Quantum Leap (2022–…): Season 1, Episode 11 - Leap. Die. Repeat. - full transcript
- Quantum Leap was
an experimental
time travel program years
away from being tested.
Why did you leap?
- I don't remember anything.
- Your name is Dr. Ben Song.
You're a time traveler
from the year 2022.
I'm Addison Augustine.
- Addison. You're
the woman I love.
- Ben's working with someone.
- Al Calavicci's
daughter, Janis.
- What is that?
- That's a destination.
I think that Ben was trying
to leap into the future
to a specific place, a
specific point in time.
- That shouldn't be possible.
- I remember why I leapt
in the first place.
It's to save you.
- Janis is our best chance at
understanding what's going on.
It's time to roll the dice.
- You want to help Ben?
You will tell him to
trust no one, even you.
- Running a little
behind schedule.
- Yeah, everything looks
good. Startup will be quick.
- Ever seen one before, Colonel?
- Seen what?
- It's far out.
- Like something out of
a science fiction book.
- What are you doing here?
- Sorry.
- Anyway...
just wait until you see what
this nuclear reactor can do.
You are now in our state
of the art control room.
- Dr. Woolsey, your work in
sustainable nuclear energy
won the Nobel Prize.
What does today's
demonstration mean to you?
- Well, today isn't
about me, Melanie.
- Mallory.
- It's about...
- An experimental
nuclear reactor.
- And what it can do for you,
for humanity, for the future.
Our reactor will power
an entire city with...
- Recycled nuclear fuel.
Sounds complicated.
- Now, don't be intimidated by
all the buttons and doodads.
Starting up our reactor
is as easy as turning
on your television.
- It is that man in
his quest for knowledge
and progress is determined
and cannot be deterred.
- Well, it looks like
you finally leaped
into your element.
- No kidding.
Bunch of nerds gathered
together for the common good?
Kind of reminds me of...
- Us?
- Yeah, like when we
first joined Quantum Leap.
- Well, time travel
still won't be invented
for another 30 years.
It's September 12th, 1962,
the day JFK gave
that famous speech
about going to the moon and
the future of technology.
Back in the '60s,
they were very optimistic
about the future.
- Mm.
- And you know, nuclear energy
was the hottest thing in town.
- No pun intended.
- Mm.
Wow.
- Like nuclear science
and all technology,
has no conscience of its own.
Whether it will become
a force for good or ill
depends on man.
- So does this
reactor do big things
for sustainable energy?
Hmm.
No, they shut it down.
- When?
- Today.
It looks like Dr. Woolsey
does the demonstration
of the nuclear reactor,
but it doesn't work
and the government
pulled the funding
for the program.
- That sucks.
- Yeah, I'm not
finding a lot online.
I'm gonna need
Jenn for this. Oh.
- How do uranium
atoms say goodbye?
- Sorry, what?
Gotta split.
G-gotta split?
You know, because uranium atoms,
they split inside
a nuclear reactor.
I'm... I'm sorry. It's stupid.
I'm just... I'm a little
nervous about the demonstration,
and I...
That... gotta split
instead of goodbye.
- Right.
- Right, right. That's good.
I'll tell my fiancée that
when I see her at home.
Gotta split. Gotta split.
It's good.
- Sorry, nothing about
an experimental nuclear
reactor near Fort Worth.
Oh.
Dr. Edwin Woolsey,
Nobel prize-winning
nuclear scientist.
- Yes, he was in
the room with Ben.
- Oh, looks like he dies
today. Heart attack.
- Maybe that's who
Ben's here to save.
- Ladies and gentlemen, what an
extraordinary time to be alive.
Today we take a step
toward the future.
This decade we'll
go to the moon.
By the year 2000,
we'll have flying cars.
- Well...
- Initiate hydrogen flow.
- Initiating hydrogen flow.
Flow rate at seven, eight...
9.5 kilograms per second.
- We don't have all day.
- Yeah, uh...
- Here you go.
- Thanks.
- Extract the control rod.
- Extracting control rods.
- Colonel, you don't
want to miss this.
- Sorry.
- Okay, brilliant
physicist dies.
That has to be the
reason for the leap.
Thank you, Jenn.
- Wait.
Mallory Yang, journalist,
also dies this week.
Her sister gave the
eulogy at her funeral.
Car accident.
- That's a weird coincidence.
What about the others
in the room with Ben?
- Colonel Parker dies
a few days later too.
Says cause of death is
accidental weapons discharge.
Eugene H. Wagner.
- Let me guess. He dies too.
- From an overdose, according
to his death certificate.
- Okay, and the janitor?
- Moe Murphy,
electrical accident.
- Five unrelated deaths.
Okay, that can't
be a coincidence.
That sounds like...
- A government cover-up.
- And start-up in ten, nine...
eight...
Seven, six...
- Get me back online.
Get me back online!
Four,
three, two, one.
- Hey, is... is that
supposed to be happening?
- Why is the coolant draining?
- Yeah, that's definitely
not supposed to be happening.
- Ben, run!
- Why is Ben flatlining?
Somebody explain
what's happening.
- He's...
Dead.
- No!
I promised to bring him home.
He's alive.
- That's... that's not possible.
- Running a little
behind schedule.
Eugene, are you feeling okay?
- Yeah, sure.
- Ever seen one before, Colonel?
- Only in pictures. How
long is this gonna take?
I promised my kid I'd make
it to her ballet recital.
- Trust me, Colonel, it
will be worth the wait.
- What in "Groundhog
Day" is this?
- How is this possible?
- When can I go back in?
- Just give me a second.
I still have to
recalibrate the...
- I thought if he died
in someone else's body,
Ben died too.
- He did die.
- But, like, for real.
- Okay, okay, okay, all right.
Everybody, shh, shh, shh, shh.
Obviously, we are
dealing with a time loop.
- Obviously?
- Now, in time travel,
a time loop is highly,
highly improbable.
It's like being
struck by lightning,
except the funny thing is
once you're struck by lightning,
you're more likely to get
struck by lightning again.
Now, I think this is basically
what's happening to Ben
in the time loop when he dies
over and over and over...
- Ian.
I have to see him.
Thank you.
- Groovy.
- Like something out of
a science fiction book.
- What are you doing here?
- Sorry.
- Just wait until you see what
this nuclear reactor can do.
- Ben!
- I... I thought...
we thought you...
- I died.
- Yeah.
- Did I?
- Uh, uh, we think
you're in a time loop.
- That's highly,
highly improbable.
Like...
- Yeah, I know.
The whole lightning thing.
Ian's working on it.
- Okay.
Hold on, if I'm in a time loop,
things are gonna
repeat themselves.
- Yes.
- That means that
nuclear reactor...
- It's gonna explode any minute.
You have to stop it, or
you're gonna die again.
- Okay.
- So he's stuck in this
leap, doomed to repeat it
over and over again
until he figures out
what he's there
to do and fix it.
- Theoretically.
- What about practically?
- Sorry, but what
we're doing here,
it's kind of cutting edge.
I mean, there's not exactly
a lot of research
on time travel.
