The Outsider:
Written by:
Teleplay by: Rammy Park & Margarita Matthews
Story by: Rammy Park
Directed by: Deborah Pratt
Airdate: February 13, 2024
Synopsis:
Ben leaps in as Brian Conway, a news producer to former big shot popular reporter Connie Davis, who was recently let go from her job in New York due to an unfortunate incident, and now films smaller local news reports. As Ben starts filming her for a report on the county’s biggest pumpkin, Addison shows up and Ben rushes to her to find out if his letter worked to save Josh, which she says it did, but Josh ends up dying a year later in a car accident. Addison says that his job now is to help Connie get her career back on track.
Meanwhile, Gideon speaks with Magic and Ian, explaining the situation about the chip that Ian used for Ziggy, leaving Magic astonished at what had been done. Gideon tells them that a member of the DOD will be there in the morning and leaves with a shocked Magic assuring him that he will take care of things. Magic angrily reprimands both Ian and Jenn, telling them there are now consequences he can’t protect them from.
Ben talks with Connie, trying to convince her to follow a source he got a call from that said if he continues to follow a certain story, people will die, but Connie says to leave it alone. As Ben makes a quick call from a pay phone to Hannah, only getting her machine, he’s confronted by a masked man with a gun, who warns him to leave the story alone, before knocking him down. Connie gives him an “I told you so” about dropping the story but covers for him with their boss.
Addison shows up and together they decide to pull an all-nighter to try and figure out what the story is. The two share a moment when Ben asks her how he never knew she wanted to be a journalist at one point in her past, but Addison quickly redirects them back to work. They eventually figure out that the story is tied to a man named Chet Barlow who runs a company called Herbicore and a pesticide called Herbicrop, that eventually led to people getting cancer from the product.
Addison returns to the Project and sees Ian leaving in tears. Tom returns to tell her that he is the DOD representative that is there to debrief Ian and Jenn and make a determination on what needs to be done, and burn Quantum Leap to the ground. The two have an uncomfortable moment as Addison can’t stay to talk because Ben needs her on the leap.
Ben goes to Connie, telling her what they found and she begins showing her investigative journalist side as she manages to call in a favor to find the whistleblower is Robby Barlow, Chet’s brother and co-founder of Herbicore. They confront him, realizing he knows the pesticide is dangerous but still went ahead with its production. Robby tells them they received a memo telling them that it was cheaper to settle with victims compared to pulling the product from production, but that he won’t go public because he’s worried about getting caught and disappearing.
Ben realizes the pesticide was used on the farm they were at earlier, and they return there to talk with the farmer who pushes back against Ben. Connie, using her years of experience, manages to get him to calm down and let them get soil samples, and to get him to take his pregnant wife to get checked out given her coughing and signs of possible medical issues.
Ben and Addison start to see signs of Connie’s old self coming back as she keeps getting excited by the developing story. She receives a call from their boss, assigning them to a big accident downtown, but when they get there they realize Robby’s burnt car is the one involved and he is nowhere to be found, seemingly killed. Ben talks with Connie and she reveals that in New York, a story happened that ended up getting a source killed, which is why she was fired.
Ben and Addison, at a loss of what to do next, catch up on what’s happening at the Project and what happened with Addison and Tom’s engagement. She explains how she’s been in reaction mode for quite a while now and lost sight of who she was, someone who came to Quantum Leap to help people. Addison reveals that Robby died in the original history, which causes Ben to theorize that Robby faked his death. They go to Connie, and Ben explains his theory, telling her that while New York was an unfortunate incident, it doesn’t mean she should stop trying to do the right thing. Together they manage to track down Robby, with Addison’s help, and get him to admit where the secret memo is kept, giving them his pass to get in.
Back at the Project, Ian gives their story to Tom, and he tells them that he can't fire them, because then the team will never rescue Ben. Ian says they regret nothing, and that they were the only one who never gave up on Ben, thinking about what would it feel like if it was them out there, stuck, and alone.
Connie begins a ruse interview with Chet, while Ben sneaks into his office. With Jenn’s help, Ben manages to break into the safe and find the memo. Unfortunately, a security guard stops him and holds him at gunpoint as Ben realizes this was the masked man who confronted him a day earlier. With Addison’s help, Ben manages to bluff his way into making the guard believe Ben had captured video of the assault, and that he knows all about the guard’s personal life and that he will expose him if he doesn’t let him go. The guard agrees and Ben knocks him out. Ben gets down to Connie’s interview, showing her he has the file, and she ends the interview. Addison reveals that everything works out, with the pesticide being removed from production and no one getting sick, as well as Robby going to work for the EPA. Connie decides to continue the interview, revealing that she knows about the memo as Ben hands it to her. Chet realizes he has been caught, cementing Connie’s return to greatness, and Ben leaps.
Tom goes to Magic and tells him that Gideon wants his revenge, and that someone needs to be fired to take the fall, with Magic sadly understanding. Tom talks to Addison, telling her Magic has a choice to make, but so does she. He says that after working with time travel, he believes in fate and feels they were meant to be together but also break up. Addison leaves heartbroken, as Tom tells her to bring Ben home.
Magic calls in Jenn, who is shocked Magic would even consider firing Ian. She realizes that she is the one who will be taking the fall, but Magic tells her he is resigning immediately, choosing to take the fall for them both.
Ziggy’s Data Retrieval:
Who is Ben?
Brian Conway
Where is Ben?
Denver, Colorado
When is Ben?
1982 maybe?
