‘Quantum Leap’: Raymond Lee Talks Ben & Addison Tension
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Ben (Raymond Lee) and Addison (Caitlin Bassett) likely aren’t going to be ready to work together again for a while on Quantum Leap.
Season 2 began with Ben finding out that while for him, between jumps, no time passed, it had been three years for his team back home. As a result, the project was shut down. Everyone thought he was dead, and Addison moved on with Tom (Peter Gadiot), who is now also working with them at Quantum Leap. Things got rocky between Ben and Addison as she remained his hologram despite their personal tension — for a bit, at least. Now, the others, including Tom in the most recent episode, are stepping in to be the hologram.
“What happened [prior to the latest episode] was really damaging in a way where I don’t know that Ben’s really unpacked it yet. And there’s no book on relationships that deals with this specific thing, perhaps unless somebody suffers amnesia or is just kind of incoherent for three years,” Lee tells TV Insider. “But this is a very hard thing to grasp and understand, and perhaps Ben is just in need of some sort of healing and some sort of hope and light, and he knows that he can’t really get that from Addison right now. And he knows that with the presence of Tom being there as well, he feels like, ‘Okay, so I’ve been replaced, not only in my occupation but in my lover. Okay, so I have no place in your life anymore. So, where does that leave me? I’m still a person traveling on their own, and now I’m even more on my own.'”
However, Lee isn’t ruling out the two being able to interact in some professional capacity going forward, especially considering how well they work together. “I don’t know that he’s ready to see Addison as his hologram just yet, but he’s also a big-picture guy. So if she needs to be there for a certain leap to be completed, I’m sure that that would be a very interesting thing to see play out,” he says, adding that he “would welcome that.”
It has been fun to see Ben’s relationships with the rest of the team acting as the hologram on leaps, especially since he now has his memories back and knows who Magic (Ernie Hudson), Ian (Mason Alexander Park), and Jenn (Nanrisa Lee) are to him.
“You get to see the fun dynamics play out, such as Ian is Ben’s best friend, so to see how they conduct the leap together, what their shorthand is, and Jenn has her law background, and so if there’s any specific pinch that we’re in, she knows how to get us out of that situation — we really get to lean into the strengths of the individual Quantum Leap headquarters members and to see how they all function together and how they all function separately,” Lee shares. “I have relationships with them outside of acting. Just at the pure bottom line of it, I’m like, ‘Hey, I’m getting to spend eight days with Ernie Hudson doing our thing.’ It’s a joy as an actor, and it’s a joy as Ben to see all of his familiar faces and his cohorts and their colleagues and to do this together.”
In the latest episode, Ben told Hannah (Eliza Taylor), whom he’s encountered on two jumps thus far, the truth about who he is and his leaps through time — and she immediately believed him. (The two parted with a kiss before he jumped.) But it would have to be through Ben that she interacts in any way with the rest of the team, and that’s something Taylor would love to have happen. So, who would she get along with the best?
“I love watching Nanrisa play Jenn. I think that Jenn’s such a sassy character, and I would love to see some interaction there,” she says. “I’d say Hannah and Jenn would make a good team.” We think they’d be unstoppable.
Quantum Leap, Wednesdays, 8/7c, NBC
