Difficult Goodbyes
As Quantum Leap Season 2 Episode 12, “As the World Burns,” opens, Jenn (Nanrisa Lee) and Magic (Ernie Hudson) argue about him leaving. Magic wants her to focus on the project. She tries to get him to stay for one last leap. He declines.
Ben (Raymond Lee) leaps into a firefighter. A boy screams at him to put out the fire in the living room they’re standing in. Ben uses the extinguisher on it. The boy’s attention turns to the man on the ground. Ben checks the man’s pulse and says he’ll be okay. He radios for medics to come up to the twenty-eighth floor.
QUANTUM LEAP — “As the World Burns” Season 2 Episode 12 (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/NBC)
Ben asks what happened. The boy says they were testing his new circuit board and it started sparking. The man got electrocuted and passed out. Ben comments the circuit board is pretty advanced. He’s impressed.
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The boy explains the unconscious man is his neighbor when Ben mistakes him for his father. The boy explains his father died a couple of years ago when they were living in New Jersey. He asks about the boy’s mother just as she rushes in to check on her son, Jeffrey (Wyatt Parker), scolding him about being careless with the breaker.
Hannah, Again
Ben recognizes the woman’s voice. He stands up and sees Hannah (Eliza Taylor), calls her by name. She realizes it’s Ben, but with Jeffrey right there, she thanks him in a professional manner.
QUANTUM LEAP — “As the World Burns” Season 2 Episode 12 (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/NBC)
Later, when Jeffrey’s with the neighbor and the medics in the hall, she explains things to Ben. She’s still working in physics but in D.C. now. Things have been tough. Ben offers her some names of companies she could invest in. She refuses to take his advice, saying that must be against the rules.
Ben extends his condolences about Josh (Josh Dean). She accepts them and reminds him it’s not his fault, that he tried to save Josh by warning her about the heart defect. She steps away to check on Jeffrey.
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Addison (Caitlin Bassett) arrives and informs Ben that Magic’s just resigned, explaining about Ian (Mason Alexander Park) and Gideon (James Frain) quickly.
She sees Hannah and checks Ziggy. She tells Ben the leap isn’t about Hannah. His host is Otis Burton (Jermaine Jacox), a 20-year veteran of the Baltimore Fire Department. He’s about to retire.
QUANTUM LEAP — “As the World Burns” Season 2 Episode 12 (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/NBC)
Ben’s there to save someone else, but they don’t know who yet. Addison goes to find out more about the situation.
Magic Has Left the Building
At HQ, Addison, Ian, and Jenn watch Magic pack his office. Ian says Magic should’ve let them fire them instead. Magic tells them they must solve the DARPA code and bring Ben home. Magic tells Jenn that he’s recommended her to be the interim leader of the program.
He leaves them with some inspiring words, handing them the future of Quantum Leap.
QUANTUM LEAP — “As the World Burns” Season 2 Episode 12 (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/NBC)
Hard Truths
Ben and Hannah have an awkward moment together. She asks if she looks old. Ben says she looks beautiful as always but seems distant.
Ben asks if she’s mad at him. She explains that she’s begun to dabble in theoretical physics in hopes of helping to get him home. She tells him that every way she examines his path, there’s only one constant and it leads her to understand that this meeting will be their last time. They’ll never intersect again.
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Just then, a huge plume of flame and smoke erupts from below. An entire floor below them is on fire.
Jeffrey runs in, asking if that was an explosion. Addison reports a transformer blew on the twentieth floor.
QUANTUM LEAP — “As the World Burns” Season 2 Episode 12 (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/NBC)
Consequences
In the hall, Addison informs Ben the building contractor cheaped out on the wiring and bribed officials to look the other way. In the original timeline, Burton and four construction workers die on the twenty-first floor due to the fire.
Ben informs Hannah and Jeffrey they need to evacuate. Jeffrey balks, wanting to save his father’s belongings. Ben promises to come back and get it.
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Addison urges him to get going before the next explosion. Ben leaves Hannah and Jeffrey with other firefighters, but Hannah follows him. She knows where the construction workers are and can take him to them.
They find the construction workers just before another explosion hits and a wall of fire traps them in the unit.
QUANTUM LEAP — “As the World Burns” Season 2 Episode 12 (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/NBC)
Addison tells him they have to escape through the stairwell on the other side of the fire. Ben tells the construction workers who refuse. Hannah sees the gypsum board which is fire retardant. They get to work building a portable fire shield. Addison glitches out.
Jenn’s Calling the Shots
At HQ, Jenn explains she had to pull power from the imaging chamber in order for Ian to keep working on the DARPA code while air-gapped from the Pentagon.
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In the building, Hannah tells Ben that she knows that he and Addison were together once. She sympathizes with him, having lost Josh, but she reminds him that love is timeless. She advises that he look at things from a cosmic perspective. Ben remembers seeing Addison for the first time.
