S02.E08: Nomad

[secnarf]

Quote

When Ben leaps as far as Egypt into an undercover CIA agent caught in a dangerous game of international espionage, he must move quickly to save a woman's life.

Original air date: Dec 13, 2023

[AnimeMania]

Egypt, 1961

Azita Ghanizada as Layla Adel
Juan Monsalvez as Diplomat
Ahmed Khaled as Motorcycle Kid
Phil Coal as Shepherd Barnes
Shaaban Kotb as Driver

[chitowngirl]

Is this the last episode that was filmed before the strikes?

nm-I saw the tag that said returning in early 2024…

Edited December 14, 2023 by chitowngirl

[Brown44]

"You've never leaped outside of the country bf" wasn't homeboy in space last season?

[Brown44]

If we don't see a late 70+ year old Hannah I'm gonna be very disappointed. 

[Starchild]

55 minutes ago, Brown44 said:

"You've never leaped outside of the country bf" wasn't homeboy in space last season?

That's what I thought he was going to respond with lol

[Chyromaniac]

Hannah- time to gtfoo Cairo…

All in all, I don’t think this episode was too bad- I don’t even mind that the leap story felt a little thin.  I feel like we got enough from Layla and Barnes to make it work - and honestly the Ben and Hannah stuff had more dramatic impact for me, given their history.  I assume we are heading towards some kind of big choice in the finale, where Ben can either come home, or stay in the past with her.  I also think it’s a shoe-in that older Hannah is behind the mysterious stuff this season.  If we do get older Hannah, for some reason, Susan Dey from LA Law springs to mind.  I guess we’ll see what happens in 2024…

[AnimeMania]

Lou Diamond Phillips played Station Chief Barnes, I guess that used a fake name to keep it a surprise.

[Brown44]

Sam has leap outside the country,  that's how we met Magic in Vietnam.

[Trini]

Hey, always nice to see Lou Diamond Phillips!

Well, I guess it was too much to expect a break from Addison relationship angst, even with her as Ben's ex now.

Otherwise, liked this one. I'm digging Ben/Hannah; I just wonder what the ultimate resolution for them will be. I'd like a happy ending for them, but a) I'm not sure what that would look like exactly; and b) it might not be possible if the writers want to keep their options open for a possible Season 3.

Nice use of the location; although, disappointing that were still 'yellow-filtering' foreign countries in 2023.

I don't care if Ben and Addison are cool now; I still want to see the rest of the team as the hologram more often.

So if they can bring Ben back home, can they bring Sam back? (Yep, I'm still hoping for a cameo.)

[Chaos Theory]

If the Hannah plot doesn't lead somewhere important then its a waste of a good storyline.     

If I remember correctly (and its been awhile) the original series did a storyline with Sam leaping into the life of the same person over the time frame of her life and at one point falling in love with her and later finding in the following leap he got her pregnant.    

I would find it kinda stupid hilarious if Addison's new boyfriend is Ben's son (I know stupid storyline but it fits with stupid tv logic that appeals to my stupid tv logic brain).

Edited December 15, 2023 by Chaos Theory

[iMonrey]

The fact that the entirety of the "previously" recap was spent on the Ben and Addision relationship drama just underscores how the focus of the show remains stubbornly on the wrong thing. 

On some level I could maybe appreciate the show trying to do more with the concept than the original version did, but the problem is what they're doing is so damn boring. I'm not invested in the "will they or won't they" aspect of Ben and Addision's relationship but the show seems determined that I should be.

Now, the thing with Hannah is interesting, but frankly I don't see where it can go without ending the show. If Ben stays in the past to be with Hannah, no more leaping. If they figure out a way to bring both Ben and Hannah into present day, same result. And again, circling back to the recap, we know the show isn't moving away from Ben and Addision. 

And why does Addison think "the computer" or Ziggy or whoever is controlling Ben's leaps keeps putting him together with Hannah because "they're in love?" Ben and Addison were supposed to be in love and Ziggy never brought him back to Addison. Besides, I didn't think anything at HQ literally controlled the leaps. That line seemed like it was thrown in to convey that Addision suddenly realized Ben was in love with someone else and how conflicted she felt about it. 

Meanwhile Tom is hiding an engagement ring . . . in a kitchen drawer? Either he purposely meant for Addison to find it or he's really stupid. Or, probably more likely, it's a red herring and just something from one of his missions he forgot to return. Just another thing to show us how torn Addison is between Tom and Ben.

The leap itself was better than last week's travesty in writing but that's an awfully low bar. Hannah is the only thing that made it interesting but the story itself was just another vehicle in service of Ben and Addison's relationship angst.

