S02.E05: One Night in Koreatown

[secnarf]

Quote

Ben lands in the body of an 18-year-old working for his father's shoe store in Koreatown in Los Angeles at the start of the explosive 1992 riots. Facing an emotional connection in the riots to his past, Magic joins Ben on the leap.

Original air date: Nov 1 2023

[chitowngirl]

Why doesn’t anyone wonder who Ben is talking to when he’s talking to the hologram???

[Brown44]

Magic is smashing Beth. Did not see that coming. 

[Brown44]

Every episode they mention Sam which makes me believe we will eventually see Scott Bakula.

[possibilities]

I don't remember who Beth is. Did we see her before now?

[Brown44]

17 minutes ago, possibilities said:

I don't remember who Beth is. Did we see her before now?

Beth is Al's wife. The reason Sam got stuck in the past in the series finale is bc he reunited Al and Beth. Played by the same actress from the series Finale (of course she's 30 year's older). She was in a few episodes last season her and Al's daughter was in alot of episodes too.

Edited November 2, 2023 by Brown44

[Driad]

What is Ian feeling guilty about?  (I haven't seen all the episodes.)

[Starchild]

They installed some kind of unapproved controller chip they got from their girlfriend's boss. And it's uploading data to the guy (security breach).

[possibilities]

1 hour ago, Brown44 said:

Beth is Al's wife. The reason Sam got stuck in the past in the series finale is bc he reunited Al and Beth. Played by the same actress from the series Finale (of course she's 30 year's older). She was in a few episodes last season her and Al's daughter was in alot of episodes too.

!! Wow. I watched a few episodes of the old show (and liked them), but didn't get that far. There is too much to watch nowadays!

What is Addison's role, if not to be the hologram? We know Ian does tech, Magic is the team leader, Jen is securty, and Tom is "govt liaison". Workout bunny? I wouldn't think the team needs one of those.

[Chyromaniac]

I think the confusion about the present day storyline is really telling.  There’s just not enough show here to adequately convey everything that the writers are trying to tell about the characters, and have an engaging leap story.  Like- this is an episode set in the LA frickin’ Riots - and somehow that feels like the least important thing about it.  Whaaa???!?  We spend so much time on Magic’s alcoholism, and the Ben/Addison relationship drama, and Ian’s guilt, and here’s this legacy character from the original series…

Oh, and also one of the most pivotal events of US history in the past 4 decades, that happens to be directly applicable to present day cultural issues- you know, nbd..  They did include a powerful moment where Magic relates his own experience with police brutality, which ties the racial injustice of the 60’s through 1992, and up to today. But, he tells it to (apologies to any Jenn fans out there) arguably the least important character on the show.  Also, that feels like a significant enough emotional complication for Magic- did they really have to make him a drunk and hook him up with Al’s widow at the same time?

All this to say- it felt like the leap story came up a bit thin - which again seems like a huge missed opportunity, given the subject matter.  I honestly don’t mind the decision to center the story around the characters trapped in a shop during the riots.  But I feel like we find out so little about them.  What’s the history behind the dad’s animosity towards Dwayne?  Could it be that Dwayne comes into the store a lot to talk with the brother- but since he never buys anything, the dad thinks he’s trying to shoplift?  And what is the history between the brother and Dwayne?  Ben lept into Danny, who is going into the Marines - what’s the deal there?  And then there’s Nurse Rojas- who only seems to be in the story because someone has to tell us how close brother is to death at the end.  She certainly gets forgotten in the character outcome wrap up at the end- maybe she’s Surgeon General of the Park family designer sneaker empire.

Edited November 2, 2023 by Chyromaniac

[AnimeMania]

Susan Diol as Beth Calavicci
C.S. Lee as Jin Park
Danny Kang as Sonny Park
Benjamin Flores Jr. as Dwain Morgan
Analisa Velez as Luisa Rojas
Ryan Caldwell as Officer #1

[Irlandesa]

9 hours ago, possibilities said:

!! Wow. I watched a few episodes of the old show (and liked them), but didn't get that far. There is too much to watch nowadays!

She was in the season 2 season finale of the original series.  Sam leaps into someone who lives in the same place as Beth. Al tries to use the leap to change Beth's future because she doesn't realize Al's still alive.  It turns out that wasn't the purpose of the leap and he doesn't change her story. It's a great episode.

