Quantum Leap and the Ending.

[Tane]

I did a search and could not find anything...

Alright I know this is an oldies show but as the thread suggests can any really work out what the ending was really all about. We know he never gets back but who is the mysterious guy at the end that pops up and tells him that he will never get back to his own time and that he will be leaping around from time line to time line for the rest of his life.

I know this sounds a straight forward question but it’s the man that just appears from know where that really throws me off as he was not one of his co-workers like who came on as Al with ziggy. Can anyone help me out on this one as I was very young when I watch the final episode and have only seen it once back then so I may have just forgotten this mans role in the whole thing.

Oh and just for a laught there was a bad guy on Quantum Leap called Voldemort, as I'm just watching the episode on Sky with him in it.

[Loonicrous]

I haven't seen that episode in a while either, but I remember that it was sad that Sam couldn't go back to his own time. I got the feeling that the man who popped up telling Sam that he's not going to be sent home was God. And that it was Him that was controlling where Sam went the entire time. Lesson learned = don't build a time machine. :lol:

[swishandflick]

Lol...I remember watching this show when I was 10 (I was a strange child). I never saw the ending though. I remember an episode where he was a boxer vividly.

[SiriuslyBria]

I love Quantum Leap! I can't wait until the first season comes out on DVD in just under two weeks. I've never bought a season of a TV series on DVD before, I'm certainly picking this baby up! :cool:

I must say though, I thought the ending to the series was horrible and pretty much every QL fan I've ever spoken to agreed. Having Sam unable to go home was just horrible and as it's fiction, not necessary. Why end an awesome series on such a downer? I also didn't like the fact that Al would no longer remember Sam or his work with Quantum Leap. BOO! :grumble:

[Lone Wolf]

Oh God! I LOVED Quantum Leap. I have every single episode on video tape, which I recorded ritually years ago. I have them all labelled, and in order in a box. (How sad is that?!)

I've always been in two minds about the final episode. First of all, it was heartbreaking that Sam could never go home and is probably still leaping around through time. But on the otherhand, he changed Al's future for him and he remained married to Beth and had his daughters.

If you recall, in the last episode the place he leaped into was called Al's Bar/Place? and the bartender, Al, sort of came across as a deity. Whether he was God, I suppose that was left to the individual viewer, but Sam was a deeply religious man so he probably did believe Al was God. But think back to the very first episode. The guy who played Al was also in that too, but I can't recall his involvement was in the story. (I know it was about him breaking Mach III)

I'd really need to watch the series again to brush up on my QL knowledge but as you probably know, there were 97 episodes and that would take a long time to watch them for it all to come flooding back to me.

Good thread. I look forward to reading other opinions of this.

[Tane]

That is a good point but it has been so long since I saw the first episode and I missed it again as the repeating the whole series on Sci-Fi channel. I was actually thinking that Sam did not make the first jump alive and that he died doing it and that his soul somehow got trapped in a time flux and that is why he can change time so much and alter things that should never have happened because it will not effect his own future as he is already dead.

Maybe it is one of those things where Sam never realized he had died and carried on trying to get back home.

In the episode I am watching at the moment Al states that children below 5 years of age and animals can see both him and Sam, that is why the 4 year old in this episode can see them both and not see her mum. Awwww.....

You know that does fit with the ghost idea too as it is said that children and animals are more sensitive towards the un-natural though I still remain a skeptic on that.

I think we also find out that there where others apart from Sam jumping around in time just like he was in the later episodes and that was something I found strange too as they could not have got there in the same way as Sam did.

I love these episodes and they still live up to the test of time now, there just as good as they where when they first aired on TV. I love the moral issues that where brought up too.

[mina]

I remember that I loved watching the show, but I don't recall ever seeing the final episode. Maybe I will have to rent the DVD and watch it :)

[nrogara]

Well count me as another QL fan who loved the show and hated the ending! It was uneccessary IMO. I especially hated that 1) Al would no longer remember Sam and 2) we had known for some time that Sam had a wife who knew about his leaping and was waiting for him to get home.

That is a good point but it has been so long since I saw the first episode and I missed it again as the repeating the whole series on Sci-Fi channel. I was actually thinking that Sam did not make the first jump alive and that he died doing it and that his soul somehow got trapped in a time flux and that is why he can change time so much and alter things that should never have happened because it will not effect his own future as he is already dead.

Maybe it is one of those things where Sam never realized he had died and carried on trying to get back home.

In the episode I am watching at the moment Al states that children below 5 years of age and animals can see both him and Sam, that is why the 4 year old in this episode can see them both and not see her mum. Awwww.....

You know that does fit with the ghost idea too as it is said that children and animals are more sensitive towards the un-natural though I still remain a skeptic on that.

I think we also find out that there where others apart from Sam jumping around in time just like he was in the later episodes and that was something I found strange too as they could not have got there in the same way as Sam did.

I love these episodes and they still live up to the test of time now, there just as good as they where when they first aired on TV. I love the moral issues that where brought up too.

That's a good theory Tane. And had the ending been a revelation of that, I think I could have accepted that. Of course there would still be the episode of him getting back to his own time episode to counter that theory, but I could have overlooked that. The final episode of Quantum Leap is the worst ending to a series I have ever seen.

