Ben leaps into a man referred to as Mr. O’Conner being examined by a doctor while his wife sits next to him, insisting her husband is not in his right mind.

She insists he stay in the institution when he tries to leave. The doctor agrees to admit him as his answers to the standard questions are problematic. His preliminary diagnosis is short-term memory loss due to shell-shock, or late-onset schizophrenia.

Ben protests that starting treatments is hasty. His wife asks for some time alone with him. The doctor leaves. When left alone, the wife reveals that they aren’t married. She’s hired him to infiltrate the institution to get her sister, Judith, out.

The doctor returns and Ben is willingly admitted to the institution. Lightning outside flashes.

An orderly named Lawrence pushes Ben through the halls in a wheelchair. Ben tries to greet other patients and make small talk. Screams are heard.

Lawrence gives him his schedule and makes it clear that he must follow it exactly.

They reach the bedroom wing where it looks more like a dungeon or scientific lab holding cells. The patients here are agitated and disruptive. Lawrence stops in front of Bedroom 3 and kicks Ben out of the wheelchair.

Ben enters the cell and Lawrence slams the door shut behind him and locks it.

Ben looks around the cell and jumps when Addison arrives suddenly, commenting on the nightmarish quality of the accommodations.

She fills in Liam O’Conner’s background. He’s a private eye out of Boston. He was hired by Elaine Sullivan to get Judith out. They are in Georgia’s Island Asylum. The year is 1954

Judith was committed by her husband for hysteria so he could annul their marriage and remarry.

In the original timeline, neither Judith nor Liam ever left the asylum.

She leaves, hoping he’ll get some sleep. Just as she blinks out, an alarm goes off and all the lights go out, triggering other patients. More lightning flashes.

Addison returns to find Ben short-tempered and distracted. He’s fixated on the scratchings on the wall he thinks is a map. Addison promises to look into it.

She delivers a message from Ziggy, warning Ben to stick very strictly to Dr. Mueller’s schedule. She leaves and Lawrence arrives.

Magic brings coffees in for Ian and the team. He takes a hot chocolate for himself, needing something to soothe his worry about Ben in a mental institution in 1954.

Jenn’s away so Ian’s also in charge of security. Magic sent her home with a cough.

The scratchings on Ben’s cell wall do in fact represent a series of tunnels, but Ian hasn’t found a route out yet. Addison expresses she has a bad feeling about this leap.

A security breach alarm triggers. Janis’s ankle monitor has been tampered with. She’s currently at her mother’s house.

The ankle monitor’s been removed. Magic goes to deal with it.

In the breakfast room, Lawrence points Ben to his assigned seat. His tablemate is Ralph. Ben asks Ralph about Judith. Ralph says he hasn’t seen her in a few days, says people disappear all the time. He tells him about his friend Lou who can’t talk anymore because of Dr. Mueller’s treatments.

Judith comes in and sits at her table. Ben goes to talk to her but she’s non-responsive. Lawrence catches him at the table and starts yelling at him. Ralph stands up and causes a disruption. The orderlies take him down.

While they subdue Ralph, Judith is suddenly alert and asks Ben for his schedule. She tells him to find her to talk during library time since they have the same enrichment block.

Ralph is injected with a sedative and the orderlies are instructed to take him to Dr. Mueller. Lawrence reimposes order on the room, threatening others with the same fate.

Ian reveals to Addison that the asylum was a testing ground for Mueller’s experimental treatments that often killed patients. Addison starts to panic and insists they find a way out for Ben right away. Suddenly, there is one on the screen. Addison thanks Ian and rushes to the imaging chamber.

Magic and some army guards arrive at Janis’s mother’s house where she’s supposed to be under house arrest.

Beth opens the door to greet Magic. Magic asks if Janis is there and she appears, holding her ankle monitor. She asks her mother for some privacy.

Janis demands Magic inform her of the leap information before the leap is concluded. He’d promised to keep her up to speed. She asks about Martinez. Magic admits they’ve crossed paths again. She wants to know what year Ben is in. When Magic tells her he’s in 1954, her face changes and she rushes out the door.

Magic asks what’s wrong. She says that there’s an order to Ben’s leaps and if he’s in 1954, this is their last chance. Magic asks for what, but she just tells him they need to go.

Addison finds Ben in the library and tells him they have a map out. Judith arrives and he tells her about the escape route. Judith refuses to leave the others to Dr. Mueller and the orderlies.

Ben offers to go to the police once they escape but she insists they need hard evidence like Mueller’s files. She knows they’re in his office and he’ll be at bible study at five o’clock.

Ben tasks Addison with finding a route into Mueller’s office. Ian finds a way through the ventilation system.

A quantum anomaly alert triggers. Martinez is back.

Addison rushes to tell Ben. Lawrence is herding them out of the library. As he passes Addison, Martinez leaps into him.

