‘Quantum Leap’ Boss Breaks Down Season 1 Finale: Does Ben Return Home?

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Quantum Leap Season 1 finale “Judgment Day.”]

Ben (Raymond Lee) is finally heading home… or is he?

That’s what everyone thinks at the end of the Quantum Leap Season 1 finale, after a trip to the future where he got a code from Ian (Mason Alexander Park), his latest leap into his 2018 self — just in time for his and Addison’s (Caitlin Bassett) first date! — and a face-off with Martinez (Walter Perez) that ultimately led to the other man’s death. But…

Executive producer Martin Gero explains why it’s not so simple and teases what’s ahead in Season 2 (picked up in December).

The finale ends, Ben’s leaping, everyone’s waiting, there are all these questions about whether he’ll actually return to the present, who he’ll be when he does, what he’ll remember… What can you say?

Martin Gero: All I can say is he doesn’t leap home. He really thought that the code that him and Janice [Georgina Reilly] and Ian had inputted into the machine would bring him back around, but the events of this finale threw that for a loop and he doesn’t come home.

The type of storytelling that we’re looking to do is every season should feel like a kind of novel in a series of books you like. It was really important for us we answer the majority of the questions that were asked in the opening episodes of the season and have that be a conclusion so that the show doesn’t feel like all middle. We also recognize that almost a third of our viewers are going to wait to just binge it all, so we want that to be a satisfying experience for them.

Can you confirm that he’s not going to lose all the memories he got back?

Yes.

Talk about figuring out when in the timeline you’d bring this all back to in the finale. Ben and Addison’s first date makes sense for where they were with each other, but did you consider another year?

No, it felt really organic. That certainly felt like the fork in the road as far as if he messed up that day, it would fundamentally change everyone’s relationship probably, so it felt like the day that had the most stakes emotionally for them. And it was also one that we had been talking about. As Ben tries to regain his memories, we’ve heard about these early moments, so to be able to now visit them feels really exciting, especially as we immediately subvert how they played out.

Ron Batzdorff/NBC

Especially that date — Addison sitting between her past self and Ben was so good.

So great. Caitlin had a tough job this episode. She did so great. She’s playing two versions of herself nonetheless in the scene. It was amazing to watch her do that.

Could Ben have changed something with that kiss though? Addison is waiting for him, so their relationship seems to be on track as it was.

Yeah, it’s inevitable. If anything, it just adds a little more spark to their step, but it doesn’t fundamentally change the present as we know it.

Was there a scenario in which Ben interacted with Magic (Ernie Hudson), Ian, and Jenn (Nanrisa Lee) more than he did in the first season?

In the second season, he’ll definitely interact with the three of them more. We wanted to, in the first season, really establish the Ben and Addison dynamic and relationship. But there were so many fun moments this year — when Jenn stood in in the legal episode and Ian, they were able to come in and help Ben land a plane. Now that we’ve done that, it’s opened the floodgates for allowing Magic, Ian, and Jenn to occasionally be the hologram.

That’s really the focus of the Season 2 — not for them to be the hologram constantly, but to create space for those characters in a way that the first season was maybe not designed to do. The first season is very plot heavy and the second season is less so. It gives space for some more complex emotional stories for the people in our present stories.

What Ian got to do is they got to be in multiple timelines. We saw three different versions of Ian at one point. Will we see that again?

That was a Season 1 thing, but you never know.

What can you say about plans for the leaps in Season 2 when you’re looking at making it a little different?

The great news is there’s nothing to make different because every leap is so different. We’re basically starting from scratch every episode.We try to keep them as eclectic and diverse as possible and the people that he’s jumping into as diverse and eclectic as possible so his experiences in those leaps will be so different. That’s the fun of the show. One week, it can be a big action hour and the next week it’s a deep emotional drama, and then it’s a horror movie, and then it’s a romantic comedy. It’s an infinite playground for us as writers and we have a long list of leaps we’d like to do.

I liked watching Ben get a little more settled in actually doing these leaps and being these other people.

