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Who Lives? Who Dies? Who Leaps? Quantum Leap Season 2 Finale Explained
What happens to Ben and the HQ Team in the Season 2 finale of Quantum Leap?
Spoilers below for the Season 2 finale of Quantum Leap!
Season 2 of NBC's Quantum Leap (you can stream every episode now on Peacock) certainly ran the gamut of adventures and emotions. There was heartbreak, new love, corporate espionage, vengeance, a massive cliffhanger twist, and so much science!
In the season finale episode, "Against Time," audiences got some resolution to the ongoing "Ben and Hannah through time" storyline, there was arguably Ben's (Raymond Lee) best example of how his inherent goodness changes time for the better, and a massive twist involving leaping going forward. Here are all the big questions and answers revealed as the second season comes to a close.
What Happens in the Season 2 Finale of Quantum Leap?
How does Jeffrey/Gideon turn out in the end of Season 2 of Quantum Leap?
If there was ever a case of how rage and vengeance can ruin your life, Jeffrey is quite the poster boy. In the present at HQ, older Jeffrey (James Frain) is hell bent on enacting his mother's code so he can get back at Ben and the Quantum Leap Project for "killing his father." Scarily, he's meticulously funded and fostered a 50-year game of revenge that is finally revealed to everyone in HQ during the finale episode. Jeffrey/Gideon plan to forcibly swap with Ben to become the new leaper, change history for his own gains, and then have Ben locked up forever in a prison cell. Not the healthiest way to deal with grief, Jeffrey.
RELATED: Quantum Leap's New Baddie: Who Is Gideon Rydge?
While Ben and Addison (Caitlin Bassett) initially plan to find young Jeffrey's computer — which will launch his tech career (and revenge scheme) — and destroy it, Ben knows that will likely just incite the kid's anger even more. Instead, Ben takes the time to apologize for the letter he sent hoping to save his father, and invites young Jeffrey to help him save the life of his latest leap case. Hoping to appeal to the kid's pain, and asking him to help avoid that pain in another family, Jeffrey joins him and they use their science and some jumper cables to defib stock car driver Ricky Sr., who is in the throes of a heart attack. Their ingenuity works and it changes young Jeffrey... and the future.
Is Jenn really dead? And what happened to Magic, Beth and Janice in the Quantum Leap season finale?
The great thing about butterfly effects and time paradoxes are they are technically fixable, if you do it right. In this case, Ben did it right by diffusing young Jeffrey's vendetta against him and the Quantum Leap Project in the past, which means older Jeffrey becomes a friend and benefactor to the program. The slightly-tweaked-for-the-better present timeline means that Jeffrey never actually infiltrated HQ to take it over. Instead, he built the quantum chip for free and helps fund the program.
RELATED: Quantum Leap Stars Tease "Messiness" and "Drama" to Come for Rest of Season 2
Since the mess with Gideon never happened in this altered timeline, that means Magic is still running the program, and his forced resignation earlier in the season has been altered and erased. Jeffrey never turning into the rage-filled Gideon Rydge also means that Jenn (Nanrisa Lee) is never shot and killed by his goons, as we see her alive and well at episode's end after the timeline has changed. Magic (Ernie Hudson) is still happily dating Beth, while Al and Beth's (Susan Diol) daughter, Janis Calavicci (Georgina Reilly) is still living in Hawaii, per the end of Season 1. More importantly, the HQ team has Hannah's code that will allow them to swap leapers in the safest way possible. Addison volunteers and Magic approves her request.
Do Hannah and Ben get a happily ever after at the end of Quantum Leap Season 2?
In one sense, Hannah and Ben do get the best ending possible for a leaper and the woman he loves that remains stationary in time. They get to have a sweet goodbye in 1970, where she gets to thank him for the letter warning her about her husband's death. She says that gifted them more time with Joshua, a gift that she has never taken for granted.
RELATED: We Finally Learn Why Ben & Hannah Keep Meeting Across Time on Quantum Leap
In turn, she knows her code is going to work for Ben and hopefully return him back to the life he wants in the future. It's bittersweet for sure, because even if Hannah were to survive to 2025, she would be extremely old and there would be no hope for a life together. Instead, Hannah tells Ben that she cherishes the "life" they experienced together over a season of leaps. Ben feels the same. The whole sequence feels like an ending for the two, but time will certainly tell if the series is renewed and if we ever see Hannah again.
Do Addison and Ben get back together in the Quantum Leap season finale?
There's potential for Addison and Ben now, more than ever this season. With Addison donning the Quantum Accelerator suit and entering the machine to "swap" with Ben as the new leaper, they should still be time-separated ex-lovers and colleagues. Except Addison arrives in her first leap only to see Ben is also there. In the flesh. They run to one another, embrace — which means both of them are present in the past as leapers — and then run for cover in what seems to be wartime in Europe.
Will being in the same time and place again after years apart allow them to get back together? Are Tom and Hannah truly out of their individual hearts? And can two separate people leap together in time without creating huge problems, or chaos in the timestream? All great questions, and ones we hope to have answered. But in the meantime, finally seeing Ben and Addison back together — even if it's not in the present — is a surprising, makes for a hopeful and exciting moment to end the season.
Dive back into the excitement of Quantum Leap Season 2 with a binge of the whole season, now available on Peacock!
