S01.E16: Ben, Interrupted

[secnarf]

Quote

When Ben lands in a 1950s psychiatric institution, he must engineer a daring escape for a young woman unjustly committed by her husband. The team is shocked to learn the identity of a mole in Quantum headquarters.

Original air date: March 20 2023

[AnimeMania]

Paul McCarthy-Boyington as Lawrence
Armando McClain as Nurse

Walter Perez as Martinez/Leaper X
Jules Willcox as Elaine Sullivan
Dana Melanie as Judith Murphy
Patrick Fischler as Dr. Mueller

[nilyank]

Evil Ziggy is the mole?

[KaveDweller]

I know there are lots of movies about AI systems taking over the world, but Ziggy as the mole? How does that even work?

Also, if Martinez is going to kill Addison, wouldn't it be better to kill him, rather than intentionally screw up the leap to get him stuck in 1954? Not that I'm advocating for murder, but trapping him in the 50s involved letting both the innocent sister and the innocent guy Ben leaped into die in the mental institution. 

 

[possibilities]

I figure Ziggy as the mole = Ziggy is spying on them and reporting everythng they do back to HQ. Honestly, I would have expected HQ to be watching anyway. What team operates without any supervision? They are doing something super-risky and it's a research project, right? So obviously someone above them would be monitoring.

Magic was right, though, that what's her name can't be expecting total transparency when she herself is practically all secrets.

I thought Martinez was trying to kill Ben, not just stop him from leaping. He slit his jugular, so Ben would bleed out and die-- pretty quickly, I'd think. Him lasting as long as he did, and climbing a ladder, seemed to me to be extremely unlikely. Bleeding out within moments would be the more likely effect.

I was more tense during this episode than any so far.

 

[hifihifi]

I didn't see the Face of thep erson Ben leaped into this episode. Is that the first time that has ever happened on Quantum Leap or did I miss something?

[bybrandy]

I feel like we haven’t seen the face lately. 
 

This episode should have had me sympathizing with Addison but I just didn’t like the actor’s performance in this one. But honestly it might have been how they chose to shoot it. All those close ups of Addison screaming just didn’t work for me. 

[Catfi9ht]

1 hour ago, bybrandy said:

This episode should have had me sympathizing with Addison but I just didn’t like the actor’s performance in this one. But honestly it might have been how they chose to shoot it. All those close ups of Addison screaming just didn’t work for me. 

Addison is the weakest part of the show for me by far. I don't feel like she and Ben have any chemistry. Although, I did get emotional for her during the episodes about her dad, but that's probably me projecting my own trauma onto her.

6 hours ago, possibilities said:

I figure Ziggy as the mole = Ziggy is spying on them and reporting everythng they do back to HQ.

Instead of naming them "bad" or "good" Ziggy, I'll just call them Ziggy A (our timeline) and Ziggy B (Anderson's timeline). I figure one Ziggy figured out how to communicate with the other Ziggy, and they're compiling their information based on both timelines. Instead of choosing A or B, they're calculating the "best" outcome for the universe (if the show wants to make Ziggy impartial or perhaps "good") or Ziggy's best chance at survival (if they're going to go with an "evil" machine/self-preservation story). This does seem different than the "evil leaper" timeline from the original Quantum Leap which I'm really glad they didn't rehash. They tweaked it enough to where it feels familiar, but it's a different and better concept IMO.

For this episode, I thought the lightning/thunder every time someone said something nefarious was a little on-the-nose. Other than that, I thought the tension in this episode was good.

I really like the costumes and set design on this show. They do a good job of staying with the time period and making everything look lived in while having to build new sets and costumes each week. I mean how many minutes was the attorney's apartment used a couple of episodes ago? Five? All that amazing work for a scene for five minutes of screen time. When the show relies on "time" as a concept, it's nice to see thought and care put into reflecting that from every person on the crew.