In the finale, it's revealed he has more control over his leaps than he thought and goes back to where he left Beth in the last leap to give her hope that Al would return.  I don't think it's why he's stuck in the past, though, since they revealed his control.  It's why he could leap to where Beth was in the finale.  Telling her Al was alive clearly didn't prevent him from being involved with QL and trying to find Sam.  Beth talked about the effect in this ep.

9 hours ago, Chyromaniac said:

What’s the history behind the dad’s animosity towards Dwayne?  Could it be that Dwayne comes into the store a lot to talk with the brother- but since he never buys anything, the dad thinks he’s trying to shoplift?

That's exactly what the dad said when Dwain asked why Jin didn't like him.  But I Think there's racism there too.

I thought the first half of the episode was more focused on the leap but then it did feel like they tried to squeeze a bit too much about what Magic has been doing the past three years and his personal history with racism.  It might have been better to give hints at the alcoholism in an earlier episode.

[Brown44]

1 hour ago, Irlandesa said:

I don't think it's why he's stuck in the past, though, since they revealed his control.

Maybe I'm miss remembering but I thought if he did this for Al letting Beth know Al is still alive that he can know longer leap, bc it was a leap that didn't need to change. If he could control his leaps than after reuniting Beth and Al he should leap back to some form of himself in the future bf the Quantam program and stay there. 

[possibilities]

It makes me nervous that they are setting up a duplicate love triangle/angst-fest by having Magic be romantically involved with one lost leaper's partner, while Addison-Ben-Tom are having their similar set up.

[Irlandesa]

16 minutes ago, Brown44 said:

Maybe I'm miss remembering but I thought if he did this for Al letting Beth know Al is still alive that he can know longer leap, bc it was a leap that didn't need to change.

The impression I got is that Sam thought some other force was sending him from place to place to right a specific wrong.  He chose not to tell Beth that Al was alive during his first 1969 leap because he didn't think that was the history he was supposed to change. 

Once he realized that he had more control and choice in what wrongs he righted, and he wasn't beholden to just fate or whatever was sending him the places he went, he chose to go back to 1969 and tell Beth what he didn't think he had the right to say to her the first time. It was acceptance of his new reality and we don't know why he never chose to come back. 

And I don't believe Al was around for that revelation so the QL Project still thinks Sam got lost rather than choosing to keep leaping.

17 minutes ago, possibilities said:

It makes me nervous that they are setting up a duplicate love triangle/angst-fest by having Magic be romantically involved with one lost leaper's partner, while Addison-Ben-Tom are having their similar set up.

Sam is the original "lost" leaper.  Beth wasn't Sam's wife.  Beth was Al's wife.  Al was the hologram and he died before the new series. So no triangle.

[possibilities]

2 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

Sam is the original "lost" leaper.  Beth wasn't Sam's wife.  Beth was Al's wife.  Al was the hologram and he died before the new series. So no triangle.

Whew! That's a relief!! ...though it feels icky to be relieved that Al is dead.

[Trini]

On 11/1/2023 at 8:45 PM, chitowngirl said:

Why doesn’t anyone wonder who Ben is talking to when he’s talking to the hologram???

The show is really bad at this, in particular. Also bad about Ben NOT really acting or even trying to act like the person he leaps into; most of the time.

Did we even learn anything about the teen(?) other than he was joining the Marines? Also now he's never going to have an explanation about that one time he spoke fluent Korean!

 

23 hours ago, Chyromaniac said:

All this to say- it felt like the leap story came up a bit thin - which again seems like a huge missed opportunity, given the subject matter.  I honestly don’t mind the decision to center the story around the characters trapped in a shop during the riots.  But I feel like we find out so little about them.  

Agreed. The story wasn't necessarily bad, but it could have been more in depth.

[DoctorAtomic]

Maybe they crammed in all the b plot now so they don't need as much of it in the next few episodes. 

[iMonrey]

On 11/2/2023 at 12:49 AM, Chyromaniac said:

I think the confusion about the present day storyline is really telling.  There’s just not enough show here to adequately convey everything that the writers are trying to tell about the characters, and have an engaging leap story.

That's been the problem with the reboot all along, too much focus on present day QL HQ instead of the leaps. I actually thought they did a better job with this one than they usually do. 

9 hours ago, Trini said:

The show is really bad at this, in particular. Also bad about Ben NOT really acting or even trying to act like the person he leaps into; most of the time.