Well, except for the...
- Except?
- A couple of years ago,
there was this one PhD student
who did publish a
paper on time loops.
- Okay, let's get them in here.
- She's kind of already here.
- No.
No, I can't help you.
- Then Ben will be
stuck in this time loop
potentially forever.
You clearly know more about
what Ben is doing and why.
If this time loop
is part of the plan,
you got nothing
to worry about...
But if it's not...
your plan falls apart.
- Fine.
But only until I get
Ben out of the loop.
Then you're on your own.
Come on, time's ticking.
- Today isn't
about me, Meredith.
- Mallory.
- It's about our
experimental nuclear reactor
and what it can do
for you, for humanity.
- Stop! Everybody
run for your lives!
It's gonna explode!
- Eugene, calm down.
We have alarms in
place for this reason.
Everything looks normal.
- Something's about to
trigger a nuclear accident.
- That is highly,
highly improbable.
Colonel, you can't
smoke in here.
- Okay, what it could it be?
- It could be anything, the
acidity, the flow rates,
I'll have to check
all the numbers.
A bunch of these
pages are missing.
I'll have to redo
the math myself.
I forgot! The ink!
Does anybody have a working pen?
- Mr. Wagner, would you say
that the conditions
here are unsafe?
- No, no, he wouldn't say that.
Wouldn't want to give
America the wrong impression
of our facility, would we?
Eugene, this is just nerves.
- I'm gonna have to drain the
coolant and check the reactor.
- Good idea.
- We don't have the time.
- Uh, we have time to see
Kennedy's speech, right?
- What?
- Come on, his famous speech.
The moon, the future.
You love that stuff.
He paid for this whole facility.
I think the least we
could do is honor him
by listening to
his speech, right?
- Exploration of
space will go ahead.
- All right, you have
until President Kennedy
finishes his speech.
- Thank you.
Do you know where the
hazmat suits are again?
- Shh!
- It's cool, I'll find them.
- And no nation...
- This decade, the moon.
By 2000, flying cars.
You can quote me
on that, Marjory.
- Hey.
- I pulled everything
I could on time loops,
and Ian was right.
Aside from some vague
scientific theories
and questionable "Groundhog
Day" fan fiction,
there's not a whole
lot that can help Ben.
- It's a good thing
we happen to have
the foremost expert on
time loops in the building.
- Is it a good thing?
- Here it comes.
- I'm just saying it's
kind of weird, right?
Janis is a step ahead
of us every single time,
and then when we
finally catch her,
Ben gets stuck in a time loop?
What if this is a
part of her plan?
- You think she intentionally
trapped Ben in a time loop?
Why?
- I don't know.
Gain access to our headquarters,
plant a virus, steal
government secrets.
- She's already done all that.
What's the most
important thing here?
- Ben.
- I know you want to think of
Janis as some supervillain,
but the reality is
she is the only one who
can save Ben right now.
- And what if you're wrong?
- Then the fallout is on me.
- Okay, let's find the
problem and get you out.
- Radiation levels
seem standard.
Okay, we're looking
for anything unsafe,
something that could
trigger an accident.
- Could that bomb
trigger an accident?
There's a receiver on it.
It means someone in the
building triggered it.
- The classified report doesn't
say anything about sabotage.
The government just
assumed it was an accident,
called the reactor unsafe, and
quietly cancelled the project.
- And the person
got away with it.
Why would anyone want to cancel
a harmless energy
recycling project?
- Okay, uh, why don't
we disarm the bomb first
and ask poignant
questions later, yeah?
It's welded to the pipe.
Do I cut the red wire
or the blue wire?
- There are no wires.
Ben, run!
- That's it?
- We did it?
We stopped the reactor
from exploding!
Why am I the only one
celebrating right now?
- That's hydrogen gas.
- Wait, hydrogen is bad.
- If it mixes with oxygen.
- As in...
air?
- Hey, you all saw that, right?
The explosion wasn't
an acci... dent.
What is she doing here?
- Janis is here to help us.
- Help us?
- She has been sabotaging
us every step of the way.
- You mean saving you.
- Friendly reminder,
Ben's stuck in a time loop
exploding every 30 minutes.
- Yeah.
- Fine. Okay, what do we got?
- What we've got is
a nuclear explosion
interacting with
a time traveler.
It's like a once in a
trillion lifetimes phenomenon.
Two volatile forces colliding.
- Oh.
It's kind of like you two.
- Basically, the explosion is
resetting Ben's leap to
the original entry point.
- The elevator.
- Yeah.
- So why did the
quantum accelerator
choose the elevator
as the entry point?
- Because Ziggy said that
someone in the elevator
planted the explosive.
- About time.
Where was Ziggy
two explosions ago?
- Gathering data.
Ziggy isn't all-knowing.
It's a fallible AI that
selflessly calculates
probability outcomes
based on what Ben sees.
Ben just saw the bomb, so
now Ziggy can calculate
a probable location
for the trigger.
- Which is?
- The control room.
The explosion was triggered
in there both times.
The trigger could be anything.
- And the only people
in the control room
were the people in the elevator.
We figure out which one
did it, and Ben leaves.
- Boom.
- Really?
- Pun intended.
- Doesn't get any
easier, does it?
- Still getting used to it.
Still getting used
to my ears popping.
It's a long elevator ride.
- How long is this gonna take?
I promised my kid I'd make
it to her ballet recital.
- Trust me, Colonel, it
will be worth the wait.
- All right, Ziggy says someone
in this elevator did it.
20% chance it's any one of them.
- They have no idea how
things are gonna end for them.
What kind of person would
do something so horrible?
- It's not gonna
end for them today.
We're gonna figure this out.
- I can't just warn them, can I?
- You saw how that worked.
For all we know, warning them
could set the bomb off faster.
- And we can't disarm it?
- Nope.
You're gonna have to
blend in and investigate,
which is what journalists do.
Good news is you are
stuck in a time loop.
- Sorry, that's
good news because?
- Because you literally have
all the time in the world
to figure this out.
- Our employees are the best
and brightest in America,
and our facility is the safest.
- Would anybody want to
see this project fail?
- Sure, there's always
healthy competition.
We really should get back
to the demonstration.
- Ben, you gotta
keep him talking.
- Dr. Woolsey, off the record,
do you have any enemies?
- Enemies?
- Goodness no, Millicent.
Mallory.
I never had children of my own.
This project is
my pride and joy.
Rest assured, there is no
safer facility in America
than the one you're
standing in right now.
- Hmm.
- Recycled nuclear fuel.
That sounds complicated.
- So you're not passionate
about sustainable energy?
- Ma'am, I'm here to do a job,
and I take that
job very seriously.
I keep this place safe
from... Well, you know.
- Who?
- Commies.
- I've been here
since the beginning.
Known Dr. Woolsey for years.
Uh, that's us right
there, actually.
- That's you?
- Yeah.
- Yeah, I was a bit of
a geek in high school.
My mom took me to
this convention
on sustainable energy.
Dr. Woolsey was
getting an award.
He gets
a lot of awards.
