I was sitting and thinking about the final episode of Quantum Leap and was wondering does anyone think that maybe Sam died in between Memphis Melody and Mirror Image maybe in a leap we didn't see. And that Al's Bar was actually the afterlife. It would explain a lot. Why Sam saw people who where dead and people he had met through his leaps. And maybe that was why he was given a chance to help Al because maybe Al the bartender knew Sam couldn't Rest In Peace if he had one thing left to make better.
Mirror Image
- Thread starter Craig
- Start date
My take on the final episode is simple. The reason Sam was there at the bar was to realize he was leaping himself and that he could help Al. As for the familiar people and names, I think that was simply God, Time, or Fate amusing himself. Al the bartender even said he found coincidence amusing. I think the bartender caused people in the bar to look like people Sam knew just for kicks. Also, seeing all those people from previous leaps probably helped guide Sam to the realization that he needed to fix things for Al. 
Sam afterlife theory
Its really not that bad of a theory,Maybe Sam was pulled into the afterlife for that leap which explains the other leaper bieng a dead soul. And explains why he was himself and why Al couldn't find him, the bartender being a angel, and the other familiar faces. Why he landed there on his birthday. The day he was born... Its deffinately something to think about.
Its really not that bad of a theory,Maybe Sam was pulled into the afterlife for that leap which explains the other leaper bieng a dead soul. And explains why he was himself and why Al couldn't find him, the bartender being a angel, and the other familiar faces. Why he landed there on his birthday. The day he was born... Its deffinately something to think about.
I always wondered if Sam was brought to Al's Place not only to be shown that he can control his own destiny, but to be shown that he is but a piece in a larger puzzle. Kinda like finally meeting his "boss".
Speaking of Mirror Image... if you want to see some photos of the real town of Cokeburg, check out the page I just added today featuring many photos and info on the town. Thanks again to Dave for the photos and info!
http://www.quantumleap-alsplace.com/mediapages/cokeburg.htm
http://www.quantumleap-alsplace.com/mediapages/cokeburg.htm
I enjoyed the new page with pictures of Cokeburg. Great job, guys! It seems that the town remains old-fashioned and unaffected by time (except for the cars, of course). And I always wondered whether Captain Z-Ro was actually a real show or not. Thanks for clearing that up.
Great pics
The pics are great!
On mirror image, Sam learned to control his leaps but when he put right what once went wrong for AL it changes the entire leap because now Al ends up with Beth so Sam is stuck somewhere in time not remembering why he leaped into the bar, like in a leap for L. he started to get holes in his brain and couldn't remember Al, Sam doesn't know how to control his leaps now because technicaly now the things that happened in the bar didn't happen.
Thats why he hasn't leaped home.
The pics are great!
On mirror image, Sam learned to control his leaps but when he put right what once went wrong for AL it changes the entire leap because now Al ends up with Beth so Sam is stuck somewhere in time not remembering why he leaped into the bar, like in a leap for L. he started to get holes in his brain and couldn't remember Al, Sam doesn't know how to control his leaps now because technicaly now the things that happened in the bar didn't happen.
Thats why he hasn't leaped home.
Great points, but also, Sam could simply have gotten swiss-cheesed again and forgotten what he learned in the bar after a few leaps. That of course would depend on whether you believe he remained swiss-cheesed or never did again. Or, it just could be a combination of all the variables. Perhaps, if Sam went to the future, things could be more complex beyond our comprehension and that is what keeps him from returning home. Many, many possibilities...
asearcher said:Also...assuming that Sam would have been leaping as himself after Mirror Image (as opposed to leaping into someone who was then displaced to the waiting room), one could make an argument that the swiss-cheese effect wouldn't be in effect or at least not to the extent that he'd experienced it before.
Just wanted to add that I believe the swiss-cheese effect is a side-effect of time-travel in and of itself, not actually leaping into other people. If Sam were to continue leaping as himself, there would definitely be no more mind-merging, however. But if Sam is now leaping under GFT's "power" as opposed to his own technology, the rules of the game may certainly change. And that could very well be the case, because the rules of the game have already changed.
Maybe Stawpah was not dead. Maybe the Stawpah Sam met was Stawpah who began leaping at some point in his life before he died. Or maybe he did not die in 1933 as Gooshie thought but he left his time period and started leaping. Hope that made sense.
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Wonderful theorys
I have to agree with QL nut,
Swiss cheese is also an effect of time, just like in a leap for Lisa.
all these are very possible and wonderful theorys, I guess we'll have to wait and see which story Don Belisario goes for. Hopeing BLF comes out soon. And I bet its one that all of us are going to say ahhh why didn't we think of that LOL.
