Leap. Die. Repeat.:
Written by: Margarita Matthews
Directed by: Pamela Romanowsky
Airdate: January 30, 2023
Synopsis:
Ben leaps in as Colonel Jack Palmer, in an elevator, on his way to see a nuclear reactor. He’s accompanied by Doctor Edwin Woolsey, who is excited to show him around, and reporter Mallory Yang who’s eager to get the inside scoop. Addison shows up to report that this particular reactor actually got shut down on this very day after the demonstration failed. She returns back to the future to get more information, with Jenn finding an article on Woolsey that says he also dies of a heart attack the same day. Furthermore, she finds information that the journalist dies in a car accident in a few days, the colonel that Ben leaped dies of an accidental weapons discharge, the technician, Eugene, dies of an overdose, and the janitor, Moe, dies in an electrical accident. Theorizing a government coverup, Addison rushes back to the imaging chamber. As Ben watches the demonstration begin, all seems to be going well until he notices a problem with the coolant, shocking everyone. Addison appears and tells Ben to run, but before he can the reactor explodes and everyone is engulfed in a giant ball of fire. Back in the future, Ben’s vital signs go dark and everyone is distraught over Ben's apparent death. Suddenly, his vital signs return, and back in the past Ben takes in his surroundings, finding himself back in the same elevator but this time having leapt into the body of technician Eugene.
Ian theorizes that Ben is caught in a time loop. The occurrence is highly improbable, like being hit by lightning, but once it happens, it gets more likely that it will happen again. Ian tells the team that there was a paper written on time loops by Janis, but she refuses to help them. Magic reasons with her, saying that without her assistance Ben will forever be stuck in this time loop and their plan will fall apart, so she reluctantly decides to help them for the time being.
Addison tells Ben what’s going on and that he needs to stop the reactor explosion, or else he will die again. He tries to warn Woolsey and the others but it’s only seen as a case of the nerves. Nevertheless, Ben bargains with Woolsey to give him until the end of the President’s speech, and he starts attempting to find a solution. He quickly finds a bomb planted in the reactor and begins working on disarming it but the attempt fails. Hydrogen begins to be dispersed, which when it mixes with the oxygen in the room, causes an explosion. Ben dies again, and when he opens his eyes, he finds himself now in the body of the journalist, Mallory.
Back in the future, the team discovers that the quantum accelerator resets Ben’s leap to the elevator because someone in the elevator is responsible for planting the bomb. Addison relays the information to Ben, who begins to press everyone with hard questions, trying to figure out who is responsible. Ben ends up hearing something Mallory recorded before getting into the facility, and it implies that Woolsey is hiding something. Before he can act on that information, an alarm blares and the reactor explodes again.
Ben finds himself now in the body of Woolsey himself. He tries to talk to Mallory to find out what she knows, but she is offended, saying she can’t be bought off or intimidated, and storms off.
Ian and Janis share a moment before Ziggy reveals data that Ben is not caught in a time loop, but that the leap ends when Ben runs out of people to leap into in the elevator. Addison tells Ben, and he understands that he has one leap left to solve things or else he dies for real. As the reactor explodes again, Ben finds himself as Moe, the janitor.
Ben wants to try and disarm the bomb again, but he doesn’t have the clearance. He realizes he has master keys and goes to search Woolsey’s office. He finds a memo explaining that the reactor will be used to develop nuclear weapons, when the colonel enters the office, gun drawn.
Back in the future, the team debates over what to do, with Jenn thinking they could turn off the accelerator. Ian says that could kill Ben, and Janis implores Magic to trust her and let Ben finish the leap.
Back in the past, the colonel asks Ben if he’s the one who’s been sending letters to him, opening up the envelope Ben had seen in his pocket earlier. All it says is “kill the project or I will” which leads Ben to realize who sent them.
As Woolsey orders the demonstration to start, Ben confronts Eugene, showing him the colonel’s letter. Eugene then confronts Woolsey, calling him out on his lies about the reactor being created for sustainable energy. Woolsey defends his choice due to the government threatening to take away his reactor and give it to another scientist to lead. Eugene threatens to set off the bomb, rather than let Woolsey create weapons of mass destruction.
