Warning! The following contains spoilers for the Quantum Leap Season 1 episode "Ben Song For The Defense." Read at your own risk!
Quantum Leap picked up in its latest episode with Ben in a courtroom as a public defender saddled with an enormous caseload. He also had to help a teen wrongfully convicted of murder, despite having no legal experience. Addison decided to tag in Jenn to serve as his hologram assistant, given her law degree, and Jenn quickly learned helping Ben in that role was much different than her usual duties. Ironically enough, actress Nanrisa Lee learned the same thing, as the actress spoke to CinemaBlend about trading places with Caitlin Bassett for the episode.
Nanrisa Lee's Jenn has spent most of this season helping out Ben from the Quantum Leap lab or by going on missions to track down people of interest related to the big mysterious threat Ben is attempting to stop. In the latest episode, Jenn had to interact with just Ben and try to help solve the murder case despite being invisible to all others in the leap. I asked Lee if it was weird to have Jenn in scenes where most of the other characters ignore her, and she revealed it was just as much of an adjustment for her as it can be for guest stars:
It did take some getting used to. It’s funny. I think it must be a thing whenever we get a guest on, they sometimes forget because, as an actor, you’re supposed to listen and acknowledge, right? So it’s like, ‘Oh, right, right, you’re a hologram. You can’t be there.’
Jenn and Ben weren't as natural of a pairing as Addison and Ben, but that's to be expected. After all, the latter Quantum Leap characters are engaged, and Ben couldn't even remember who Jenn was throughout their adventure due to his memory loss. Jenn did help Ben remember Magic, though that only made the sting of him not remembering her a bit more painful.
Behind the scenes, Nanrisa Lee confirmed to CinemaBlend that she loved the opportunity to actually film with series lead Raymond Lee. She also noted that Caitlin Bassett gave her a "crash course" in how to act when serving as the hologram assistant and noted that one bit of the job was trickier than the rest:
Caitlin [Bassett] ran me through a little crash course in being a hologram. We did the passing of the hand link, and she showed me how she uses it and where she sees things, how she would kind of bloop in and out, and how she holds it. That thing is trickier than I thought it would be to hold. It kept slipping out of my hands, and I kept dropping it. Props was getting upset with me, I was afraid I was going to break it.
I never would've guessed the hand link could be so unruly! In either case, Nanrisa Lee was able to complete the episode with the hand link intact so that Jen could tag Addison back in for the next adventure. While it doesn't seem like Jen will hop back into leaps to assist Ben on Quantum Leap anytime soon, we do know that something bad is on the way for Addison.
In the event she's taken out of action, Ben might have to rely on Jenn, Magic, or Ian to get him to the next leap until he finds his way home. Unfortunately, we know that Sam Beckett is either still leaping or is dead, so there is a chance that Ben might never find his way back. I'm remaining optimistic, however, especially with the reveal that a future version of Ian leapt to meet up with Ben prior to his mysterious mission.
Quantum Leap airs on NBC on Mondays at 10:00 p.m. ET. Anyone with a Peacock Premium subscription can watch both the original series and the revival, and I highly recommend it.