I have to agree with QL nut,
Swiss cheese is also an effect of time, just like in a leap for Lisa.
all these are very possible and wonderful theorys, I guess we'll have to wait and see which story Don Belisario goes for. Hopeing BLF comes out soon. And I bet its one that all of us are going to say ahhh why didn't we think of that LOL.
QL has always been, for me, about philosophy. Life, death, how we interact and change the future.
Feldon, your statement about not having to be dead to see the dead resonated with me. Only our physical bodies die, our life energy goes on. But Gettysburg is full of stories about the dead interacting with the living. I've even read stories of unknown people guiding survivors out of the doomed World Trade Center towers. But there is an even easier way to have this interaction: dream sleep. Shakespeare called sleep "death's counterfeit".
If you look at some of the links on the Cokeburg page, you'll discover three facts: that there really was a mine disaster in Marianna, PA (about 10 miles south of Cokeburg) in 1908, that one man actually survived (Fred Elison), and that in the list of victims there is no one named Steve. Elison gets lost in time, literally.
My belief was that the entire affair served two purposes: first, to "correct" the loss of the two miners (something that was central in the 2002 Quecreek rescue) and to serve as a cushion to Sam. After all of that time spent leaping, with other memories competing for space, it was time for a breather. Al gave Sam that breather, then once Sam seemed able to accept things which he hadn't considered, Al decided to give him the choice: call it a day and go home (notice the reference to the "Wizard of Oz"?) or soldier onwards, with the knowledge that the leaps would become more difficult.
I rewatch the show from time to time, and it seems that I find something I had missed earlier.
But why didn't Al the bartender come outside while Sam was talking to Admiral Al? Surely he knew that he was there. I believe that he just wanted to give Sam some time alone with his best friend. I would've loved to have seen the two Als converse.
But in a supreme application of the ripple effect, if Beth and Al worked out, and instead of QL Al went to NASA, and Project QL never happened...boy, talk about a temporal mechanics nightmare! Time for bed....
Feldon, your statement about not having to be dead to see the dead resonated with me. Only our physical bodies die, our life energy goes on. But Gettysburg is full of stories about the dead interacting with the living. I've even read stories of unknown people guiding survivors out of the doomed World Trade Center towers. But there is an even easier way to have this interaction: dream sleep. Shakespeare called sleep "death's counterfeit".
If you look at some of the links on the Cokeburg page, you'll discover three facts: that there really was a mine disaster in Marianna, PA (about 10 miles south of Cokeburg) in 1908, that one man actually survived (Fred Elison), and that in the list of victims there is no one named Steve. Elison gets lost in time, literally.
My belief was that the entire affair served two purposes: first, to "correct" the loss of the two miners (something that was central in the 2002 Quecreek rescue) and to serve as a cushion to Sam. After all of that time spent leaping, with other memories competing for space, it was time for a breather. Al gave Sam that breather, then once Sam seemed able to accept things which he hadn't considered, Al decided to give him the choice: call it a day and go home (notice the reference to the "Wizard of Oz"?) or soldier onwards, with the knowledge that the leaps would become more difficult.
I rewatch the show from time to time, and it seems that I find something I had missed earlier.
But why didn't Al the bartender come outside while Sam was talking to Admiral Al? Surely he knew that he was there. I believe that he just wanted to give Sam some time alone with his best friend. I would've loved to have seen the two Als converse.
But in a supreme application of the ripple effect, if Beth and Al worked out, and instead of QL Al went to NASA, and Project QL never happened...boy, talk about a temporal mechanics nightmare! Time for bed....
Wow loads of thories...my head hurts :nut
I like that explaination that he's keep saying to himself just one more leap then I go home. But Sam never getting around to it would be Sam all over because he was always trying to help others even those ones that wouldn't effect the success or non-success of a leap.
On another point Alia the evil turned good leaper do people think she might have ended up in Al's bar or did she go home before she ever met Zoey?
I like that explaination that he's keep saying to himself just one more leap then I go home. But Sam never getting around to it would be Sam all over because he was always trying to help others even those ones that wouldn't effect the success or non-success of a leap.
On another point Alia the evil turned good leaper do people think she might have ended up in Al's bar or did she go home before she ever met Zoey?
I don't think Alia ever went home because I would think "home" to her is the evil Project which she was part of. I suspect that she traveled somewhere in the not-too-distant future, free of Lothos. I think when Al said she was "free," this might have meant that she would be able to either leap at will, or under GFT's "power."
