Quantum Leap

Previously on "Quantum Leap"...

I found something seriously wrong with the quantum

processing chip that your boss built for me.

The chip is transmitting Ziggy's code out of HQ,

presumably back to him.

You're with someone else.

We'll get through it together.

You're Agent Robert Cook from Project Sign.

Hannah, is it?

I believe in all kinds of impossible things.

You try explaining a yo-yo to somebody

who doesn't know what they are.

Centrifugal force, angular momentum,

that would have been considered witchcraft

a hundred years ago.

Henry!

It's me, Lawrence.

Thank God. Thank God you're here.

You're bleeding. What happened?

Someone found me.

They thought I had the formula.

You're going to be OK. Just breathe.

He had cold blue eyes.

Help!

We need help!

Henry, it's real.

You have to find it before they can.

We're going to find it together, OK?

Just hold on. Hold on, Lawrence.

Path... finder.

Lawrence.

Lawrence!

Lawrence!

Has anybody seen Magic? He's not in his office.

Uh, he's taking a personal day.

Magic doesn't take personal days.

Maybe that last leap shook him up.

I mean, after everything he's been through, you know?

I spoke to him. He's doing fine.

In the meantime, we need a schedule to decide

who's next on hologram duty.

- One, two, three. - Rock, paper, scissors.

- Yes! - God, dang it!

- Why do I keep losing? - Ian, always go paper.

That's not how statistical probability works.

- Eh. - It's not.

Oh, look, I got him. I got him.

What happened?

I don't... I don't know. I just had a signal.

Ian, did we lose him?

Like "lose him" lose him? No, no, no, no.

This looks like it's an internal system error.

Uh, I am going to go and check the backup servers.

But I will be right back.

You move fast when you want to.

So will security once I tell them.

You're not going to do that, Ian,

not when I'm your only chance of getting your system back online.

Look, what do you want?

My employer provided a prototype under the condition

that you would share any data you collected while using it.

I will deliver what I promised, OK?

But right now I need that quantum chip reactivated.

It is an emergency.

I'd love to help,

but the chip requires authorization codes

every 24 hours to stay active.

And seeing as how you locked us out...

You were stealing data.

No, we were collecting that which we were entitled to collect.

You made the deal, Ian.

How about this?

Tell me we have an agreement.

And as a show of good faith, I'll reactivate the chip

for the rest of the day.

Well, you're a long way from California, Professor McCoy.

You're also the last one to see the victim alive.

I told you, Professor Lawrence had already

been attacked when I got here.

He said the killer had cold blue eyes.

- Oh, they were cold. -

Well, that helps narrow it down.

See, what I still don't understand is what you

were doing on campus alone at 4:00 in the morning.

- - Sorry I'm late.

Technical difficulties.

Mr. McCoy, you got any communist ties?

What?

Oh, uh...

Oh, he's barking up the wrong tree.

Before he became a professor, Sergeant McCoy

served in the Eighth Airborne Division

during World War II, multiple tours in Normandy.

Mr. McCoy...

You can address me as Sergeant.

I earned that distinction after serving in Normandy.

- Where did you serve? - Dairy Queen, apparently.

We appreciate your service.

But that doesn't change the fact that you're

a material witness to a homicide.

I'm gonna ask you not to leave town.

- Is that all? - For now.

Ooh.

Normandy.

Huh.

Welcome to Princeton, New Jersey.

It's 1955.

You're a visiting physics professor and already a suspect

in an unsolved murder.

Wait a minute. Princeton, 1955?

Jenn, we are in the most exciting place

at the most exciting time in American scientific history.

All of the greatest minds are working

here right now, including...

Albert Einstein, your hero.

We know.

You've ruined many a lunch with your dissertations

on the Father of Space...

Spacetime, relativity, quantum entanglement.

Einstein is the reason I fell in love with physics

in the first place.

And I have a chance to meet him.

Oh, I'm sorry, Ben.

It's May 15th. Einstein died a month ago.

Oh.

Hold up, that might be related to the reason why you're here.

Einstein's death?

It seems the late Professor Lawrence wrote

several letters to Professor McCoy...

that's you... asking you to help him

look for a missing formula that was created

by Albert Einstein.

Jenn, no, I've read every single paper

published by Albert Einstein, every historical record,

every biography.

And there's nothing about some missing formula.

Maybe he was working on a top-secret project.

- Come on, what are the ch... - Professor McCoy?

We're with the Atomic Energy Commission.

Would you come with us, please?

Am I under arrest?

Quite the opposite.

We need your help.

Is that who I think it is?

Yeah.

Is she another leaper? Like Martinez?

We're not detecting a quantum anomaly, no.

That's Hannah Carson, the woman you met in New Mexico

six years ago, the one you told to come here to Princeton.

What are the odds of me crossing paths

with the same person in two different leaps?

I mean, I'm not Ian, so I don't have, like,

a weirdly exact number for you.

But I'd say the odds are crazy slim.

Maybe the accelerator just decided you needed a friend.

We'll take it from here.

Professor Lawrence said we could trust you.

It goes without saying, everything you see here

is highly classified.

Jenn, this is project Matterhorn,

the government program that conducted top-secret

thermonuclear research.

I was just about to tell you that.

Wait, why am I whispering?

Professor, ready for a glimpse of the future?

The future's a steampunk hamster maze?

The stellarator.

I remember reading about this.

In letters.

Lawrence told me you were working on the cutting edge

of nuclear fusion.

Yes.

These twisting magnetic coils allow us

to stimulate plasma particles that could,

in theory, generate limitless clean energy one day.

Do you have the time?

Yeah.

Oh.

Ah.

Sorry, that never gets old.

No, this is... oh.

You'll have to excuse my research assistant.

She is a kid in a candy store.

I'm Dr. Karl Donovan, project supervisor here at Matterhorn.

Thank you for coming under such trying circumstances,

Professor McCoy.

Professor Lawrence was a good man.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

Sit, please.

That will be all, Ms. Carson.

I'm under the impression Lawrence confided

in you a great deal, including his search

for Einstein's formula.

- Told you so. - He did mention it to me.

But he was vague on specifics.

Before he died, Einstein had thrown himself

into solving the problems of nuclear fusion.