Told my mom I would
work for him one day,
make the world a better
place and, uh, here I am.
- I like working here.
My fiancée buys me a lot of
those science fiction books.
"Solaris," "Stranger
in a Strange Land."
- Oh, classics.
Is what they'll be
someday, I'm sure.
- Anyway, I liked watching
them build the reactor.
It was real neat.
Like suddenly, I'm in one
of those stories.
Uh, we good here?
If I don't clean
up that soda spill,
somebody could get hurt.
- Oh, yeah, yeah, we're good.
It doesn't add up.
They all really seem to
believe in this thing.
They're like...
- Us five years ago?
Or 60 years from now?
Yeah. Except
one of them is lying.
- I mean, it could
be the journalist.
- But then why go
through the trouble
of bringing a tape recorder
if nobody was ever meant
to hear what's on it?
This sucker's heavy.
- Testing, testing, testing.
- Oops.
- One, two, three, testing.
- She must have
recorded something
before she got in the elevator.
Oh, go ahead.
If you can hear
it, I can hear it.
- Okay, I'm approaching
the facility
and meeting
Dr. Woolsey for a tour.
- Hello, there. You must be...
- Dr. Woolsey, hi.
I'm Mallory Yang.
- Yes, yes.
We're all very excited
to introduce America
to our little reactor.
Oh, excuse me, dear.
I'm going to have a quick
word with the colonel.
Sure thing.
Okay, he's gone. God,
he's so transparent.
This place is such a front,
and I'll have the evidence
to expose Mr. Nobel Prize
by the end of the day.
- Okay, a front for what?
- I don't know.
But it sounds like
Dr. Woolsey's hiding something.
I'll have to talk to
him again before...
Never mind.
- Ah, there you are.
Sorry, I just, uh...
Just
needed a second.
Your fiancé died today.
It's okay to take
more than a second.
- I know that I
should feel relieved
that Ben didn't actually die...
so why does it feel like he did?
- Well, ever since...
he leaped, you can't touch him,
you can't be in the
same space with him.
It's almost like
living with a...
- A ghost.
Ever since the engagement party,
ever since Ben leaped,
it feels like a part of him...
It feels like my Ben died.
And I have been mourning that...
every day since, but...
I didn't feel it until today.
Grief...
Doesn't keep a schedule.
It just shows up
when it wants to,
and when it does show up...
like it did for you today...
let yourself feel it.
But when it starts
to consume you...
you keep holding
on to the thought
that he's going to
come home one day.
Okay?
- Like you hold on to Sam?
- I really want to believe
there's something great
waiting for us on
the other side.
I guess I'm not ready
to let him go into that
white light just yet.
- Me neither.
- Of course, you leap
into the one person
we need to talk to.
Bad luck.
Well, there's always
the next leap.
- It's neat.
- Like something out of...
- Out of a science
fiction book, yep.
Mallory, can I talk
to you for a second?
- Sure.
It's a great facility. It's
cutting edge, it has...
- What do you know
about this place?
- What do you mean?
- I know you know it's a front.
- Are you trying
to intimidate me?
- No, no, I...
- Did they tap my phonelines,
bribe my editor, what?
- Who?
- The government.
Stop playing dumb,
and don't you dare
come after my sister.
She's just my transcriber.
She doesn't know
anything about this.
- No, I'm on your
side. I think.
- Save it. I'm not like you.
They can't buy me. How
do you sleep at night?
- Okay, well, next time
you leap into Dr. Woolsey,
maybe a gentler approach
with the journalist.
Hey, you okay?
- I just leaped into
the most powerful person
in this place, and
there's nothing I can do.
I can't warn anyone without
triggering the bomb.
It sounds bad, doesn't it?
- What?
- Whatever's got
Mallory so upset,
whatever' Dr. Woolsey's hiding.
- Do you think Mallory
planted the bomb?
- Well, whoever did must believe
it's better than
the alternative.
- What could be worse than
killing all these people
and dying for it?
- I don't know, I don't know.
But I'm gonna find out.
- Here, brought you some
coffee 'cause at this rate,
it looks like we're
gonna be here all night.
Don't worry, I didn't poison it.
- Look, I know you think
that we're the bad guys here,
but I promise you, we're not.
- It's not personal. I just
know I can't trust you.
- No offense, but
do you trust anyone?
I mean, you literally poisoned
your own mother's tea.
- I didn't poison her,
okay? It was a sedative.
Okay.
- She deserved it.
After undermining
the only dream I had
since I was a little girl.
- What, to work here?
To follow in your
dad's footsteps?
- Yeah.
Guess this is what it
would've been like.
- You know, you and Addison are
more similar than you think.
Stubborn, loyal, sensitive.
- Not that either one of
you would ever admit it.
But maybe she's
wrong about you...
the way that you're
wrong about us.
Um, well, it looks like Ziggy
has narrowed down our suspects
to the physicist
and the janitor.
- Why?
- I don't know.
Maybe it's because Ben's leaped
into every other
person in the elevator.
It's not like that Ben could
trigger the bomb himself.
I don't know.
You're the expert.
- Show me the data.
- I assumed we were dealing
with a closed timeline curve,
but this code suggests
that Ziggy doesn't think
Ben can leap into
the same body twice.
- But that would mean that...
- This isn't a time loop.
It's a finite series of leaps.
It ends when Ben runs out
of bodies in the elevator.
- What?
I'm so sorry,
Ben. We thought...
- It's okay. It's
not your fault.
So after this, I
have one leap left.
- Yeah.
- And after that?
- You die... for real.
- Okay.
Then let's make
the next one count.
- Sorry, what's
happening right now?
- Nothing.
- You'll forget in a second.
- We'll try disarming
the bomb again.
- Ben, we can't.
- We have to try!
- Ugh.
- It's locked.
- Hey!
You can't go in there.
- Ugh.
Nobody stopped us last time
because you were the engineer.
Damn it!
You keep leaping into the
wrong body at the wrong time!
- Please, you have to let me in.
- No can do, buddy.
You don't have the clearance
for the stuff behind that door.
Why don't you stick
to mopping floors
and cleaning offices?
- I have keys to
all the offices.
- I hope so.
- I might be in the
right body after all.
Thank you.
- Wait!
- Control, we have a
potential situation.
- Then handle it. We
don't have all day.
Dr. Woolsey!
Oh!
Oof.
- I got you.
- My mistake was thinking
I was in "Groundhog Day"
when I was really in
"Rashomon" all along.
- Yeah, I've never seen it.
But it is amazing
that you can remember all of
these plots to these movies
but not that you loved
me for four leaps.
- Sorry about that.
Point is each leap has given me
a different perspective
on the same event.
Now I just have to
figure out what's special
about the janitor's
point of view.
Anything?
- Uh, longest day, October 4th.
Could be a clue?
- Nah, it's just a movie.
Dr. Woolsey must be
planning on seeing it.
World War II. They
land at Normandy.
You haven't seen it?
Anyway, the good guys win.
- Ben, someone's coming.
- Okay, that was lucky.
- Yeah, it was.
- What'd you find?