Given that the premise in the reboot has changed profoundly to Ben actually possessing the bodies of those he leaps into, his virtual non-reaction to leaping into women's bodies is flabbergasting. Sam only leaped into women's lives a handful of times on the original show and had a terrible time with it, and he wasn't even actually possessing their bodies, he was just switching places with them. Ben has already been a woman more times than Sam did in four seasons and beyond a shrug in the mirror he doesn't seem to have any awareness, concern or interest that he suddenly has a woman's body. Just imagine.

9 hours ago, Trini said:

Did we even learn anything about the teen(?) other than he was joining the Marines? Also now he's never going to have an explanation about that one time he spoke fluent Korean!

And Ben leaped out at a very inopportune time. I assume once Danny's spirit (?) returns to his own body he's going to be very confused why he's in the ambulance, what happened to his brother, what's going on around him, etc. etc. Of course, the original show never really explored that either but this one is so lacking in nuance it stands out more.

[possibilities]

I think they will chalk up Danny's confusion to effects of the trauma. People often have amnesia after those kinds of events. The body just puts all its energy into survoival and forgets to imprint the memories, or they lose something they previously had. But yeah, the show doesn't really act like this is a thing that the possessed person would have to deal with, regardless of what happens "while they were out".

I don't have as much of a problem with Ben not making a big deal about being in a female body. I think that in Sam's day, there was a much stronger gender separation than there is in today's world, and Ben seems like a guy who isn't that hung up on that kind of thing.

He is used to code switching as a racial/ethnic minority, is used to working with women side by side as peers, he's familiar with non-binary people, he's avoiding sex during leaps for ethical reasons, and he did have some trouble walking in heels  the first time(I'm female and I still don't know how anybody does it, but it does seem like a lot of people manage to catch on fairly quickly, so I guess Ben's also using some "muscle memory" in the resident body in addition to being a fast learner).

I don't know what it would be like though if he had menstrual cramps for the first time, or leapt into someone who was giving birth at the time of his residency. Good luck, Charlie!

[DoctorAtomic]

16 minutes ago, possibilities said:

I don't have as much of a problem with Ben not making a big deal about being in a female body. I think that in Sam's day, there was a much stronger gender separation than there is in today's world, and Ben seems like a guy who isn't that hung up on that kind of thing.

I don't recall when Ben leaped into a woman but Sam was a secretary in the 60s or something, and an early 80s housewife. That's a different story than being a bounty hunter in near modern times. He was the Indian cook too and more excited to be in the kitchen than anything. 

 

[Chit Chat]

I didn't care for this episode.  Watching the 1992 riots unfold in real time was bad enough.  I really didn't need to relive it.  

Other than Addison getting emotional about Ben last week, she really appears to have moved on from him.  I really hate shows that use the tired plotline of "will they or won't they get back together," so I hope that they don't do that.  I really don't care if they get back together or not.  Just give us a good show, please!

[Commando Cody]

I am unhappy about Magic being an alcoholic angle. It wasn't a necessary plot point and it just sets him up to fail. Then we have to go through his recovery. I'm not interested in the lives of the people back at the base or at the very least going through their personal drama.  TV shows can't seem to leave addictions alone. The characters end up relapsing and then the viewing audience suffers. 

This episode reminded me of when Sam had to go through the Watts riots. 

[KaveDweller]

2 minutes ago, Brown44 said:

Maybe I'm miss remembering but I thought if he did this for Al letting Beth know Al is still alive that he can know longer leap, bc it was a leap that didn't need to change. If he could control his leaps than after reuniting Beth and Al he should leap back to some form of himself in the future bf the Quantam program and stay there. 

In the finale, they said Sam has always had the power to control his leaps and could go home at any time if he really wanted too. So, if he didn't come home after telling Beth that Al was alive, it suggests he didn't want too. They never said he had to choose between the two. But it really doesn't make sense either way.

[DoctorAtomic]

I agree with the interpretation, but I don't think the show was that explicit about Sam controlling his own leaps. Sam said something like 'the leaps are going to get harder?' You could argue that he  thought the bartender was behind it. But Sam did make the choice "I knew what I have to do" to leap to Beth.

I do like the idea that the show is floating now - it's always been a one way trip. 

But I mean, come on, Sam has to make an appearance. 

[secnarf]

Add me to the list of people unhappy about Magic being an alcoholic - but as a general rule, I hate addiction storylines.

Other than that, I was pretty ambivalent about the episode.

They introduced a whole lot about Magic, but completely dropped the security breach that happens whenever Ben leaps.

