Physicist Dr. Ben Song (Raymond Lee) leaps from being part of a gang attempting to steal the Hope Diamond in episode one to being a member of the Atlantis space shuttle crew in NBC’s Quantum Leap episode two. All his friends and fellow lab employees hoped he’d leap from 1985 back to the present, but that’s definitely not the case as he’s currently stuck in 1998.
The space shuttle successfully launches and even reluctant traveler Ben’s wowed by the view from space. Their mission is to put the first piece of the International Space Station in place, and he listens to pilot Samantha Stratton (Carly Pope) and Commander Jim Reynolds (Jose Zuniga) exchange friendly banter. Stratton promises she’s going to make Reynolds proud as Ben is mesmerized by the stars.
Ben’s initial attempts at contacting Addison aren’t successful. All he knows is the astronaut he’s leaped into is named David.
Meanwhile in 2022, Ian (Mason Alexander Park) shows up at Addison’s place with coffee. They haven’t located Ben but the system’s working again so they should find him soon. Ian’s shocked to see it looks like her apartment’s been ransacked, and Addison (Caitlin Bassett) admits she found Ben’s phone and he left a message acknowledging she won’t be able to make sense out of what he’s doing.
Addison thinks she might find other clues in her place, and she already found a hidden flash drive. They hope Jenn can crack the password, and Addison admits she didn’t get any sleep. She feels like she doesn’t know Ben now; after falling in love and sharing everything she has no idea what he’s doing.
They head into the lab and Jenn (Nanrisa Lee) fills them in on Janice Calavicci, Al’s daughter. Janice is a brilliant astrophysicist and Addison volunteers to jog Ben’s memory to see if he knows about her involvement. Magic (Ernie Hudson) doesn’t think that’s for the best; Ben having amnesia is a good thing. If Janice drew him into some nefarious plan, it’s best they don’t try and get him to think about why he leaped or what his agenda is.
Addison doesn’t agree but Magic orders her not to jog his memory.
Ian receives a notification that Ben leaped to March 7, 1998 and is on the Atlantis space shuttle.
Addison decides not to tell Jenn and Magic about Ben’s phone or finding the flash drive. Ian’s reluctantly pulled into her plan.
The connection’s working again and Addison’s able to interact with Ben. He doesn’t understand why he didn’t return to his time and Addison explains they’re working on it. Addison says the name of the astronaut he leaped into, and Ben recognizes it. He idolized him as a kid and wanted to follow in his footsteps.
Ben suddenly realizes he’s remembering things, including that he immigrated from Korea. Jenn tells Addison to change the subject, but instead, Addison asks what else he remembers. Nothing…expect that David died on this mission.
Ziggy, the AI, believes there’s a 92% chance Ben’s made this leap to change that. The cause of David’s death was classified so they don’t know how he died.
Ben’s freaking out that he might hit the wrong switch or touch something that causes an accident, and Addison reminds him she’s there to help him with the technical stuff.
Ben begins what’s supposed to be a routine system check and all hell breaks loose. It wasn’t his fault; the payload shifted and it’s blocking a door.
Suddenly, there’s a huge crashing sound and the shuttle begins spinning. Stratton’s a talented pilot and manages to get it back under control. Unfortunately, Commander Reynolds has been injured.
Reynolds’ wife made Stratton promise she’d take care of him since it’s her first flight and his last. She’s worked with him for 10 years and she tells Ben that Reynolds loves to say “told ya” when she does something wrong.
The fourth member of the crew, Max Everett (Leith Burke), believes Reynolds will be okay.
The explosion ruptured the oxygen tank and they’re on backup now. They only have six hours of oxygen left.
Ben asks Addison if he can leap now, but he can’t. Apparently, that emergency didn’t have anything to do with David’s death.
Magic visits Al’s widow, Beth, and asks for help finding Janice. Beth hasn’t seen her daughter in a year and doesn’t know what she’s up to. (Beth is played by Susan Diol, reprising her role from the original series.)
20 minutes after Magic leaves, Beth called Janice so now Jenn and Magic know she’s in a small house in Pasadena. They head out to track her down and before they knock on Janice’s door, Jenn suggests Magic take it easy on Addison. Nothing that’s happening was Addison’s choice yet it’s affecting her more than anyone else on the team.
Janice isn’t home but she left the phone behind. They check out her house and discover a cellar that leads to a hidden lab. There are formulas written in Ben’s handwriting, lots of computers and servers, and a security system. They know Janice is watching them and have to move fast to remove the hard drive.
Janice calls Magic while he and Jenn are still in her lab and reveals Ben knocked on her door and asked for help. This wasn’t her idea. Janice warns Magic to stay out of her way and says she’s taken precautions. They better leave her lab ASAP or else.
Magic hangs up and things start exploding in the lab. Jenn’s able to grab the hard drive before they’re forced to flee.
Back in space, Ben wonders why Addison doesn’t try and jog his memory and she confesses the team doesn’t want her to. Ben puts the pieces together and realizes they think he has some “big, evil plan.” He understands why they’re doing it and thinks he’d come to the same decision.