- This is what
Dr. Woolsey's been hiding.
Generating sustainable
energy is a front
for what that nuclear reactor
is really going to do:
make nuclear weapons.
Killing thousands of people.
When you put it that way,
blowing up the reactor
sounds like a better
alternative, doesn't it?
- Nobody's blowing
up anything today.
- Talk to me.
- Well, uh, Dr. Woolsey
slipping on that soda
bought Ben five,
maybe ten minutes.
- What can we do?
- Nothing.
I mean, he's
running out of time.
I can't believe that
I'm gonna say this,
but I wish that Ben were
stuck in a time loop.
- We could pull the plug.
- What?
- Turn off the
quantum accelerator.
- But... no, no, we don't
know what that could do.
I mean, it could
kill him instantly.
Or we could lose him
forever, just like with Sam.
- If we let him finish
the leap and he fails,
then he will die, and
then we'll definitely
lose him forever.
- Let him finish the leap.
- Since when did she get a vote?
- We can't risk throwing
him off the trajectory
of where he's ultimately going.
- Which is God
knows where or when
because she won't tell us!
- Magic.
You need to trust me.
- We let him finish a leap.
- Who do you work for?
- I'm not a spy.
- Are you the one that's
been sending the letters?
- What letters?
Oh, that.
- Um, you've seen them before?
- Sort of. I didn't send that.
Or I don't think I did.
Can I see what's inside?
- I started getting these
anonymous letters at my house.
They all say the same thing.
- "Kill the
project, or I will."
I know who sent this.
- At least it's not that
messy in here, unfort...
- Are you sure you're okay?
- I'm fine, Valerie.
But we are definitely
behind schedule now.
Eugene, initiate
the hydrogen flow.
- Okay.
- Um... bah, bah, bah.
- Okay, initiating
hydrogen flow.
Ah, uh...
wait, where's my...
- Looking for this?
- What's going on?
- Noticed earlier you
were missing some pages.
I, uh, think I found one.
- You're smarter than you look.
- You're smarter than you look.
- Eugene, what's going on?
- And you're dumber
than you look.
- What?
- I know about the deal
you made with the military.
I found the memo.
I came here to work
with sustainable energy,
to make the world
a better place.
When were you gonna tell me
we're making weapons
of mass destruction?
- I knew it.
- Colonel.
- Don't look to me.
It's above my clearance.
- Eugene, they were going to
take the project away from me
and give it to someone else.
My reactor, my baby...
to someone else.
I had to do it.
- Then you'll understand why I
have to do what I have to do.
- Don't let him
touch any buttons!
- You know about the
explosive device.
- The what?
- You're not going
anywhere, Mallory.
- You chose today,
demonstration day,
because you knew it would get
the government's attention.
- The reactor will explode.
They'll call it an
accident, a design flaw,
and then they'll cover it up
and leave this technology alone.
- Unfortunately, the limited
range of your transmitter means
you had to be inside the
building when it happened.
- My life doesn't matter
in the grand scheme.
Think of all the
lives I'm saving
by keeping this place from
making nuclear weapons!
I wouldn't shoot, Colonel!
- I'll have to do
the math myself.
- The pen is the trigger.
- Ziggy didn't expect Eugene
because the bomb went off
when you were in his body.
- I was the villain and
didn't even know it.
- What?
- We all think we're
the hero of our story,
even when we're the villain.
Eugene, you're right.
- What?
- The government will
call it an accident
and cover the whole thing up,
but here's where you're wrong.
We won't leave this
technology alone.
There will be 100 other
experimental nuclear reactors
that'll replace this one.
Eventually, we'll
develop time travel,
maybe even flying cars,
but what you do today
won't change anything
except for the lives of
the people in this room.
The colonel's daughter has
a ballet recital today.
She's gonna grow
up without her dad.
Mallory has a sister
who won't be able
to get through the
eulogy at her funeral.
Dr. Woolsey is looking
forward to going to the movies
in a couple of weeks.
I have a fiancée who's
waiting for me to come home.
You want to save lives,
start with the
people in this room.
You see, in the grand
scheme of things, Eugene,
your life matters, what
you do with it matters,
and you won't get another chance
to do the right thing.
- Please.
Ah!
- Mallory, I'm so sorry.
This whole thing is my fault.
- Great technology always
falls in the wrong hands.
One day, it'll be
the end of us all.
- Going up?
You know what? I
will miss this song.
You will be happy to know
that Janitor Moe writes his
very own science fiction story
based on today's events.
Mallory published an exposé
that blows the
government's cover
and forces this place to become
what it was always meant to be,
a power plant for
sustainable energy,
and it...
Why am I the only one
celebrating again?
- That thing Eugene said
about great technology
falling into the wrong hands.
Don't you worry about...
- Us?
Quantum Leap saves lives, Ben.
We're doing the right thing.
- Yeah, Eugene was pretty sure
he was doing the
right thing too.
I'm just saying,
if someone from the future
leaped into 2023 to judge us,
I hope we turn out to be
the heroes of our story.
Oh, my God, I almost forgot.
Um, how do uranium
atoms say goodbye?
- Uh...
Tell me on the next one.
- Ah, talk about
the longest day.
- Yeah, we logged a
space-time anomaly
and introduced Ziggy
to Janis' research,
so what happened today
won't happen again probably.
- Good.
I'm glad Janis proved not to be
the villain you thought she was.
- Yeah.
- Ah, here it comes.
- Why did you side with her?
- What are you talking about?
Letting Ben finish the leap
is what saved his life.
- It could've killed him.
- But it didn't.
- But it could have.
I told you the fallout of
my choices, it's on me.
- Except it's not.
The choices you make
affect all of us.
If Ben dies, the
fallout is on all of us.
To Janis, Ben is just
a piece of some plan
that we don't understand,
but Ben is my friend, Magic.
The...
That's my family.
Jan just doesn't
get a vote in that.
- He's all of our family.
Every day that Ben is gone,
the choices I have to make
get harder and harder.
Trusting Janis today could
have been the wrong choice,
and I'd have to live with that.
- But that's what I'm...
I would've had to
live with that too.
I'm doing
my best, Jenn.
You want to know why I
sided with Janis today?
'Cause it's something I
should've done years ago.
When her mother asked me
not to let Janis be a part
of the Quantum Leap project,
I should've sided with Janis.
I should've said, "Sorry,
but this is her birthright.
She deserves to be here."
Instead, I...
- You think you made
the wrong choice.
- Yeah.
And now I...
We are dealing with the fallout.
- I'm trying to picture it.
- What?
- What it would be like
if Janis was one of
us this whole time.
Wonder if we would've
been friends,
or if Ben would've still
gone to her before he leaped,
or if she would've
helped us bring him home.
- I guess we'll never know.
It's too bad we don't get to
go back and try again, huh?
- Hey.
Don't you have a
prison cell to go to?
- Look, I know I said I
shouldn't trust you...
- Ditto, so have a great night.
- However, when it
mattered the most,
your team gave me the
benefit of the doubt,
so I'm gonna give you a name.
- A name?
