I’m going with the above “apprenticeship” theory. The old miner who leaps away strongly suggested that ghosts and angels where “Leapers”, in one sense or another. Sam’s been connected to guardian angel imagery on more than one occasion, I believe.
As for why he didn’t return, if God were to suddenly appear to you and hand you an assignment, would you say no?
I do think Sam could leap at will now. I don’t know if he still had access to Al, Ziggy, or a reasonable facsimile thereof (the fact that the evil leapers had analogs would suggest as much), but he exists on a higher plane, and is conciously serving a higher power. If the series continued, I think we’d see Sam altering world-shattering events and travelling outside his own lifetime.
Wasn’t there an episode when Sam lept back to when Al was in the Naval Academy? IIRC, at one point Sam screws up and changes history that will lead to Al never becoming involved with Project Quantum Leap. Until Sam fixes things, Al’s place as his assistant is taken by this proper British guy. This suggests that the project will continue even without Al, and Sam will still have a guide to help him.
Actually, one of my favorite Heinlein books is JOB, A Comedy of Justice…and I fully agreed with Alexander Hergensheimer’s final choice. If given the choice between having to leave my better half forever so I could fix the lives of others or leaving said lives unfixed but being able to stay with my better half – no choice. Whatever higher power showed up to give me said job would have to pick someone else, because I wouldn’t take it.
I dislike ‘angel’ programs or stories in general, so the thought of Sam’s becoming an angel, ‘serving a higher power’ or anything else along those lines leaves a pretty bad taste in my mouth. (No offense to those who do like them – just my personal preference.) I didn’t want a big sloppy hug. I just wanted something more than “Congratulations for doing a great job; now you never get to return, which is supposedly what you wanted to do all along.”
The underlying principle of the series (to me) was the concept that a single choice of action could substantially shift everything else in that person’s life. It didn’t take some supernatural intervention to cure these problems, just the application of some common sense by an admittedly uncommonly bright guy. I think that’s one reason the series appealed to me so much, and why the ending did not appeal to me – it just seemed one big, badly applied deux ex machina, in the original sense of the term.
In the interests of fairness, though, I will re-watch the ending when it shows, though, just in case it does hit me differently this time.
Not much to add to the discussion, but the actor’s name is Bruce McGill, who also played “Weird Ernie” in the pilot episode of Quantum Leap, titled Genisis.
When Sam talks to the barman he works a few things out for himself, like the leaps are going to be into more difficult problems, that Al and Ziggy will not be there to support him, he will keep returning to the same situation until he accomplishes the task-just like the old miner and last he will leap to situations outside of his (or Al’s in one episode) lifetime.
The barman flatly denies he is God but I go the impression that the answer to his real identity and role was beyond Sam’s understanding for the time being, maybe this would become clearer to him in a rites of passage realisation.
I also got the impression that Sam would live forever partly in the results of the wrongs he righted and also in a more literal sense.
I thought the ending was a good one if you used your imagination, you could think of all the things that have happened in history and put a ‘what if Sam leaped into so-and so?’ scenario in there.
The whole series showed that life is not always simple cause and effect in isolation since every event leads on to the next, they turned up some real surprises and took a few chances, for instance in the Kennedy assassination episode, or the deep south racism where the evil of racism was not just attacked by the dramatic political leaders but also by the little mundane actions such as inviting the black chauffeur into a whites only coffee bar.
I haven’t seen the final episode since its original airing date, but a few things have stuck with me.
First, when Sam leaped (lept?) back in time to talk to Al’s wife, whom did he leap into? It seemed significant to me that in all of the other episodes, he was using someone else’s body and personality to change history. Does this mark his transition into a discorporate spirit? (Unless this transition comes at the very beginning of the episode, when Sam sees himself in the mirror for the first time in however many years.)
