There’s never a dull moment for Dr. Ben Song (Raymond Lee) on NBC’s Quantum Leap. Every time Ben travels through time, he leaps into the life of a stranger and sees someone else’s face in the mirror. Last week, Ben was a bank teller named Lorena Chaves, and in Quantum Leap season 2 episode 3, “Closure Encounters,” Ben is leaping into the life of a government agent who is investigating extraterrestrial activity. That might not be the strangest thing that Ben sees this week. In our exclusive preview scene from the episode, Ben meets Hannah Carson (Eliza Taylor), a new player that he’ll be seeing a lot of this season.
Taylor is joining the cast on a full-time basis, so this isn’t some one-off guest appearance. That also means Hannah is likely putting on a front for Ben in this scene. Alternatively, Hannah may not even be aware that Ben is a leaper. From all outward appearances, Ben is simply a normal man.
So who is Hannah? From a purely speculative perspective, there are three possibilities. In the first, Hannah is someone who may be aligned with Project Quantum Leap from a different point in time. That would make her a potential friend and ally to Ben, once they discover they are both leapers. The next alternative is that Hannah is somehow tied to Leaper X, Richard Martinez (Walter Perez), the man who was sent back in time to destroy Quantum Leap last season.
Finally, the most enticing possibility is a callback to the original Quantum Leap series. Under this scenario, Hannah’s leaps back in time would be under the control of the malevolent A.I. known as Lothos. That would make Hannah the new Evil Leaper, someone who is sent back in time to ensure that tragedies and terrible things happen to good people. The literal opposite number to Sam Beckett in the first series, and now to Ben as well.
We’ll learn more about Hannah when Quantum Leap season 2 episode 3 premieres this Wednesday, October 18 on NBC. The episode will also be streaming on Peacock as well.