- The name of the person
who told Ben to leap
in the first place.
- What?
- Don't make me regret it.
an experimental
time travel program years
away from being tested.
Why did you leap?
- I don't remember anything.
- Your name is Dr. Ben Song.
You're a time traveler
from the year 2022.
I'm Addison Augustine.
- Addison. You're
the woman I love.
- Ben's working with someone.
- Al Calavicci's
daughter, Janis.
- What is that?
- That's a destination.
I think that Ben was trying
to leap into the future
to a specific place, a
specific point in time.
- That shouldn't be possible.
- I remember why I leapt
in the first place.
It's to save you.
- Janis is our best chance at
understanding what's going on.
It's time to roll the dice.
- You want to help Ben?
You will tell him to
trust no one, even you.
- Running a little
behind schedule.
- Yeah, everything looks
good. Startup will be quick.
- Ever seen one before, Colonel?
- Seen what?
- It's far out.
- Like something out of
a science fiction book.
- What are you doing here?
- Sorry.
- Anyway...
just wait until you see what
this nuclear reactor can do.
You are now in our state
of the art control room.
- Dr. Woolsey, your work in
sustainable nuclear energy
won the Nobel Prize.
What does today's
demonstration mean to you?
- Well, today isn't
about me, Melanie.
- Mallory.
- It's about...
- An experimental
nuclear reactor.
- And what it can do for you,
for humanity, for the future.
Our reactor will power
an entire city with...
- Recycled nuclear fuel.
Sounds complicated.
- Now, don't be intimidated by
all the buttons and doodads.
Starting up our reactor
is as easy as turning
on your television.
- It is that man in
his quest for knowledge
and progress is determined
and cannot be deterred.
- Well, it looks like
you finally leaped
into your element.
- No kidding.
Bunch of nerds gathered
together for the common good?
Kind of reminds me of...
- Us?
- Yeah, like when we
first joined Quantum Leap.
- Well, time travel
still won't be invented
for another 30 years.
It's September 12th, 1962,
the day JFK gave
that famous speech
about going to the moon and
the future of technology.
Back in the '60s,
they were very optimistic
about the future.
- Mm.
- And you know, nuclear energy
was the hottest thing in town.
- No pun intended.
- Mm.
Wow.
- Like nuclear science
and all technology,
has no conscience of its own.
Whether it will become
a force for good or ill
depends on man.
- So does this
reactor do big things
for sustainable energy?
Hmm.
No, they shut it down.
- When?
- Today.
It looks like Dr. Woolsey
does the demonstration
of the nuclear reactor,
but it doesn't work
and the government
pulled the funding
for the program.
- That sucks.
- Yeah, I'm not
finding a lot online.
I'm gonna need
Jenn for this. Oh.
- How do uranium
atoms say goodbye?
- Sorry, what?
Gotta split.
G-gotta split?
You know, because uranium atoms,
they split inside
a nuclear reactor.
I'm... I'm sorry. It's stupid.
I'm just... I'm a little
nervous about the demonstration,
and I...
That... gotta split
instead of goodbye.
- Right.
- Right, right. That's good.
I'll tell my fiancée that
when I see her at home.
Gotta split. Gotta split.
It's good.
- Sorry, nothing about
an experimental nuclear
reactor near Fort Worth.
Oh.
Dr. Edwin Woolsey,
Nobel prize-winning
nuclear scientist.
- Yes, he was in
the room with Ben.
- Oh, looks like he dies
today. Heart attack.
- Maybe that's who
Ben's here to save.
- Ladies and gentlemen, what an
extraordinary time to be alive.
Today we take a step
toward the future.
This decade we'll
go to the moon.
By the year 2000,
we'll have flying cars.
- Well...
- Initiate hydrogen flow.
- Initiating hydrogen flow.
Flow rate at seven, eight...
9.5 kilograms per second.
- We don't have all day.
- Yeah, uh...
- Here you go.
- Thanks.
- Extract the control rod.
- Extracting control rods.
- Colonel, you don't
want to miss this.
- Sorry.
- Okay, brilliant
physicist dies.
That has to be the
reason for the leap.
Thank you, Jenn.
- Wait.
Mallory Yang, journalist,
also dies this week.
Her sister gave the
eulogy at her funeral.
Car accident.
- That's a weird coincidence.
What about the others
in the room with Ben?
- Colonel Parker dies
a few days later too.
Says cause of death is
accidental weapons discharge.
Eugene H. Wagner.
- Let me guess. He dies too.
- From an overdose, according
to his death certificate.
- Okay, and the janitor?
- Moe Murphy,
electrical accident.
- Five unrelated deaths.
Okay, that can't
be a coincidence.
That sounds like...
- A government cover-up.
- And start-up in ten, nine...
eight...
Seven, six...
- Get me back online.
Get me back online!
Four,
three, two, one.
- Hey, is... is that
supposed to be happening?
- Why is the coolant draining?
- Yeah, that's definitely
not supposed to be happening.
- Ben, run!
- Why is Ben flatlining?
Somebody explain
what's happening.
- He's...
Dead.
- No!
I promised to bring him home.
He's alive.
- That's... that's not possible.
- Running a little
behind schedule.
Eugene, are you feeling okay?
- Yeah, sure.
- Ever seen one before, Colonel?
- Only in pictures. How
long is this gonna take?
I promised my kid I'd make
it to her ballet recital.
- Trust me, Colonel, it
will be worth the wait.
- What in "Groundhog
Day" is this?
- How is this possible?
- When can I go back in?
- Just give me a second.
I still have to
recalibrate the...
- I thought if he died
in someone else's body,
Ben died too.
- He did die.
- But, like, for real.
- Okay, okay, okay, all right.
Everybody, shh, shh, shh, shh.
Obviously, we are
dealing with a time loop.
- Obviously?
- Now, in time travel,
a time loop is highly,
highly improbable.
It's like being
struck by lightning,
except the funny thing is
once you're struck by lightning,
you're more likely to get
struck by lightning again.
Now, I think this is basically
what's happening to Ben
in the time loop when he dies
over and over and over...
- Ian.
I have to see him.
Thank you.
- Groovy.
- Like something out of
a science fiction book.
- What are you doing here?
- Sorry.
- Just wait until you see what
this nuclear reactor can do.
- Ben!
- I... I thought...
we thought you...
- I died.
- Yeah.
- Did I?
- Uh, uh, we think
you're in a time loop.
- That's highly,
highly improbable.
Like...
- Yeah, I know.
The whole lightning thing.
Ian's working on it.
- Okay.
Hold on, if I'm in a time loop,
things are gonna
repeat themselves.
- Yes.
- That means that
nuclear reactor...
- It's gonna explode any minute.
You have to stop it, or
you're gonna die again.
- Okay.
- So he's stuck in this
leap, doomed to repeat it
over and over again
until he figures out
what he's there
to do and fix it.
- Theoretically.
- What about practically?
- Sorry, but what
we're doing here,
it's kind of cutting edge.
I mean, there's not exactly
a lot of research
on time travel.
Well, except for the...
- Except?
