"Quantum Leap" Mirror Image - August 8, 1953 (1993)

Director:

James Whitmore Jr.

Writer:

Donald P. Bellisario (creator)

TV Series:

"Quantum Leap" (1989)

Original Air Date:

4 May 1993 (Season 5, Episode 22)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Family | Mystery | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Sam leaps into a bar with a bartender that's more than he appears. When Sam looks into a mirror, he sees his own reflection...

Plot Keywords:

1950s | Series Finale | Time Travel | Amnesia | Hologram

Cast

Scott Bakula	...	Dr. Sam Beckett
Dean Stockwell	...	Admiral Al Calavicci
Bruce McGill	...	Al the Bartender
John D'Aquino	...	Tonchi (as John DiQuino)
Richard Herd	...	Ziggy Ziganovich
William Morgan Sheppard	...	Gooshie, the Miner (as W. Morgan Sheppard)
Stephen McHattie	...	Stawpah
Mike Genovese	...	Mr. Collins
Susan Diol	...	Beth Calavicci
Dan Butler	...	Mutta
Dennis Wolfberg	...	Gooshie
Kevin McDermott	...	Kruger
Ferdinand Carangelo	...	Ghee
Brad Silverman	...	Pete
J.D. Daniels	...	Kid #1

Runtime:

47 min

Trivia:

The bar in the final episode is modeled after the bar that series creator Donald P. Bellisario's father had owned.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Sam asks if he glows blue when he leaps Al tells him he does not know - He says the imaging chamber fades out and he does not see Sam leap, but in the episode "Good Morning Peoria" Al starts to glow blue when he is too close to the gutter that Sam has wired up and says "Hey look, I'm going to leap!"

Quotes:

Al, the Bartender: At the risk of over inflating your ego Sam, you've done more. The lives you've touched, touched others. And those lives, others! You've done a lot of good Sam Beckett. And you can do a lot more.

Movie Connections:

References "Captain Z-Ro" (1955)

Sam realises there is something he must do

As the final show of the series I thought the idea of Sam leaping into Al's Place at the moment of his birth was brilliant. His confusion about the people he meets there and how they look like people he had meet on his travels but with names like Gooshie, Ziggy and even Al is very convincing - even I was confused especially when he saw their reflections they were totally different. So when the real Al showed up and told Sam they lost him temporarily he was convinced he was there to do something very special.

--------------------------- Sam's conversation with Al the bartender also convinces him that this Al was more than he seemed, even he (Al the bartender) tried to say differently. Sam finally realises that he had to put right the one thing he never did earlier - HE HAD TO HELP HIS FRIEND. the rules he had made about not changing their own history had to be broken - so he leaps back to the moment when Beth was dancing by herself and told her the truth that her husband was alive and would return to her one day.

---------------------------- the write up at the end about how Al and Beth remained married for forty years was only half of a bitter sweet ending as it also mentioned Sam never got home leaving things open for a follow-up, which I have said before would be great with the original cast members