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Quantum Leap (2022)
Season 2, Episode 4:
The Lonely Hearts Club
Written by Kristy Lowrey
Directed by M.J. Bassett
Original air date: 10/25/2023
April 4, 2000
Ben leaps into Summer Walsh, an ambitious Hollywood assistant whose famous client, Neal Russell (Tim Matheson), is in danger; as Ben realizes that Neal's circumstances may shed light on his own, his working relationship with Addison reaches an inflection point.
Tropes:
- Deconstruction: Of Romantic Comedies. Grand Romantic Gestures don't typically work, and not everyone is necessarily "meant to be." The reality is that relationships are much more complicated and nuanced, and it's only after realizing this that the lead gets to have a happy ending.
- Did Not Get the Girl:
- Neal fails to convince his ex-wife Laura to leave her wedding and get back together with him. However, the point wasn't for them to get back together, but rather to help Neal make peace with it and move on.
- In a like manner, Ben comes to realize that he and Addison aren't going to be a thing anymore, and sadly tells her that he doesn't want her around as his hologram.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Neal can be a really affable guy, but he cannot take a hint that his pre-wedding crash is unwanted, and it's not helped by Ben whispering in his ear and enabling him. It takes Laura's gentle speech at the end for Neal to finally get the hint that it just isn't going to happen.
- Gender Bender: Ben leaps into a young woman named Summer.
- Grand Romantic Gesture: Deconstructed. Both Neal and Ben are convinced that Neal can talk Laura out of her wedding and rekindle what she had with him. At the end, Laura talks Neal down when he tries to give her a flower and says that those kinds of gestures don't work in reality.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Discussed. Because of what happened with Sam Beckett and Ben Song both failing to return home, Tom somewhat philosophically posits to Magic that quantum leaping runs off of sacrifice and that there's probably not a way home.
- Leno Device: Happens offscreen, but Addison tells Ben that Neal tells the story of his hijinks later on that evening on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, which leads to him receiving a surge of popularity.
- Only Sane Man: Once Ben decides to go all in on Neal's plan to win back Laura, Addison finds herself being the only one to realize this isn't the right idea.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Ben and Addison volley them at each other.
- Ben screams that he leaped to save Addison, and that it was patently unfair of her to give up on him after three years when he would've waited for her.
- Addison screams right back that it's easy for Ben to say that since he wasn't the one left behind. She adds that at her lowest, she tried to break into the accelerator in an attempt to find him, that it hurt burying the life they would've had together when they had his funeral, and that it was unfair of him to throw it all away in the first place.
- Rachel gives one to Ian after it's revealed that her boss helped them get a special quantum chip to locate Ben, and they never actually told her about finding Ben.
- Relationship Revolving Door: Ian and Rachel have apparently gotten back together during the three years. Within one scene, they break up again due to Ian keeping mum about locating Ben, and Rachel says that Ian never changes.
- Saying Too Much: Addison tells Ben that Tom helped them find the answer, then immediately realizes that she goofed by mentioning Tom. Ben asks who Tom is. Within a few seconds, Ben works out that Tom is Addison's new boyfriend and the guy overseeing the Project.
- This Is Reality: Laura says this to Neal when he tries to woo her out of her wedding one more time, telling him that this isn't one of his big movies or a big TV show.
- Trojan Horse: The computer variant. With Rachel's help, Ian got a special quantum chip from Rachel's boss in order to help locate Ben. However, after Tom points out some higher than normal power spikes, Ian pinpoints that the chip is sending bits of Ziggy's AI code to Rachel's boss. The problem is they can't disconnect the chip without losing their method of tracking Ben.