- A couple of years ago,
there was this one PhD student
who did publish a
paper on time loops.
- Okay, let's get them in here.
- She's kind of already here.
- No.
No, I can't help you.
- Then Ben will be
stuck in this time loop
potentially forever.
You clearly know more about
what Ben is doing and why.
If this time loop
is part of the plan,
you got nothing
to worry about...
But if it's not...
your plan falls apart.
- Fine.
But only until I get
Ben out of the loop.
Then you're on your own.
Come on, time's ticking.
- Today isn't
about me, Meredith.
- Mallory.
- It's about our
experimental nuclear reactor
and what it can do
for you, for humanity.
- Stop! Everybody
run for your lives!
It's gonna explode!
- Eugene, calm down.
We have alarms in
place for this reason.
Everything looks normal.
- Something's about to
trigger a nuclear accident.
- That is highly,
highly improbable.
Colonel, you can't
smoke in here.
- Okay, what it could it be?
- It could be anything, the
acidity, the flow rates,
I'll have to check
all the numbers.
A bunch of these
pages are missing.
I'll have to redo
the math myself.
I forgot! The ink!
Does anybody have a working pen?
- Mr. Wagner, would you say
that the conditions
here are unsafe?
- No, no, he wouldn't say that.
Wouldn't want to give
America the wrong impression
of our facility, would we?
Eugene, this is just nerves.
- I'm gonna have to drain the
coolant and check the reactor.
- Good idea.
- We don't have the time.
- Uh, we have time to see
Kennedy's speech, right?
- What?
- Come on, his famous speech.
The moon, the future.
You love that stuff.
He paid for this whole facility.
I think the least we
could do is honor him
by listening to
his speech, right?
- Exploration of
space will go ahead.
- All right, you have
until President Kennedy
finishes his speech.
- Thank you.
Do you know where the
hazmat suits are again?
- Shh!
- It's cool, I'll find them.
- And no nation...
- This decade, the moon.
By 2000, flying cars.
You can quote me
on that, Marjory.
- Hey.
- I pulled everything
I could on time loops,
and Ian was right.
Aside from some vague
scientific theories
and questionable "Groundhog
Day" fan fiction,
there's not a whole
lot that can help Ben.
- It's a good thing
we happen to have
the foremost expert on
time loops in the building.
- Is it a good thing?
- Here it comes.
- I'm just saying it's
kind of weird, right?
Janis is a step ahead
of us every single time,
and then when we
finally catch her,
Ben gets stuck in a time loop?
What if this is a
part of her plan?
- You think she intentionally
trapped Ben in a time loop?
Why?
- I don't know.
Gain access to our headquarters,
plant a virus, steal
government secrets.
- She's already done all that.
What's the most
important thing here?
- Ben.
- I know you want to think of
Janis as some supervillain,
but the reality is
she is the only one who
can save Ben right now.
- And what if you're wrong?
- Then the fallout is on me.
- Okay, let's find the
problem and get you out.
- Radiation levels
seem standard.
Okay, we're looking
for anything unsafe,
something that could
trigger an accident.
- Could that bomb
trigger an accident?
There's a receiver on it.
It means someone in the
building triggered it.
- The classified report doesn't
say anything about sabotage.
The government just
assumed it was an accident,
called the reactor unsafe, and
quietly cancelled the project.
- And the person
got away with it.
Why would anyone want to cancel
a harmless energy
recycling project?
- Okay, uh, why don't
we disarm the bomb first
and ask poignant
questions later, yeah?
It's welded to the pipe.
Do I cut the red wire
or the blue wire?
- There are no wires.
Ben, run!
- That's it?
- We did it?
We stopped the reactor
from exploding!
Why am I the only one
celebrating right now?
- That's hydrogen gas.
- Wait, hydrogen is bad.
- If it mixes with oxygen.
- As in...
air?
- Hey, you all saw that, right?
The explosion wasn't
an acci... dent.
What is she doing here?
- Janis is here to help us.
- Help us?
- She has been sabotaging
us every step of the way.
- You mean saving you.
- Friendly reminder,
Ben's stuck in a time loop
exploding every 30 minutes.
- Yeah.
- Fine. Okay, what do we got?
- What we've got is
a nuclear explosion
interacting with
a time traveler.
It's like a once in a
trillion lifetimes phenomenon.
Two volatile forces colliding.
- Oh.
It's kind of like you two.
- Basically, the explosion is
resetting Ben's leap to
the original entry point.
- The elevator.
- Yeah.
- So why did the
quantum accelerator
choose the elevator
as the entry point?
- Because Ziggy said that
someone in the elevator
planted the explosive.
- About time.
Where was Ziggy
two explosions ago?
- Gathering data.
Ziggy isn't all-knowing.
It's a fallible AI that
selflessly calculates
probability outcomes
based on what Ben sees.
Ben just saw the bomb, so
now Ziggy can calculate
a probable location
for the trigger.
- Which is?
- The control room.
The explosion was triggered
in there both times.
The trigger could be anything.
- And the only people
in the control room
were the people in the elevator.
We figure out which one
did it, and Ben leaves.
- Boom.
- Really?
- Pun intended.
- Doesn't get any
easier, does it?
- Still getting used to it.
Still getting used
to my ears popping.
It's a long elevator ride.
- How long is this gonna take?
I promised my kid I'd make
it to her ballet recital.
- Trust me, Colonel, it
will be worth the wait.
- All right, Ziggy says someone
in this elevator did it.
20% chance it's any one of them.
- They have no idea how
things are gonna end for them.
What kind of person would
do something so horrible?
- It's not gonna
end for them today.
We're gonna figure this out.
- I can't just warn them, can I?
- You saw how that worked.
For all we know, warning them
could set the bomb off faster.
- And we can't disarm it?
- Nope.
You're gonna have to
blend in and investigate,
which is what journalists do.
Good news is you are
stuck in a time loop.
- Sorry, that's
good news because?
- Because you literally have
all the time in the world
to figure this out.
- Our employees are the best
and brightest in America,
and our facility is the safest.
- Would anybody want to
see this project fail?
- Sure, there's always
healthy competition.
We really should get back
to the demonstration.
- Ben, you gotta
keep him talking.
- Dr. Woolsey, off the record,
do you have any enemies?
- Enemies?
- Goodness no, Millicent.
Mallory.
I never had children of my own.
This project is
my pride and joy.
Rest assured, there is no
safer facility in America
than the one you're
standing in right now.
- Hmm.
- Recycled nuclear fuel.
That sounds complicated.
- So you're not passionate
about sustainable energy?
- Ma'am, I'm here to do a job,
and I take that
job very seriously.
I keep this place safe
from... Well, you know.
- Who?
- Commies.
- I've been here
since the beginning.
Known Dr. Woolsey for years.
Uh, that's us right
there, actually.
- That's you?
- Yeah.
- Yeah, I was a bit of
a geek in high school.
My mom took me to
this convention
on sustainable energy.
Dr. Woolsey was
getting an award.
He gets
a lot of awards.
Told my mom I would
work for him one day,
make the world a better
place and, uh, here I am.