[libgirl2]

24 minutes ago, Catfi9ht said:

Addison is the weakest part of the show for me by far. I don't feel like she and Ben have any chemistry. Although, I did get emotional for her during the episodes about her dad, but that's probably me projecting my own trauma onto her.

 

She just doesn't work for me. There is no building of a friendship/relationship. They already had one. What I liked from the original is Sam and Al becoming close friends. 

[Nerfect Drifty]

5 hours ago, hifihifi said:

I didn't see the Face of the person Ben leaped into this episode. Is that the first time that has ever happened on Quantum Leap or did I miss something?

They showed it, twice I think.  First at the beginning of the episode and later it showed both him and Martinez side by side in a mirror in the operating room.

I liked that they made some real progress on the story arc.  Usually they spend about 2 minutes and drop some vague clue.

11 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

Also, if Martinez is going to kill Addison, wouldn't it be better to kill him, rather than intentionally screw up the leap to get him stuck in 1954? Not that I'm advocating for murder, but trapping him in the 50s involved letting both the innocent sister and the innocent guy Ben leaped into die in the mental institution.

First off, forget about the ethics of that choice.  Murdering a United States Marine with a good service record is going to land at least one person in prison or possibly death row.

Secondly, I'm not sure that would do any good. Martinez seems to be taking orders from the military, and he just happened to be the guy who got this particular assignment.  Kill him, and someone else steps in.

[ajsnaves]

Have they said someone was going to kill Addison? Or just that she is going to die. Those are two different things. We really don’t know what’s the motive for the future people. Maybe Ben does something that results in a disaster in the future, and Martinez’s people are trying to head that off. That’s the problem with time travel stories. And the fun sometimes too. 
 

I was hoping some of the other patients would be able to see Addison, like when Sam leapt into an asylum patient. I was also a bit surprised that leap, and it’s results, didn’t come up. It’s things like that that make me miss Al. 

[possibilities]

I think they said he's trying to "save" Addison. Who knows what he's saving her from? I assumed death, too, but it could be some other terrible fate.

[AnimeMania]

Hey Ziggy! Snitches get Glitches!

[iMonrey]

Does anyone understand what is going on here? They are making this story needlessly complicated.

What exactly is Martinez trying to do? Is his only goal to kill Addison? Why? And couldn't he have already done that? If it's something else then why doesn't Janis know it? And how did she know this would be the last time Ben had to stop him? Does this mean Sam will not encounter Martinez anymore? Because if he does then Janis had bad intel.

How is Ziggy "the mole?" That doesn't even make sense. Mole for who? Martinez? Present day Ziggy is feeding future Ziggy intel to give to Martinez? How? How does AI send info into the future? Or is future Ziggy pulling that info from present day Ziggy and why? This episode make it seem like all Martinez is trying to do is "fix" things that Ben was unable to fix, except that doesn't make any sense either because why would he leap into the same timeline as the one where Ben is?

I'm just really tired of the mystery box this show is trying so hard to keep going because it's a lot of cryptic dialogue that doesn't tell us anything in particular and characters who are the embodiment of "I know something you don't know."

More specific to this episode, the guy that Ben leaped into would have been killed as soon as the nurses found him and took him back to the doctor! No way he survived, it's not as if the woman who escaped managed to get to the police in time for them to shut the whole thing down before the doctor got his hands back on that guy.

[KaveDweller]

17 hours ago, possibilities said:

I figure Ziggy as the mole = Ziggy is spying on them and reporting everythng they do back to HQ. Honestly, I would have expected HQ to be watching anyway. What team operates without any supervision? They are doing something super-risky and it's a research project, right? So obviously someone above them would be monitoring.

Is HQ something other than the place we see all the present day people working? I agree it makes sense that someone would be monitoring them, but we know from earlier episodes they were hiding the fact that Ben leaped. That one senator showed up and figured it out and agreed not to tell anyone.

