How Does Sam End Up Where He Is?

Sam Beckett Fan

Sam Beckett Fan

Re-Writing Life
Jun 3, 2005
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Ok, yes yes I am going to share ANOTHER thing my best friend and I discussed. *man they sure discuss a lot of Ql stuff don't they?*
ah Yeah, who else do I have to talk about this stuff with!?

hehe, anyway after we watched Mirror Image on New Years Eve Kristen and I figured out that Al (the bartender) is right. Sam CAN indeed control where he leaps or so we think.

Now here is what we came up with(or actually most of this is mine, as we just discussed the episodes in which he Conquincedently ends up in simular situations to his. I am now adding to it with my own thoughts so :p), we think that Sam does not realize he controls his leaps because he controls them with his heart.
for example:

In Camakazi Kid Sam leaps into a younger brother who's older sister has an abusive boyfriend problem, and then he remembers the same situation (except of course the ages reversed) with his own sister Katie and Chuck and that drives him to want to help Cheryl even more to make up for not being there for Katie when she needed him. Conquincedence? hmmm?

Also think about The Leap Home II. Sam's teammates in The Leap Home I are holding him up on his shoulders and he shouts for Al over the roar of the crowd to check Tom's fate but its still the same. He reaches out for Tom and yells for him when he leaps, and where should he end up? IN VIETNAM, AND IN TOM'S SQUAD! and after he ended the last leap wanting badly to save him.

And then there is Star Crossed, now Kristen and I didn't discuss this one but I was taking a break from typing just now to have some of my soup that I have having for lunch and I was thinking about it, and a gut feeling tells me that that wasn't exactly a conquincedence eaither. After all, if you read the novel Prelude he was thinking a lot about Donna and why she stood up him, and what the progect would be like if she hadn't. He even consitered what would happen if he could use his new machine to go back in time and change that and make it so she does marry him. and we don't know what happened in the show before Sam leaped so who knows, he could have been thinking about those things. And then his second leap, he does it. hmmm? makes you think huh?

Ok here's another one, Future Boy. Ok So Sam is the co-star of this kiddy show with Mo Stien who in real life actually believes in time travel just like Sam did and this makes people think hes crazy. Well people thought Sam was crazy too, and this is discussed in the show, in Honeymoon Express and Star Crossed. Sam even says that Mo was him just ahead of his time and he admired him for that. So how do you think he got there? No one had stood up for him when he was created progect Quantum Leap (except of course Al) so maybe he wanted to stand up for someone else like him which led him to Mo Stein.

Kristen and I also discussed Promised Land. Sam leaped into a family much like his own IN his hometown! On top of that Willy (his host) also did not show up to his father's funeral as Sam did not. (or so Kristen and I assume because there is faint evidence to support so in Future Boy and Single Drop of Rain where Mo Stien and Billy Boumount did not go to a loved ones funeral and it appeared to sting Sam if you watch his facial expressions closely.)

There is also The Leap Back where Al's heart took over since he was now the leaper and he steered himself to Tom Jarod who was also an MIA presumed dead by his love. After all he wanted to break Cliffords face because he associated him with Dirk. remember:
Sam: No this is NOT the guy that married Beth!

So Is anyone starting to see a pattern here?
Sam's heart appears to have led the way to some of his leaps, not all but a pretty good portion.
 
Sam doesn't control where he goes to, just that he wishes to keep leaping. I'll paraphrase what Al the Bartender said, as I can't quite remember the exact quote

"A priest can be moved from parish to parish by the hierachry, but ultimately has control over his own destiny. He can leave when he so wishes. Indeed, he can even take a sabbatical. Especially when encountering new and tougher missions"
 
I've always looked at it that God, or whomever is leaping Sam, simply sent him places where his past experience could help him...and, in the much more mundane version of answers...it's simply a device used to further the appeal of a TV show.
 
Sam Beckett Fan said:
Ok, yes yes I am going to share ANOTHER thing my best friend and I discussed. *man they sure discuss a lot of Ql stuff don't they?*
ah Yeah, who else do I have to talk about this stuff with!?

hehe, anyway after we watched Mirror Image on New Years Eve Kristen and I figured out that Al (the bartender) is right. Sam CAN indeed control where he leaps or so we think.

Now here is what we came up with(or actually most of this is mine, as we just discussed the episodes in which he Conquincedently ends up in simular situations to his. I am now adding to it with my own thoughts so :p), we think that Sam does not realize he controls his leaps because he controls them with his heart.
for example:

In Camakazi Kid Sam leaps into a younger brother who's older sister has an abusive boyfriend problem, and then he remembers the same situation (except of course the ages reversed) with his own sister Katie and Chuck and that drives him to want to help Cheryl even more to make up for not being there for Katie when she needed him. Conquincedence? hmmm?