[Haneyparadox]

Actually count me as part of the minority then. I liked the ending of the series. Sam learns that IIRC that He has be responsible for all the leaps him self and really only need Ziggy as sort of compas to allow Al to find him. I thought it was pretty clear that the Bartender was supposed to be God. He was able to give Al an incredible gift. He gave him back the love of his life. We also learn that Sam is about to embark ona much more difficult mission. Supposedly,they had planned on making some TV movies, but that never materilized. yes it was sad that he never returned home, but that dosent make it a bad ending.

Anyone remember the episode where Sam leaped into a pregnant woman? poor guy was giving birth at the end when he lept, my Mom thought that was hilarious.

There just havent been many programs of that caliber. At least not recently. it was the first and only show since WKRP that i could sit and watch with my family and we ALL enjoyed it.

[mina]

Actually count me as part of the minority then. I liked the ending of the series. Sam learns that IIRC that He has be responsible for all the leaps him self and really only need Ziggy as sort of compas to allow Al to find him. I thought it was pretty clear that the Bartender was supposed to be God. He was able to give Al an incredible gift. He gave him back the love of his life. We also learn that Sam is about to embark ona much more difficult mission. Supposedly,they had planned on making some TV movies, but that never materilized. yes it was sad that he never returned home, but that dosent make it a bad ending.

That actually sounds like a pretty good ending to me. Futurama was right...people don't like it when everything isn't all right back to normal in the end :)

[Kehlen Crow]

It is sad this thread is dying. I feared I will have to read pages when I found it...

Anyway. I was lucky they showed it recently in Russia. And still hope they will repeat - then I'll follow the example and record all series :D
Is the first season really out on DVD? When I last checked there were only selected best series - which weren't the best IMO.

And I agree with mina and Haneyparadox - the ending was a good one and very logical.
I always doubted they were intending to make a sequel - and hoped for it, too.

The first 3 series (or two) are some of my least favorite ones, but I remember the guy who played Al in the last one. He was some 'boss' to Sam - and I remember that when Sam took off he said "Good luck, son" - so it is very likely he really was God and was keeping an eye over Sam in his first devoir, sorry, task.
And - wasn't this "god" guy Donald Bellisario (sp?) - one of the producers? Think I saw it in the titles.

Does anyone remember the series where Sam is acting for a college student, Knut... , a member of some band, and has to save a girl who gets in trouble during the ant-vietnam-war disorders - something about a bomb - and lives all her future life hiding from the law?
Well, it is a difficult question, I know, but - the musical tune which sounds there, it has been bugging me for a year already - I don't know why. Isn't it called "Paper heart"? But who's the singer?

[busy91]

I only vaugley remember the last episode. I used to love to watch that show. I do remember the other Al though, since I am a Dean Stockwell fan. But I thought they were thinking about making another Quantum Leap series that would have Sam going into the future.

[FoxyKnoxy]

My favorite episode was when Sam leaped back into the young Steven King and had to stop a murder. It was fantastic as it cleverly included many hints of King's books like Christine, The Shining, and Firestarter!
Very well done.

I also liked the one where Sam leaped back into Al's body in the 50's. That was great. I agree the ending totally made me mad but I do remember crying about it. I loved that show. I always hoped for a QL movie. But now with Scott Bacula on Enterprise I guess not.

[HarrysGlasses]

i used to like that show in the early-to mid 90's!!!

never did see the last series though.

i think all your views are very interesting, maybe they should bring the show back....

[vitacus]

My favorite episode was when Sam leaped back into the young Steven King and had to stop a murder. It was fantastic as it cleverly included many hints of King's books like Christine, The Shining, and Firestarter!
Very well done.

I think SK was another character that Sam was interacting with in that episode, giving SK ideas for future works inadvertantly. A Halloween episode which most of it turned out to be a dream Sam experienced. The fake Al that turned out to be the devil.

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DVD:

I saw the first season dvd set for sale but I didn't have the cash to get it. TV series collections can be so expensive. I know, I've got Kingdom Hospital, the first season of Dead Like Me, and the first three seasons of Trailer Park Boys.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Favorite Episodes:

I liked the two-parter that had Sam trying to save his older brother Tom from dying in Vietnam and also had Sam finding out he could have saved Al from being a P.O.W.
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Finale:

Anyway, about the series finale I liked it even though it had the sad tone to it. If Sam had gotten home then, what would he have done with the Quantum Leap project? This way it goes on and he continues making things right. What better job could anyone hope for than that? A noble sacrifice.

I'm not sure about the end part where it showed an old guy in a photograph standing in front of an old airplane though. If that was supposed to be Sam then what was the significance? Retirement? Leaping even further back in time than his own lifetime?

[Kehlen Crow]

I doubt Al will forget Sam after that. At least the other 'Al' may turn it so that he still works in the project.

I base this on the episode with Lee Osvald (:huh: Kennedy Killer).
In the end when Sam grieves he couldn't save him, Al says his object wasn't saving the President but his wife who was also killed by Osvald "before".
If Al's in the future, how can he remember that? Wave effect... (remember "Back to the future"?)
So it is the same in the case of the last series.