But regardless, Ziggy is a computer. I would imagine that any computer would be recording the information from whoever is using it and anyone with access could search it. 

8 hours ago, Nerfect Drifty said:

First off, forget about the ethics of that choice.  Murdering a United States Marine with a good service record is going to land at least one person in prison or possibly death row.

Secondly, I'm not sure that would do any good. Martinez seems to be taking orders from the military, and he just happened to be the guy who got this particular assignment.  Kill him, and someone else steps in.

I didn't necessarily mean kill him in present day, I meant kill him during one of these leaps like Martinez tried to do to Ben. No one's ending up in prison for that. But yeah, he does seem to be taking orders from someone else. But why would the military want to kill Addison?

Again, killing people is awful and not a good way to solve problems in real life.

 

7 hours ago, ajsnaves said:

Have they said someone was going to kill Addison? Or just that she is going to die. Those are two different things. We really don’t know what’s the motive for the future people. Maybe Ben does something that results in a disaster in the future, and Martinez’s people are trying to head that off. That’s the problem with time travel stories. And the fun sometimes too. 

In previous episodes they just said she was going to die. Janice said in this episode Martinez was going to kill her.

[stonehaven]

I wanted to like this but I kept comparing it to "Shock Theater" in the original. That was a classic episode that I could watch a million times. So, I was hoping for a slight easter egg connection to the original. So far,. I got nothing and that greatly saddens me.

Also, their reference to "losing another leaper" makes me sad as that means that they've given up bringing Sam home and also makes me wonder if he died in one of his leaps and that's why no one can find him?

[possibilities]

42 minutes ago, KaveDweller said:

Is HQ something other than the place we see all the present day people working? I agree it makes sense that someone would be monitoring them, but we know from earlier episodes they were hiding the fact that Ben leaped. That one senator showed up and figured it out and agreed not to tell anyone.

I forgot about the senator's visit. I just assume someone is funding them, and that they would have to report results of some kind, to someone. 

43 minutes ago, KaveDweller said:

But regardless, Ziggy is a computer. I would imagine that any computer would be recording the information from whoever is using it and anyone with access could search it. 

True, but my idea was that Ziggy was programmed to send info somewhere the team doesn't know it's being sent to. Like maybe if their conversations are being recorded, but more elaborate than that. I hadn't thought of the info going to Martinez, but that also makes some sense, as much as any of the "bad leapers" storyline makes sense... which isn't saying much.

45 minutes ago, KaveDweller said:

In previous episodes they just said she was going to die. Janice said in this episode Martinez was going to kill her.

Oh yeah, that's right. I spaced that out completely. 

 

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

Does anyone understand what is going on here? They are making this story needlessly complicated.

 

I agree. It's like they're tossing crumbs at us but trying to sell it as shocking revelations. I don't mind a little intrigue but it's not interesting because it's too abstract and chaotic.

[DoctorAtomic]

I was worried that this episode might have revisited when Sam got electroshocked. Maybe because Bakula was so good, but the episode really disturbed me. This wasn't doing me any favors either. They made a good contrast with the 50s music.

Within that context of the episode, I'm surprised Ben's mental health hasn't been addressed or asked about. I wouldn't expect it to come up with Sam, being an 80s show, but in 2023, we're at least more aware of mental health issues. 

The leap itself is questionable in that why leaping into the PI would put Ben in the best position to help. As opposed to a lawyer or local politician. I mean, the show was playing fair; they needed the files, etc., and creeped me out sufficiently. I'm not complaining.

Good for Magic not to hedge and tell Janis where Ben is. I'm glad they confirmed there is an order to Ben's leaps. And the Leap Detector worked! Good also confirming Martinez could see Addison. So he leaped from QL HQ. I'd like to know who is in charge in the future QL, and if Martinez leaped without authorization. In this episode, Martinez looked like the 'older version' from the Montana, so it seems like this leap was after that one. He also said 'my orders', so it seems like there is a larger operation. 