Also think about The Leap Home II. Sam's teammates in The Leap Home I are holding him up on his shoulders and he shouts for Al over the roar of the crowd to check Tom's fate but its still the same. He reaches out for Tom and yells for him when he leaps, and where should he end up? IN VIETNAM, AND IN TOM'S SQUAD! and after he ended the last leap wanting badly to save him.

And then there is Star Crossed, now Kristen and I didn't discuss this one but I was taking a break from typing just now to have some of my soup that I have having for lunch and I was thinking about it, and a gut feeling tells me that that wasn't exactly a conquincedence eaither. After all, if you read the novel Prelude he was thinking a lot about Donna and why she stood up him, and what the progect would be like if she hadn't. He even consitered what would happen if he could use his new machine to go back in time and change that and make it so she does marry him. and we don't know what happened in the show before Sam leaped so who knows, he could have been thinking about those things. And then his second leap, he does it. hmmm? makes you think huh?

Ok here's another one, Future Boy. Ok So Sam is the co-star of this kiddy show with Mo Stien who in real life actually believes in time travel just like Sam did and this makes people think hes crazy. Well people thought Sam was crazy too, and this is discussed in the show, in Honeymoon Express and Star Crossed. Sam even says that Mo was him just ahead of his time and he admired him for that. So how do you think he got there? No one had stood up for him when he was created progect Quantum Leap (except of course Al) so maybe he wanted to stand up for someone else like him which led him to Mo Stein.

Kristen and I also discussed Promised Land. Sam leaped into a family much like his own IN his hometown! On top of that Willy (his host) also did not show up to his father's funeral as Sam did not. (or so Kristen and I assume because there is faint evidence to support so in Future Boy and Single Drop of Rain where Mo Stien and Billy Boumount did not go to a loved ones funeral and it appeared to sting Sam if you watch his facial expressions closely.)

There is also The Leap Back where Al's heart took over since he was now the leaper and he steered himself to Tom Jarod who was also an MIA presumed dead by his love. After all he wanted to break Cliffords face because he associated him with Dirk. remember:
Sam: No this is NOT the guy that married Beth!

So Is anyone starting to see a pattern here?
Sam's heart appears to have led the way to some of his leaps, not all but a pretty good portion.
Click to expand...


Hummm:hmm ... it just so happens that my mom and I were talking about this same thing on christmas day, we watched a few of each season 1-4 that I have on dvd. She was the one that started it this time. She said that it looked like Sam was doing his own leaping. But that GTW was helping him know what was "really in his heart". I at first didn't think so, but then we started watching "star crossed" and then it hit me. Sam must have somthing to do with his leaping. If not all of it at leat a part. I believe that God know's what's really in our hearts and helps us get there. So I can see where Sam does some of his leaping. Now as I told me mom, I have not totaly changed my mind just as yet, but there really is a pattern. I will have to think on this some more and write later. I would love to read the book that your spoke about Sam Beckett Fan.
 
we think that Sam does not realize he controls his leaps because he controls them with his heart.
Click to expand...

I'm with Sam Beckett Fan on this one. Al the Bartender doesn't lie, and he told Sam that Sam controls the leaps himself, right? "With his heart" is one way of putting it. I would say he does it at a subconscious level that he never knew how to access--until the end of Mirror Image, when he leaps to visit Beth. He chose to do that, and it looks like he figured out how. I don't think it's a coincidence that he so often leaps into someone who's similar to himself, or to Al, in some way. It also does work as a device to increase the show's appeal to the fans who love the characters. But I believe DPB wasn't kidding about the reason behind that--Sam is guiding or choosing the leaps himself.
 
