As The World Burns:
Written by: Benjamin Raab & Deric Hughes
Directed by: Pamela Romanowsky
Airdate: February 20, 2024
Synopsis:
Ben leaps into Captain Otis Burton, a firefighter helping out a young boy who was working on a circuit board with his neighbor when it caught fire. As the boy’s mother rushes in, Ben sees that it is actually Hannah, and the boy is her son, Jeffrey, both of whom he just saw days ago on one of his previous leaps. Hannah sees it’s Ben when he mentions her name but they try to cover their recognition from Jeffrey and then catch up. She tells Ben that she works in DC now but that things have been tough since Josh died. Ben tries to give her some stock tips but she refuses, saying it’s likely against the rules.
Addison shows up and explains the situation at headquarters regarding Ian’s use of Gideon Ridge’s chip and how it all blew up in their face with Magic resigning. Addison tells him that he’s there to save someone else unrelated to Hannah and she leaves to go find out the details. Ben talks with Hannah, finding out she has started dabbling in theoretical physics and has worked out that this meeting is the last time their paths are destined to cross. As Ben processes this information, an explosion occurs outside the window and they see another fire breaking out below them.
Jenn talks with Magic, telling him he can’t leave, but Magic says it’s done and that he has chosen her to take over his position, giving her a major pep talk and telling him how proud he is of her and all of them.
The fire turns out to be caused by the cheap construction of the building, in which the captain and four construction workers were killed in the original history. With Addison’s help Ben starts getting people evacuated, but Jeffrey wants to go back for his dad’s stuff, talking back to his mother when she agrees with Ben that it’s not safe, and even questioning how this random firefighter knew his mother’s name. Hannah goes with Ben to help him find the construction workers, reasoning that every time he has leaped he has needed her help, and with Addison agreeing he lets her come. They manage to find the construction workers but too late to get out the normal way, leaving Ban and Hannah working together to find a different route.
Addison disappears from the leap due to Jenn trying to keep things running by diverting power to Ian so they can try and crack the DARPA code.
Back in the past, Hannah talks to Ben about how he is still connected to Addison, and is in fact connected to everyone he has ever loved because love is timeless. Their plan to escape works but Hannah inhales too much smoke and needs to rest, talking with Ben about why the accelerator keeps bringing them together, but before she can tell him Addison returns to report that Jeffrey is missing. Hannah reasons that he returned to the apartment to gather his dad’s stuff, and indeed he did, finding the letter Ben wrote to Hannah and putting it in his pocket.
Another explosion causes Hannah to become trapped under part of the burning building. Addison tells Ben he can’t save both her and Jeffery, and at Hannah’s urging, he leaves to find Jeffrey, making Addison promise to stay with Hannah, and tells Hannah that he will see her later. As Ben leaves, Hannah begins writing the DARPA equation into the dust on the floor, shocking Ian and realizing that they now have the code to bring Ben home.
Ben finds Jeffrey and tries to get him to leave but Jeffrey is angry, full of questions about how this man could know his mother. Ben tries to sympathize with Jeffrey about the loss of his father and eventually convinces him to leave but again, fire blocks their way, leaving Ben to try and get them out through the window. Jeffrey is scared but Ben echoes Jeffrey’s father’s words that courage is a choice and they manage to escape safely. Jeffrey gets outside while Ben goes back to get Hannah, able to shift the wreckage after it moved during more explosions and saves her. Outside, Jeffrey is suspicious of Ben, wondering how he knew his father’s words, but the question is ignored as Ben leaves to talk with Addison who tells him his leapee retires a hero.
Ben thanks Addison and she leaves to return to the Project and Ian tells her that the code is a swap code, not a return code and requires someone to swap places with Ben, but before they can go any further, Gideon Ridge arrives with a team of soldiers and commandeers the Project. He terminates their access to the Project and fires them all. Addison tries attacking a soldier but is outnumbered and stops, telling Gideon that she is not leaving Ben in the past. Jenn talks Addison down and together they leave.
Back in the past, Ben has a moment with Hannah while Jeffrey opens the letter he saved and sees the words “all my love, Ben” on it. Hannah reveals the code she’s been working on to get him home and he hugs her, leaping. Captain Burton returns and looks around confused by Hannah calling him Ben and wondering how he got there, while Jeffrey watches.
Ziggy’s Data Retrieval:
Who is Ben?
Otis Burton
Where is Ben?
Baltimore, Maryland
When is Ben?
