In this weeks episode of The Quantum Leap Revival, Cory and Tom get held up and held back as they discuss season 2 episode 2, Ben & Teller.
Ben & Teller:
Written by: Aadrita Mukerji
Directed by: Kristin Windell
Airdate: October 7, 2023
Synopsis:
As Jenn plays in a poker game, Ian returns to tell her it’s Turtle Time. She cuts the game short by winning and they go to find Magic, who is buying earrings for someone’s one year anniversary. Ian tells Magic that after they searched for Ben for two years, and after the project was shut down, they went in and started up one computer to continue looking for Ben, their version of a SETI project. Ian also explains that while it’s been three years for them, for Ben it’s been no time at all.
Ben leaps in as bank teller Lorena Chavez, and begins talking with her coworker Rebecca who recognizes her estranged brother Sean walking into the bank. Suddenly, Sean, along with two other men, begin holding the bank up at gunpoint.
Meanwhile, Addison is working for the Department of Defense as a combat trainer, with a man whom she appears to have some history with named Tom Westfall. She is shocked to hear that Ben has returned and questions if she is just supposed to return to her job at the project. Tom tells her they will figure it out together as he kisses her hand.
Ian returns to Ben and tells him that originally the police stormed the bank because no one picked up the phone to negotiate and 8 people ended up dying. The lead robber, Ganz, wants to stay and get more money out of the vault but Sean wants to leave like they planned. Ben decides to pick up the phone and try to negotiate but Ganz stops him, until Sean steps in and agrees that they need to talk to the police. Ganz agrees and Ben works with Detective Reynolds to buy the robbers some time, agreeing to give up two hostages as a show of good faith, as they need medical assistance.
Ganz hurts the bank manager, hoping he will give him the bank vault code, but instead he just passes out. Ben saves Rebecca by claiming he has the code, hoping Ian can figure it out, but the Imaging Chamber gets cut off before Ian can give him the whole code. Ben makes the biggest gamble of his life and manages to get the correct missing number and the vault is unlocked.
Back at the Project, Ian, Magic, and Jenn are being held by the FBI, but Tom makes a call as a high ranking agent in the Department of Defense and takes authority over the Project. The QL team has a reunion with Addison and Tom, but Addison tells Jenn that she doesn’t want to go back to her old job, having learned once again how to be happy, after losing Ben and thinking him dead. Jenn reassures her that they all are supportive of her and Tom before Addison comments that she keeps waiting for someone to shake her and yell at her to get back to her job and into the imaging Chamber, leaving Jenn to wonder aloud if that is what she actually wants them to do.
After the robbers clear out the vault, Ben communicates with the detective outside about the robbers’ demands for a helicopter, citing a similar robbery in Yuma that occurred recently with the plan. Sean is surprised to hear Ganz’s plan, thinking this really was just supposed to be a quick in and out job. Ben talks with Rebecca and learns of an expansion to the bank that never got finished due to lack of funds, leaving a particular room with just a simple drywall facade that leads directly into the neighboring building. Ian returns to tell Ben that the detective lied about the helicopter and has snipers ready to fire. Ben alerts Ganz, who ushers the hostages into a back room. Ben breaks through the drywall and manages to get the hostages to safety.
When Ganz returns and sees the hostages gone, he decides he will shoot Rebecca. He raises his gun but Sean appears and shoots the man. Rebecca pleads with her brother to give up the gun so she can take the blame. Sean is at his wits end, ready to kill himself, but Ben tells him that while he will end up with jail time, having someone on the other side waiting for him can help him get through it. Sean hands over the gun, and the police enter to take control of the situation.
Back at the project, Addison tells Tom that she wants to continue her job, not able to walk away and that she couldn’t live with herself if something happened to Ben out there. Tom tells her he understands and that they will get through this together, asking how she will tell Ben. Addison says that Ben will know as soon as he sees her.
At the bank, Addison appears and Ben is elated to see her. She tells him that Sean doesn't let Rebecca take the blame, but the shooting is ruled self-defense. As she talks, Ben seems to sense something is wrong. He remembers that it has been three years for Addison, and thinking Ben was dead, she had actually moved on, and he leaps.