[iMonrey]

19 hours ago, possibilities said:

I don't have as much of a problem with Ben not making a big deal about being in a female body. I think that in Sam's day, there was a much stronger gender separation than there is in today's world, and Ben seems like a guy who isn't that hung up on that kind of thing.

There's a big difference between having to wear a dress and high heels and suddenly having the genitals and other body parts of the opposite gender! Sam never had to deal with it because he wasn't actually in that body. Ben is, and he doesn't even acknowledge it. I mean, he's been a woman several times now so he might be used to it but he never acknowledged it. I suspect the show simply doesn't want to deal with it. For one thing there's very little humor in this reboot versus the original, I think there's a deliberate attempt to be a more serious show. For another thing the writing is very lazy, especially when it comes to the leap stories. They often just feel like an afterthought because the writers are more invested in the Addision/Ben angst and giving the HQ characters something to do than they are in the leap stories.

There is never really any focus on the the character that Ben is possessing.

Edited November 4, 2023 by iMonrey

[Guest]

58 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

There's a big difference between having to wear a dress and high heels and suddenly having the genitals and other body parts of the opposite gender! Sam never had to deal with it because he wasn't actually in that body. Ben is, and he doesn't even acknowledge it.

The show has been so vague that I don’t think it is clear with Sam or Ben. A body swap is the cleanest fit for the original show. But, in this show, Ben didn’t leave his body behind and there isn’t a waiting room. A lot of what they do to monitor Ben and what happens during the leaps only makes sense if he has his body with him during the leap. What happens to the person whose life he is assuming isn’t clear. 

[KaveDweller]

41 minutes ago, Dani said:

The show has been so vague that I don’t think it is clear with Sam or Ben. A body swap is the cleanest fit for the original show. But, in this show, Ben didn’t leave his body behind and there isn’t a waiting room. A lot of what they do to monitor Ben and what happens during the leaps only makes sense if he has his body with him during the leap. What happens to the person whose life he is assuming isn’t clear. 

But the show hasn't been vague about this. Addison specifically stated in season 1 that Ben is inhabiting other people's bodies. They just haven't told us what happened to Ben's body. Last season we could assume it was in some kind of chamber at headquarters, but that doesn't work anymore. I think they haven't mentioned it because they wanted to do the three year jump, knew it wouldn't make sense, so are hoping people forgot what they said last year.

The original wasn't vague either. The clearly showed Sam still had his own body, and had the waiting room to explain where the other person's went.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

But the show hasn't been vague about this. Addison specifically stated in season 1 that Ben is inhabiting other people's bodies. They just haven't told us what happened to Ben's body. Last season we could assume it was in some kind of chamber at headquarters, but that doesn't work anymore. I think they haven't mentioned it because they wanted to do the three year jump, knew it wouldn't make sense, so are hoping people forgot what they said last year.

I do find both vague and inconsistent. I wasn’t saying that Ben isn’t inhabiting people’s bodies. They have been clear about that (based on the the team’s understanding of what is happening) but they are also writing the show as though Ben still has his body. Based on interviews where the original showrunner brought up quantum superposition I think that was the original intention. There is no waiting room because Ben’s body is leaping into other people’s bodies. At least until they decide to write something different. 

[possibilities]

Either way, I just don't see why having different genitals would be so big of a deal for him. I mean, he has more important things to worry about? He's iusually in a huge crisis of some kind. I guess I'm just not that convinced that the bodily details are so mind-blowing, either way. Maybe if it happened to me, I'd feel otherwise. But when I try to imagine it, I don't feel all that intrigued or weirded out. Actually, something I like about the show is that nobody is making jokes about gender and acting like it's an issue.

I do agree that the show is not very funny, at all. I've only watched a few of the originals, but I definitely recall them having a much less frantic pace, more humor, and less angst. I recall Al being kind of goofy and relaxed, and Sam taking his time and not feeling like he had to solve whatever it was OR ELSE DISASTER!!!!!!! He cared, it mattered, but his whole personality was way more relaxed, as was everything else about the show.

It's probably a sign of the times. The whole world has sped up since then, and the zeitgeist careens from one DIRE CRISIS TO ANOTHER most of the time. Still, they could chill a little. Not every show has to be a stress test for both viewers and cast. 

Also, I hate that they made Magic an alcoholic all of a sudden. 

