"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Quantum Leap (2022) 1.2-1.3: Overarching Developments


Even with the original series, I usually was more interested in the overarching story than the individual narratives recounting Sam's historical saves.   The new Quantum Leap, now three episodes in, is shaping up the same way.  In fact, though the astronaut and boxer stories in 1.2 and 1.3 were quite good, the central narrative, the connective tissue, has gotten a lot more interesting in at least two ways:

1.  Ben is going further into the past, earlier than when he was born, by bouncing off the times he visits and using that boomerang energy.  He and we still don't know what his ultimate goal is.  

2. In fact, we learn in 1.3 that Al's daughter Janis may have set all of this -- Quantum Leap (2022) -- into motion.   That moves the ultimate goal we need to know from Ben's to Janis's.  

Let's look at this a little closer.  We still don't know if Ben and Janis are collaborating on this, if Janis is using Ben, or if someone else we may or may not have met yet (likely not) is using both of them.  And, for what end?  The likely answer is somehow tied to Sam's disappearance, which makes me think even more that we'll be seeing Sam again before this new incarnation is concluded, which I certainly hope takes a lot longer than just this season.

Addison has already become the most important character in Ben's journey, whatever exactly that is.  Episode 1.3 addressed the important issue of her getting physically exhausted back in the present as her hologram supports Ben in his various pasts and seeks to save him from the errors he inevitably makes.  I wouldn't be surprised if the team in the present considers the pros and cons of her actually physically accompanying Ben on his trips.  The pros of the hologram are she can't be hurt in the past, and can't be seen.  But the big pro of her actually being there with Ben is that she'd be there regardless of how much her holographic connection to the present wavers.  Of course, it's not clear if and when it will be possible to send Addison back to the past, let alone in a way that allows her to accompany Ben.

Meanwhile, we also learn at the end of 1.3 that Janis may be planning on joining Ben -- why else would she take her father's equipment?  This again raises  the question of to what extent Ben and Janis were working together before his jaunts to past began.

Lots of possibilities already in motion in the new Quantum Leap, and I'm looking forward to seeing where they lead.

See also Quantum Leap (2022) 1.1: Off to a Good Start




 



No comments:

InfiniteRegress.tv