Quantum Leap: Season 2

Creators: Donald P. Bellisario, Steven Lilien, Bryan Wynbrandt
Starring: Raymond Lee, Caitlin Bassett, Mason Alexander Park, Nanrisa Lee, Ernie Hudson, Susan Diol, Peter Gadiot, Eliza Taylor
Original Airdate: 2023-24

**The Following Review Contains Plot Spoilers For Seasons 1 and 2 of 'Quantum Leap'**

Full Season: ★★★ (out of ★★★★) 

Finale: ★★★ ½ (out of ★★★★)

If sophomore TV seasons are notoriously difficult to crack, you'd figure it doesn't get much harder than the challenge facing the continuation of Quantum Leap. In Fall 2022, we found out how a sequel series would look decades after the original aired its final episode. And it was a departure, with the show sometimes struggling to balance weekly leaps with the action at headquarters. But the plot of Dr. Ben Song (Raymond Lee) leaping through time to save the life of his fiancée and holographic observer Addison Augustine (Caitlin Bassett) still skillfully used its serialized format to build an entire season around a main arc that anchors the episodes.

Ben's attempt to protect the Project from the mysterious "Leaper X" ended in a convoluted finale with enough alternate timelines to make your head spin. While sometimes difficult to follow, "Judgment Day" got the job done, tantalizing us with the possibility Ben could get the ending Sam Beckett didn't and return home. But with NBC quickly picking this up for another season, viewers would have to wait, while showrunners Martin Gero and Dean Georgaris hit the ground running, opting to blow everything up in these thirteen episodes. And that's no small risk for a major network series still finding its identity. 

There's a concerted effort to make this season cleaner and tighter, while also taking a page out of the original's playbook by focusing more extensively on these characters and the "empathy engine" that drove the classic series. But for as many call backs and tie-ins that there are, it's still a completely different animal, which can be both a blessing and curse. Fortunately, there are enough noticeable improvements to really appreciate what went into the building of this, despite that nagging feeling even more refinement could help when it comes to the actual leaps.

The near-perfect finale stands as a creative peak, seamlessly incorporating key themes into an explosive pay off that's groundwork can be traced to its predecessor. And in doing so, the show cleverly identifies its true villain: Time. Finding out the hard way that the road to hell really can be paved with good intentions, Ben and Addison are forced to make sacrifices that would seem implausible only a season ago. Now they're ready to embark on an entirely different journey, assuming the show's granted that chance to take it.

Ben fully expects to step out of that accelerator and return home, but instead finds himself still leaping, this time as a member of the Air Force, tasked with transporting a mysterious cargo plane over Russia. Addison is nowhere in sight when he's located by Ian (Mason Alexander Park) and informed the Project shut down after the team spent the past three years searching for him. 

With Ben presumed dead, a distraught Addison eventually moved on, turning to new boyfriend and government official Tom Westfall (Peter Gadiot) for support. He'll join her and Ian on the recently reunited team with Project head Magic (Ernie Hudson) and security specialist Jenn (Nanrisa Lee) in attempting to retrieve the newly discovered Ben. 

In continuing to process the end of his relationship with Addison, Ben cosmically crosses paths with waitress turned physics student Hannah Carson (Eliza Taylor) over various decades, their bond growing stronger with each leap. Meanwhile at HQ, Ian and Jenn's attempt to track Ben catches the unwanted attention of nefarious tech boss Gideon Rydge (James Frain) whose involvement could sabotage the entire Project and destroy Ben's hope for a homecoming.

Implementing a three year jump (in Project time) was risky, but it succeeds in preventing the writers from potentially repeating themselves. Things tend to run their course so quickly in episodic storytelling that separating Ben and Addison proves smart, throwing a wrench in their familiar dynamic by allowing the characters to grow separately. It also helps Lee and Bassett are again flawless in their roles, during moments both big and small.

If Ben's lost everything seemingly overnight, Addison now has to deal with the guilt of not waiting and having moved on with Tom. But it won't be until season's end that we realize just how carefully orchestrated this is and how it fits into the larger plan.

An opening episode ("This Took Too Long!") that's entirely leap focused and Project-free feels like a breathe of fresh air after last season's shakier attempts at balancing the two. And even when it does settle back into a more familiar rhythm, this new tension between Ben and Addison serves to make its seven pre-strike episodes more noteworthy than expected. 

This falling out also opens the door for Magic, Jenn and Ian to enter the imaging chamber and rotate in as observers. The fifth episode, "One Night in Koreatown" finally places Ben in the crosshairs of a huge historical event (the '92 L.A. riots) and provides a strong showcase for Hudson, who adds more personal layers to Magic's backstory. 

Even the suspicious Tom gets his shot at as the observer, further fueling doubts about Addison's new boyfriend's intentions. But just as the synchronicity between leaps and HQ seem more organic in this go around, the writers avoid playing games with this new character. Tom's essentially who he appears, even as we patiently wait for Addison to come around to the fact that their relationship can't last as long as Ben's around.

It's really "Closure Encounters" that kicks off the season's long game, as Ben first crosses paths with Hannah while leaping into a government agent investigating a potential UFO crash in 1949. In a narrative device reminiscent of The Time Traveler's Wife, he encounters her over various time periods, and as comfortable as he is to reveal his true identity and purpose, it's her willingness to believe him that proves even most important

As Ben's connection with Hannah creates more awkwardness with Addison, the writing is still clever enough not to turn this into some kind of love triangle. And in contrast to when Sam hopped into bed with various women during his leaps, Hannah actually gets to know Ben as himself. 