- I like working here.
My fiancée buys me a lot of
those science fiction books.
"Solaris," "Stranger
in a Strange Land."
- Oh, classics.
Is what they'll be
someday, I'm sure.
- Anyway, I liked watching
them build the reactor.
It was real neat.
Like suddenly, I'm in one
of those stories.
Uh, we good here?
If I don't clean
up that soda spill,
somebody could get hurt.
- Oh, yeah, yeah, we're good.
It doesn't add up.
They all really seem to
believe in this thing.
They're like...
- Us five years ago?
Or 60 years from now?
Yeah. Except
one of them is lying.
- I mean, it could
be the journalist.
- But then why go
through the trouble
of bringing a tape recorder
if nobody was ever meant
to hear what's on it?
This sucker's heavy.
- Testing, testing, testing.
- Oops.
- One, two, three, testing.
- She must have
recorded something
before she got in the elevator.
Oh, go ahead.
If you can hear
it, I can hear it.
- Okay, I'm approaching
the facility
and meeting
Dr. Woolsey for a tour.
- Hello, there. You must be...
- Dr. Woolsey, hi.
I'm Mallory Yang.
- Yes, yes.
We're all very excited
to introduce America
to our little reactor.
Oh, excuse me, dear.
I'm going to have a quick
word with the colonel.
Sure thing.
Okay, he's gone. God,
he's so transparent.
This place is such a front,
and I'll have the evidence
to expose Mr. Nobel Prize
by the end of the day.
- Okay, a front for what?
- I don't know.
But it sounds like
Dr. Woolsey's hiding something.
I'll have to talk to
him again before...
Never mind.
- Ah, there you are.
Sorry, I just, uh...
Just
needed a second.
Your fiancé died today.
It's okay to take
more than a second.
- I know that I
should feel relieved
that Ben didn't actually die...
so why does it feel like he did?
- Well, ever since...
he leaped, you can't touch him,
you can't be in the
same space with him.
It's almost like
living with a...
- A ghost.
Ever since the engagement party,
ever since Ben leaped,
it feels like a part of him...
It feels like my Ben died.
And I have been mourning that...
every day since, but...
I didn't feel it until today.
Grief...
Doesn't keep a schedule.
It just shows up
when it wants to,
and when it does show up...
like it did for you today...
let yourself feel it.
But when it starts
to consume you...
you keep holding
on to the thought
that he's going to
come home one day.
Okay?
- Like you hold on to Sam?
- I really want to believe
there's something great
waiting for us on
the other side.
I guess I'm not ready
to let him go into that
white light just yet.
- Me neither.
- Of course, you leap
into the one person
we need to talk to.
Bad luck.
Well, there's always
the next leap.
- It's neat.
- Like something out of...
- Out of a science
fiction book, yep.
Mallory, can I talk
to you for a second?
- Sure.
It's a great facility. It's
cutting edge, it has...
- What do you know
about this place?
- What do you mean?
- I know you know it's a front.
- Are you trying
to intimidate me?
- No, no, I...
- Did they tap my phonelines,
bribe my editor, what?
- Who?
- The government.
Stop playing dumb,
and don't you dare
come after my sister.
She's just my transcriber.
She doesn't know
anything about this.
- No, I'm on your
side. I think.
- Save it. I'm not like you.
They can't buy me. How
do you sleep at night?
- Okay, well, next time
you leap into Dr. Woolsey,
maybe a gentler approach
with the journalist.
Hey, you okay?
- I just leaped into
the most powerful person
in this place, and
there's nothing I can do.
I can't warn anyone without
triggering the bomb.
It sounds bad, doesn't it?
- What?
- Whatever's got
Mallory so upset,
whatever' Dr. Woolsey's hiding.
- Do you think Mallory
planted the bomb?
- Well, whoever did must believe
it's better than
the alternative.
- What could be worse than
killing all these people
and dying for it?
- I don't know, I don't know.
But I'm gonna find out.
- Here, brought you some
coffee 'cause at this rate,
it looks like we're
gonna be here all night.
Don't worry, I didn't poison it.
- Look, I know you think
that we're the bad guys here,
but I promise you, we're not.
- It's not personal. I just
know I can't trust you.
- No offense, but
do you trust anyone?
I mean, you literally poisoned
your own mother's tea.
- I didn't poison her,
okay? It was a sedative.
Okay.
- She deserved it.
After undermining
the only dream I had
since I was a little girl.
- What, to work here?
To follow in your
dad's footsteps?
- Yeah.
Guess this is what it
would've been like.
- You know, you and Addison are
more similar than you think.
Stubborn, loyal, sensitive.
- Not that either one of
you would ever admit it.
But maybe she's
wrong about you...
the way that you're
wrong about us.
Um, well, it looks like Ziggy
has narrowed down our suspects
to the physicist
and the janitor.
- Why?
- I don't know.
Maybe it's because Ben's leaped
into every other
person in the elevator.
It's not like that Ben could
trigger the bomb himself.
I don't know.
You're the expert.
- Show me the data.
- I assumed we were dealing
with a closed timeline curve,
but this code suggests
that Ziggy doesn't think
Ben can leap into
the same body twice.
- But that would mean that...
- This isn't a time loop.
It's a finite series of leaps.
It ends when Ben runs out
of bodies in the elevator.
- What?
I'm so sorry,
Ben. We thought...
- It's okay. It's
not your fault.
So after this, I
have one leap left.
- Yeah.
- And after that?
- You die... for real.
- Okay.
Then let's make
the next one count.
- Sorry, what's
happening right now?
- Nothing.
- You'll forget in a second.
- We'll try disarming
the bomb again.
- Ben, we can't.
- We have to try!
- Ugh.
- It's locked.
- Hey!
You can't go in there.
- Ugh.
Nobody stopped us last time
because you were the engineer.
Damn it!
You keep leaping into the
wrong body at the wrong time!
- Please, you have to let me in.
- No can do, buddy.
You don't have the clearance
for the stuff behind that door.
Why don't you stick
to mopping floors
and cleaning offices?
- I have keys to
all the offices.
- I hope so.
- I might be in the
right body after all.
Thank you.
- Wait!
- Control, we have a
potential situation.
- Then handle it. We
don't have all day.
Dr. Woolsey!
Oh!
Oof.
- I got you.
- My mistake was thinking
I was in "Groundhog Day"
when I was really in
"Rashomon" all along.
- Yeah, I've never seen it.
But it is amazing
that you can remember all of
these plots to these movies
but not that you loved
me for four leaps.
- Sorry about that.
Point is each leap has given me
a different perspective
on the same event.
Now I just have to
figure out what's special
about the janitor's
point of view.
Anything?
- Uh, longest day, October 4th.
Could be a clue?
- Nah, it's just a movie.
Dr. Woolsey must be
planning on seeing it.
World War II. They
land at Normandy.
You haven't seen it?
Anyway, the good guys win.
- Ben, someone's coming.
- Okay, that was lucky.
- Yeah, it was.
- What'd you find?
- This is what
Dr. Woolsey's been hiding.
