With the shocking events of this past season of Quantum Leap, the series has a lot of explaining to do. After the reveal of Ziggy being the mole, the team is shocked on what this means for Ben (Raymond Lee) coming home and Addison’s (Caitlin Bassett) fate. Everyone is still reeling from the shocking reveal, especially Ian (Mason Alexander Park) whose whole life was about bringing Ziggy back to life from the original program. So, has Ziggy gone evil? Has A.I. become self-aware and now plotting for revenge? Executive producer Dean Georgaris assures us that isn’t the case.
“The interesting thing that I really enjoyed about our first season is that we take tropes and try to put a spin on them,” Georgaris told The Nerds of Color during a set visit for the finale. “The whole time we’ve been thinking ‘mole! Mole! Mole!,’ someone is thinking it would be someone with a competing agenda like Janis (Georgina Reilly), but the truth is Ziggy is just technology that is also being used by Martinez in the future. It’s more what feels like a mole to us is actually foresight. I like that a lot because I don’t think anyone will see it coming. It’s just so obvious.”
This comes as a relief to Park as their character Ian was Ziggy’s creator. Though Ian blames themselves when Ziggy is revealed as the mole, they never stopped loving their child.
“I found out that I might be part of the problem,” Park laughed while waiting for their next scene on set. “I designed Ziggy. Ian is being very hard on themselves and trying to figure it out so that they can do whatever damage control they can in a short amount of time to try to save their own ass and everybody’s ass. The last two episodes are very big WTF moments for Ian and Ziggy. They have a relationship. They have a weird, close relationship.”
Ziggy is actually neutral in all of this and just provides answers, including to Martinez who works for the Quantum Leap program in the future. This isn’t a case of AI gone bad (“Hello Hal”). Georgaris doesn’t want audiences to presume that Ziggy is bad as well for providing information to Martinez. Instead, he wants audiences to question if Martinez is actually doing the right thing too.
“The Ziggy we have here gives the advice, but the Ziggy of the future has all of Ziggy’s past experiences in it,” said Georgaris. “In a way, if we think of Ziggy as a person, then you’re finding out well, they’re giving us one piece of advice, but future them did something different. If anything, I think he would make you question once again, ‘are we sure we’re on the right side here?’ The scariest thing about Ziggy being the ‘mole’ isn’t that Ziggy is bad. It’s the implication that [maybe] Martinez is actually doing the right thing.”
The entire team — Magic (Ernie Hudson), Jenn (Nanrisa Lee), Addison, and Ian — aren’t sure what to do now that Ziggy is out of commission. Each feels a bit of guilt over the situation as they figure out the next steps.
As leader of the program, Magic feels dejected because he felt so close to finding Ben — therefore, a chance to find Sam Beckett. He had spent his whole career to the Quantum Leap program, even sacrificing family time and a real life outside. Now with Ziggy’s shut down, Magic feels even more lost.
“[Magic] has taken a lot on his shoulders,” said Hudson. “He feels responsible. He committed to the whole system and finds out that Ziggy is possibly the problem. It’s hard because he can’t personally fix it.
As Magic’s right-hand, Jenn has taken pride in being the top of her game in security. So to find out Ziggy has been the mole the entire time, throws her off her game. Nanrisa Lee shares Jenn is a bit relieved it’s Ziggy.
“At least it wasn’t somebody from our team,” Lee sighed. “Jenn doesn’t have a really strong family structure. This [group] has become her family. I think that would have been a bit devastating [if it was one of the crew].”
For Jenn, now the real work begins. She uses her street smarts as well as her security experience to find where Ben is and how to fix this. “Jenn may not be the most optimistic person, but [she hasn’t lost hope]. She has been pretty self-destructive before — with the gambling — but she believes in the program and her family.”
Addison, on the other hand, is running on borrowed time. She has been so focused on trying to bring Ben back that we’re closer to her own possible death. In the previews for the finale, Addison is shown being shot.
“I think she does [think about her own mortality],” Bassett told us in between takes for the finale. “Part of her thought she could have helped [Ben if he didn’t had leaped]. He took something away from her. He took that autonomy and the ability to protect herself away. It’s terrifying because she lost the love of her life. If you asked Addison flat out if she would rather die or lose Ben — the answer would be die rather than lose him to time.”
As the team closely puts the pieces together, Ben finds himself with future Ian at their headquarters, now seemingly ruined by climate change. Raymond Lee shares that Future Ian is essentially in a “wasteland” and has been waiting for Ben to leap to him.
“The [make-up] team really made Mason look like he’s surrounded by radiation waste,” said Lee. “It’s a version of Gandalf. Mason created this whole character just on the elements around him because they had to survive when everyone else has passed. Ian had to see all that death firsthand.”
Finding a body for Ben to leap into was even more difficult because there was no one around since it was a wasteland. Although Lee wouldn’t reveal whose body he lept into, he says the episode opens feeling like a completely different show.
“[Ian tells Ben] at the top of the episode that it was hard [to survive],” Lee described. “I imagine [they] must have felt deeply isolated. It feels like another show in the best way.”
Park agrees that the opening to the finale will be unexpected for many of the viewers. “It was really amazing in terms of cinematography and the directing for them to be able to build these distinct worlds like we have in the past. We have the present and then we have the post-apocalyptic future.”
Though Ian is all alone in the future, having been the only survivor from the program after a nuclear fallout and war that left the world in shambles. With nothing left to lose and filled with survivor’s guilt, their only option was to change the future through the program.
“It’s a really sad, lonely existence,” said Park. “They’re not doing well. When we meet up, they’re very frazzled. They’re not the same person [you know from present Ian].”
Present Ian is extremely stressed out over the turn of events — Ziggy being the mole and their future self causing Ben to leap. They are trying to keep it all together, but now that they have completely no idea where Ben went to, they’re even more worried.
“The balance of the group has just been completely thrown off by all of these revelations that have happened in the episodes leading up to it,” said Park. “Going into the finale, they are just so unbelievably stressed and worried and trying their best to hold it together. The group is slightly falling apart in small ways. We tried to do everything we’ve been doing this whole season, but it becomes especially important leading into the finale because we finally feel like we’re close enough. The stakes are so measurably higher than the previous episodes.”
With a season two confirmed, there could be more mysteries or even a cliffhanger, which can cause even more angst among the audiences. Georgaris assures us that all the big questions that were posed in the pilot will be answered in the finale — minus where Sam Beckett is, maybe.
“We all decided as writers in the room that we wanted [everything answered],” Georgaris explained. “What’s exciting about going into the finale is that you’re going to get to see all the things you haven’t seen that you’ve wanted to see all year, including why Ben leaped in the first place.”
The cast believes audiences will be satisfied with the finale. There will always be questions floating, especially when it comes to time traveling and the butterfly effects that come with it. But, for the most part, everyone will feel a bit at peace.
“[The audiences] are really going to enjoy it,” said Nanrisa Lee. “People who have an interest and questions about the time traveling aspects will enjoy it. It’ll be a lot of fun.”
Quantum Leap season finale premieres next Monday on NBC!