I never liked the whole 'evil leaper' plot on the OG. I was hoping it would be just ignored. I am glad that Ian correctly pointed out that Martinez hasn't actually acted in direct opposition to Ben. He's getting some good lines too, "Maybe this required two leapers" and "They could be using Ziggy". Ziggy would have all the data on all the leaps ever. And it paid off! This is kind of a deep cut, but it reminds me of To Say Nothing of the Dog. I do like they got a little 'timey-wimey'. 

However, to be fair to Addison, I can buy her skepticism because the last time he literally said, "I'm going to beat you", and he was rather derisive and continued to be so. Being knifed also strengthens the argument. I think she was being a little much on Janis.  Although, as much as I like Janis, there's no way Sam and Al would have given up on Judith. You have to give a little. Magic has been way flexible with her. 

With the technology today (television technology), a flashback with Magic and Al would be brilliant. 

10 hours ago, Nerfect Drifty said:

First off, forget about the ethics of that choice.  Murdering a United States Marine with a good service record is going to land at least one person in prison or possibly death row.

I think you're better choice here is to bring Martinez in the show-present. They already met him once. That way when he's offered the assignment, once he leaps, he's got more prior knowledge. We're also assuming that Martinez 'kills' Addison with premeditation. It could have been an accident on a leap. Technically, if Martinez killing Addison prompted future-Ian to leap to warn Ben, then it is possible at that future incident that Addison was the leaper, and was killed on a leap. That could have been regular-future-Martinez killing her because she was someone else. Then Ben leaping to prevent it, essentially wipes it out but causes more problems, so Martinez is brought in to leap. 

If Martinez is right now only following orders (just kill Ben), just about every party here is an unreliable narrator, except Ziggy. 

The only motivation for Ziggy that I can think of is wanting to bring Sam home and using everyone to that end. Ziggy could have manipulated the entire timeline to get Ben to leap if Ziggy determined Ben was the best chance of finding Sam. 

iirc, Sam actually created Ziggy. 

[Chit Chat]

On 3/21/2023 at 4:10 AM, hifihifi said:

I didn't see the Face of thep erson Ben leaped into this episode. Is that the first time that has ever happened on Quantum Leap or did I miss something?

It was a quick reflection.  I have found that I have to pay really close attention if I want to see who Ben has leaped into!  They don't seem to make a big deal about it on this show.

16 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Does anyone understand what is going on here? They are making this story needlessly complicated.

The pay-off better be worth it!  I don't want another "Lost" kind of ending. 

[DoctorAtomic]

I don't know if the payoff will be worthwhile, I hope so, but I don't think it will be like Lost. They're clearly dragging it out, but I don't think they're making it up either. 

tbh, if the finale is about saving Addison's life, and Sam leaps in to save her, I will completely lose it. 

I would prefer if they wrapped up this Martinez story line though. I don't mind if he cuts loose from future QL and leaps off like Sam did, so you see him now and then, but I don't think dragging this out over a second season is wise. 

[Mrs. Stanwyck]

So, I am confused.  Didn't Martinez say to Ben (before he stabbed him) something along the lines of "I'm sorry but I can't let you mess up my mission"?

If that is the case, doesn't that mean Addison is no longer in danger?  Didn't Ben leap because Addison died and he wanted to save her?  If Addison died because she was the leaper, isn't that all moot at this point and there is no more danger for Addison?  It seems with Martinez trying to kill Ben that it wasn't about Addison - it is about whomever is leaping.

 

[DoctorAtomic]

At the stabbing, Martinez said, 'my orders are to stop you'. Future-Addison may not be dead yet, because Martinez hasn't yet elapsed to that point in time. But, if Ben leaped, then Addison isn't the leaper then. Or yet. You have to figure, tv-wise we're going to see that unfold however it goes. 