Ben reasoned with Eugene, explaining that destroying this one reactor won’t change anything as more reactors will definitely be built. The only thing Eugene will accomplish will be destroying the lives and families of everyone in the room. Despite the impassioned speech, he goes to set off the bomb using his pen trigger, but the colonel shoots him, and Ben catches the falling trigger, saving them all.
Addison reports that the janitor will go on to write his own story based on the day’s events, and Mallory goes on to write an expose that forces the government to use the reactor as a power plant for sustainable energy. However, Ben looks troubled, explaining that Eugene thought he was the hero, and hopes that if someone leaped back to their own project in 2023, that they would see Ben and the crew as heroes as well. As Ben starts to tell a joke Eugene told him earlier, he leaps.
Jenn and Magic recap the day’s events, but Jenn is angry that Magic sided with Janis instead of her. He defends his choice, accepting the responsibility of it, and explains that he should have trusted Janis years ago instead of allowing Beth to keep her daughter out of the project.
Addison confronts Janis, and Janis says that because the team trusted her, she will tell Addison the name of the person who told Ben to leap in the first place.
Ziggy’s Data Retrieval:
Who is Ben?
Colonel Jack Parker
Eugene Wagner
Mallory Yang
Dr. Edwin Woolsey
Moe Murphy
Where is Ben?
Fort Worth, Texas
When is Ben?
September 12, 1962 (32 year leap back)
Closest Previous leaps-
S01E03 “Somebody Up There Like Ben” 1977
Closet location to Sam Beckett-
S01E01-02 “Genesis” Waco, Texas Summer 1968
S01E05 "How the Tess Was Won" Texas August 5, 1956
S02E20 "Maybe Baby" Texas March 11, 1963
S04E02 "Play Ball" Galveston, Texas August 6, 1961
S04E09 "A Single Drop of Rain" Clover Bend, Texas September 7, 1953
S05E01 "Lee Harvey Oswald (Part 1) – Leaping on a String" Dallas, Texas March 21, 1963
S05E02 "Lee Harvey Oswald (Part 2) – Leap to Judgement" Dallas, Texas April 10 & November 21–22, 1963
Closet time to Sam Beckett-
S02E14 "All-Americans" Woodland Hills, California November 6, 1962
S03E10 "A Little Miracle" New York, New York December 24, 1962
S03E21 "Nuclear Family" Homestead, Florida October 26, 1962
Robert Picardo played Edwin Woolsey. A veteran character actor, he is best known for his roles in Star Trek as The Doctor, China Beach as Doctor Dick Richard, The Wonder Years as Coach Cutlip, and in Stargate as Richard Woolsey. He has appeared in over 200 series and movies, including The Orville, Space Command, Grey’s Anatomy, Bones, Justified, Smallville, and going all the way back to series like Taxi, Kojak, Archie Bunker’s Place, and Alice. He’s done a number of animated and video game voices as well, including the villain Amazo in the Justice League animated series.
Eugene was played by Joe Dinicol. He was in the show Blindspot (a woman is found in Times Square with no memory and mysterious tattoos on her body), which was also created by Martin Gero. He also did 13 episodes of Arrow as Ragman, led the series Betas (in Silicon Valley, the right algorithm can make you a king. And these four friends think they've finally cracked the code), The LA Complex (full of new relationships, salacious temptations and make-it-or-break it decisions, the series' coming-of-age dwellers grapple with life's defining moments as they deal with the unreality of the show-biz industry), and Train 48 (a daily show, about the lives of the passengers of a Toronto commuter train). He also did a number of episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. Most recently he was a lead in the Nash Bridges TV Movie in 2021 (with Don Johnson and Cheech Marin).
Moe the Janitor was played by Mike Wade. He had a small role in several episodes of SEAL Team, but he was a lead in the Netflix superhero show Jupiter’s Rising.
