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The Outsider is the eleventh episode of the second season of Quantum Leap, and the twenty-ninth episode of the series overall. It aired on February 13, 2024.
Summary[]
An anonymous source sends Ben and an experienced local Denver TV journalist on the trail of a dangerous conspiracy as they pursue the scoop of a lifetime in the early '80s. There's trouble at HQ when Ian's past decisions come back to haunt the team.
Synopsis[]
In the present, Gideon condescendingly tells Magic that Ian stole his chip, threatened his representative, turned his employee against him, and now won't give it back. The Pentagon sees him as a crucial supplier, and Gideon expects that Magic will sort it out. Someone from the DoD will be there tomorrow to make sure that he does.
Ian apologizes to Magic. But Magic is furious, telling him to go home, log out of everything, and not speak to anyone until he speaks to the DoD representative. When Jenn defends Ian, Magic kicks her out of his office.
1982: Ben leaps into Brian Conway, a TV news producer in a Denver phone booth. A caller says that "they know" and blames him for talking too much. He says that people will die because of Ben's mistakes and hang up.
Connie Davis, the reporter Brian works for, is not the reporter she used to be. Brian is new, and she asks that he not mess up the biggest story she's had in months, which is a contest-winning pumpkin. Addison appears, and tells Ben that Hannah got his letter, and they caught the heart disease in time, but he died in a car accident a year later. Addison gets him Hannah's number.
Connie was a very famous reporter in New York City, but she was fired for mysterious reasons, and now she covers pumpkins in Denver. Ben tries to boost Connie's confidence. He suggests they follow up with the source that called him, but she tells him to leave it alone. Ben finds a pay phone and calls Hannah, but he gets an answering machine. A man in a ski mask points a gun at him, demands that he leave the story alone, and pistol whips him unconscious.
Connie thinks that no story is worth that. She doesn't want to talk about what happened in New York. She says everyone wants the big story but no one wants to do the work, and leaves. Addison knows that Ben is distracted by Josh and Hannah. He wonders if that saga was a signal to not try so hard. Addison gives him a pep talk, revealing that she would be a journalist if she weren't working on Quantum Leap.
Ben and Addison decide to do the work. They figure out that Brian met with a lawyer. It turns into an all-nighter. Ben wonders why he never knew she wanted to be a journalist; she says she's allowed to have secrets. They have an easy and open manner with each other for the first time in a long while. From the lawyer's client list, they narrow it down to three companies.
When Addison comes out of the chamber for more coffee, she sees Ian walking dejectedly. It turns out that Tom, back from DC, is the DoD respresentative. Addison wonders if it's a conflict of interest, but Tom says that Gideon (and Tom!) don't know where he and Addison stand. But he got a call demanding to burn Quantum Leap to the ground. Addison asks him to help, and to go easy on Ian. But the alarm sounds that Ben needs her, which pokes an open wound.
She finds Ben passed out at his desk. One of the clients, Chet Barlow, turns out to run Herbicore, a new pesticide manufacturer that becomes a huge corporation in the present. They figure out that a new weedkiller will cause cancer, killling thousands of people. Connie calls a contact at the police to get the number that called the payphone. The number belongs to Robbie Barlow, Chet's brother and co-founder of Herbicore.
They confront Robbie at a lunch restaurant. He says that their experiments caused tumors in lab mice, but the company figured it was cheaper to settle with victims rather than pull the product. Robbie is afraid of Chet because his enemies have a way of disappearing. Ben realizes that the weedkiller is in use at the pumpkin farm. Ben warns that the farmer and his pregnant wife need to get checked out immediately, and Connie gets a soil sample from the farm. Seeing Connie do what she is meant to be doing makes Ben feel like he is doing the same, for the first time as a leaper.
Connie is assigned to cover a big accident downtown, showing she's getting off the pumpkin beat. A car exploded with someone inside, and Ben realizes that it's Robbie's car. Connie is shattered by getting another source killed. In New York, she drove a source to suicide. Connie fires Ben to protect him from the troubles of the job.
Addison enters the chamber again to see Ben graduating from coffee to whisky. Things are very bad at HQ right now, she got engaged to Tom, and then unengaged. She says it isn't about Ben. Addison has been in reaction mode since Ben first leapt, and she lost all sense of purpose. But her purpose is to help people. Ben is still struggling with not saving Josh and getting Robbie killed. Addison tells him that Robbie died in the original timeline. Ben realizes that Robbie faked his death.
Ben tells Connie that Robbie is still alive, and channels his own experience to tell her that this is her purpose, even if sometimes things don't work out. Ben has made his own peace with the ups and downs of leaping. Ben and Addison track Robbie down to a motel, but they still need the memo that proves that Herbicore knew the chemical was hazardous. Unfortunately, Robbie's name is also on the memo. He tells Connie that it's in the safe in Chet's office.
Connie schedules an interview with Chet while Ben breaks into his office with Robbie's badge. Jenn tells Ben and Addison how to crack the safe. A security guard, who previously appeared in a ski mask, pulls a gun on Ben. Ben falsely claims he has camera footage of him threatening Ben earlier, and Connie has instructions to air it if Ben doesn't return. With Addison's help, he produces a bunch of details of the gunman's life, as if he knows everything about him. That spooks him, and Ben clocks him with a trophy.
In the present, Ian completes a formal statement for Tom, and says they're sorry. They say they didn't tell Tom before because they were afraid the DoD would shut down the program and they'd lose Ben again. But Tom has to recommend someone to be fired. Ian pleads that they are the only way to get Ben back home. Ian then says that they don't regret anything they did; they are tired of being ashamed of doing the right thing, because they are the only one who didn't quit on Ben. Tom persuades Gideon not to kill Quantum Leap, but someone has to be fired. Ian deserves it, but the program needs them. Someone else has to go.
Addison reveals that the EPA gets the memo, the pesticide never goes to market, and Robbie goes to work for the EPA. At the end of the interview, Connie ambushes Chet with the fact that Herbicrop gave the pumpkin farmer's wife lung cancer, and reads the memo. Ben leaps.
Back in the present, Addison watches old footage of Connie's report as Tom leaves. Addison formally breaks up with him. Working at PQL has made Tom believe in fate. Maybe they were meant to be together and meant to break up. Addison hugs him to tearfully say goodbye, and Tom says to bring Ben home.
Magic tells Jenn that Gideon is dropping all charges, and will let PQL use the chip. He says he is resigning as a sacrifice for the team.
Cast[]
Starring[] |
References[]
| v - e - dQuantum Leap Season 2 |
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