1974 (8 year leap back)
Closest Previous Leaps-
S01E17 "The Friendly Skies" August 5, 1971
S01E07 "O Ye of Little Faith" Coventon, Maryland
Closet time to Sam Beckett-
S01E04 "The Right Hand of God" October 24, 1974
S02E07 "Thou Shalt Not..." February 2, 1974
S03E08 "The Great Spontini" May 9, 1974
S03E17 "Glitter Rock" April 12, 1974
Closet location to Sam Beckett-
S03E03 “Leap of Faith” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
S03E22 “Shock Theater” Havenwell, Pennsylvania
S05E22 “Mirror Image” Cokeburg, Pennsylvania
S05E20 “The Leap Between States” Mansfield County, Virginia
Wyatt Parker played Jeffery. He’s just starting out and only has a handful of credits, the latest of which is playing young Mike (Josh Hutcherson) in Five Nights At Freddy’s.
Mehrnaz Mohammadi played Alicia. She’s just starting out as well. Her biggest role was in 5 of the 8 episodes of Stuck In Development (young guy goes to LA to become a writer director but focuses on his personal growth and development instead).
Tomita–Takesaki theory is a method for constructing modular automorphisms. The theory was introduced by Minoru Tomita, but his work was hard to follow and mostly unpublished, and little notice was taken of it until Masamichi Takesaki wrote an account of Tomita's theory.
Unsung Hero: Jermaine Jacox was Captain Burton. His roles are mostly one off roles here and there, although recently he was in a 2022 Bruce Willis film called White Elephant (unrelated to that other series he was in, An ex-marine enforcer must battle his conscience and code of honor when he is forced to do things for the mob). It also stars Michael Rooker. He was third lead on the cast list in Loyalty (After doing a favor for his friend, Brice gets caught up in some illegal business and finds himself in the world of Blaze, a menacing drug dealer who lets his hands do the talking), had a recurring role in Black Boots (Brooks University freshman Grant Boyer is fascinated with joining a certain fraternity on his campus. But will the toll of the rigorous pledging process combined with campus scandal and the uncovering of chapter secrets ultimately break his will and his determination to survive?), and has done a number of shorts and one off roles such as in Perception (with Eric McCormack) and Agents of Shield.
Against Time:
Written by: Drew Lindo
Directed by: Chris Grismer
Airdate: February 20, 2024
Synopsis:
Ben leaps into race car driver, Ricky Jarrett Jr., hurtling around a track, and immediately slows down but a voice on the radio tells him to speed up so he can qualify for a race. Ben does his best but still comes in below an optimal speed. As his father, the voice on the radio, Rick Jarrett Sr, starts to admonish him, he begins coughing hard, showing signs of poor health and walks away to catch his breath.Ben tries to get him to not race but his father argues against it, citing how he has a lot of people to take care of, and he leaves to get ready.
Ben turns around to see a man he doesn’t recognize, but as a car starts to drive through the man, he realizes he is Gideon Ridge who tells him that the whole team has been relieved of duty. Gideon then states that he is not actually Gideon Ridge, showing him the letter he wrote to Hannah, revealing himself as Jeffrey.
Gideon goes on to explain how Ben is responsible for his father’s death because he found Ben’s letter and believed Hannah was cheating on him, pushing his father to angrily leave the house, driving off into a storm and getting into a car accident. After Ben saved him and Hannah during the fire, Jeffrey started channeling his rage into technology, using Ben’s overheard stock tips ion order to build himself a tech empire so that he could track Ben down and set things right. As Gideon monologues about how he plans to use the Project to further his own needs, Ben argues with him about how it was made to help people. Gideon leaves, commanding his team to hurry up with the code, telling hem to find a black site in which to imprison Ben for life when he returns.
As Ian, Jenn, and Addison walk away from the Project, a car pulls up in front of them suddenly, as Janis steps outside of it, telling them she got a call to come back and save them, as Magic then steps out and tells them it’s up to them to save Quantum Leap. They head off to Janis’s raging chamber with Beth showing up as well. They’re all surprised she keeps helping them and they explain how Sam helped her and Al when he was a prisoner of war, changing their lives completely for the better. Ian gets a lock on Ben, and Janis gives Addison Al’s old handlink, calling it their family heirloom.
In the past, Ben tries to call Hannah, but Jeffrey answers and refuses to accept the collect call charges from Ben, hanging up. Addison arrives and learns that Gideon is actually Jeffrey, leaving the Project team to try and come up with a way to delay Gideon from using the code to interrupt the leap.