Colonel Jack Palmer was played by Matthew Grave. He’s a character actor with 128 credits to his name, including The Girlfriend’s Guide To Divorce, CSI, Charmed, Touched by an Angel, Desperate Housewives, ER, Nip/Tuck, Army Wives, and Stargate, once again playing a colonel. He recently did 8 episodes of The Rookie, and 11 episodes of Better Things. He’s probably best known as Glenn Gulia in The Wedding Singer.
Let Them Play:
Written by: Shakina
Directed by: Morenike Joela Evans and Shakina
Airdate: February 6, 2023
Synopsis:
Ben finds himself in the body of Carlos Mendez, a high school girls basketball coach, faced with a player, Amanda, who has a sprained ankle. Ben takes the girl out, calling in another benched player, surprising the team and the benched player herself. She ends up winning the game for them, but instead of cheers they are met with booing from the crowd, as Addison reveals that the player he put in, Gia, is trans and the coach’s daughter. Ben is approached by Amanda’s mother, Margie, who expresses her annoyance at his choice, and then the school administrators arrive to chastise him.
Addison talks with Ian, who heard of Gia when they were back in high school, seeing her as a big inspiration. Addison tells Ian that the only reason Gia actually played in the game was because Ben put her in, sparking Ian’s realization that they were bested by their own technology. Addison reports that in the original history, Carlos played the game short handed, resulting in the team losing, and Gia running away.
Meanwhile, Jenn and Magic are investigating Janis’ lead, someone named Dottie who told Ben to leap. They find her but she shuts them down, telling them she doesn’t remember Ben at all. However, when they mention the date she and Ben supposedly met, she says she will talk to them, but not right now due to the management being very suspicious. She invites them to come back later to the following night’s poetry slam.
Carlos’s wife, Miriam, is very upset about the game, reminding Ben they wanted to keep their daughter out of the spotlight, and safe from being a target. She tells him that Gia often calls her because she gets harassed between classes at school.
Ben regroups with Addison who expresses regret that she didn’t say anything when the military implemented a trans ban in the armed forces, and warns Ben that Gia will be lost forever if he can't stop her from running away.
Ben takes Gia to her support group to spend time with other trans kids, and he listens to some of the other parents talk about their worries, fears and concerns.
Ian talks with Addison and reveals that they tried to kill themselves when they were younger, because while outwardly it seemed like everything was good, inside they felt very alone. Fortunately, when the harassment got to them, their lifeline was the coding club that helped them move forward.
At the basketball car wash fundraiser, Ben hangs behind as Gia joins her friends, with Amanda appearing visibly annoyed. As the girls wash cars, some teen boys drive by and throw eggs at Gia. She responds by throwing a squeegee at them, accidentally hitting Margie’s car, breaking the window, and causing her to go full Karen. Addison shows up and explains that Gia was never found because she died and her body was misgendered when they found it.
As Miriam reports that the principal has called an emergency meeting to “protect girls basketball,” they realize they are going to have to stand up and fight, especially since the coach’s job is also at stake.
At the poetry slam, Dottie performs a poem that seems to reflect Magic’s experience when Sam leaped into him. He realizes that the reason Dottie doesn’t remember meeting Ben is because she herself had someone leap into her.
At the emergency meeting, things between Margie and Miriam & Ben escalate quickly, while Gia and Amanda talk outside. Amanda can’t sympathize with Gia, but she does admit that they are on the same team. Gia overhears the principal saying that they had an agreement that Gia would never play in the team except for practices. Realizing her parents were lying to her, she runs away with their car.
Gia goes to the support group leader, Kate, asking her for help, and she manages to stop her from leaving, trying to explain that her parents may get some things wrong, but that they do love her. Kate talks of her own experiences growing up trans, and how she found family along the way. Ben and Miriam arrive and Kate tells them that they need to stop seeing being trans as a burden Gia carries, but keep her safe by telling her they love her and have her back. Gia tells them that she needs to live her life, even if that means her making mistakes, and that their fear isn’t her responsibility, and she just wants to be a kid. They apologize to her and decide to take her to the basketball game, explaining that being her parents is more important than Carlos’s job.
