In this weeks episode of The Quantum Leap Revival, Cory and Tom learn the difference between love and reality as they discuss season 2 episode 4, The Lonely Hearts Club.
The Lonely Hearts Club:
Written by: Kristy Lowrey
Directed by: M.J. Bassett
Airdate: October 25, 2023
Synopsis:
Ben leaps into Summer Walsh, an agent for Neal Russell, a former big star whose career has leveled off in his sunset years. As Ben talks with Neal, piling on tons of praise for his and Addison’s love of his movies, they go through Neal’s mail which includes some returned letters, before Neal excuses himself. Addison arrives to gush over Ben’s luck before she tells him that he is here to prevent Neal’s disappearance on this day. They rush off to find Neal but only find one envelope he left behind: an invitation to the wedding of his old co-star and former wife, Laura.
Meanwhile, at the project, Magic introduces Tom to the entire QL team, citing him as the reason they are back. Tom drops some uncomfortable news on them however, that he is going to be doing a necessary audit of the project due to the government's involvement. He pulls Ian aside and asks to investigate some energy spikes he has been seeing that have increased lately over the readings from 3 years prior. When Addison reruns from the leap, he mentions that people seemed off put by his announcement earlier, before commenting on her interactions with Ben on the leap. She asks what he thinks about the situation but he says he hasn't seen enough yet to give an opinion before turning the conversation around and complimenting her. Ian continues their investigation but then sees something in the data, calling someone and asking them to meet.
Ben and Addison head to Laura’s where the wedding is taking place and find Neal begging Laura to take him back, much to the chagrin of her fiancee who leaves quickly and returns with a samurai sword. Ben steps in between them and they both are thrown out, with Neal deciding that he is going sailing, something that Addison says Ben is here to stop him from doing as THAT is how he was discovered, his body washed up on shore. While Addison tells Ben that he should focus on getting Neal to his Tonight Show appearance, Ben starts to help Neal come up with ideas to win Laura back.
Ian meets with Rachel but as soon as she kisses them, she knows something is wrong. They tell her about their findings: that the computer chip they received from her boss for Ziggy, is now transmitting data back to her boss. She tells them the only thing they will get is the data about the actual AI, but Ian’s expression reveals to her that they did in fact find Ben and the data being transferred could lead her boss to the true nature of Quantum Leap. She is hurt that Ian would lie to her about this and storms off.
As Neal and Ben drive along, finding things for their winning Laura back mission, Addison continues to try and pressure Ben to stop , stating that in the future, Laura and Michael are still happily married, but he counters by recalling a past leap where he gambled on love despite Addison’s insistence to do something else. After he finishes, Addison has left the imaging chamber.
Neal and Ben sneak into a wax museum to steal his old tuxedo from the episode of the show where he married Laura, but the two are caught by the police. Luckily, Ben, with help from Addison, manages to play the celebrity card, getting Neal to agree to do a special performance for the cop’s daughter.
Magic has the team reading Neal’s memoirs in an attempt to read between the lines and find out more about how to help Ben’s situation, with Tom coming up with information about a woman Neal was with 30 years ago who dropped out of the business and never acted again. They realize the returned letters Neal received were from a C.R. Lambert, Caroline Lambert, a daughter he never publicly acknowledged. Addison tries to tell Ben about this but he won’t believe until much prompting and he looks at the clues that reference the daughter in Neal’s life. By accident Addison drops Tom’s name and the two begin arguing about their situation, with Ben thinking that Addison fears Ben will act like Neal when he returns home, and yelling at her for giving up on him when he would never have done that. Addison counters that it’s easy to say things like that when you aren’t the one who was left behind waiting. Luckily Neal comes out to pull Ben away.
Neal and Ben sneak into the wedding and Neal confronts Laura, making a grand gesture for her love. Laura stops and asks Neal if he is ok, which takes both him and Ben aback. She tells him this is reality, and their love was from years ago, that it’s time to change and move on. Neal leaves and is determined more than ever to go sailing, forgoing his Tonight Show appearance. Ben realizes the depth of what Laura said and apologizes to Addison who tells him there’s nothing to apologize for.
Tom talks with Magic and asks about the quantum accelerator, positing that perhaps it was always meant to be a one way trip, that sacrifice is what was required in order to implement the changes in the past.
Ben takes Neal to his daughter’s house, and tells him to go and try, despite the returned letters. Ben works in the story of Addison seeing her father during one of their leaps and how it changed her, and Neal decides to try. Addison says the two reunite and she even takes him to the Tonight Show, where he tells the story of this day and it reinvigorates his career, giving them with a lot more Neal Russell movies to watch.