 

[Trini]

16 minutes ago, possibilities said:

It's probably a sign of the times. The whole world has sped up since then, and the zeitgeist careens from one DIRE CRISIS TO ANOTHER most of the time. Still, they could chill a little. Not every show has to be a stress test for both viewers and cast. 

Besides that, TV shows (on networks where they have commercial breaks) have less minutes to tell their stories than decades ago.

[iMonrey]

21 hours ago, Dani said:

I do find both vague and inconsistent. I wasn’t saying that Ben isn’t inhabiting people’s bodies. They have been clear about that (based on the the team’s understanding of what is happening) but they are also writing the show as though Ben still has his body.

I'm not convinced the writers themselves understand the concept. They have a vague idea that Ben is switching places with someone in the past and that's about as far as they've thought it out. 

[jmonique]

I officially gave up on the show this episode, when the shop owner went from flying off the handle and threatening the kid with a shotgun, to shooting his son and then throwing himself in front of armed police officers to defend the kid he almost just shot 5 minutes ago. Complete with "and now I've learned the error of my ways"-type monologue.

The show lacks all subtlety. And I'm an Asian who was over the moon about an Asian lead.

Edited November 7, 2023 by jmonique

[kirkola]

The original was intentionally vague and often contradictory. And the grand finale was even more vague, which is why alot of fans hated it.   Sam assumed the Bartender was God/fate/whatever directing his leaps. 

 

All of this lack of continuity leaves the reboot with the chance to grow in new directions. Which they are attempting to do.  Whether they will succeed, is,anyone's guess.

As for the characters in this episode, a huge part of the 1992 LA Riots had do with police brutality. At least it was the match point.  But Asian & African American tensions were already at a boiling point.  I was an East Coast teenager who was neither Asian or African American, so I don't know much about the why.  It might have had something to do with Asians buying up properties & opening storefronts in predominantly African American neighborhoods. Regardless it would have been common for the Shop Owner, Jin Park, to be distrustful of Dwain, an African American kid who is always hanging out and doesn't buy anything.  However, once the white cops showed up, the regular "us vs them" tensions between Jin & Dwain would have shifted to Jin & Dwain vs cops. 

[Starchild]

On 11/4/2023 at 11:06 PM, Trini said:

Besides that, TV shows (on networks where they have commercial breaks) have less minutes to tell their stories than decades ago.

Nevertheless, it wouldn't hurt to have a day or two pass during an ad break. Give poor Ben a chance to eat, sleep, go to the bathroom.

They're doing it in present-day HQ, people go home in the evenings, come back the next day in different clothes. But when the story comes back to Ben it's like we're not in the next day at all. Is this a quantum thing? Is time passing more slowly for Ben in the past? Addison and the rest of the team live one day for every hour of Ben's leap?

It's confusing.

[Oscirus]

Ben's best friend is nonbinary, and he was in a typically gender-swapped relationship. I doubt that he has the "toxic masculinity" to care about what gender he happens to jump into other than the inconvenience of what said person happens to be wearing. 

 I'm more bothered by the fact that the Scooby gang keeps trying to force Addison on him when he doesn't want to deal with her. Even she seems to get that giving Ben his space is the smart thing to do. 

The one thing I am wondering is if this show removed Addison as the hologram because they were worried about the optics of having a white woman advising an Asian man on what to do about the riots. I noticed the participants in specific conversations seemed to be carefully selected.

[DoctorAtomic]

I think the in-show reason of Magic just being better qualified to be the hologram for this leap is fine enough. 

Once they showed swapping holograms was possible, I don't know why we haven't seen it more. 

If I were in charge, I'd have shifts of holograms. 

[lh25]

On 11/8/2023 at 1:54 PM, Starchild said:

They're doing it in present-day HQ, people go home in the evenings, come back the next day in different clothes. But when the story comes back to Ben it's like we're not in the next day at all. Is this a quantum thing? Is time passing more slowly for Ben in the past? Addison and the rest of the team live one day for every hour of Ben's leap?

This part confuses me.  It doesn't seem like there are other shifts of people monitoring Ben.  It seems to be a 24/7 job, to be sure Ben is getting the support he needs, and they don't know when he is going to leap again and need to be found and updated.  Not sure how they have lives outside of HQ and don't get really burnt out.

[DoctorAtomic]

Time can't be the same either; a minute lasts a minute, but when Ben is sleeping, it could be noon at the present. So someone has to be around all the time. 

Maybe Magic is and just everyone is on call now. 

In the OG, Al was around all the time too and they never really said.