Gia is embraced and supported by her teammates, even Amanda, who says that she told her mom that the girls should be deciding who they get to change with in the locker room. They cheer for and support Gia, saying they aren’t a team without her. The stands are divided between supporters and dissenters. While on the court, Ben stands up to the principal, saying the team won’t play without Gia, and that they plan on winning and going to regionals.
As the game starts, Gia is distracted by the haters in the crowd, but Ben points out the many more supporters, and rallies the team together. The team begins playing magnificently, and Addison invites Ian into the imaging chamber to watch it live. The assistant principal comes to Ben and tells him the principal sent him to get Gia pulled out, but instead says he won’t tell him to do that because the sport is meant to teach kids life skills, build confidence, and how to work things out as a team. He also mentions he is the union rep and will make sure he doesn’t lose his job, having both his and Gia’s back. As Gia throws the winning ball, Ben leaps, now finding himself in an active restaurant kitchen, and part of a line of cooks preparing food.
Meanwhile, Dottie talks with Magic about losing time, and shows him a picture of the person who she thinks was driving during that period, with the sketch resembling Ian.
Ziggy’s Data Retrieval:
Who is Ben?
Carlos Mendéz
Where is Ben?
Los Angeles, California
When is Ben?
2012 (50 year leap forward and first leap into the 21st Century)
Closest leaps-
S01E02 "Atlantis" 1998
Closet location to Sam Beckett-
S01E08 "Camikazi Kid" Los Angeles, California June 6, 1961
S02E07 "Thou Shalt Not..." Los Angeles, California February 2, 1974
S02E11 "A Portrait for Troian" Near Los Angeles, California February 7, 1971
S03E07 "Black on White on Fire" Watts, Los Angeles, California August 11, 1965
S04E19 "Moment to Live" Los Angeles, California May 4, 1985
Closet time to Sam Beckett-
S04E01 “The Leap Back” Stallions Gate, New Mexico September 18, 1999
Gia’s mom Miriam, played by Brigette Kali Canales, is (currently) incorrectly credited in IMDb for this episode as Shruti. She’s played recurring characters on SWAT, Roswell New Mexico, and Fear the Walking Dead. She has also done some voice work for various Star Wars related series.
Shakina Nayfack directed this episode, and also played Dottie. Credited as simply Shakina, she is also a transgender activist. In 2020, she became the first trans person to have a starring role on a major network comedy show, Connecting (ensemble comedy series about a group of friends trying to stay connected during a global pandemic). She is most notable for her series regular role as Lola, a "trans-truther", on the second and third seasons of the Hulu television program Difficult People (Julie and Billy, two jaded aspiring comedians who live together in New York City, navigate through their thirties while dealing with their individual careers and personal relationships). She was also a writing consultant for the series.
Anita Kalathara played Shruti. She has had a couple of recurring roles, she was in Doom Patrol, and Trollstopia.
Collette Wolfe played Margie. She was in the series You’re the Worst with a minor recurring role, but she led the series Fetching (Liza ditches her successful fiancé and lucrative law career to pursue her dream of owning a doggie-day-care, she must overcome the difficulties of running a small business while searching for love).
Kate was played by Trace Lisette, a transgender actress, best known for playing Shea in Transparent (an L.A. family with serious boundary issues have their past and future unravel when a dramatic admission causes everyone's secrets to spill out). She was also higher up on the cast list for Jennifer Lopez’s Hustlers (inspired by the viral New York Magazine article, Hustlers follows a crew of savvy former strip club employees who band together to turn the tables on their Wall Street clients).
Gia was played by trans actress/model Josielyn Aguilera. She is just starting her acting career, only having three other credits, Not So Straight in Silver Lake (four LGBTQ+ couples navigate their lives while sharing a compound in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles), Jacked (forced out of home by his religious mother for being gay, Ethan leaves Michigan for Hollywood to pursue his acting dreams. But he soon finds himself spiraling into drugs, prostitution, and homelessness), and reality show Love Trip Paris.
Unsung Hero: Uncredited
Principle Krager says the line “Ain’t nobody got time for that.” This comes from a viral video in 2012, which features a woman named Sweet Brown who coined the phrase during a news interview about a fire at her apartment complex.
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