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What a Disaster! is the sixth episode of the first season of Quantum Leap, and the sixth episode of the series overall. It first aired on October 24, 2022.
Summary[]
Ben and Addison find themselves in San Francisco during the historic 1989 earthquake; as the city continues to crumble with aftershocks, Ben must try to mend a family in chaos; Jenn and Ian search for clues to an unsettling mystery.
Synopsis[]
October 17, 1989: Ben leaps into John Harvey in San Fransisco moments before the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. He learns he is there to help John's estranged wife, Naomi, save their son, Jason, who originally died in the aftermath of the earthquake. Ben asks Addison about his parents. She says he didn’t know his father, his mother died when he was in high school, and he never talked to Addison about her. Meanwhile, Addison’s parents are still alive but her relationship with them is “complicated.”
Ben and Naomi suspect Jason is visiting their old home in Oakland. Jason resents Naomi for moving them to San Francisco. They make their way on foot. When they stop to help a couple trapped in a crushed car, Naomi receives an electric shock and has to go to the hospital, so Ben continues alone.
While walking in a maintenance tunnel under the bay, Ben doesn’t want to explain what is bugging him. When Addison confronts him and Ben says she is the only person he trusts, he tearfully tells her about his mother. He resented her for taking him to America and having high expectations of him. Shortly after a fight, Ben discovered her dead of a brain aneurysm.
Ben finds Jason at the family's old apartment building in Oakland, and rushes inside to help an elderly neighbor when Jason tells him he’s still inside. While rescuing the neighbor, Ben is knocked unconscious by a beam that collapses on him. Fortunately, the elderly neighbor escapes and tells Jason who rushes in and is able to revive him. They escape the building moments before it collapses. Ben also manages to repair the relationship between Jason and his mother, who Jason blames for the breakup of the family.
When the phones at the hospital come back online, Ben realizes it’s 1989 and his mother is still alive. Against PQL protocol and with Addison’s help, he uses a hospital phone to call his mother just as he leaps. Ben leaps into the body of a priest on Halloween.
In 2022, the team tries to figure out the identity of the mystery leaper fromBen's previous leap that Ian and Jenn have dubbed Leaper X. They learn he is Richard Martinez, a Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton. However, Martinez has no knowledge of the project and a clean record, which leads Magic and the team to theorize that Martinez will become the Leaper at an unspecified point in the future, making Ian realize that Ben is attempting to reach the future through his leaps.
Addison tells Jenn that Ben, without his memory, is more emotionally open and vulnerable, a place she had always hoped to reach with him. it somehow makes her love him even more.
Cast[]
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Trivia[]
- This episode was originally written and shot as the series' pilot episode. When the episode order was shifted, large portions had to be rewritten and reshot.
- "Like an Earthquake" is the original title of the episode.
- Ben lived with his mother in New York City from Age 9 to her death when he is 14. Since he calls her in New York in 1989, this places Ben's birthdate between 1975 and 1980.
Gallery[]
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References[]
| v - e - dQuantum Leap Season 1 |
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