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Quantum Leap's New Baddie: Who Is Gideon Rydge?
On the latest Quantum Leap, Ian's biggest nightmare walked right into HQ. Who is Gideon Rydge?
In the latest episode of Quantum Leap, "The Family Treasure," the quantum chip processor storyline — simmering since it was semi-resolved in "Secret History" — came back to haunt Ian (Mason Alexander Park), Jenn (Nanrisa Lee) and Rachel (Alice Kremelberg). As the HQ Team was monitoring Ben's (Raymond Lee) latest leap, Ian got a panicked call from their girlfriend Rachel.
She breathlessly shared that her boss found out about the subterfuge they pulled to keep her company from downloading data on all of Ben's leaps. The news put Ian in a spiral and earned Jenn's tough love counsel that this is now too big to fix himself.
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But before Ian could spill to Magic (Ernie Hudson) or Tom (Peter Gadiot), Rachel and her boss, Gideon Rydge (James Frain), busted into the Quantum Leap Project HQ.
Who is Gideon Rydge in the Quantum Leap mythology?
As a reminder, back in Episode 6, "Secret History," Ian is contacted by phone by one of Rydge's employee's demanding that he continue to share information from Ben's leaps gathered by using the one of a kind quantum chip provided by Rydge. He never shows his face, but Ian and Jenn ask Rachel to rewrite the firmware from her side of the company to "jailbreak" the quantum chip so they can't track it, or use it as extortion anymore. While that puts Rachel's job at risk, she does it for the good of Ben and the project.
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They then meet one of Rydge's corporate representatives, Simone, and reverse blackmail her by threatening her to release the recording of her blackmailing a federal employee. A stalemate is won. But Rydge has now discovered the tweaked chip and he's come to make Ian and Jenn pay the piper...in person.
Where have you seen actor James Frain before?
While we have no idea if Rydge will be a full-on baddie, or just an adversary for the rest of Quantum Leap Season 3, actor James Frain has filled out quite the career resume playing impressive villains, especially in sci-fi shows. The British actor played Eric Renard in NBC's Grimm (now streaming on Peacock) and Franklin Mott on True Blood. He also played Theo Galavan/Azrael on Gotham, and Black Peter on What We Do in the Shadows. For non-genre fans, Frain has appeared in seasons of 24 and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. We eagerly await what he brings to the table to shake things up for the last three episodes of the season.
Quantum Leap is back on Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. ET/PT on NBC and the next day on Peacock.
