This Quantum Leap review contains spoilers.
Quantum Leap Episode 17
Dr. Ben Song (Raymond Lee) lands this week on an international luxury airliner and in the body of a rookie stewardess neatly coiffed and tucked under a pill-box hat. Ben’s service-with-a-smile includes offering potent drinks, slicing rare beef and figuring out how to save all the passengers from the crash that takes all their lives in the past. The cause of the plane crash was unknown, so it’s up to Ben to figure out why the plane went down and how to prevent that from happening (again).
This episode jives with some of the best that Quantum Leap offered this season with its twists and turns, whodunits and MacGyver strategies, such as “O Ye of Little Faith,” “Fellow Travelers,” “Leap, Die, Repeat” and “S.O.S.” In fact, Ben is nothing if not an unconventional problem solver, and we see that this week when he manages to neutralize two armed hijackers, puts the copilot and his girlfriend-accomplice to sleep in order to access the cockpit and stabs someone in the neck. Ben deserved that opportunity after receiving such a stab himself in the last episode, “Ben, Interrupted.”
Ben’s ability to get out of the worst jams is remarkable, but so is his ability to relate to the folks in his leaps, encourage them and ultimately convince others to do what’s right, even when that’s the hardest thing to do. I will forever stand corrected in my observation after the Quantum Leap pilot that Ben Song is not charismatic. Perhaps it was difficult to like a guy who abandons his fiancé, Addison Augustine (Caitlin Bassett), whose love language may very well be this simple—information.
