Ben Song embodies Indiana Jones…

Rather, Ben leaps into a seventeen-year-old girl who impersonates Indiana Jones and drags her two sisters along on the treasure hunt. The episode requires suspension of disbelief, but as we’re already talking about a time-traveling scientist with a holographic partner, one can reasonably expect that. Perhaps the most farfetched: that two older siblings are going to take heed at all of what their seventeen-year-old baby sister says.

As with some previous episodes, Quantum Leap hits a ton of clichés, but more than well enough to avoid being (too) annoying. A father’s dying wish – not spelled out in his will full of puzzles – to forge peace among his squabbling children makes sense. What makes no sense is the stunning number of coincidences that need to come together for his plan to succeed. One really can’t examine the logic too closely.

The departed dad doesn’t trust his lawyer, yet relies on the lawyer to set the plan in motion. Further, dad is somehow enough of a master machinator to come up with the entire scheme, yet doesn’t foresee that he just might be endangering them.

So the absentee dad wants to make posthumous amends. One daughter is prissy and stuck up; that actress never quite rises above the irritating stereotype. Dean – not Deena – the second daughter is trans. Despite heavy-handed writing, Deen and Ian and Jen deliver some very nice character moments.

They resolve more of the previous soap opera threads but, clumsily, ramp up one particular subplot. The faster it goes away, the better. They also appear to have resolved last week’s ending in the best way possible. However nicely done, it doesn’t make up for the ending this week.

Verdict: Improving slowly but steadily although not quite back to its high standards yet. 7/10

Rigel Ailur

http://www.BluetrixBooks.com