Yeah, I think it’s a learning curve, and so he’s definitely getting better at it, but I think what’s so fun about his character is how befuddled he can get and how he’s still making little mistakes about referencing things that no one has any idea what he’s talking about. Ray is so great and is such a naturally gifted comedic actor but also has this incredible capacity to feel, and it’s a huge part about why the show works.

Trae Patton/NBC

How did you decide how much to reference Sam and the original series, and how much will that continue? More or less? About the same?

I think about the same. We let it happen organically. It’s a great way to talk about what Ben’s going through, what the people that Sam left behind must have gone through. As our characters are going through it on their own, you can’t help but reference those that have gone before you and try to learn from the lessons that they learned.

Especially when you do it through Magic.

Yeah, and how lucky are we to have Ernie Hudson, who is very funny but also has such gravitas.

I know what Scott Bakula has said about appearing, but have there been any talks about possibly Season 2? Or addressing Sam’s current status in a more direct way?

I think we’re going to keep it as we did in Season 1. It’s kind of unknowable, and so I think it remains abstract.

Is there anything you had planned for Season 1 you moved to Season 2 once you got news of the renewal?

No, not really. This was always how Season 1 was going to end, but because we knew we were going to be able to do it, we were able to leave it a little more vague as to whether Ben made it back or not. The cliffhanger could be a little more cliffhanger-y.

What else can you tease about Season 2?

I really can’t. It’s under lock and key. We have some incredible guests that NBC fans will be very, very excited about. The show just feels bigger and more assured. The first season of any show is just chaos as you’re trying to figure out how to work this new machine that you’ve been given. We’ve been able to keep almost the exact same crew in place, the exact same department head, so we have now a shorthand that we didn’t have at the beginning of the year that is allowing us to learn from the production mistakes that you’ll never see, but figure out, this is what the show does really great and this is what the show can’t do.

The season premiere is the biggest episode we’ve done. I think it’s bigger than the pilot. The scope of the storytelling is really, really exciting.

Now that you’ve gone to the future, does that open up the possibility of doing that again and maybe sooner rather than later?

I think it’ll be later rather than sooner. It was such a special circumstance because Ben had to plot almost an 18-leap course to send himself into the future to meet Ian. I don’t think it can be replicated again right away.

Why kill Martinez in the way that you did? There probably could have been a way to end that storyline that left him alive where he could come back…

We didn’t want him to come back, is the thing. We really wanted that story to close because if there’s any worry that the future is still a problem for us, then it really handicaps us as far as how we can use Ziggy, right? Because Ziggy wasn’t evil. Ziggy’s a benign figure, but they document everything. If the future was still a worry for us, then we would have to go back to pencils and papers to try to figure this out, so having to be able to turn Ziggy back on is huge and I think integral to the show.

Can you say anything about a recurring threat in Season 2? Are you looking at a season-long threat? Mini ones that are all part of something bigger?

I don’t want to give too much away, but it won’t have a conventional season-long threat. There won’t be a big bad that we’re working against. The season is much more emotional for all of our characters for reasons I can’t get into yet. But it feels like a lot of the space that was eaten up by that mythology is filled with emotion and character development in a way that is deeply satisfying and really exciting. And so the leaps are bigger and better.

But I can’t speak to an evil force in Season 2 because I think we’re leaning more towards the kind of vibe of the original show where — certainly, our show is more serialized than the original one is. There’s enough stakes in these leaps week to week it doesn’t constantly need a foreboding force entering Ben’s space.

Also I’m looking forward to learning more about Magic, Jenn, and Ian. You had to focus on Ben and Addison’s story in Season 1.

Exactly. And it became a thing where Magic, Ian, and Jenn a lot of times bore the brunt of explaining a lot of time travel math, and having Ernie Hudson, this incredible actor just constantly be like, “whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, say that one more time” as opposed to really getting into who Magic is and how this is affecting him emotionally. There’s some really exciting things for all three of them coming in Season 2.

Is Janice coming back?

Right now, we don’t have plans, but I’m always open. I love Georgina Reilly. This is our third show together, so certainly big fan. If the opportunity comes up, then absolutely.

Quantum Leap, Season 2, TBA, NBC