- In 1962, Ben finds himself caught in a time loop and trying to stop a nuclear reactor explosion.
- When Ben leaps into one of five people in an elevator at a 1962 nuclear reactor, he must figure which one triggers a bomb that kills them all. Each time the bomb goes off, he leaps into another one of them and the scene resets on a fine loop. If the loop runs out, Ben dies for good.—NBC
- Ben appears in an elevator with a janitor and three individual. The elevator arrives on the floor and the quintet go to a room where a nuclear reactor is. Nearby, the clock click over to 10:01
They go to a control room and the female reporter, Mallory Yang, asks the lead scientist, Edwin Woolsey, talks about how reactors generating sustainable energy can help in the future. Addison appears next to Ben and talks about how he's in element, and says that it's September 12, 1962 and nuclear power was the "hottest" thing in turn. She confirms that the reactor is shut down that day. Woolsey does a demonstration of the reactor but it doesn't work, and the government pulls the plug on the project.
The fourth person who came in with Ben, Eugene, jokes with Ben and admits that he's nervous about the demonstration.
Back at the project, Jenn tells Addison that she can't find anything about the project, and Woolsey dies of a heart attack that day.
At the reactor, Woolsey checks his wristwatch and finds it's not working, then starts talking about how the project initiates the future. Eugene starts up the reactor and meanwhile, Jenn tells Addison that Mallory dies that week as well, supposedly in a car accident. The man Ben jumped into, Colonel Jack Parker, died in an accidental weapon discharge. Eugene died over an overdose and the janitor, Moe Murphy died in an electrical accident. They figure it's a government cover-up, and Addison runs to the imaging chamber.
Eugene brings the reactor online, and the coolant starts draining. The alarms go off, and Addison appears and tells Ben to run. There's an explosion, and at the Project in the future, Ben flatlines. Jenn tells Magic that Ben is dead, and Addison returns and screams in grief. Ben's vitals come back online, even though that's not possible.
In 1963, the elevator arrive as it did the first time. Now Ben is in Eugene's body, and he's the only one remembers the first loop.
At the Project, the team tries to work out what happened. Iain figures that they're dealing with a time loop, and Ben will keep dying over and over as time continually loops Addison goes back into the imaging chamber.
The elevator arrives at the reactor floor and the group get out and look at the reactor. Everything that happened the first time repeats. Addison runs in and Ben figures that he died. She tells him that he did, and Ben has to stop the reactor from blowing up or he'll die again.
In the Project, Magic works out that Ben is stuck in the loop and will keep dying over and over again until he figures out what he's there to do and breaks the loop, and Leaps. Ian warns that it's all theoretical, but one PhD student did publish a paper on time loops a few years ago: Janis. Magic talks to her, and she tells him that she can't help him. Magic figures Janis knows more about what's going on than she's saying, and if the loop is part of the plan she has nothing to worry about. Janis agrees to help until they get Ben out of the loop.
Ben yells at everyone to run, and Woolsey tells him to calm down and everything looks normal. Parker lights up a cigar and Woolsey tells him that he can't smoke there. Ben checks the manual and discovers pages missing, and tries to do the calculations himself but finds Eugene's pen doesn't work. Woolsey says that they don't have time for him to find a new pen, and discovers his wristwatch doesn't work. He tells Ben that he's having nerves, and Ben tells them to turn of Kennedy finish his speech. Woolsey does so, while Ben goes out to find hazmat suits.
At the Project, Jenn tells Magic that she couldn't find anything conclusive about time loops. She wonders if Janis set up the whole thing, but Magic doesn't believe it and figures that if he's wrong, he'll take the blame.
Ben dons a hazmat suit and goes into the reactor with Addison, and finds a bomb. There's a receiver on it and Ben figures someone in the building will trigger it. Since there's nothing in the historical records about sabotage, the saboteur got away with blowing up the reactor. The bomb is welded to a pipe, and the bomb sparks as Addison tells Ben to run. The reactor doesn't blow, but Ben notices that hydrogen gas is leaking. It ignites and explodes, and the present team watch as Ben flatlines.
The loop starts again, with Ben in Mallory's body.
Addison rejoins the others and is surprised to see Janis there. She's suspicious that Janis is trying to sabotage them, but accepts that Janis is there to help them. Janis points out that the nuclear reactor and the time travel are interacting to create the loop, and Ian reports that Ziggy is reporting that Ben appears in the elevator initially because someone there planted the bomb. The bomb was triggered from the control room, so someone in the elevator must be responsible.
Addison joins Ben in the elevator, and tells them what Ziggy reported. She tells him that he has much time as he needs to figure out who is responsible. Mallory keeps Woolsey talking, and he insists the facility is safe. Ben questions Parker, who says that it's his job to keep the Project safe from commies. Next, Ben questions Eugene, who says that he's a geek, and Moe, who is a sf fan who likes working there. Ben goes to clean up a soda spill, while Ben tells Addison that everyone seems devoted. He plays Mallory's tape recorder, who says that the reactor is a front and she plans to expose Mallory by the end of the day.
