didn’t work out (how lucky for everyone). The construction was covered over by drywall in the storage closet of a conference room. But how to get there?

Ben decides to tell Ganz about the police snipers. He says he overhead some of the customers saying they saw them outside. Ganz needs a place to secure the hostages while they make their escape. The conference room is made to order.

With only the front door as an exit, the robbers would be ducks in a shooting gallery if they tried to get out. It would have made more sense if each of the robbers took a hostage with them as they exited. They must have a getaway car. They could still be tracked even if they went mobile, so they really are never going to escape. Bad plan.

Anyway, once locked in the conference room, to get everyone out, all Ben needs is some boxcutters in the storage room. Rebecca reminds Ben that she’s in her seventies. Ben says not to worry, she takes Pilates. I guess Pilates weren’t a thing in the mid-1980s because Ben gets some odd looks.

I also guess that Ben doesn’t suffer the physical limitations of his host. In season one, he was able to access the stamina and reflexes of a boxer he leapt into, so you’d think having an aging host would have an effect too. Not according to what he does in the episode.

Everyone but Ben and Rebecca get out.

At the project, Addison and Jenn have a heart-to-heart. Addison keeps expecting everyone to yell at her, telling her to get back into the chamber and do her job. She wasn’t expecting all of this acceptance. Turns out everyone likes Tom. After Ben disappeared and they presumed he was dead, Addison died inside, too. Tom helped her come back to life and be happy again.

Ganz catches Ben and Rebecca before they can get out and almost shoots Rebecca. Sean steps in and shoots Ganz dead. The cops pull the front doors open with a chain attached to a car and rush in, beginning to capture the other robbers.

We have the critical moment where Sean looks like he’s going up for murder. Sean puts the gun to his own head. Rebecca says she’ll say she shot Ganz in self defense. Rebecca and Sean bond and say they love each other. The cops are getting closer.

No matter what, Sean’s going to prison. Ben’s pep talk of the week is that “they’re not lost years as long as there’s someone waiting for you on the other side.” Again, this foreshadows what’s about to happen between Ben and Addison. Oops.

The cops show up and arrest Sean.

At the project, Ian and Jenn have a covert conversation. They need to tell Addison how they really found Ben. Ian says they didn’t lie about leaving Ziggy running, but this is obviously not the whole truth.

Guess what? Another mystery. Another hook to reel viewers in on how not all is as it appears to be. We’ll have to wait for the resolution to this one.

Addison confronts Tom in Magic’s old office. She has to go back in. She lost Ben once and she’d never forgive herself if something bad happened to Ben during a leap and she wasn’t there with him.

Tom, again, is super understanding about her going back to her old job. He must be the greatest guy ever. Soldiers don’t leave people behind. I wonder what’s really going on?

Addison appears to Ben finally. He’s overjoyed but she looks guilty. Addison goes through her routine about how Sean will do five years, yada, yada, yada. Then Ben notices her look and guesses the truth. It’s been three years. She thought he was dead. He’s tearful but tries to put on a brave face.

“You thought I was gone.”

Ben leaps.

Again, no indication about who he leaps into before the credits roll.

The show is trying to keep things fresh and new, keeping the possibilities open. Fans will probably be really pissed about Ben and Addison not being engaged anymore. It will be weird with Addison as Ben’s companion with this new information. It might be better to let Ian do it except they are needed to run Ziggy (although Jenn can do that).

I guess we know what happened to Janice (or Janis) Calavicci. If the project was closed down, even if she had been attached to it for a while, she would finally have been cut loose (assuming she’s not in federal prison), so she could be anywhere. In fact, she may never come back, excusing the writers from having to explain her away. Convenient, even though as an expert in quantum physics, she could help figure out what went wrong with the last leap and try to bring Ben home.

Not a bad episode with a minimum of needless representation and blatant stereotyping.

Looking at other reviews, TV Fanatic said:

Nothing about Tom’s behavior indicates he is anything but supportive and understanding, but he sets off all sorts of alarms.

