Quantum Leap’s Raymond Lee Teases ‘Titillating’ Hannah Romance — Has Ben Given Up on Addison?

In Ben’s second encounter with Hannah on Quantum Leap, he helped her prevent Nazis from using Albert Einstein’s secret formula to alter history, revealed that he was a time traveler and kissed her midsentence in an effortlessly romantic gesture.

Wednesday’s eventful leap to Princeton University in 1955 also placed Ben in the awkward situation of working alongside Tom, the army man who currently oversees the Quantum Leap project and happens to be dating his ex-fiancé Addison. He wasn’t exactly thrilled about it, but their forced proximity delivered several amusing moments and showcased a different side to the usually optimistic time leaper.

“Ben hasn’t really been able to unpack anything,” Raymond Lee, who plays Ben, tells TVLine. “Here’s this person that he wants to see the least, and he needs his help to get through this leap… We get to see a side of Ben [where] there’s a bit of jealousy.

“That was a fun thing as an actor,” Lee adds, “to try to parse out the feelings of, ‘You’re the last person I want to see’ and ‘Oh my gosh, you probably have slept with Addison’ and ‘I don’t want to be talking to you right now. Those lips have kissed Addison, but I need your help.’”

Later, as Tom lamented his deceased wife while watching a couple’s initials being carved into the tree that he would later admire with her, Ben finally realized that he and Tom weren’t so different. He even offered his condolences, though they couldn’t exactly shake hands.

“I think it really builds a common ground and understanding, that we’re both people who have lost something and we are just trying to move forward,” Lee explains. “There’s a lot of reconciling that Ben has to do in [an] instant.”

But after kissing Hannah, who will be back this season, and showing that he was at least starting to accept that Addison has moved on with Tom, does that mean Ben has finally given up the hope that he and Addison will get back together? Lee hasn’t completely ruled that out.

“Ben is a very hopeful person overall,” the actor notes. “One of his major flaws is not allowing for things to happen in a way that it should naturally happen. He’s constantly trying to control the fates of the others, and he’s always battling letting go of things, and perhaps this could be a great lesson in letting go. What’s dawning on Ben is that there are bigger issues at play, and one of which is the fate of the world. Is one person’s relationship more important than the fate of the world?”

Lee adds that Ben is a “big picture guy” so it’s “very fascinating for [him] to continue to run into Hannah and for there to be this attraction on something that is such a deep cut as physics. Ben hasn’t been able to physically be with anybody and so, it’s very titillating in a lot of ways.”