If given the choice...would you become a leaper?

chris-oates

Project QL Intern
Jul 19, 2012
81
0
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England.
Hello all! Wow, it's been a long time since I posted on here. Truth be told, I never posted on here much at all. My account barely has any posts at all. A lot has changed for me in the last 6 years, but my love for this show remains. Like all things, though, good and bad events happen in their turn, and somewhere amidst it all I lost track of Quantum Leap. Thankfully, though, I rediscovered my love for all things QL when my mother popped in the season 3 episode, A Little Miracle on Christmas Eve. Before I knew it, I was rewatching the whole series from scratch. I'll try and review the episodes one by one if I get time (nothing fancy or too long, but a brief review of some and more detailed of others). One thing that's really changed, though...is my view of the show's iconic ending.

I'm only up to half way through season 4 in my rewatch, but I did catch some of Mirror Image when it was on TV the other day, and my whole view has changed. I made a thread on here years ago, and I'm almost cringing reading it now. Like the casual viewer I assumed it signified that Sam was trapped in time against his will, forced into choosing between Al's marriage to Beth or his own life with Donna. Fortunately, though, I've grown up since then, and can see the beauty in the ending of the show. The whole point to me is that Sam can choose to leap home whenever he wants, but continues leaping forever for the greater good. And it's a good feeling, imaging Sam Beckett still leaping around, putting right oh so many wrongs that keep happening day in, day out... But the real point of the thread is this. Would you choose to do what Sam does, given the choice?

Personally...I think I would. I know it's a bold claim, but I honestly think I would. I have no ties to this world I live in except for my mother and grandparents. I have no wife, children or special vocation in life. The one thing I enjoy doing is helping people. I volunteer as a Samaritan when I can, keeping in touch with people living in despair and trying to help them hold on. I often wish I could fix lives and right wrongs. I think that's why the message of Quantum Leap is so beautiful. To know you're doing God's work and making the world a better place.

One last question that I haven't seen many people bring up though is this. Does Sam retain all his memories in Mirror Image? My mother did note it was strange that Donna doesn't enter Sam's mind at all in that episode (neither does Sammie Jo, for that matter). If Sam didn't have all that knowledge of just what he was leaving behind then he may have thought leaping forever and ever was too much, and not fair on Donna. To be honest, that's still the only part of Quantum Leap's ending that does upset me. Donna's life is kinda ruined. Personally, I think Sam does remember everything in Mirror Image, because he is fully reunited with his body, soul and aura.

So yeah, sorry for this lengthy start to the thread but I just wanted to say hello and I hope that I'll be sticking around here a bit longer this time. Stay tuned for the episode reviews!