Largely, it’s the fact Addison and him are romantically involved. We instinctively want Addison and Ben together. Tom is an obstacle to that.

But does it make him evil? Logically, no.

HOWEVER. There is something suss about how incredibly supportive and understanding he is. Especially since it appears that he and Addison knew each other before she joined the QL project.

Tom has some history with Addison, even before she met Ben. What else could be happening?

Fangirlish said:

Before I delve into my review of Quantum Leap 2×02 “Ben & Teller,” I just have to ask the writers one a few questions: Are you guys okay? Did we do something to make you mad? Did I personally run over your childhood dog or accidentally kick your favorite hamster? Because it kinda feels like you’re on a personal mission to hurt me. And I just want to get ahead of the ball, here, and apologize for whatever it is I did.

What do you mean, you don’t go into the writer’s room with the express directive of “Hurt Jade from Fangirlish as much as possible?” It kinda feels like you do.

Seems Jade took a few things about the episode personally.

My own broken heart aside, I actually don’t blame Addison for moving on. Three years have passed. For her, at least. She genuinely thought Ben was dead. She searched for him for years. At some point, if you really love someone, you want them to let go of their grief and find happiness again. So if Ben really had died, he’d have wanted her to find happiness again.

At any rate, the theme of this week’s episode was “Sometimes you have to shoot an obstacle in the back, and that’s okay.” What do you mean, it wasn’t? Okay, fiiiiiiiine. It was about accepting mistakes and forgiving the people we love. Which sometimes includes ourselves. And sometimes you just have to shoot an obstacle in the back. (Write that down, Ben. Sometimes shanking a guy is cosmically the Right Thing To Do.)

TV Insider looked at the same relationship information from a different perspective:

“It was very strange for us to be filming that and watching, to suddenly just jump into her in a relationship,” executive producer and directing producer Chris Grismer admits to TV Insider. “It was interesting, and Peter is such a great actor, and he was such a welcome addition to the show that I don’t think with a different actor it would’ve come off quite as warmly or as believably. As a fan of the show, I was expecting to have some amount of animosity towards that relationship, but I didn’t feel that. I felt like, I get why Addison moved on. It’s three years later. Who can wait three years for someone and especially not knowing if they’re ever coming back?”

Adds executive producer Deborah Pratt, “You’re talking to somebody who fought very hard to make sure that Sam Beckett [Scott Bakula] was accessible because a lot of people fell in love with him and fell in love with the idea that he was out there by himself. And so I think it’s a real bend back again to the original series in that Ben has had to deal with the fact that he’s never coming home, that he still has this woman as a hologram who he cares deeply about but had tried to move on with her life. That’s going to put people into a whole wonderful conversation of, what would you do?”

What about the big secret Ian and Jenn are keeping?

Jenn doesn’t know everything but will learn more as the season progresses, the executive producers share. Jenn has figured out what she has because “she’s incredibly smart,” says Pratt. Her wheels start turning because she’s “sensitive enough to know that the angst that Ian is going through. She finally will find out what Ian was willing to do to get Ben back and what it will cost them by doing it.”

We’ll get answers over multiple episodes, but what exactly will the cost be of what Ian did? Teases Grismer, “it will have a big impact on the team.”

So, besides the “leap of the week,” the focus going forward is the train wreck caused by Addison now being in a different relationship and how Ben takes it. Also, is Tom really as open, honest, and transparent as he seems? Then there’s Ian and what they really did to find Ben across all of time?

The producers and showrunners know that they’re going to present more controversial content going forward. They know that the traditional fans (or most of them) of Quantum Leap, who watch the show because of their/our attachment to the Scott Bakula QL are going to push back, maybe abandon the show altogether (I almost did). They need something to keep us coming back in spite of all that.

So the whole “shipper” thing plus the Ian mystery.

To be continued.

And as far as the next leap goes…