‘Quantum Leap’ Star Caitlin Bassett Talks Addison & Tom’s Big Step

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Quantum Leap Season 2 Episode 9, “Off the Cuff.”]

Quantum Leap kicks off the final episodes of Season 2 with a major moment for one couple and a revelation for another.

Ben’s (Raymond Lee) latest leap leads him to Hannah (Eliza Taylor) once again … only this time, she’s married, with a kid. Furthermore, as Addison (Caitlin Bassett) reveals to Ben just before he leaps (so he can’t warn Hannah), her husband dies in 18 months from a ruptured aortic aneurysm.

Back in the present, Addison lets Tom (Peter Gadiot) know she found the engagement ring. She’d been trying to figure out if she should say something, but then she realized he’s the one who gets her unstuck when she’s stuck. He admits he had a plan (one knee, candles, a big romantic speech), but emergencies kept popping up. With that, he gets down on one knee—because he wants to, more than anything—but she interrupts his speech with a yes!

Below, Bassett talks about Addison’s decision, the complications of her relationships with Ben and Tom, and more.

Addison doesn’t even let Tom get out his speech. There doesn’t seem to be any hesitation on her part. Is that truly the case? Why the quick yes?

Caitlin Bassett: She worked the entire time through that episode being like, you know what? Ben is here. This is Ben’s life now. And Addison needs her own. I think that decision, which might not be the best, is loaded with a reality of where their lives are now and just an ownership of that. I made a specific choice in that episode where I decided it was a yes, obviously covering it so that the audience wouldn’t know until she actually said it. But I think that’s really what motivated it: this is where your life is, this is where my life is, and sometimes you just have to deal with where reality is, and then we’ll see what happens after that.

Chris Haston/NBC

And there’s that great conversation between Addison and Magic (Ernie Hudson), which I loved.

It’s so good. It was so simple, right? He basically explains what her ultimate decision is, which is that you got to live the life that’s in front of you.

There is Ben to consider because it’s not like he and Addison had a normal breakup. They didn’t even really break up. He just went missing for three years for her. And they did just get past that bump of her not being his hologram. Now, she’s back to being his hologram. Is she going to tell him that she’s engaged?

Watch Episode 10. [Laughs] That’s definitely coming up. And it’s not easy. It’s a thing, you got to be like, “Well…” so tune in for next week’s episode.

Hannah thinks it’s possible to love two people at the same time. Does Addison?

I don’t think Addison does think that initially in the season, but I think the reality of how it all happened and it being nobody’s fault, and like you said, nobody having a decision point of a breakup, she ultimately will get to where Hannah is. But sometimes you just have to see it for yourself.

There is the matter of Hannah, and not only the revelation that she’s married with a kid but also her husband’s fate, which Addison tells Ben just as he leaps. What can you say about when we’ll see Hannah again and what’s coming up there?

Oh, we’re definitely going to see her again. There’s a lot to play out between all of us now, which is kind of cool because Hannah and Addison in [Episode] 8 kind of forged their own little relationship in a way. Hannah has a lot more to play out, but also Hannah has more life, so she’s got a lot to deal with, and we’ll all get to kind of be part of that, which is really cool.

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Yeah, I like the Hannah and Addison stuff because even in this episode, she’s like, are you talking to Addison? I want to see more of Addison and Hannah somehow.

And you will.

If Ben were to come home and Addison was in a great place with both him and Tom, who would she choose?

That is so tough. I think Addison is loyal enough to not — just like when he showed back up, [it was], I’m in a relationship now, and I can’t just pretend this person doesn’t exist or we haven’t meant a lot to each other. So I think she would have a really tough decision on her hand because all of a sudden, it isn’t theoretical anymore. It’s reality.

And the person that Ben fell in love with, the Addison that Ben and Addison were, is no longer the Addison that exists. Three years is a very long time. I’m not the same person I was a year ago, two years. You know what I mean? But to go through something that traumatic and then recover, you’re not the same human. So you have to figure out if it would even still work. I don’t know, though I do think we’ll learn things.

Addison was supposed to be the one who leaped. If she had and, for some reason, still went through what Ben has, how do you think she would’ve handled it?

I think, in some ways, having an idea of what you’re coming into would’ve made it a little bit easier for her. Also, Ben leapt too early. Addison was waiting for the program to get there so that she could retain her memories. That was the whole point. They were waiting so that you could do this in a way that wasn’t so traumatic, but he didn’t, right? So, I think she wouldn’t have done it until it was at a place where she could have felt comfortable. And then you can have that conversation with whoever your hologram is, which is, Okay, this is who you are. You decided to do this. So I think she probably, in some ways, would’ve handled it maybe a little bit better just because she intended to do it for much longer.

And her background, too.

And her background, right? He’s a physicist. This isn’t his bag. But ultimately, that’s what made Ben really good at it, in the same way it made Sam [Scott Bakula, in the original series] good at it, which is that they’re not cops. They were just guys that got tossed into this situation. So I do think it might’ve been a bit smoother for her, but it just would’ve been a very different side of a similar coin.

Quantum Leap, Tuesdays, 10/9c, NBC