Second, I think it was strongly implied that the bartender was indeed God, but Sam had to figure it out for himself. I think he approached this knowledge in the following stages:
[ul]
[li]Sam says, “You’re more than just a bartender”, and after a pregnant pause, Al says, “That’s right. I’m also the owner.”[/li]
[li]Sam confirms that Al is God by kidding around with him about all the coincidences he’s seeing (Al’s bar, a guy in the bar named Ziggy, etc.) Al acknowledges that he always had fun with making up coincidences–i.e., he is indeed the author.[/li]
[li]Finally, Al explains what’s going on and what Sam will be facing in the future, though still using analogies to do so for the most part. And he ends by putting his arm around Sam and saying, “God bless”[/li][/ul]
I also thought that Sam’s sacrifice in helping (the original) Al was all the more poignant because not only would he never see his friend again, but his friend would never have any memory of Sam at all. That seems the most utter way possible to lose somebody you love.
The barman sees Sam looking at him and wondering if he’s
being served by the Prime Monad. The bartender laughs and says “I’m not God, Sam.”. I figgered that the bartender might be an angel, a leaper continuing Sam’s work in the far future, or some one from Project QL transformed by their leaping.
FWIW I’ve heard from a few hardcore QL fans that this was not supposed to be the series finale, only the season finale. The next season was to feature Sam controlling his leaps. Instead, the series was cancelled and the final sequence with the photo added.
DocCathode ~ I read an interview of Scott Bakula recently in which he discussed the surprise cancellation of the series, and the disappointment of the principles. He said that he and Dean Stockwell would both like to make a QL movie, but that creator Don Bellisario is not interested.
Yes, when the final episode was filmed, it wasn’t planned to be the series finale. I’ve read a detailed write-up on a QL fan site, but looking around I can’t find it now.
The episode was the same as what was actually televised, but there was a final scene that was removed. Al and his wife Beth (who he has now been married to all along due to Sam changing the past). He tells her that they are no longer able to track Sam, and he thinks Sam may now be leaping beyond his own lifetime.
Apparently in the next season Al was going to leap himself to find Sam. They would travel through time continuing to help people, but without the help of anyone from their own time.
I liked it better this way. I would hate to think that QL would have turned into some kind of period costume drama. I think the series ended on the right note.
I saw the last episode of QL on sci-fi last night, but I still don’t understand it. Here are some of the things that I don’t understand. Could someone please shed some light on them ?
Is there a reason that a lot of the people in the bar had the same names of the people on the QL project ?
What is the reason that some of the people in the bar were people Sam had met on previous leaps ?
Is there any significance to having Al’s dead uncle also being a leaper ? And does this mean that Sam is dead or that he never existed at all ?
After Sam lept in and talked to Beth, Why is it that the picture of Al appeared to leap ?
Does the ending imply that the QL project never even exised ?
The text that says Sam never made it home was added at the last minute, I don’t think by Bellisario. (In fact, I seem to recall reading an interview with him that said he was pretty upset about it.) Choosing to ignore it, I think that in the last episode Sam learned to control his leaps. (Or rather, learned he always could.) He didn’t leap immediately home because he wants to continue what he’s been doing. OTOH, he probably could come home for vacations from time to time.
The way I understand it to be was God the bartender,told Sam he could have one final leap home if he so chose,OR he could leap around forever. His next choice was so return back to a previous leap in which he regretted following protocol,and not telling Als former wife that Al had in fact not died&would be coming home. He gave up his leap home to save his best friend Al a life of lonliness because Al had helped him so long. This was his selfless act for a friend. Because of this he could not leap home in present day again. But could keep leaping and keep helping people in the past. The reason so many in the bar were former people hed leaped into was,that the bar was inside Sams mind as much as it was Gods place. The bar was also called Als place because a spin off was in the works that never came to reality. The end message “Beth never remarried,she and Al have four daughters and will celebrate their 39th wedding anniversary in June. Dr.Sam Beckett never returned home.” This episode also has an alternate ending that is obscure and almost impossible to locate.