At HQ, Ian shows Addison a report from the original Quantum Leap Project that discusses Evil Leapers. They discuss whether Martinez is one.

Ben and Judith are in an art class. Judith explains that she and her husband wanted kids but she kept miscarrying and told her husband she couldn’t handle losing any more and that’s when he locked her up in the asylum.

Addison tells Ben it’s time to get to Mueller’s office so he makes a mess of his painting and blames it on Judith so they’ll both be punished and sent to clean the main floor lavatories.

From the lavatories, they access the ventilation system and crawl to Mueller’s office. Ben works on the safe and tells Judith to call Elaine to come get them.

Addison talks him through cracking the safe. Judith gets in touch with Elaine.

As they’re leaving, Martinez arrives, insisting he’s there to help them. He addresses Addison directly. Judith can’t believe it since she still sees him as Lawrence who has been nothing but cruel. Just then, Mueller and a team of orderlies arrive.

Mueller sends “Lawrence” to see where the ventilation shaft leads. He orders Judith prepped for surgery, and wants to question Mr. O’Conner.

Dr. Mueller has Ben restrained and injected with sodium thiopental, truth serum, and begins questioning him. Ben tries to answer as O’Conner but ends up giving up his real name and purpose.

Dr. Mueller calls for a straightjacket and intends to do a live brain examination on Ben once he’s dealt with Judith.

When Addison arrives at HQ, Janis is trying to convince Ian and Magic that Ben shouldn’t save Judith. She explains that Ben needs to sabotage one of Martinez’s leaps to prevent Martinez from leaping to when he’ll try to kill Addison.

Janis tells the team there are only three points in Ben’s leaps where he can sabotage Martinez. 1954 is the third and final chance.

Ian points out that sabotaging the leap will strand Ben in 1954 forever.

Janis insists that Ben planned to sacrifice himself if he couldn’t find another way to stop Martinez. Addison can’t believe that. She decides to approach Martinez herself.

Janis tries to get Magic to stop Addison, but he informs her he promised her father that they’d never lose another leaper. She congratulates him on losing the war over this battle.

In the operating room, Judith has been sedated. Martinez shows up and tries to get the nurse to release Judith to him. Judith still sees him as Lawrence and gets upset. The nurse sends him away. He’s about to kill the nurse when Addison arrives and stops him.

She convinces him to put the scalpel down and comes with her where they can talk.

He puts the scalpel in his pocket and follows her.

He insists he can save Judith on his own. She argues, based on her background in intelligence gathering and war front experience that they can work together.

Ben wakes up in a straightjacket. He screams for Addison but the nurse orderly comes in to sedate him. Ben tries to fight him off. Martinez arrives and knocks the orderly out.

Addison insists they work together. Knowing Judith is moments away from being lobotomized, Ben tells Martinez to follow his lead. Ben picks up a metal stool and breaks the window on his cell door. He tells Martinez to put on the straightjacket.

Dr. Mueller is about to lobotomize Judith when Ben comes in holding Martinez in a straightjacket with a knife to his throat. He tells the doctor to release Judith or Ben will kill Martinez/Lawrence.

Mueller puts down his instruments but insists Ben let Lawrence go too. Ben flings Martinez at the doctor and Martinez knocks him to the ground and injects him with the sedative the nurse orderly planned on injecting Ben with.

Judith comes back around as Ben takes her restraints off. She is afraid of Lawrence/Martinez but Ben assures her he’s on their side. Martinez has the incriminating files in a bag.

Addison guides them through the escape route. Handing the bag with the files to Ben, Martinez gets them out of a manhole by breaking the lock with the handle of the scalpel in his pocket. He climbs up and out. Elaine’s waiting at the top. Ben gives Judith the bag.

As Ben climbs out, Martinez gives him a hand but stabs him with the scalpel. He tells Ben that he’s a threat to the greater mission and he had to stop him before they crossed the end. He pulls the scalpel out and Ben falls off the ladder to the ground.

He’s bleeding out and Ian says it’s at least five minutes before he’ll leap. Magic orders Addison to figure out some way to save Ben. Addison screams at Ben to get up the ladder and to the parking lot where he can find a car.

He gets up the ladder and into a car. Addison instructs him to press the lighter in the dash and cauterize his wound with it.

Addison has to keep him conscious for another two minutes and she talks to him about their relationship. He starts to fade. She sees nurses walking by and tells him to honk the car horn to get their attention. They come towards the car. Ben leaps.

Magic takes Janis home and lets her know Judith moved in with Elaine and adopted a child. Liam survived and Dr. Mueller lost his medical license.

Magic reminds Janis that if she wants to be in the loop, information-wise, she needs to share what she knows as well. She takes Magic’s phone and smashes it so she can tell him something she figured out without the phone picking it up. The mole in the QL Project is Ziggy.