Diksha Sundriyal
NBC’s sci-fi drama ‘Quantum Leap’ introduces the concept of time loops in its eleventh episode. Until now, the focus was on time travel. Even with the quantum accelerator and Ben Song already in the past, there are still a lot of things that the team doesn’t know about. With Ben’s every leap they are trying to figure out the mechanics of his time travels while helping him get out of every leap safely. In this episode, they discover something that changes a crucial aspect of Ben’s journey. Here’s what happens by the end. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Quantum Leap Episode 11 Recap
Ben finds himself in 1962 inside the body of an army officer on his way to the testing of a nuclear reactor. He is accompanied by four other people which include two scientists, a journalist, and a janitor. It is a facility housing a nuclear reactor and the lead scientist, Dr. Edwin Woolsey, is ready to present the latest breakthrough in the project. Before Ben and Addison can figure out what he is supposed to do in this leap, the nuclear reactor explodes and everyone dies.
Because Ben is supposed to die if the person whom he’s possessing dies, everyone back at the headquarters believes that he is gone. But then, Ben comes back, at the same place back at the same time, but in the body of another person. It turns out that Ben is stuck in a time loop, and he only has a short amount of time to figure out the identity of the person who is going to explode the entire facility.
Quantum Leap Episode 11 Ending: Who Wanted to Destroy the Nuclear Reactor?
Ben’s leap begins in an elevator with four other people. Over the course of the episode, he leaps into the body of every person. The first time, he leaps into the body of the Colonel but isn’t able to understand anything. The second time, he ends up in the body of Eugene, the younger scientist, who is assisting Dr. Woolsey on the project. This is when Ben discovers a bomb placed in the reactor which causes the entire facility to be destroyed, along with all the people inside it.
By the third loop, when he ends up in the body of the journalist, Ben has started to grasp the situation. One of the five people in the elevator placed that bomb and he has only two more loops left to figure out who it is. From the journalist, Ben discovers that the nuclear reactor is a front of some other government activity. Previously, Jenn discovered that all five people had died within the span of a week, following the explosion. All of their deaths looked suspicious, and it is clear it was an elaborate government coverup.
It turns out that the journalist, Mallory Yang had figured out the truth and wanted evidence to expose Dr. Woolsey. Before he can learn more, Ben leaps into the body of Dr. Woolsey. He is unable to find anything this time around, and with the janitor, he has only one chance left to find the truth. As the janitor, he breaks into the office of Dr. Woolsey and discovers that the place really is a front for making nuclear weapons, disguised as a research facility for sustainable energy.
The answer to the perpetrator’s identity isn’t revealed until the Colonel shows up. In his first loop, Ben noticed a letter in the Colonel’s pocket. Before he could read it, the explosion took place and Ben leaped into another person. It isn’t until his last loop that the Colonel reveals what was written in the letter. Someone had threatened him to close the facility. It was the person who wrote this letter that Ben needed to find and stop.
Ben notices that the paper is the same as the notebook that Eugene had. Previously, Ben noticed that a few pages were torn off from the notebook. He realizes that it is in fact Eugene who was responsible for the explosion. He didn’t want the research in nuclear energy to be used for the wrong purposes, like creating weapons of mass destruction. Instead of letting millions of people die because of it, he decided to blow up the facility instead.
How Did Ben Get Out of the Time Loop?
As soon as Ben figures out that Eugene was behind all this, he and the Colonel confront him. The man accepts everything and shows no remorse for what he’s about to do. Ben also deduces that to make the bomb go off, Eugene needed a remote control. It turns out that the trigger was in the pen, the one that would run out of ink in every loop. Once the pen is secured, the bomb is not triggered and the explosion doesn’t happen.
Mallory ends up writing an exposé on the whole thing, and Addison reveals that the place ended up becoming a research facility for sustainable energy. With the purpose of his leap fulfilled Ben manages to break the loop. Because the explosion doesn’t happen, he doesn’t die again and there is no reason for the loop to continue. He fades out from this leap and jumps into another.
Back at the headquarters, Jenn and Magic argue whether including Janice in saving Ben was a wise decision, especially considering that she hasn’t given them anything yet. She is still keeping the details about Ben’s leap a secret, giving no idea to the team as to where Ben plans to go in the future and what threat looms on Addison. However, it seems that they are finally getting through to her and Janice promises to tell Addison the name of the person who told Ben to leap in the first place.
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