The reactor explodes, and Addison goes back to the Project room. Magic tells her that it's okay to take a break since she keeps seeing Ben die, and Addison wonders why it feels like Ben died for a good. Addison admits that since Ben's Leap began, it feels like Ben died but she didn't feel it until today. Magic sympathizes and tells her that she has to keep holding onto the thought that Ben will come home some day... just like he believes that about Sam.
Ben finds himself back in the elevator in Woolsey's body. Addison appears behind him and points out that Ben is in the body of the man he needs to talk to. He talks to Mallory and asks what the front is. She says that he doesn't dare threaten her sister, and wonders how Woolsey sleep at night. Mallory walks off, and Ben points out that he can't warn anyone then setting off the bomb. He goes to find out what he can.
At the Project, Ian brings Janis some coffee and insists that they're not the bad guy. Janis tells him that she can't trust anyone there. Ian points out the similarities between Janis and Addison, and suggests Addison is wrong about Janis just like Janis is wrong about them. Ziggy reports that Moe is the likely bomber, and Ian figures that's because he's the one person Ben hasn't Leaped into. Janis examines the data and figures that it's a finite time loop, and Ben can only leap into the five people once each before he dies permanently.
Addison overhears them and tells Ben, and they figure that after Ben Leaps into Moe, he'll die in the next Leap. The reactor explodes on time.
Ben leaps into Moe's body, and the group arrive in the control room. Ben tries to get to the reactor, but finds the door locked because he's the janitor rather than Eugene the engineer. A colonel in charge of security confronts him, and tells Ben that he doesn't have clearance. Ben realizes that he has keys for all the offices and as he leaves, the colonel calls Woolsey and says they have a potential situation. Woolsey tells him to handle it and hangs up, and slips on the spilled soda.
Ben goes into Woolsey's office and figures each Leap has given him a different perspective on the explosion. As he searches Woolsey's room for clues, Addison finds a pad saying "The Longest Day", October. 4. Ben figures that it's a move Woolsey plans to see.
Parker comes in, whistles innocently, and then leaves. Ben figures they were lucky Parker didn't see them, and find a torn-up top secret memo in Woolsey's wastebasket saying the reactor's energy production is a front, and the military plans to use it to make nuclear weapons killing thousands of people. Parker comes in, aims his revolver at them, and says no one is blowing up anything.
At the Project, Ian tells Magic that Woolsey slipping has bought them approximately ten minutes, but they can't stop the explosion. Jenn suggests that they turn off the quantum accelerator, and Ian warns that they could lose Ben permanently. Janis tells them to continue the leap then rather than risk throwing Ben's Leaping trajectory off, and says that she needs Magic to trust her. He agrees with her.
Parker asks if Ben has been sending the letters, and puts one on the desk. Ben says that he doesn't send it, opens the envelope, and finds note saying to kill the project or the writer will. Ben realizes who send the letter.
Ben and Parker go back to the control room, and Ben shows Eugene the letter on the paper that was taken out of the manual, and that Ben recognized. Woolsey asks Eugene what he's doing, and Eugene says that he found the memo and knows Woolsey is working to make WMDs. Woolsey says that the military was going to take "his" reactor away from him and give it to somebody else, but Eugene doesn't care.
Eugene reaches for a console, and Ben tells them not to let Eugene touch any button. He figures Eugene chose the demonstration day to blow up the reactor, and Eugene insists the reactor will explode anyway and then the government will dismiss it as a design flaw and hush the whole thing up. Eugene figures that his life doesn't matter, and his transmitter range meant he had to be in the control room and die as well. He has a pen acting as a trigger, and Ben tells him that he's right and the government will hush the whole thing up. The government will make more nuclear reactors, and eventually develop time travel. Eugene blowing up the reactor won't change anything: only to kill the people in the room
Ben tells Eugene to start saving lives with the people in the room. He tells Eugene that his life matters, and now is his chance to do the right thing. Eugene hesitates and Parker shoots Eugene's hand. Eugene drops the pen, and Ben catches it. Parker takes Eugene away, and Woolsey says the whole thing is his fault. Before he's taken out, Eugene tells Ben that eventually great technology will fall into the wrong hands and kill them all.
Ben takes the elevator up, and Addison is already there. She tells him that Mallory publishes an expose so the reactor eventually generates sustainable energy like it was meant to be, and Moe becomes a SF writer. Ben points out that Eugene may have been right, but Addison doesn't believe it and insists that Quantum Leap saves lives, and they're doing the right thing. Unimpressed, Ben hopes that they turn out to be the heroes of their stories. With that, he Leaps.
At the Project, Magic tells Jenn that he's glad Janis didn't turn out to be the villain Jenn thought. Jenn wonders why Magic sided with Janis, and she says that the choices Magic makes affects all of them. Magic insists that the choices he makes become harder and harder, and he's going his best. He tells Jenn that he sided with Janis because he should have sided with her years ago and let Janis work on the Project instead of siding with Beth. He thinks he made the wrong choice, and now they're all dealing with the fallout. Jenn wonders what it would have been like if Janis was on the team, and Magic points out that they don't get to go back and find out.
Addison emerges from the imaging chamber, and finds Janis waiting for her. Janis tells her that when it mattered the most, the team trusted her so she's giving Addison a name: the name of the person who initially told Ben to Leap.
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