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Yeah thats right Snish.

ziggysego said:
Sam doesn't control where he goes to, just that he wishes to keep leaping. I'll paraphrase what Al the Bartender said, as I can't quite remember the exact quote

"A priest can be moved from parish to parish by the hierachry, but ultimately has control over his own destiny. He can leave when he so wishes. Indeed, he can even take a sabbatical. Especially when encountering new and tougher missions"
Click to expand...
I wasnt referring to when Al was talking about the priest I was talking about when he pointed to the mirror behind him and said "I'd say he's leaping you" and Sam stares at his relfection and than tells Al noway nohow.

jmellisa said:
I believe that God know's what's really in our hearts and helps us get there. So I can see where Sam does some of his leaping.
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Yes that might be it as well, I know God Still plays a big part because a lot of Sams leaps have chip to do with himself, so this might be true as well Julie :)
 
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Ok so I was cruising the pages of the board here because I was bored and for this thread in particular:
http://www.quantumleap-alsplace.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2687

This is an ancient thread of mine asking about the leap=sucess or not question and when I thought back to this topic as I read it I realized that it ties back to this discussion. I think it just depends on how Sam's heart steers him. Plus it has been discussed or maybe it was just me posting it as an idea, that sam can kind of sense, (or perhaps his heart is deciding that he's done but hes not aware of it ;)) when it's time to go as shown in Southern Comforts and What Price Gloria.
 
Interesting theory. I haven't thought of it much myself, but then again, I haven't finished watching Season 5. But, it does make a lot of sense, and sounds very probable to me. I always wondered how GTFW picked which person's life for Sam to leap into and when out of everyone everywhere from 1953 and on.
 
I thought the episodes where there's some parallel with Sam's family/friends were in the minority. Most of the time, the leapees have very little in common with Sam's world. The leap into Tom's platoon in Vietnam seemed to be an exception--the rare occasion where GTFW granted a prayer of Sam's to change his brother's fate.

Part of the fun of QL for me is seeing how often Sam is a fish out of water, and how amazingly he adapts. Sooner or later, we're all in that kind of situation where we're expected to do something that nothing in our experience has prepared us for, and we need to call on GTFW to bring something good out of it. The theology is much more compelling if Sam doesn't conrol his leaps.
 
Aging Boomer said:
I thought the episodes where there's some parallel with Sam's family/friends were in the minority. Most of the time, the leapees have very little in common with Sam's world.
...
The theology is much more compelling if Sam doesn't conrol his leaps.
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True, and it's an interesting question I didn't think about before--if Sam is controlling his leaps, how does he know about these people and situations that need fixing? They're usually complete strangers. I believe Sam's controlling the leaps because I don't believe Al the Bartender would mislead him about that--someone who's probably an angel would not lie, period. And there are certain times when it makes sense that Sam is actually making the leap happen, at least the ending of it. So maybe it's a collaborative effort between Sam and GTFW--GTFW sends him off with Sam's (unconscious) knowledge and consent, and Sam often decides when his work is done and the leap can end. Or maybe it's just something mysterious that we can't understand. :angel
 
Snish said:
True, and it's an interesting question I didn't think about before--if Sam is controlling his leaps, how does he know about these people and situations that need fixing? They're usually complete strangers. I believe Sam's controlling the leaps because I don't believe Al the Bartender would mislead him about that--someone who's probably an angel would not lie, period. And there are certain times when it makes sense that Sam is actually making the leap happen, at least the ending of it. So maybe it's a collaborative effort between Sam and GTFW--GTFW sends him off with Sam's (unconscious) knowledge and consent, and Sam often decides when his work is done and the leap can end. Or maybe it's just something mysterious that we can't understand. :angel
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DId you read the entire thread? Sam doesn't know he's controlling his leaps and he doesn't know these people of course, his heart just knows what he has been through and has such a strong desire to change some of it that his heart leads him to a simular situation. ANd of course only God knows where those people are so he guides the way too.
 
Okay. It's hard for me to make much sense of this and have much of a opinion, as I haven't seen very many of the episodes, but considering the evidence that had been put forward I find I have to agree with Sam Beckett Fan. The theories in this thread all make perfect sense and seem to be correct, even some of the contradicting terms. Is is not true that sometimes everyone is right? I don't know, but this thread has been very enlightening.
 
I think SBF is exactly right - and here's some more evidence.

In the Leap Back, when Donna asserts that his leaps are random, he says that he thinks that all this time his subconscious has been working on the problem because this time (when he wants to leap into Al), he knows he can "hit the bullseye." I agree with SBF that he "hits the bullseye" all the time, in the sense of going into situations that mirror his own life experiences and regrets.

And yes, of course, on a mundane, real-life level - Sam having some sort of emotional connection to the situation is better dramatically for the series. But we're not dealing with the mundane, real-life level, now are we?
 
I also realized that another perfect example is when he took Alia with him on his leap. Snish I believe it was or perhaps someone else started a thread wondering why Alia didn't take him with her and Al even states
"What if she takes you with her?"
Well I think to answer that question there Al, I think it's because Sam had such a strong desire to take her with him becuase that's how he worded it everytime he mentioned the plan.
 
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