QUANTUM LEAP — “As the World Burns” Season 2 Episode 12 (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/NBC)
Jenn gets the power back up at HQ.
In the building, Ben, Hannah, and the construction workers push through to the stairwell. The workers get out, but Hannah falls down due to the smoke inhalation.
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Ben gives her oxygen and checks with his chief regarding Jeffrey. Hannah tells him she believes the accelerator brought them together for a reason. She thinks she’s figured it out, but before she can tell him, there’s another explosion and Addison tells Ben that Jeffrey’s gone missing now.
Hannah believes Jeffrey’s gone back to the apartment for Josh’s things.
QUANTUM LEAP — “As the World Burns” Season 2 Episode 12 (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/NBC)
“He tasks me, and I shall have him.”
At HQ, Ian is quoting Star Trek‘s Khan at the DARPA code, feeling frustrated. Jenn’s hands are tied.
Addison leaves to find out if Jeffrey’s gone up the east stairs. Hannah breaks down, believing it’s all her fault.
Addison returns to tell them that Jeffrey’s at the apartment. Ben and Hannah aren’t able to go up the stairs. They duck into a refuge area, but the heat blows the doors off its hinges and causes the roof to collapse on Hannah.
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Ben doesn’t want to leave Hannah, but Hannah insists he save Jeffrey. Addison promises to stay with her. Ben leaves, promising he’ll see Hannah later.
QUANTUM LEAP — “Against Time” Season 2 Episode 13 (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/NBC)
Left alone, Hannah tells Addison she needs the team to see something and she starts scratching code into the ash on the floor.
Hannah’s Code
Ben finds Jeffrey in the apartment. Jeffrey doesn’t want to leave with him, but Ben connects with him over their mutual loss of fathers. He urges Jeffrey to heal by moving forward. Jeffrey takes a deep breath, takes the items he’s gathered and goes with Ben, leaving behind a DARPA file.
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At HQ, Ian and Jenn recognize that the code Hannah is scratching is the missing line of code in the DARPA code that could bring Ben home.
QUANTUM LEAP — “As the World Burns” Season 2 Episode 12 (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/NBC)
Hannah explains to Addison that time is not like a river because some things are immutable like stones in the river, timeless. Addison remembers Ben’s toast at their engagement party.
Hannah starts to fade. She tells Addison, “There are all kinds of bonds holding the universe together. Although nothing lasts forever, there are some bonds that can’t be broken. And no matter how far apart they’re driven, they always come back together. Like it was Fate.”
Courage Is a Choice
In the apartment, Ben realizes the fire’s penned him and Jeffrey in. Their only chance is to crawl along the ledge outside the windows in order to escape the flames.
Ian and Jenn have the code now, but Ian needs to implement it without causing Ben to be swept away by the timestream forever. They say they need a constant for Ben to latch onto and they think they know what it has to be.
QUANTUM LEAP — “As the World Burns” Season 2 Episode 12 (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/NBC)
Ben and Jeffrey need to climb down, and Jeffrey is terrified. Ben uses Josh’s phrase, “Courage is a choice.” It inspires Jeffrey to move, and he makes it down to the next floor.
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Ben gets to Hannah’s stairwell. The debris has shifted, and Ben is able to dig Hannah out.
Rescued
He carries her to safety, laying her on a stretcher where Jeffrey is reunited with her.
Jeffrey questions how Ben knew Josh’s phrase.
Addison calls Ben over and lets him know everything works out for Burton. Ben thanks Addison for everything. She asks Ben to tell Hannah good-bye and thank you.
QUANTUM LEAP — “As the World Burns” Season 2 Episode 12 (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/NBC)
Addison steps out of the imaging chamber. Ian and Jenn are filling Addison in that they need to swap Ben with someone in the present when armed officers come in and tell everyone to stop.
Gideon Rydge
Gideon arrives and informs them that he’s now in charge of Quantum Leap.
In Baltimore, Ben worries that Hannah shouldn’t go see Towering Inferno later that year. They continue to talk.
In the distance, Jeffrey reads the letter Ben wrote to Hannah.
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Hannah explains that Ben’s intersections with her life have changed everything. In return, she made the quantum code that will bring him home.
They embrace. Ben leaps.
Jeffrey continues to read and sees the name Ben at the bottom. He looks over at his mother, who is calling the name “Ben,” as the fire captain steps away, looking confused.
QUANTUM LEAP — “As the World Burns” Season 2 Episode 12 (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/NBC)
At HQ, Gideon is instated as project head. He orders everyone to turn over their badges and leave the premises. Addison takes out the officer closest to her. Gideon insists they leave.
Jenn talks Addison down. They all drop their badges on the floor and leave. Gideon crows a goodbye as they get on the elevator.
All of Quantum Leap Season 2 is now available to stream on Peacock.