Ben winces at the comment and tells Addison that the last two leaps have been brutal, and despite Addison saying hey will work this all out, he tells her that he can’t get over her if she’s there all the time, and finally tells her that she can’t be his hologram right now, as he leaps, and Addison sheds a tear.
Ziggy’s Data Retrieval:
Who is Ben?
Summer Walsh
Where is Ben?
Los Angeles, California
When is Ben?
April 4th, 2000
Closest Previous leaps-
S01E02 “Atlantis” 1998
Closet location to Sam Beckett-
S01E08 "Camikazi Kid" 1961
S02E07 "Thou Shalt Not" 1974
S02E11 "A Portrait for Troian" 1971
S03E07 "Black on White on Fire" 1965
S04E19 "Moment to Live" 1985
Closet time to Sam Beckett-
S04E01 “The Leap Back” September 18, 1999 Stallions Gate, New Mexico
List of media starring Neal Russell:
Awful Good Together (TV show)
Cosmic Attraction
Duplication
Public Safety
Coming Full Circus
Erica Gimpel played Laura. She was in 29 of the 42 episodes of God Friended Me (An atheist's life is turned upside down when God adds him as a friend on Facebook), 45 of the 82 episodes of The Profiler and 62 episodes of the original FAME TV series.
Tim Matheson was Neal. Currently he stars in Virgin River (Seeking a fresh start, nurse practitioner Melinda Monroe moves from Los Angeles to a remote Northern California town and is surprised by what and who she finds). Prior to that he was a lead in Hart of Dixie (New Yorker and new doctor Zoe Hart accepts an offer from a stranger, Dr. Harley Wilkes, to work in his medical practice in Bluebell, Alabama. She arrives to find that he has died and left half the practice to her in his will, with Rachel Bilson.) He had a recurring role in The West Wing, starred with Lou Diamond Phillips in the 10 episode series Wolf Lake (Set in the Pacific Northwest, this suspense thriller explores what happens when werewolves overtake a small Seattle suburb, Paul Wesley also starred and Bruce McGill guest starred), and headlined the 13 episode series Breaking News (drama about 24 hour cable news network).
He appeared in 24 episodes of the over 200 episode series The Virginian, before enlisting in the Marine Reserves for a short time, keeping his life as an actor secret so he wouldn’t be seen as a Hollywood Marine like Elvis was Hollywood military. Later in 71, he did 14 episodes of Bonanza, and starred in two westerns titled Hitched and Lock, Stock and Barrel. In one he played Clare Bridgeman, in the other Clarence Bridgman. He did appear in an episode of Bill Bixby’s The Magician.
He is likely best known for his role of Eric “Otter” Stratton in National Lampoon’s Animal House but has had many other notable movie roles such as Chris Farley and David Spade’s Black Sheep, Drop Dead Fred, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, National Lampoon’s Van Wilder, Child’s Play, Up The Creek, Fletch, and 1941 (Hysterical Californians prepare for a Japanese invasion in the days after Pearl Harbor), amongst many others.
Many of his credits in recent years has him as a guest actor for a small number of episodes in shows and movies like A Very Brady Sequel, The Goldbergs, Evil, This Is Us, The Good Fight, The Affair, CSI, and Burn Notice. That includes animated projects as well like Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated, Fast and Furious Spy Racers, Batman: The Brave and The Bold, Justice League Unlimited and even headlined The Legend of Calamity Jane.
He got his start way back in the early 1960’s appearing on sitcoms such as Leave it To Beaver and My Three Sons. He was the voice of Johnny Quest in 1964 and 1965 (credited as Matthieson). He also voiced the perhaps not politically correct light skinned, red headed, Sinbad Jr. in the 81 episode cartoon of the same name (Sinbad Jr is of course the son of Sinbad the Sailor, described as hailing from Baghdad. When Sinbad Jr tightens his belt, his chest puffs out, his waist gets smaller, and he gains the strength of 50 men. Aided with his smart-aleck pet parrot Salty, Jr. he would go on to thwart the plans of the evil Rotcoddam). He also provided the voice of Jace, kid sidekick, along with his sister Jan, and pet monkey Blip, to Space Ghost.
In 1989 he and another friend/producer Dan Grodnik, bought National Lampoon when the magazine company was on the decline and managed to raise its shares from $2 to $6, eventually selling it just a few years later for a profit.
Unsung Hero: Uncredited
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