22 hours ago, Chyromaniac said:

I also think it’s a shoe-in that older Hannah is behind the mysterious stuff this season.

This episode took place in 1960, and Hannah was what - 35 at the youngest? That would make her 99 today, and that's assuming "present day" on the show is the same as ours. It's possible she's still alive but I can't see the show making a 99 year old woman some kind of evil mastermind running some high tech scheme. Then again, given the writing on this show, who knows.

[DoctorAtomic]

I wonder in general how long it takes to find Ben. Addison has time to go home and sleep and make breakfast. 

I like a good Cold War plot; I was predisposed to like this episode. I actually liked that Ben wasn't so good at spycraft, although I still would have taken pictures too. Thanks to Hannah inventing 'Karen' 45 years ahead of time. I don't know why she put on a huge southern accent. 

I'm not as down as Addison as the prevailing opinion, though I get the criticisms, but I could have done without her scene with Magic. I did like her and Ben's conversation in the next scene. Her jumping in closing her eyes later was just funny. 

I've been to plenty of conferences, but none held in Cairo. I mean, I had a really good time in Indianapolis, but, no pyramids. 

I'm not sure why they thought Ben couldn't leap. In the original, the spy never met with Nomad, so she didn't defect. I don't get why because they thought she was dead that he was stuck there. The point of the leap could have just been to get the leak in the embassy. I'm not sure why no one floated that. That would have been an actually interesting dark turn to the leaps. 

 

[Starchild]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

This episode took place in 1960, and Hannah was what - 35 at the youngest? That would make her 99 today, and that's assuming "present day" on the show is the same as ours. It's possible she's still alive but I can't see the show making a 99 year old woman some kind of evil mastermind running some high tech scheme. Then again, given the writing on this show, who knows.

Well, this mysterious boss of Rachel's (inventor of the chip that helped them locate Ben again) has been referred to as "he" at least once. And since Ben and Hannah have now had sex, perhaps he's Ben's son?

 

1 hour ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I'm not sure why they thought Ben couldn't leap. In the original, the spy never met with Nomad, so she didn't defect. I don't get why because they thought she was dead that he was stuck there. The point of the leap could have just been to get the leak in the embassy. I'm not sure why no one floated that. That would have been an actually interesting dark turn to the leaps. 

Apparently Ziggy told them it was the defection with high probability, right? They don't second-guess Ziggy too often.

Edited December 15, 2023 by Starchild

[KaveDweller]

21 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

If I remember correctly (and its been awhile) the original series did a storyline with Sam leaping into the life of the same person over the time frame of her life and at one point falling in love with her and later finding in the following leap he got her pregnant.    

Sam leapt into the father of a little girl, and then his next leap was into the girl's fiance while they were about to have sex. Then Sam was immediately in love with her. Going from father to lover is actually a bit disturbing. 

But Sam fell in love a lot. This version has done a good job of making Ben respectful of the people he leaps into and not starting any romance with people who don't know who he really is.

On 12/13/2023 at 9:08 PM, Brown44 said:

"You've never leaped outside of the country bf" wasn't homeboy in space last season?

He was also in Salem in the 1690s, which is technically not the country since it was before we became America. It was part of England then. But I know that's not what Addison meant.

[Starchild]

19 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

But Sam fell in love a lot. This version has done a good job of making Ben respectful of the people he leaps into and not starting any romance with people who don't know who he really is.

Well, when you know your fiancee is watching you the whole time...

[lavenderblue]

I deeply appreciate that this has played out with Hannah being fully aware of who Ben is. At the same time, the conundrum of how leaping works in this version of the series keeps nagging at me, because I'm like "is he actually inhabiting someone else's body now? Because if so, embarking on a romantic relationship while in other people's bodies is kind of weird, at best." So I've decided to try not to contemplate it too deeply since I don't think the writers have, heh.

This episode felt like whiplash after the mess of last week's not!Salem Witch Trials story, which is another reminder that this show should try to avoid ever leaping prior to roughly the mid-20th century. The mission was interesting enough, and the primary story with Ben and Hannah is introducing a lot of intriguing possibilities, any of which I hope really will be followed through on. Also, this is purely a projection of my own tastes, but I was getting some slight 12 Monkeys (the series) vibes and I was fine with that.

[Oscirus]

This episode is exactly the reason that we shouldn't put so much time into non-leap stuff. This version of Quantum Leap, which reveled in fixing the original's consent issues, now has substantial consent issues since he's kissing, having sex, etc., in someone else's body.  His failing a leap means he takes over that body, is also messed up because the person being leapt into gets killed for something that wasn't their fault.