The pair fight 1950's Nazis in "Secret History" before reuniting in the Cairo set "Nomads," where Ben leaps into a CIA agent attempting to entrap a traitor. And for as much as he influences Hannah's life and future, it'll only take a bit longer before viewers discover just how much she's doing for him. Sharing an effortless chemistry with Lee, Eliza Taylor's performance goes a long way in establishing Hannah as whose inclusion pays dividends.

The other leaps are a grab bag of genres, with a hostage situation ("Ben and Teller"), a Salem witch trial inspired story of intolerance ("A Kind of Magic") and an Indiana Jones-style adventure ("The Family Treasure") We also get two real standouts with Ben's second outing as a Bounty Hunter in "Off the Cuff" and the Deborah Pratt helmed "The Outsider," both featuring tremendous guest turns from David Clayton Rogers as a slimy criminal lawyer and Nadine Ellis playing a disgraced but determined news reporter. 

While it's understandable how budgetary concerns impact the kinds of leaps we get and the social messaging can feel more direct than in the original, the basic QL blueprint still informs the series. And the fan service and call-backs make sense within the story they're telling, which culminates in a near-perfect finale few could find fault with.  

In trying so hard to do the right thing, Ben unintentionally unleashes a monster that threatens the very existence of the Project and any shot at returning home. We may have suspected Ian and Jenn's stolen chip would lead to disaster, Hannah meeting Ben wasn't a mere coincidence and the truth behind her son Jeffrey (Wyatt Parker) would be revealed, but the devil was always in the details. If last season's closer drew comparisons to Back to the Future Part II with its multiple timelines, this one's not just simpler, but seems more aligned with the film in spirit, right down to Ben offering stock tips that negatively alter the future.

Ben's actions carry unforeseen and uncontrollable ripple effects that start coming to light in the penultimate, Towering Inferno-inspired episode, "As the World Burns." Of the many action driven leaps we've gotten, this 1974 set adventure is probably their slickest production-wise. It also contains one of the season's most memorable scenes, as a trapped, fallen Hannah provides Addison (whom she can't see) with her swap code to send Ben home. But what constitutes "home" turns out to be debatable.

No matter what Ben did, Hannah's husband Josh (Josh Dean) was always going to die, serving as a reminder that for as many lives as he saves, others inevitably fall through the cracks. And sometimes his attempts to prevent such events can just as easily cause them. That Jeffrey would eventually evolve into power hungry tech billionaire Gideon Rydge actually makes perfect sense. The Ben he sees is a time traveling menace whose interference destroyed his parents' marriage and directly caused his father's death. 

The Chris Grismer directed "Against Time" sees Gideon take the reigns with his mercenaries and dispose of the team, leading to Frain and Lee's sole scene together, which is a doozy. But whereas Ben strives to put right what went wrong, a bitter, enraged Gideon delusionally views himself as a savior of this project and the hero of his own story. Frain's performance strikes just the right tone of unchecked menace, while still giving us glimpses of that playful kid whose optimism was shattered. Now in full control and preparing to enter the accelerator to replace Ben, it's clear he's far past help. Luckily, Jeffrey isn't.

Ben can easily stop everything, including Jenn's death, with one swing of a hammer. but in true Sam Beckett fashion he recognizes that destroying a grieving kid's dreams isn't the way because everyone deserves saving. Ben can talk about the Project's capacity for positive change until he's blue in the face, but Jeffrey needs to actively take part in saving a life if there's any chance in preventing him from what he'll become.

Ben's 1976 leap into a stock car driver Ricky Jarrett Jr. could have easily be a throwaway, in danger of being ignored amidst these high stakes. But his task in preventing the death of Ricky's legendary father (Judson Mills) from a massive heart attack takes on monumental importance when young Jeffrey's able to help do what he couldn't for his own dad. 

After being sidelined for a chunk of the season before sacrificing his own job to save Ian and Jenn's, Magic's back alongside a returning Beth (Susan Diol) and Janis (Georgina Reilly), whose original accelerator and old school handlink come back into play. 

The visual realization that their plan to thwart the season's "big bad" worked might be the series' most memorable moment, with Gideon's expression transforming as the successfully executed butterfly effect washes over the Project team. They may not remember any of this, but it happened, and its ramifications will stick.  

We also get a long awaited answer as to how much Beth and Janis knew about Sam's sacrifice for Al in "Mirror Image." Hearing Janis talk about how she wouldn't exist if not for Project Quantum Leap (complete with that classic music cue) is surreal, intrinsically tying into what Ben's fighting for now. Similarly, parallels are drawn between Beth and Addison's first-hand experience in deciding whether to wait for their missing partner. Acknowledging her regret, Addison's finally ready to put on that fermi suit and swap places with Ben, bringing everything full circle. Sort of. They're reunited, but in the past as leapers, with a fresh set of possibilities ahead.

Like many shows on the bubble since it premiered, the producers had to give NBC what they want within a tighter budget and time frame caused by the strike. So while it's understandable to miss the simplicity of the classic series, what we've gotten has certainly attempted to incorporate its legacy. And for all the continued debate surrounding whether this "needs" a Scott Bakula appearance, count me among those who still think it does, especially considering how much Sam's past has informed this incarnation, and how open they've been in acknowledging that. But it has to make sense and feel right. 

More than just warranting a binge for skeptical viewers who may have prematurely bailed, Quantum Leap's season finale can also potentially work as a series closer if it has to. But while going out on top is nice, it's really hard to settle after coming so far and realizing this doesn't feel done. For as much work that went into it, two seasons just isn't enough when you've been waiting thirty years and there's still story left to tell.