The classified mission report says David got hit by debris on a spacewalk. Ben needs to avoid that and stay alive and so, of course, he’s given the order to do an emergency spacewalk to close the payload doors. They’re going to return to Kennedy now but that’s not possible with the doors open. He needs to go outside and toggle the manual release lever.
Addison tells him the approximate time of death and he’s got 90 minutes to get back inside. Ben doesn’t want to take any chances and talks Stratton and Everett out of doing the required 20-minute pressurization test before he goes out.
Stratton shares the advice Reynolds always tells her – trust his gut, stay open, and stay safe.
David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” plays as Ben steps outside. He takes a minute to soak it in, describing how he feels as a mixture of terrified and amazed. Addison’s hologram is also outside and although she knows she’s not physically there, she’s overwhelmed with the incredible experience.
Ben gets to work and follows Addison’s instructions. He’s got 10 minutes left when he’s ready to throw the switch. Mission accomplished, he’s about to return to the ship when Addison spots space debris heading his way – earlier than expected.
Addison yells for Ben to duck as debris strikes the ship. He dodges the debris and reports that he’s okay. Ben’s sure he can leap now since David didn’t die, but now there’s a different issue. Addison explains that because he dodged the debris, it damaged tiles and now there’s a 100% chance they’ll all die upon reentry!
Back at the lab, Addison asks Ian about the flash drive and he explains it would take too much computational power to crack it without letting Magic and Jenn know. Ian thinks she should ask them for help.
Addison rejoins Ben and helps him describe the seriousness of the tile damage to the crew. They don’t think it’s worth trying to fix the tiles since they only have four hours of oxygen left and their window to return to Kennedy is closing.
Ben’s adamant about the very real possibility they’ll die if they don’t do something, and Stratton picks up on the urgency and suggests they can get extra oxygen from Russian’s Mir. After they get the oxygen, they can fix the tiles and then head home.
Addison checks with Ziggy and if they go to Mir right now, Ziggy gives them an 87% chance of surviving. Everett’s against it but Stratton makes the call. They’re going to Mir.
Reynolds picks just that second to join them and counter Stratton’s order. He thinks asking the Russians for help would be embarrassing to the program. Reynolds and Stratton argue, and Reynolds wins out since he’s the Commander.
Stratton doesn’t give up. The tile damage is too severe to attempt reentry without being fixed. She begs Reynolds to listen to her and understand what she’s trying to do. Reynolds doesn’t change his mind and he orders her to get in her seat. Stratton disobeys and leaves, and Reynolds sends Ben to fetch her.
Addison tells Ben it’s up to him to get the crew rowing in the same direction.
Stratton suggests Ben shouldn’t be there while she opens the payload doors, forcing them to abort reentry. She doesn’t want him to get court-martialed.
Ben reports back what Stratton’s doing but adds that Reynolds isn’t of sound mind and shouldn’t be in the chair right now. He was unconscious up until 15 minutes ago. Ben tosses his own advice back at him – stay open, stay fluid, stay safe.
Ben reminds Reynolds that he taught Stratton to be the best. She knows what she’s doing, and he’s prepared her for just this moment…just this emergency. “Now she’s willing to risk her career and her life to convince you that you are wrong,” says Ben.
Ben wants Reynolds to trust that Stratton’s doing what’s best for the crew. Reynolds changes his mind and gives the order to abort.
Stratton maps a course and they can get to Mir in an hour. But it will mean another spacewalk for Ben because they need to point an antenna at the Russians to communicate.
It’s obvious Ben is loving these spacewalks and he thanks Addison for everything, including helping the guy that no one trusts.
The antenna is pointed and Reynolds determines they don’t have much of a window to work with. It’ll take an hour to dock and get the oxygen, and they’ve only got an hour and 15 minutes of oxygen left. Basically, they have 15 minutes to get the Russians to allow them to dock.
Mir doesn’t respond and Ben realizes they’re asleep because it’s the middle of the night. He unclips his tether and jumps off the ship. His plan: to knock on their door and wake them up!
He bounces around the outside of the ship but manages to grab the door. He bangs and a Russian finally answers. Ben informs Atlantis he has contact with Mir.
Reynolds apologizes for doubting Stratton, and she replies, “Told ya.”
Ziggy reports everyone survives after they dock with Mir and make their repairs. Stratton will become a commander and David will be one of the first astronauts to live on the International Space Station.
Still, the odds he leaps home are 50/50. Addison swears she’ll be with him until he gets back home.
Ben leaps.
Magic and Addison have a heart-to-heart and they’re both sorry about how they’ve handled the situation. Addison also admits Ben thinks they’re handling it the right way – it’s what he’d do. Magic knows it will take all of them to figure this out.
The team discusses Janice’s hard drive which is currently useless because they don’t have the encryption key. Addison turns over the flash drive she found, and they believe it could help them open the hard drive.
They open it and are stunned to see it contains “millions of variables representing millions of places in time.” One place is larger than the others and they determine it’s a destination. Ian believes Ben got into the machine to get to a specific place at a specific point in time. They don’t know where it is or when…or why Ben did this.
Is Ben attempting to find Sam Beckett?
The episode ends with Ben leaping into a boxer just as he’s punched in the face.
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