It is just possible that Sam was leaping around correcting the damage done by the "evil leapers". I lost track of the show when this element was introduced, but who's to say that they created enough damage to the desired timeline that a "repairman", namely Sam, was brought in? We saw Captain Galaxy attempt to leap, and while his intentions were good, "Barkeep Al" knew that Moe's lifetime did not extend far enough into the future to be able to undo the damage done. Besides, if he would've leaped, he never would've been there to complete his part, answering a young Sam's letter and perhaps inspiring him to take up science as a career. Would Sam have gone anywhere without intervention? So many questions...
In our lives, occasionally we are called upon to make a difference. As Al said, "...you made a difference, Sam". In a lot of lives, in a lot of ways.
I believe that "Mirror Image" was populated with so many familiar faces to give Sam a "touchstone", a frame of reference. Or it may have been done for us, the viewers.
But in my opinion, once the "evil leapers" were brought in, something magic was lost. The show didn't need them. But it would've eventually gone off the air, simply because there are only so many stories that you can tell before the originality wears off. "Enterprise", Scott's last show, was doing well until a "temporal cold war" was introduced. Suddenly, mankind's first steps into the galactic community became more dangerous than was credible, and the show suffered.
By the way, I was at NASA Headquarters for Sean O'Keefe's farewell ceremony, and Scott and the "Enterprise" people put together a really nice farewell salute. It was nice to see Scott, and I wish him well. The episode they put together with Dean Stockwell just didn't work, because it never tried to take advantage of the chemistry these two developed.
I'd be happy with maybe two or four new QL specials per year.
In our lives, occasionally we are called upon to make a difference. As Al said, "...you made a difference, Sam". In a lot of lives, in a lot of ways.
I believe that "Mirror Image" was populated with so many familiar faces to give Sam a "touchstone", a frame of reference. Or it may have been done for us, the viewers.
But in my opinion, once the "evil leapers" were brought in, something magic was lost. The show didn't need them. But it would've eventually gone off the air, simply because there are only so many stories that you can tell before the originality wears off. "Enterprise", Scott's last show, was doing well until a "temporal cold war" was introduced. Suddenly, mankind's first steps into the galactic community became more dangerous than was credible, and the show suffered.
By the way, I was at NASA Headquarters for Sean O'Keefe's farewell ceremony, and Scott and the "Enterprise" people put together a really nice farewell salute. It was nice to see Scott, and I wish him well. The episode they put together with Dean Stockwell just didn't work, because it never tried to take advantage of the chemistry these two developed.
I'd be happy with maybe two or four new QL specials per year.
Altruism
Some very interesting insights, Helen.
There was an episode of "Friends" where Phoebe contested that there was no such thing as a truly selfless deed, which completely backs up this viewpoint.
She challenged the group, including herself, to do something 'altruistic' and not get anything out of it, and indeed it proved harder than it seemed.
It has been argued that Sam's "What it gets him" was the way Home. That his motivation was actually a totally selfish one. I don't really subscribe to this theory, I like the 'guy in the white hat' scenario too much, but Sam is only human, as he reminded Al in Trilogy. And surely at the end of the day, it is less important whether the 'white knight' derives any personal benefit from his good deeds than that the good deeds get done.
Some very interesting insights, Helen.
There was an episode of "Friends" where Phoebe contested that there was no such thing as a truly selfless deed, which completely backs up this viewpoint.
She challenged the group, including herself, to do something 'altruistic' and not get anything out of it, and indeed it proved harder than it seemed.
It has been argued that Sam's "What it gets him" was the way Home. That his motivation was actually a totally selfish one. I don't really subscribe to this theory, I like the 'guy in the white hat' scenario too much, but Sam is only human, as he reminded Al in Trilogy. And surely at the end of the day, it is less important whether the 'white knight' derives any personal benefit from his good deeds than that the good deeds get done.
Sam's motives for building Quantum Leap were discussed in this ep, and Al kinda made Sam confront it. But let's face it, there are motives for everything we do.
Are there truly no selfless deeds, simply doing something because it needs to be done? That is a very difficult question to answer. What could possibly be one's motivation for leaving family and home to serve hot meals for disaster victims like the Salvation Army and Red Cross people do?
Sometimes when you do things like Sam was doing, there are rewards far beyond what you ever imagined.
He should have gone home to his wife and family, but Al told him that he'd made a difference. That was like putting gas on a flame, and Sam was hooked.
