The original “Evil Leaper,” Alia (Renée Coleman), leaped in red light splashes, rather than blue like Sam, and her missions focused on doing harm. When her missions failed, she was tortured by an evil entity, heavily hinted at as being the Devil himself. But Sam and Alia share one hope: that the next leap will be their leap home. They both relied on a hologram support person and used a computer to predict outcomes of their interventions in history. Sam and Al had Ziggy, and Alia and her evil hologram counterpart, Zoey (Carolyn Seymour), depended on an artificial intelligence called Lothos. 

Lothos may be Ziggy-adjacent in function, but the evil computer operating system controlled the red leaps. In the original series, Lothos was more advanced than Ziggy because Lothos could launch a leaper intentionally to a specific time and place. Sam subconsciously (with God’s help) controlled his leaps to places where good was needed but not to a pinpoint on the map of time and location.  

The Quantum Leap revival points to Ziggy’s technological advancements as it is now well-known that Ben is leaping along a defined trajectory, which he manipulates by employing a gravitational slingshot maneuver allowing him to leap back farther into time and outside of this own lifespan while following a mapped-out plan of historic points, people, and places. Dr. Ian Wright (Mason Alexander Park) discovered this and described it in episode three, “Somebody Up There Likes Ben.”  

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The mystery leaper at the end of episode five confirms that Ben is leaping by the power of computer coding, and not just by his subconscious, when he accuses Ben of chasing him through spacetime. It’s not clear yet that this other Quantum Leap project is evil, but the few words spoken by the new leaper certainly place Ben on an opposing team. 

No fan of the original Quantum Leap is likely to forget that Sam was able to convert the evil leaper, Alia, to the good. The last time we saw Alia leap, she went out in a blaze of blue glory, like Sam always does. The visual of her leap was no longer marked by the evil, red light of Lothos. 

A big question arises when the audience meets this other leaper at the end of “Salvation or Bust.” How did he find Ben? Sam’s efforts to protect Alia from her evil hologram, Zoey, provide a possible answer. Sam hypnotized Alia, causing her to forget who she was entirely, this shielded her brainwaves from Lothos’ and Zoey’s detection, and they couldn’t find Alia to force her back to the dark side as a result of this amnesia-induced, brainwave-shield.