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Quantum Leap (2022)
Season 1, Episode 8:
Stand By Ben
Written by Emily Kim
Directed by Avi Youabian
Original air date: 11/7/2022
July 10, 1996
Ben leaps into a 16-year-old boy named Ben "Klepto" Winters, who is in the middle of escaping an abusive wilderness school with a group of other teenagers named Stacy, Leah, and Roy.
Tropes:
- Addled Addict: Roy struggles with an addiction to painkillers.
- Better as Friends: Stacy and Roy get a moment where they almost kiss, but as Addison says at the end, they go their separate ways. But everyone stays friends anyway.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Addison pops over to the elevator to rescue Magic and Jenn.
- Ben, Stacy, and Roy show up back at Sierra Academy with Leah's reporter uncle, to save Leah from the Punishment Box and catch Sierra Academy's owner abusing her.
- Call-Back: Ben briefly talks to Addison about what she missed on the previous leap. He doesn't get the chance to tell her much more than Janis' message and "I saw a demon!" before Leah interrupts him.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Leah's "cool" uncle George, who she says is on the news. He shows up at the end with a news van and catches Sullivan and Ringer in the act of hauling Leah to a Punishment Box.
- Cure Your Gays: It's strongly implied that, in addition to sending Leah to Sierra Academy because of her self-harm, her parents also sent her there because she was a lesbian.
- Dance of Romance: While everyone is dancing to "Just a Girl" in the cabin, Ben and Addison share a dance while staring at each other lovingly.
- The Determinator: Stacy is incredibly determined to get everyone to a safe waypoint, no matter what the cost. Ben has to rein her in and give her advice about leadership.
- Disappeared Dad: Discussed; Jenn tells Magic that she's sick of trying to maintain a relationship with her father, because it always ends with him disappearing after she gives him money.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Addison tells Ben that the four escapees stay friends for life, and even regularly meet up to go on vacations together.
- Heroic BSoD: Ben starts spiraling when the creek the group pushed so hard to reach turns out to be dry. He recovers when he sees evidence that the cabin is nearby.
- Heroic Sacrifice: When Sullivan and Ringer catch up to the teens at the cabin, Leah lets herself get recaptured so the other three will have a chance to escape. Ben being Ben, he doesn't like it one bit, and works with Stacy and Roy to come up with a solution to save Leah.
- Imaginary Friend: Leah catches Ben talking to Addison, and asks him about it. But she doesn't make fun of him; rather, she empathizes and says that she's had an imaginary family before as a coping mechanism. Stacy and Roy also don't mind Ben talking to Addison, figuring it's just one of his quirks.
- Internal Homage: To a couple of Quantum Leap episodes.
- To the episode "Unchained," which had a plot about escapees fleeing an abusive detainment facility, and another detainee becoming marginally aware of the leaper's "imaginary friend."
- Also to the episode "M.I.A.," with a hologram dancing lovingly with someone in the past. In this case, however, their "dance partner" can see them, and it's much more lighthearted and much less somber.
- Intrepid Reporter: Leah's uncle, who Addison says later does a whole investigative series on abusive wilderness facilities.
- It Will Never Catch On: Stacy gushes about the Spice Girls to Roy, who has never heard of them. Stacy claims that "Wannabe," which she says is about to be released stateside, is destined to be the next "Bohemian Rhapsody."
- Juvenile Hell: The abusive Sierra Academy seems to be patterned after the likes of the schools described in This Is Paris, Joe vs. Elan School, or others of that ilk.
- Kleptomaniac Hero: Ben's leapee, Ben "Klepto" Winters, who not only stole the SUV keys, but several other clothes (including Ringer's favorite hat) and sundries, from under Sullivan's and Ringer's noses.
- Lockdown: Janis remotely activates a security lockdown at the Project to buy herself some time to escape. Between Jenn and Magic being stuck in the elevator and Addison assisting Ben, poor Ian is left to put out the fires.
- Mid-Season Twist: Ben isn't actually leaping to find Sam Beckett, he's leaping to save Addison's life.
- The '90s: Specifically, summer 1996.
- No Social Skills: Addison tells Ben that his leapee is a socially challenged introvert with Asperger Syndrome, explaining why the other teens aren't too bothered by Ben's talking to a seeming imaginary friend.
- Nothing but Hits:
- The non-diegetic music at the beginning is "Song 2" by Blur.note
- The cabin's unseen owner has a copy of Tragic Kingdom, and the teens listen to "Just a Girl" and "Don't Speak."
- #1 Dime: Discussed. Just before Ben leaped in, "Klepto" stole a bunch of the Sierra staff's most valued possessions, including Director Sullivan's fishing trophy and Ringer's favorite hat.
- Off the Grid: The cabin was specifically built to be off the grid, which is why Ziggy has no record of it. Its owner — who isn't seen in the episode — supplied it with its own generator, water supply, food supply, sundries, and emergency telephone.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted; Ben leaps into someone else named Ben. Given everything that's happened with Martinez and Janis in the previous leaps, Ben's inclination when another character calls him "Ben" is to yell, "You know me?"
- Place Worse Than Death: Stacy, Leah, and Roy say they'd rather die than return to Sierra Academy.
- Punishment Box: One of Sierra Academy's punishments is to lock its students in outdoor isolation boxes. Leah gets dragged to one at the end of the episode.
- Pyromaniac: One of the reasons that Stacy was taken to the wilderness school is because she attempted to burn down her own house.
- Self-Harm: The "official" reason that Leah is at the wilderness school, according to Addison.
- Shout-Out: An episode stylized after Stand by Me has a plot point where a character snaps their ankle.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: When Leah first sees Ben talking to Addison, Leah assumes that Ben is just talking to an imaginary friend as a way to deal with trauma. Ben goes along with it, saying that Addison is his "imaginary girlfriend."
- Teens Are Monsters: Averted with the teens; Ben finds out that they act out primarily because their emotional needs were neglected and ignored. Addison stresses to Ben that these kids really just all need someone to listen to them.
- Title In: "1996" is shown in large text at the beginning.
- Twisted Ankle: Leah breaks her ankle in a snake hole in the wilderness. Ben splints it and the teens support her.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Addison tells Ben that Stacy was a former star athlete who was voted "Most Popular" during her freshman year of high school. After her mom died in a car accident and she was left with her alcoholic father, she got into a series of worse and worse physical altercations in and out of school. She was eventually sent to Sierra after she tried to burn down her own house.
- Wham Line: Ben tells Addison, "I remember why I leaped. It was to save you."
- Would Hurt a Child: The wilderness school's overseers don't have any problem harming the kids in their charge. Ringer even forcefully prods Leah's broken ankle just to make sure she isn't faking.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
- Ben speaks to Roy about how waiting for change is tough, and uses the transition of water to steam as an analogy.
- Ben, Stacy, and Roy talk to Leah about forgiving her parents, and tell her that she's not "broken" or "weird."
- Ben has a talk with Stacy not just about how she's a natural leader, but empathizes about how unfair it is for her that she is forced into such a role, especially without having a chance to properly grieve.
