Minor spoilers

Why has Ben leaped into the life of a boxer?

Gradually finding its footing, this episode shows improvement and more heart. The dual focus continues with the action jumping back and forth between Ben and his colleagues back in the lab. The scenes switch more skillfully and more seamlessly than before.

This time, Ben leaps into the midst of a truly poignant and engaging dilemma that generates some real suspense and genuine heartfelt emotion. Hopefully the upward trend will continue; I believe it will. Many shows get off to a slow start and need time.

Like Sam Beckett before, Ben leaps into the life of a boxer. Addison and the rest of the team at home base must determine Ben’s true mission: win the match? Or something else? Kudos for the nice staging and clever writing of how Addison helps Ben with his boxing. Only tiny quibble: Ben switching from fighting left-handed back to right- isn’t going to give Ben any huge advantage, as the majority of athletes fight right-handed. Ben’s opponent should have loved that.

The guest cast gets more depth and nuance this time, upping the drama and suspense in the episode. Additional nice touches include a deeper look at Ben and Addison’s relationship (Real Housewives of Beverly Hills anyone?) and at the coworkers in the lab banding together even more closely. They briefly employ the tired cliché of Addison pushing herself too hard. Fortunately they don’t dwell and get past that really quickly.

Mostly courtesy of the lab scenes, the show adeptly sprinkles in more clues and continues to lay the groundwork for a long series run. Some of this contradicts the original show, but seeing as the original show contradicted itself often enough, one can’t complain too much about that. Perhaps notably, the new version has yet to establish what happens to the person Ben leaps into.

Adding a sense of (so far) menace, Janis makes another appearance. Georgina Reilly does a great job of conveying both petulance and ruthlessness. Unfortunately that particular subplot between her and her mother veers well into soap opera territory. The detour serves a purpose, but one that could easily be achieved any number of different ways. The sooner the show gets away from the melodrama and the deep, dark conspiracy mystery – the weakest aspect of the show – the better.

Fortunately, overall the show emphasized far more of its strongest aspects than the weaker ones. The scene at the end with the rest of the team supporting Addison built up all their characters quite nicely. Also for the first time they mention the ripple effect. When Ben succeeds, he helps not just himself and the person he leapt into. That success goes on to benefit those immediately associated with Ben’s host and resonates outward from there to help many more people as well.

The totally-not-a-surprise tag at the end ups the ante for the weeks to come.

Verdict: No knock-out, this week still provides a nice balance between episodic and serialized and moves both forward. 7/10

Rigel Ailur