Ziggy’s Data Retrieval:
Who is Ben?
Lorena Chavez
Where is Ben?
Tucson, Arizona
When is Ben?
May 9th, 1986 (8 year leap forward)
Closest Previous leaps-
S01E01 "July 13th, 1985"
S01E15 "Ben Song for the Defense" 1985
Closet location to Sam Beckett-
S02E13 "Another Mother" September 30, 1981 Scottsdale, Arizona (closest)
S04E14 "The Last Gunfighter" November 28, 1957 Coffin, Arizona
S04E21 "Stand Up" April 30, 1959 Glendale, Arizona
Closet time to Sam Beckett-
S03E15 "Piano Man" November 10, 1985 Tularosa, New Mexico
Peter Gadiot plays Tom Westfall. He was a lead in Queen of the South (Teresa flees Mexico after her drug-runner boyfriend is murdered. Settling in Dallas she looks to become the country's reigning drug smuggler and to avenge her lover's murder) and Once Upon a Time Time In Wonderland (in Victorian England, the young and beautiful Alice tells a tale of a strange new land that exists on the other side of a rabbit hole). In the 13 series Matador he was a supporting cast member for 10 episodes (DEA agent Tony Bravo is recruited by the CIA to participate in tryouts for the LA Riot in order to spy on the team's corrupt owner). He was also a supporting character in 3 of the 6 episodes of Tut, a series focused on King Tut (with Alexander Siddig and Ben Kingsley). Most recently he’s been in 3 episodes of Netflix’s One Piece playing Shanks, as well 8 episodes of YellowJackets. Peter also played the role of Mr. Mxyzptlk on the CW’s Supergirl.
Janet Montgomery played Rebecca. She was a lead in the film Nighthawks (Wide-eyed Midwest transplant Stan agrees to play wingman to his calculating and privileged roommate Chad as they embark upon an exploration of glittering New York nightlife, whose darkest secrets are held captive by an elite band of millennials known as Nighthawks). She was also a lead in all 36 episodes of Salem (a supernatural horror loosely based on Salem's 17th century witch trials). She has a number of cameo roles, and was a supporting cast member in Mark Valley’s Human Target (a unique bodyguard protects his clients by secretly infiltrating their lives in order to draw out and eliminate threats). Back in 2012 she was the lead in a short lived 8 episode series called Made In Jersey (centers on a working-class woman who uses her street smarts to compete with her more polished colleagues at a top New York law firm). Most recently she was the lead in 89 episodes of New Amsterdam (a medical procedural).
Graham Patrick Martin was Sean. Previously he played in a number of one off roles, but was in 6 episodes of Catch-22 (a WWII mini series), and 105 episodes of Major Crimes, a spinoff of the police procedural The Closer. He did have a short run of episodes (17) in Two and a Half Men and The Bill Engvall Show (31).
Andy Bean played the lead robber, Ganz. Previously he was a lead in the 10 episodes of Swamp Thing. He’s worked with Raymond Lee before in 7 out of the 10 episodes of Here and Now (a dark dramedy about a progressive Portlandian family made up of husband, wife, three adopted children from Liberia, Vietnam and Colombia, and one biological daughter, who find their sanity tested and values challenged in 2018 America, also starring Tim Robbins and Holly Hunter). He did have a recurring role in the series Power (James "Ghost" St. Patrick, a wealthy New York nightclub owner who has it all, catering to the city's elite and dreaming big, lives a double life as a drug kingpin). He also was in IT: Chapter Two as Stanley.
Detective Reynolds was played by Chris Johnson, and while he does have a number of cameos and smaller recurring roles, some of us probably recognize him as Cassius from his 5 episode stint in Seth McFarlane’s The Orville.
SETI Project (distributed computing): On March 31, 2020, UC Berkeley stopped sending out new data for SETI@Home clients to process, ending the effort for the time being. The program stated they were at a point of "diminishing returns" with the volunteer processing and needed to put the effort into hibernation while they processed the 20 years of results.
Unsung Hero: Uncredited
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