This love square cannot die fast enough.  I noticed that he didn't tell Hannah that he loved her when she said she loved him, and now Addison is suddenly showing doubt with Tom, so they're probably going to resolve this square incorrectly. If they waste so many years of Hannah's life in an unrequited love square, I'm not sure I'd be interested in the show afterward, even with the obvious sacrifice on her part that'll take place.

The case of the week was fine. I wonder why Ziggy didn't just tell them when she died so there wouldn't be so much confusion. But regardless, it was a fun leap, and Lou was an entertaining guest.

[iMonrey]

11 hours ago, Oscirus said:

I wonder why Ziggy didn't just tell them when she died so there wouldn't be so much confusion.

Do you mean Layla or Hannah? Because it occurs to me they should just be able to Google Hannah and find out what happens to her. That might give them some kind of clue as to why Ben keeps running into her. Their lack of curiosity about that is kind of baffling. 

Quote

I deeply appreciate that this has played out with Hannah being fully aware of who Ben is. At the same time, the conundrum of how leaping works in this version of the series keeps nagging at me, because I'm like "is he actually inhabiting someone else's body now? Because if so, embarking on a romantic relationship while in other people's bodies is kind of weird, at best." So I've decided to try not to contemplate it too deeply since I don't think the writers have, heh.

It also doesn't make a lot of sense why only Ben can see the hologram. Granted, it didn't make a lot of sense in the original version either, but in that incarnation the trick of the Quantum Leap was that it made everyone see Sam as whoever he switched places with, so part of that trick might have been his ability to see Al. But if Ben is literally possessing the body of someone in the past, I see no reason why that body can see the hologram and nobody else can.

Edited December 17, 2023 by iMonrey

[Nialla]

2 hours ago, iMonrey said:

It also doesn't make a lot of sense why only Ben can see the hologram. Granted, it didn't make a lot of sense in the original version either, but in that incarnation the trick of the Quantum Leap was that it made everyone see Sam as whoever he switched places with, so part of that trick might have been his ability to see Al.

IIRC, Sam and Al had some sort of actual connection. Implants, I think, that facilitated them being able to see each other.

Though there were others who could see them too.

[QuantumMechanic]

On 12/14/2023 at 6:42 PM, Trini said:

Nice use of the location; although, disappointing that were still 'yellow-filtering' foreign countries in 2023.

I took that more as "intentionally look like something filmed in 1961"

[TV Anonymous]

What did Ben do on the carriage in Giza? Without a second thought he left the carriage and looked for a way to Cairo. What if his in the carriage led him to the important mission that he needed to complete? it just weird that he made that decision without understanding the big picture first.

Did Ben and Hannah have sex in the hotel? Sam did have a biological child in ToS. Are they following this model? Speaking of out the country, Ben leaped to the battleship and the space shuttle. Granted that they were both U.S. vessels, but he was out of U.S. soil. And Sam leaped to Greece as a Greek in the episode with Brooke Shields.

[meet trouble]

On 12/14/2023 at 7:50 PM, Chaos Theory said:

If the Hannah plot doesn't lead somewhere important then its a waste of a good storyline.     

If I remember correctly (and its been awhile) the original series did a storyline with Sam leaping into the life of the same person over the time frame of her life and at one point falling in love with her and later finding in the following leap he got her pregnant.    

I would find it kinda stupid hilarious if Addison's new boyfriend is Ben's son (I know stupid storyline but it fits with stupid tv logic that appeals to my stupid tv logic brain).

@KaveDweller mentioned two of the episodes you were thinking of. That storyline was the marvelous "Trilogy." Sam was the father in part one, fiance (which, yeah, a little weird) in part two, and finally the attorney. 

On 12/13/2023 at 10:44 PM, AnimeMania said:

Lou Diamond Phillips played Station Chief Barnes, I guess that used a fake name to keep it a surprise.

Always love me some Lou.

[Trini]

On 12/14/2023 at 11:00 PM, Starchild said:

... And since Ben and Hannah have now had sex, perhaps he's Ben's son?

On 12/17/2023 at 2:08 AM, Oscirus said:

... This version of Quantum Leap, which reveled in fixing the original's consent issues, now has substantial consent issues since he's kissing, having sex, etc., in someone else's body.  ...

Okay, I re-watched; and yes, consent issues (kissing), but I don't think they had sex. This show seems to aim to stay 'PG', so they obviously wouldn't show that, but I don't think it was implied either.

 

Quote

This love square cannot die fast enough. 

Is it a "love" square if no one cares about two of the corners? But seriously, don't know how Ben/Hannah is going to work out, but they'd be fools to put him back Addison after Hannah, who has WAY more chemistry with Ben and a more compelling 'time-crossed lovers' arc.

[DoctorAtomic]

I don't think they had sex either, but I thought it was funny that Addison beamed in with her eyes closed.