I do think it's interesting that it may not be about Ben, but whomever is the leaper. If Ziggy is spinning this whole scheme though, it may have calculated that Ben needed to be the person to leap, and not Addison. 

[Starchild]

Leaping is one thing, but time traveling (past Ian, future Martinez, etc.) is complicated. You have to be clever to plot it out effectively. I hope the writers are, but it's already confusing so I have my doubts.

As for trying to bring Sam home, does he even want to come back? He had his chance and kept leaping. I suppose 40 more years of it could change your mind, but I don't know.

[Trini]

Just here to echo that the mystery is confusing and convoluted with the little info they've actually given us; and I just don't like how they are having Janice be antagonistic when she supposedly on the same side as our HQ team.

Is Ziggy a "mole"? In the episode, Janice just said 'Ziggy can't be trusted' -- whatever that means.

Not specific to this episode, but with Martinez and Ian as leapers in the future leaping back with specific information, can we assume they fixed the memory loss problem in the future? Also, does Martinez have his own 'Al with a ziggy' helping him?

[DoctorAtomic]

16 hours ago, Starchild said:

As for trying to bring Sam home, does he even want to come back? He had his chance and kept leaping.

I didn't think so, and I still don't. Magic doesn't know what happened at the 'bar' in the finale though. Sam leaped into him too, and he may want to just meet him and talk to him. Al probably spent the rest of his life trying to bring him back, and in this episode Magic said he would try to find him. It would be polite of Sam to pop back and tell them he's ok though. 

1 hour ago, Trini said:

Also, does Martinez have his own 'Al with a ziggy' helping him?

Martinez iirc did say something like, "what does Ziggy say" to Addison when they were talking about fighting their way out of the asylum, and Ian mentioned the future version of Ziggy. Since Martinez could actually see Addison, and we didn't see anyone else with him; he might not have anyone helping him. Of course, that doesn't mean there isn't one. 

[KaveDweller]

3 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I didn't think so, and I still don't. Magic doesn't know what happened at the 'bar' in the finale though. Sam leaped into him too, and he may want to just meet him and talk to him. Al probably spent the rest of his life trying to bring him back, and in this episode Magic said he would try to find him. It would be polite of Sam to pop back and tell them he's ok though. 

It really would. It was so sad when Magic or someone said Al was always broken hearted about Sam never coming home. When the show ended, I never assumed Al never knew Sam was okay to continue leaping. But the show has time travel, so they could always change that.

3 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

Martinez iirc did say something like, "what does Ziggy say" to Addison when they were talking about fighting their way out of the asylum, and Ian mentioned the future version of Ziggy. Since Martinez could actually see Addison, and we didn't see anyone else with him; he might not have anyone helping him. Of course, that doesn't mean there isn't one. 

I didn't even think of that, but it is a very good point. There doesn't seem to be anyone helping Martinez. No hologram has appeared in any of his episodes.

[DoctorAtomic]

I think they'll show us the hologram when we need to see them since it's probably a future version of these characters. If it is, that's probably why they're not around. The first two times Ben met Martinez, the encounters were very brief and could have been when the hologram wasn't around. The last one was right before he leaped. 

If Martinez is leaping around, someone has to come in and tell him what he's supposed to do. He knew that they had to save that lady in this episode.

[Commando Cody]

It's not a good sign when one character tells you that another character is going to die, and you think that's fine. She doesn't add anything to the series anyway. 

The actress was so bad in this episode with her unconvincing screaming. 

I have never liked asylum episodes. They are always a save somone from the electroshock therapy and a deranged Dr. I find these episodes too creepy. 

I don't remember the asylum episode in the original series, but I also think that a lot of people who were put into these institutions weren't crazy. The woman he was trying to save was put there due to "hysterics", apparently. 

I have to add, I'm referring to a comment up stream who mentioned that Some of the inmates could see Al. 