Generating sustainable
energy is a front
for what that nuclear reactor
is really going to do:
make nuclear weapons.
Killing thousands of people.
When you put it that way,
blowing up the reactor
sounds like a better
alternative, doesn't it?
- Nobody's blowing
up anything today.
- Talk to me.
- Well, uh, Dr. Woolsey
slipping on that soda
bought Ben five,
maybe ten minutes.
- What can we do?
- Nothing.
I mean, he's
running out of time.
I can't believe that
I'm gonna say this,
but I wish that Ben were
stuck in a time loop.
- We could pull the plug.
- What?
- Turn off the
quantum accelerator.
- But... no, no, we don't
know what that could do.
I mean, it could
kill him instantly.
Or we could lose him
forever, just like with Sam.
- If we let him finish
the leap and he fails,
then he will die, and
then we'll definitely
lose him forever.
- Let him finish the leap.
- Since when did she get a vote?
- We can't risk throwing
him off the trajectory
of where he's ultimately going.
- Which is God
knows where or when
because she won't tell us!
- Magic.
You need to trust me.
- We let him finish a leap.
- Who do you work for?
- I'm not a spy.
- Are you the one that's
been sending the letters?
- What letters?
Oh, that.
- Um, you've seen them before?
- Sort of. I didn't send that.
Or I don't think I did.
Can I see what's inside?
- I started getting these
anonymous letters at my house.
They all say the same thing.
- "Kill the
project, or I will."
I know who sent this.
- At least it's not that
messy in here, unfort...
- Are you sure you're okay?
- I'm fine, Valerie.
But we are definitely
behind schedule now.
Eugene, initiate
the hydrogen flow.
- Okay.
- Um... bah, bah, bah.
- Okay, initiating
hydrogen flow.
Ah, uh...
wait, where's my...
- Looking for this?
- What's going on?
- Noticed earlier you
were missing some pages.
I, uh, think I found one.
- You're smarter than you look.
- You're smarter than you look.
- Eugene, what's going on?
- And you're dumber
than you look.
- What?
- I know about the deal
you made with the military.
I found the memo.
I came here to work
with sustainable energy,
to make the world
a better place.
When were you gonna tell me
we're making weapons
of mass destruction?
- I knew it.
- Colonel.
- Don't look to me.
It's above my clearance.
- Eugene, they were going to
take the project away from me
and give it to someone else.
My reactor, my baby...
to someone else.
I had to do it.
- Then you'll understand why I
have to do what I have to do.
- Don't let him
touch any buttons!
- You know about the
explosive device.
- The what?
- You're not going
anywhere, Mallory.
- You chose today,
demonstration day,
because you knew it would get
the government's attention.
- The reactor will explode.
They'll call it an
accident, a design flaw,
and then they'll cover it up
and leave this technology alone.
- Unfortunately, the limited
range of your transmitter means
you had to be inside the
building when it happened.
- My life doesn't matter
in the grand scheme.
Think of all the
lives I'm saving
by keeping this place from
making nuclear weapons!
I wouldn't shoot, Colonel!
- I'll have to do
the math myself.
- The pen is the trigger.
- Ziggy didn't expect Eugene
because the bomb went off
when you were in his body.
- I was the villain and
didn't even know it.
- What?
- We all think we're
the hero of our story,
even when we're the villain.
Eugene, you're right.
- What?
- The government will
call it an accident
and cover the whole thing up,
but here's where you're wrong.
We won't leave this
technology alone.
There will be 100 other
experimental nuclear reactors
that'll replace this one.
Eventually, we'll
develop time travel,
maybe even flying cars,
but what you do today
won't change anything
except for the lives of
the people in this room.
The colonel's daughter has
a ballet recital today.
She's gonna grow
up without her dad.
Mallory has a sister
who won't be able
to get through the
eulogy at her funeral.
Dr. Woolsey is looking
forward to going to the movies
in a couple of weeks.
I have a fiancée who's
waiting for me to come home.
You want to save lives,
start with the
people in this room.
You see, in the grand
scheme of things, Eugene,
your life matters, what
you do with it matters,
and you won't get another chance
to do the right thing.
- Please.
Ah!
- Mallory, I'm so sorry.
This whole thing is my fault.
- Great technology always
falls in the wrong hands.
One day, it'll be
the end of us all.
- Going up?
You know what? I
will miss this song.
You will be happy to know
that Janitor Moe writes his
very own science fiction story
based on today's events.
Mallory published an exposé
that blows the
government's cover
and forces this place to become
what it was always meant to be,
a power plant for
sustainable energy,
and it...
Why am I the only one
celebrating again?
- That thing Eugene said
about great technology
falling into the wrong hands.
Don't you worry about...
- Us?
Quantum Leap saves lives, Ben.
We're doing the right thing.
- Yeah, Eugene was pretty sure
he was doing the
right thing too.
I'm just saying,
if someone from the future
leaped into 2023 to judge us,
I hope we turn out to be
the heroes of our story.
Oh, my God, I almost forgot.
Um, how do uranium
atoms say goodbye?
- Uh...
Tell me on the next one.
- Ah, talk about
the longest day.
- Yeah, we logged a
space-time anomaly
and introduced Ziggy
to Janis' research,
so what happened today
won't happen again probably.
- Good.
I'm glad Janis proved not to be
the villain you thought she was.
- Yeah.
- Ah, here it comes.
- Why did you side with her?
- What are you talking about?
Letting Ben finish the leap
is what saved his life.
- It could've killed him.
- But it didn't.
- But it could have.
I told you the fallout of
my choices, it's on me.
- Except it's not.
The choices you make
affect all of us.
If Ben dies, the
fallout is on all of us.
To Janis, Ben is just
a piece of some plan
that we don't understand,
but Ben is my friend, Magic.
The...
That's my family.
Jan just doesn't
get a vote in that.
- He's all of our family.
Every day that Ben is gone,
the choices I have to make
get harder and harder.
Trusting Janis today could
have been the wrong choice,
and I'd have to live with that.
- But that's what I'm...
I would've had to
live with that too.
I'm doing
my best, Jenn.
You want to know why I
sided with Janis today?
'Cause it's something I
should've done years ago.
When her mother asked me
not to let Janis be a part
of the Quantum Leap project,
I should've sided with Janis.
I should've said, "Sorry,
but this is her birthright.
She deserves to be here."
Instead, I...
- You think you made
the wrong choice.
- Yeah.
And now I...
We are dealing with the fallout.
- I'm trying to picture it.
- What?
- What it would be like
if Janis was one of
us this whole time.
Wonder if we would've
been friends,
or if Ben would've still
gone to her before he leaped,
or if she would've
helped us bring him home.
- I guess we'll never know.
It's too bad we don't get to
go back and try again, huh?
- Hey.
Don't you have a
prison cell to go to?
- Look, I know I said I
shouldn't trust you...
- Ditto, so have a great night.
- However, when it
mattered the most,
your team gave me the
benefit of the doubt,
so I'm gonna give you a name.
- A name?
- The name of the person
who told Ben to leap
in the first place.
- What?
- Don't make me regret it.