S02.E12/13: As The World Burns / Against Time

[DoctorAtomic]

If the code is only temporary and Addison bounces home after one or two leaps, then they have more material on how they could bring Ben home. 

 

[RachelKM]

On 2/21/2024 at 5:50 PM, Angeleyes said:

I’m wondering if they changed the storyline midway in case NBC decided to not give them another season? Ben and Addison time traveling together is as close to a happy ending they could give while still allowing for the possibility of a renewal. 
 

They were really going for the Doctor Who references by saying that time is a river and that he (Ben Song) and Hannah would never meet up again in their timelines. The same thing happened with the Doctor and his love River Song. 
 

IIRC, they’ve never specifically said that Hannah is dead in the modern timeline. She’d be in her 90’s, but it’s still theoretically possible for her to show up. 

I noticed the Doctor Who references too.  During the building fire, Hannah also seemed to reference an equivalent to Doctor Who's "fixed points in time" with the moments that can't change.  Also, I could swear I hear the TARDIS sound during the "Butterfly Effect " moment.

[Commando Cody]

The fire episode was so bad. There are no words as to how badly written this episode was. One of the worst episodes of the series. They were all just sitting around on the staircase of a burning building - having a discussion - instead of, I don't know, leaving the building. The stupid kid somehow is able to get back into a burning building to a floor that was above the fire. He just happens to find the letter sticking out of a box. Nobody once bothered to say to him that Ben gave him an extra year with his father. 

Apart from a lot of problems with the plot and direction, the acting wasn't even very good. It was like they weren't even trying.

Nothing surprising in the final. I already knew the kid turned into Gideon.  I assumed things would change because they wouldn't leave Jen or whatever her name is, dead. I never thought she was much of a character. If she had stayed dead, it wouldn't have mattered. We all knew she wouldn't. 

They just couldn't leave the Ben and bland Addison story alone. Now they're leaping through time together? Great. 

 

[yanksno1]

While we got a Sam name drop in the finale ep, do we think we'll ever get a story line tied up there? I'm starting to lose hope with that.

Watched these 2 ep's on different nights not realizing they were finale's (till the end of ep 13. Liked 13 better then 12, but they were both fine for me in the most part. That was def a cliffhanger they left it on heh.

So Ben recognized Addison cause they were tied together right?

[DoctorAtomic]

I thought it was Hannah's code that let them see themselves than the people they leapt into. 

I think if we ever get a Sam appearance, it's just him always been leaping, and maybe pass on a message to Magic that it's ok. 

[Trini]

4 hours ago, yanksno1 said:

So Ben recognized Addison cause they were tied together right?

39 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I thought it was Hannah's code that let them see themselves than the people they leapt into. 

 

Leapers can see each other how they really look (NOT as the person they leapt into); this was established last season with whathisname, the 'evil' leaper.

[DoctorAtomic]

I thought Ben saw the other leaper after he grabbed his arm. That's the way it was on the OG. 

 

[Trini]

12 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I thought Ben saw the other leaper after he grabbed his arm. That's the way it was on the OG.

I don't think grabbing him had anything to do with it. ::shrug::

[KaveDweller]

1 hour ago, Trini said:

I don't think grabbing him had anything to do with it. ::shrug::

Yeah, that was only in the original. In the original even Al saw Sam as the person he leapt into. But here the established that the hologram in the imaging chamber sees Ben as Ben. And that Leaper X and Ben saw each other as they were from the start.

[snarktini]

On 2/20/2024 at 7:22 PM, Linderhill said:

agreed.  It's all devolved into a sulky child's tantrum.

UGH. It's OTT cartoon villain origin story, a single event (that he has wrong anyway) gave him rage to fuel a lifetime of machinations to lead to This Moment. It struck such a sour note. It's like a different show IMO.

On 2/20/2024 at 8:04 PM, KaveDweller said:

I was wondering why they didn't point out to Jeffery that Ben gave him more time with his father. It wasn't like his father lived a long life and Ben accidentally got him killed.

I realize "he was going to die anyway, and earlier" is a lame rebuttal to "you killed my dad" but...yeah. Now, if Ben could have tried to save Josh and didn't, that would have actually made more sense for Gideon's rant! The character development here is just so bad.

On 2/21/2024 at 1:03 PM, StaceyNotStacie said:

Gideon turning out to be Hannah’s son was somewhat predictable after the son being such a big part of the first episode. I was surprised that we didn’t get an older Hannah in real time or some acknowledgment as to whether or not she was still alive in 2024.

I figured that the kid would be important -- and in fact that's who I assumed the leap was for when we met him, not the brothers. Same with the fire, when they said there was more to the leap. Never occurred to me he would be Gideon, mostly because I had tuned out that plot and forgot there was a Gideon.

I have to assume Hannah died young, and didn't live to see this whole fake life of vengeance her son created.

On 2/21/2024 at 7:08 PM, KaveDweller said:

I wonder how much time has passed for Ben. Hannah made a comment about it being a couple weeks of knowing her for him. If so, it could only be a month or two for him that the whole series took place.

On 2/22/2024 at 6:55 PM, DoctorAtomic said:

Upthread, it was mentioned that since the first meeting with Hannah, only something like 9 days passed. It doesn't seem like there's 24 hour staff there. That's a lot going on.

I think she said it had only been 7 days for her? Meaning 7 days of her life spent with him on leaps, over the many years. Hard to say how many months have elapsed in HQ time -- I'd appreciate having more dialogue markers for things like that.

Edited March 24 by snarktini

[Oscirus]

There's a reason you don't do time twists unless you know what you're doing. You create huge paradoxes that can be easily exposed. 

The only reason why Jeffrey was an asshole is because of things that Ben did to change the timeline. Before this, he had no reason to be the way he was because his father's death was a tragedy that had nothing to do with Ben.  It's laziness like this that shows why this show sucks so much. 

With paper-thin characters, these lazy plots and one-dimensional villains have turned me off of this show. Also, why does this show feel the need to keep Ben and Addison together when they have little to no chemistry?