[lavenderblue]

On 3/21/2023 at 8:38 PM, DoctorAtomic said:

I never liked the whole 'evil leaper' plot on the OG. I was hoping it would be just ignored. I am glad that Ian correctly pointed out that Martinez hasn't actually acted in direct opposition to Ben. He's getting some good lines too, "Maybe this required two leapers" and "They could be using Ziggy". Ziggy would have all the data on all the leaps ever. And it paid off! This is kind of a deep cut, but it reminds me of To Say Nothing of the Dog. I do like they got a little 'timey-wimey'. 
 

To Say Nothing of the Dog is one of my favorite books!!! I almost never encounter others who have read it! Anyway yes, the QL setup here in general is a bit Oxfordian, come to think of it.

Quote

If Martinez is right now only following orders (just kill Ben), just about every party here is an unreliable narrator, except Ziggy. 

The only motivation for Ziggy that I can think of is wanting to bring Sam home and using everyone to that end. Ziggy could have manipulated the entire timeline to get Ben to leap if Ziggy determined Ben was the best chance of finding Sam. 

I'm glad they're finally getting somewhere with the new mythology building, and I hope Ziggy's motive is related to bringing back Sam -- saving Addison is not a compelling enough driving aim for this show for me at this point.

[Nialla]

A weird thought about Ziggy being involved with both the current and future leaps. Perhaps it has its own agenda and is using both teams to accomplish it, no matter if they are in seemingly in conflict with each other.

What could be worth risking so many lives? Could it be a last ditch attempt to get to Sam? Perhaps Ziggy's plan was a reaction to Al's death. He was the last person truly pushing to find Sam, so Ziggy decided to take over.

[possibilities]

But if they find Sam, then what? Bakula hasn't seemed to be interested in reprising the role, so either they recast him, which will never work, or he comes back for one episode when they find him, and then he's gone again?

[DoctorAtomic]

39 minutes ago, Nialla said:

A weird thought about Ziggy being involved with both the current and future leaps. Perhaps it has its own agenda and is using both teams to accomplish it, no matter if they are in seemingly in conflict with each other.

That's not weird at all. That's what we meant by To Say Nothing of the Dog. I actually hope this is correct because it's rather clever take on the show's part, and it's not really in popular scifi. Ian did allude to it in a way by saying, "Maybe Ziggy thought there needed to be two leapers here." Ian was referring to the current mission, but Janis took the logical leap. 

As to why? I said earlier in the week, if Ziggy is pulling the strings, it would have to be Sam. Sam created Ziggy, and all of this being a reaction to Al passing makes 100% sense to me. I do think if this is the story that Ziggy isn't being fair to Magic, of whom Ziggy would know was affected by Sam's leap. Clearly in this episode, Magic genuinely wants to find Sam. 

I could see that TPTBs, while very clearly paying homage to the OG may not necessarily want to tie too tight to the past, and this could all be about Addison. I would be disappointed, but it's not enough for me to quit the show. I think they're doing a good job. 

But, they showed Sam in episode 1, so ending with Sam would just be bonkers. 

5 hours ago, lavenderblue said:

To Say Nothing of the Dog is one of my favorite books!!! I almost never encounter others who have read it! Anyway yes, the QL setup here in general is a bit Oxfordian, come to think of it.

I think sometimes the humor of the moment can be forgotten a lot with sci fi. This isn't a scifi show per se, and the pace of Ben leaping is frenetic, but I think they're trying. This episode was heavy, but the last one Ben was excited about his chopping skills and cooking. 

 

[StaceyNotStacie]

On 3/24/2023 at 10:42 PM, possibilities said:

But if they find Sam, then what? Bakula hasn't seemed to be interested in reprising the role, so either they recast him, which will never work, or he comes back for one episode when they find him, and then he's gone again?

If they ever find Sam, maybe they help him leap home (present time with the current staff), but the rest of the series is trying to get Ben home. 

[DoctorAtomic]

I think if Sam does appear, it's going to be for closure and then he leaps away.