Addison tells Ben that he is there to save Rick Jarret Sr when he has a heart attack during his qualifying race within the next hour but that if he doesn’t find and stop Jeffrey that they will lose everything. Ben tells her that he can do both and rushes off in his racecar for Jeffrey’s house, while Ian researches the point in the past where Jeffrey first started making his first computer. Janis however brings up the paradox, that if Ben stops Jeffrey’s ascent into a tech god, he won’t ever create the quantum chip in the first place, causing the butterfly effect that will affect all of them. Magic says that they have to take the risk, reasoning that it is no coincidence that Ben was put where he was so close to Jeffrey, and that whatever or whoever is leaping Ben around is asking them to make a sacrifice.
Gideon’s Ian, Alicia, warns him to not sue the accelerator but he is hell bent on going through with it, however Jenn has broken into The Project using Tom’s access badge and a remote controlled car as a diversion while she shuts down the accelerator. Gideon finds her and orders her to drop the tablet, but she doesn’t, telling her team that if she does, the lockdown won’t finish and that she loves all of them as her family. Gideon orders his soldiers to shoot, killing her, but revealing that she managed to achieve the lockdown. Ben and Addison share a moment in that aftermath with Addison apologizing for not waiting for him but he tells her there’s no need and apologizes himself for not making it home.
Ben reaches Jeffrey and Hannah’s house and proceeds to grab a hammer to destroy the in progress computer but he stops, and decides to try talking to Jeffrey first, having a huge heart to heart about the loss of a parent, about giving to others the chance for things they never had, eventually using the Jarretts to make his point, asking him to help him save a family, rather than give into rage and hatred. From their imaging chamber, Gideon watches his own history unfold, getting angrier and changing into his fermi suit in order to leap back, ordering his men to shoot Ben when he gets out of the accelerator.
Jeffrey agrees to help and he and Ben head off back to the racetrack in Hannah’s car with some computer components Ben grabs, instructing Jeffrey on what to do with them as they drive, despite Addison saying that there just isn’t time to save Rick.
Meanwhile, as Gideon’s team finds Magic and company, Gideon begins to walk into his accelerator, but Ben and Jeffrey arrive at the racetrack, finding the father unresponsive to CPR. The two of them attach their components to the man and using the car battery, shock Rick Sr.’s heart back to life, saving him. Ben tells Jeffrey that when he helps people, he makes the world a better place, a lesson that Jeffrey understands as he smiles back.
Back in the present, Gideon stops before entering the accelerator and the world around him and everyone begins to change in a greenish blue glow. When Addison steps out of the imaging chamber, she finds herself and everyone back at The Project, Janis still in Hawaii, Magic still in charge, and Jenn still alive. She asks about Jeffrey with Magic revealing that he is their biggest donor, even giving them a quantum chip free of charge, all of them having no recollection of the previous timeline. Addison suits up and enters the acceleration chamber as Ian enters the code and begins the activation sequence.
Back in the past, Ben and Hannah meet again at the racetrack and they share a moment, with Hannah brushing off his apology for what happened to Josh, saying his letter gave her family more time together. She tells Ben that home isn’t a place, but that it's a person, as he leaps.
Addison enters the Acceleration Chamber and leaps into a street with people rushing away, in what appears to be an evacuation as gunfire and bombs are heard in the background, and she looks around to see Ben. The two embrace, and then following the cues of people around them, run away together, hand in hand.
Ziggy’s Data Retrieval:
Who is Ben?
Rick Jarrett Jr
Where is Ben?
Sonoma, California
When is Ben?
July 5th, 1976 (2 year leap forward)
Closest Previous Leaps-
S01E03 "Somebody Up There Likes Ben" October 2, 1977
S01E04 “A Decent Proposal” Los Angeles, California
S01E05 “Salvation or Bust” Salvation, California
S01E06 “What a Disaster!” San Francisco, California
S01E08 “Stand By Ben” Lassen County, California
S01E12 “Let Them Play” Los Angeles, California
S01E18 “Judgement Day” Los Angeles, California
S02E04 "The Lonely Hearts Club" Los Angeles, California
S02E05 "One Night in Koreatown" Los Angeles, California
Closet time to Sam Beckett-
S02E02 "Disco Inferno" April 1, 1976
S03E18 "A Hunting We Will Go" June 18, 1976
Closet location to Sam Beckett-
S01E08 "Camikazi Kid" Los Angeles, California
S02E07 "Thou Shalt Not" Los Angeles, California
S02E11 "A Portrait for Troian" Burbank, California
S03E07 "Black on White on Fire" Watts, Los Angeles, California
S04E19 "Moment to Live" Los Angeles, California
Judson Mills played the dad, and we’ve seen him previously as “Davy” in the Sliders episode "Desert Storm." He also played Hog Ellis in Major League: Back to the Minors with Scott Bakula.
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