‘Quantum Leap’ Stars on Potential Game-Changing News About Ben
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‘Parish’ Is Out for Justice in the Explosive Season Finale
Will Gray be forced to get his hands dirty? Get a sneak peek at the final episode of the AMC series.
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Quantum Leap Season 2 Episode 8 “Nomad.”]
Is Ben (Raymond Lee) finally going to be able to come home? There’s hope at the end of the latest episode of Quantum Leap.
Just as Addison (Caitlin Bassett) thinks Tom (Peter Gadiot) is about to propose (she found a ring), he instead reveals that something was found on a fragment of a hard drive of the discontinued DARPA project: a way to bring Ben home.
TV Insider spoke with those who star as the Quantum Leap project’s team members — Ernie Hudson (Magic), Mason Alexander Park (Ian), and Nanrisa Lee (Jenn) — to find out how they feel about that (can they trust it?) and more.
Tom tells Addison that there may be a way to bring Ben home, but given that the team has been trying to figure out a way to do just that, and now, sure they like Tom, but this is information from an outside source, how do each of your characters feel about that? Is that something they can automatically trust or are they questioning it?
Ernie Hudson: Through Addison, we do trust Tom, and the possibility of something that maybe we haven’t considered is very exciting. So I think as far as Magic is concerned, he’s very, very optimistic about the possibilities.
Nanrisa Lee: I think that the opportunity eclipses the risk in some sense, and all of our characters are pretty smart, so we’re going to figure it out whether that’s actually a truth or not in due time.
Mason Alexander Park: Ditto.
Mason, first of all, I was happy to see that Ian and Rachel (Alice Kremelberg) reconnected during the time jump and Rachel is on Quantum Leap’s side. But both of them, along with the project, could end up in some serious trouble because of what’s going on and with Rachel’s boss’ reaction. Is that something that’s constantly in the back of Ian’s mind?
Park: Yeah, no, Ian definitely stepped in it with this one, but I think what’s nice is that they have an accomplice in Jenn and an accomplice in Rachel. So Ian’s probably never been more supported in a relatively sticky situation, I think, than this exact scenario. Yeah, it’s constantly rattling in the back of their mind that there might be some hell to pay, I think, for making this deal. But at the end of the day, Ian would do anything for the people that they love. They would do anything for anyone on this team. Ben, as their best friend, is very clearly no exception to the rule, so they were going to do whatever it took to bring Ben back, including spending three years trying to find him when everybody else had given up.
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I hope that Ian’s consistent optimism and desire for things to work out really pays off and that we get some sort of catharsis with all of it because if not, it’s just going to be a really, really, really, really stressful situation to try to untangle over the following episodes. But it’s been so fun. I remember when Martin [Gero] and Dean [Georgaris] called me about this storyline, I was like, what’s going to happen? And they walked me through the whole season and how the Ian and Rachel arc fits into it, and I was like, this is really cool. I’m really excited to see people’s reactions to this because it’s such a fun new dynamic to add into the mix.
Ernie, things seem to be looking up for Magic right now. He’s going to see his sponsor when he needs to. He and Beth (Susan Diol) seem to be going strong. There haven’t been any major problems between him and Tom when it comes to leading the project. Is that about to change, and if it were to, would Magic be in the right mindset to deal with it?
Hudson: I think Magic is holding on and doing the best he can and always aware that anything at any moment can change. Hopefully, we can get to some resolution on some of these things before things fall apart, but I think he’s not at a place where everything is all together. He’s being supported, and he’s trying to be supportive, but anything is possible. He’s not feeling just really complete and on top of things necessarily, but it’s really important for him to just keep things moving forward.
It seems like he’s being realistic about things, which is more important.
Hudson: Yes, and that reality has just sort of come crashing in: Let’s do the work, let’s get him back, let’s do what we really need to do to stay healthy, and not really welcoming any unexpected surprises, which is always a possibility.
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Nanrisa, we got a glimpse at what Jenn does when she’s not working at the beginning of the season when Ian came to tell her about finding Ben and she was playing poker. Is anything else coming up? It is important to have that balance.
Lee: Yeah, I hope so. I think Jenn’s background, where she comes from, is so colorful and so different, and it has really armed her with a really different perspective in terms of what she brings to the team. Having said that, I think that Jenn also knows how to keep secrets. Selfishly, me as an actor, I want to show all of where Jenn comes from, but I don’t think Jenn would love that. [Laughs] I think Jenn would prefer you can see enough to maybe understand her point of view, but you can’t give up all your secrets. Like any good poker player, you don’t want to show your cards. You can’t show your hand.
Mason, right now Ian is the only other person who knows about the engagement ring that Addison found. Everyone likes Tom. But Ben is their best friend. So how are they feeling about this possible next step for Addison and Tom?
Park: I think that Ian has to hold space both for their friendship with Ben and also with the reality of the situation, the reality of the passage of time, because they deeply care about Addison as well. I always found that they’re in a bit of a sticky situation because they both want to be supportive of Addison and Tom as a couple that they do like a lot and also being in support of the fact that Ben only had just found out that there even is another person in the mix a few episodes prior to this. So it’s a bit of a tight rope that Ian, I think, is emotionally walking. But yeah, we’ll see if it comes to fruition in any way in the future.
What’s the biggest challenge for each of your characters and the project going forward?
Hudson: I think the challenge for Magic is just doing everything he can to keep things together and to just keep pushing forward until we can find that ultimate resolution and get Ben back. I think that’s his focus.
Lee: Yeah, I think for Jenn as well. Outside of bringing Ben home, whether she likes it or not, she is learning and evolving as a person, and I think all of that is great, but I do think that there’s always an element of because of her life before this program, that you’re always looking over your shoulder a little bit. So I think as far as Jenn’s concerns for the future, she’s fine, but she’s always going to be looking over her shoulder because of the people that she dealt with in her past, and there’s always a need for some level of anonymity.
Park: I think that, yeah, Ian’s biggest challenge or struggle beyond, exactly as Nanrisa said, the whole Ben of it all, is now the focus on this sort of issue that’s developed with Rachel’s boss, because Ian knew that it could come to a head. I don’t think Ian has ever made an uninformed decision. I don’t think that they are so optimistic to the point that they’re blind to the reality of what they’re getting themselves into. But I do think that they might not have been as aware of how deep this was going to go, and now it’s starting to develop into something that is definitely going to take a lot of work on the whole team’s part, I think, eventually once they decide to share their problems with other people. They really do have a nasty habit of trying to do everything on their own in some way and then at the last minute relying on other people. I think that’s why Rachel and Ian broke up in the first place. So it’s nice to see them hopefully trying to get out of that.
With this possibility of being able to bring Ben home, there could be a question of if he would want to come home right away because of the Hannah (Eliza Taylor) situation, if he can’t leap again and see her. Who would be the most understanding if he has any hesitations?
Lee: I don’t think Jenn would understand.
Hudson: I think Magic would try to understand, but Magic’s at a different place in his life, just generational. These are much younger people. They have time. I think Magic feels he is out of time and would try to understand, but that sort of leaves him hanging out there. So it’s not something he would want, I don’t think.
Park: Yeah, I think I would probably be the only one that would get it, mainly because I’m usually just in support of anything that Ben needs. I think that’s why they’re so close and why they’re such good friends. Also, deep down, I think Ian’s a softie when it comes to romance.
Quantum Leap, Wednesdays, 8/7c, NBC
