Warning! The following contains spoilers for the Quantum Leap Season 1 finale, "Judgment Day." Read at your own risk!
Quantum Leap set the stage in its penultimate episode for an epic Season 1 finale, and oh boy, did it deliver. Dr. Ben Song went from the future back to his own body to thwart Richard Martinez's goal of killing the team and managed to do so without drastically altering the timeline. Unfortunately, fans were left wondering what comes next, thanks to a cryptic final scene. Luckily, showrunner Martin Gero has the answers we're looking for.
After Ben successfully saved the day and secured his future relationship with Addison wasn't altered, viewers saw him leap out of his past body. The final scene showed the quantum accelerator spinning and ended with Addison reacting to something offscreen we didn't see. I spoke to showrunner Martin Gero about the decision to end the season on such a cliffhanger, and he said the series' early success definitely played a factor in that happening:
Well, we’re very lucky. We have incredible fans that showed up in droves to watch the show, which secured us an early pickup. We were in the luxurious position of knowing we were going to have a Season 2, so we didn’t have to be like, ‘Let’s design an ending that can work either way.’ For us, it’s the promise that there’s more to come.
Quantum Leap scored an early Season 2 renewal from NBC, which afforded the team the ability to make a suspenseful Season 1 finale that didn't tie off all the loose ends. Martin Gero previously teased that the idea for Season 2 is wild, so viewers should have their expectations high for what's to come.
Martin Gero was willing to give out one detail ahead of Season 2 about what's next on Quantum Leap, in case it needed to be said. Gero confirmed the one big thing fans might be wondering after the Season 1 finale and teased that it'll play into the events of Season 2:
Obviously, he’s not making it back for reasons that we’ll go into in Season 2. I guess it’s slightly downbeat. To end on a moment where it’s like, ‘Oh shit, it’s not going to go according to plan here.'
If Ben Song is not making it back to the present, what is Addison reacting to? It would make sense if she's reacting to the fact that the quantum accelerator is empty, but it's too soon to say for sure. Maybe the quantum accelerator pulled someone out that wasn't Ben? We can only speculate, but given the hint that Season 2 of Quantum Leap is wild, I'm not ruling anything out.
There is one thing I'm ruling out, though, and that's Leaper X Richard Martinez. Martin Gero confirmed that while the future government sent Martinez after Ben in an effort to prevent nuclear war, we won't be seeing that storyline going forward:
No, because that incarnation of it – once they sent Martinez, they destroyed their accelerator. So if he failed, they don’t have a recourse to do it again. They would have to build their own accelerator to try again. We’re saying they won’t. The Martinez storyline is over.
Quantum Leap will be moving on from that story thread, so I guess fans should only expect the unexpected going forward. I'm happy to hear that news, as this season has not lacked creativity in the slightest, and the cast is incredible. There is so much potential for hijinks for Ben to get into in the future.
As mentioned, Season 2 of Quantum Leap is guaranteed and is currently being worked on. It sounds like we'll have more or less a blank slate in terms of what to expect in the future. Given the open-ended nature of the franchise, where we never know where Ben can show up, a blank slate sounds like the best-case scenario and has me psyched for the future of this NBC series.
Quantum Leap is done for the season at NBC, but definitely worth watching for those who still haven't checked it out. Those with a Peacock Premium subscription can watch Season 1 of the sequel series as well as the original series and gear up for what should be an exciting Season 2.