Closest Previous Leaps-
S01E04 "A Decent Proposal" July 29, 1981
S02E03 "Closure Encounters" Starlight, New Mexico
Closet time to Sam Beckett-
S04E17 "Roberto!" January 27, 1982
Closet location to Sam Beckett-
S02E19 “Leaping in Without a Net” Denver, Colorado
James Frain played Gideon Rydge. He’s a “that guy” with almost 100 credits to his name. He’s got a history of playing recurring characters, most recently appearing in 5 of 6 episodes of Showtrial (a drama series following high profile murder cases through the eyes of the police, the public and the courts), 7 episodes of Elementary (following his fall from grace in London, eccentric Sherlock escapes to New York where his father forces him to live with his worst nightmare - a sober companion, Dr. Watson, with Lucy Lui), 8 episodes of Grimm, 8 episodes of Orphan Black with Tatiana Maslany (a streetwise hustler is pulled into a compelling conspiracy after witnessing the suicide of a girl who looks just like her), 21 episodes of Gotham as Theo Galavan/Azrael, 24 of 38 episodes of The Tudors (a dramatic series about the reign and marriages of King Henry VIII) and Sarek in Star Trek: Discovery. He’s also done movies such as The Architect with Parker Posey and Eric McCormack (when a couple sets out to build their dream house, they enlist the services of an uncompromising modernist architect, who proceeds to build HIS dream house instead of theirs), Born of War (after her family is killed, Mina finds out her real father is a terrorist, and behind the killings. To get revenge, Mina works with British Intelligence to take him down), Alpha Alert (three soldiers get trapped in an elevator when terrorists set off a dirty bomb. But when one escapes, her world turns upside down as she realizes nothing is what it seems), Rasputin with Alan Rickman (a biopic of the Mad Monk Rasputin), and Tron: Legacy as Jarvis.
Nadine Ellis played Connie. One movie in which she’s a bit higher is a prequel called Daphne and Velma, which did not fare too well in the review department (a prequel to the live action series). She was a main character in the first two seasons of The Greenhouse Academy (almost a year after their astronaut mother's tragic death, brother and sister Alex and Hayley Woods start to attend an elite boarding school for future leaders, but they soon realize that that everything is not as it seems), and Hot Break, a tv movie with Star Trek alums Ethan Peck and Connor Trinneer (once a hot young TV writer, now nearing 50, divorced with kids, wants back into the business and does so in a modern gender reversed Cyrano story). She was in the sitcom Let’s Stay Together (a couples navigate the highs and lows of modern relationships in this romantic-comedy series, 52 out of 55 episodes), and the lead in Four of Hearts (stuck in a six-month sexual 'dry spell,' a young husband and wife decide to rekindle their love life by having a one-night stand with another couple. But all four soon find themselves unprepared for the complicated web of lies, jealousy, and forbidden attractions that follow), and Somebody’s Child (the story about a son losing hope, a mother gaining faith, and God's divine and perfect plan), and is even in the MCU. At the start of her career she played a lot of dancers in various movies including an Ironette dancer in Iron Man 2. Lately, she’s got a few Hallmark style Christmas movies to her name as a lead, but many of her movies have her just below the fold on the cast list.
Charlie Bodin played Robby. One of his most recent leading roles was in Delicate State (Shot over the course of their actual pregnancy with cast doubling as 2-man crew, Paula and Charlie document their impending parenthood during a time of extreme political division. Their heads remain in the sand about the greater world around them until it upends their privileged life. Now they face a situation Instagram never prepared them for, but that women all over the world face daily - bringing life into a country torn apart by war). He also played Ryan in half of the 80some episode run of the animated Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse (Barbie has various misadventures with her friends and sisters in a doll-sized version of Malibu).
Matthew Pohlkamp played Chet. His latest projects are a run of tv movies: Tall, Dark, and Dangerous (Alice decides to try out a dating app where she seems to find her perfect match, but she discovers that he's an impostor who stole the identity of his former roommate to insert himself into her life). Before that he was a lead in Taken in Montana (When her parents go missing during a family vacation, a teen tries to put the clues together to find them -- but she may be trusting the wrong people for help), The Kept Mistress Killer (Catherine goes to interview for a job, where she meets Paul, the CEO, who hires her on the spot. They start to fall in love and everything seems perfect until Paul's ex-wife's dead body is found in his mansion), My Nightmare Office Affair (When Nick tries to break things off with Lisa, he finds himself in a dangerous game that threatens his job, his family and his life), Evil Nanny (A couple hires a live-in nanny to watch the offspring while they work. At first, everything goes perfectly, but when an unsafe incident means the parents no longer want the nanny around, they find out this nanny is savvy at not being evicted from her live-in situation. So savvy, in fact, that she can make these parents' lives a true nightmare), and Alien Siege (After an alien spacecraft destroys Washington, D.C., the residents of a small town must fight off a unit of alien soldiers on the hunt for the President of the United States and the mysterious device he's carrying after his escape chopper crash lands nearby).
Matt Dale was a podcaster involved in the Quantum Leap podcast as well as author of three books about Quantum Leap called Beyond the Mirror Image, covering the old and new show. Matt was found unresponsive on Christmas Eve, having suffered a suspected heart attack. Paramedics were able to get his heart beating again but he never regained consciousness and was taken off life support on Christmas morning. He is survived by his partner Sharon and his seven-year-old son, Zack. He was 43.
Volume One was an 800-page episode-by-episode guide to the original series episodes. Volume Two is a guide to the new series (plus the previous attempts to relaunch). Volume Three is a glorious compilation of features and essays, approx 700 pages, celebrating both eras of the show.
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