I believe that the statement about Sam never returning home was deliberate, leaving the series open-ended just in case it would be renewed or picked up by another network.
Are there truly no selfless deeds, simply doing something because it needs to be done? That is a very difficult question to answer. What could possibly be one's motivation for leaving family and home to serve hot meals for disaster victims like the Salvation Army and Red Cross people do?
Sometimes when you do things like Sam was doing, there are rewards far beyond what you ever imagined.
He should have gone home to his wife and family, but Al told him that he'd made a difference. That was like putting gas on a flame, and Sam was hooked.
I believe that the statement about Sam never returning home was deliberate, leaving the series open-ended just in case it would be renewed or picked up by another network.
asearcher said:
Technically speaking, there is no hope. But this is a time-travel show, so there is hope. More specifically, Sammy Jo (or another leaper) could rewrite history (or future history depending if Sam is in fact in the future), and therefore send him home. After all, that is the theme of the entire series, isn't it? Why couldn't a new series rewrite that statement?
On a side note, that's a very interesting idea that Sam never returned home for the Project's benefit. But at the same time, the Project probably couldn't have continued that much longer anyway. Eventually its funding would have been cut by the government. Imagine Al trying to convice the Committee to grant more funding after they had completely lost Sam and had no way of finding him. That is, of course, assuming that the Project had lost contact with him, which I think it did.
asearcher said:
I do believe Sam's string theory is part of the explanation for why he ended up at the beginning of his life. However, his theory depends on the fact that both his life and death have already occurred, correct? In another thread, I was talking about how I think Sam never leaped into the future because it hadn't happened yet from his point of view. Now I'm not so sure. If my previous statement is true, then Sam's theory wouldn't be able to work, would it? Thus, if this is true, Sam could very well leap into the future up until his death. The average person lives about 70-80 years, so I would imagine his lifetime would end somewhere around 2033.
Has anyone ever asked why Sam had his wallet from the future, with all of his future-type cards and currency in it?
I think we've all generally figured that since nothing else in the episode makes sense, why should we bother questioning Sam's wallet? It's just as mysterious as where Sam's clothes came from. They looked '50s-style and included a hat, which suggests the Bartender put that ensemble together for Sam. And again, Sam's Fermi Suit in the future disappears from existence as it did in "The Leap Back."
It's just as mysterious as where Sam's clothes came from. They looked '50s-style and included a hat, which suggests the Bartender put that ensemble together for Sam. And again, Sam's Fermi Suit in the future disappears from existence as it did in "The Leap Back."
D
Dman176
Guest
QL Nut said:
QL Nut said:
Helen... I'm not sure how far along in the Virtual Seasons you are at the moment (it has to be pretty far along though if you commented on my first story, which I will reply to at some point when I'm not so bogged down with other things...like writing my next story), but I recommend reading my interpretation of how "Sam Beckett never returned home" can be changed in a way that's not a "cop-out." As Chris said, when dealing with time travel, "never" does not always necessarily mean NEVER never. From the perspective of someone in 1955, for example, our present was their future even though it hadn't yet happened at that point in history. (I believe some stand-up comedian said it many years ago that technically there IS no "present" because as soon as you say, "It's the present," you immediately follow it up by saying, "Oops, where'd it go?"; "Wait, it's coming back... ohhh, now it's gone again!") So, from Sam's current perspective, the future has not happened yet...but his future can also be someone else's past (someone like his grandaughter, perhaps). And if that same person knows Sam's ultimate fate?that he never returned home and is about to die (which coincidentally, I wrote as January 1, 2035)?they might be able to figure out a way to "pull" Sam out of temporal sync to show him what has happened to Project Quantum Leap during his 30-year absence so that he can then leap backward and change it. After all, it's not really the future if the "present" has already come and gone. In order for it to even be possible to travel into the future, time would have needed to move on from the point of departure so that the future would now be the present and the present would now be the past, meaning that it can be changed for the better. 8o
Plus, the whole point of what the Bartender was trying to tell Sam in "Mirror Image" was that he was in control of his own destiny and that nothing is set in stone as far as his lifetime is concerned. So, if that really is true, then technically, Sam could die at any time. Whenever Sam leaps back and saves someone whose life ended, he's essentially making the string of that person's lifetime longer than it was in the original history. On top of that, the "leapees" are always leaping into their possible future whenever they arrive in the Waiting Room (sometimes even beyond their lifetimes if their "original" death was supposed to occur within days of Sam's leap-in). It's only when they return to their own time that their timeline has been changed for the better. So, who's to say that it can't work the same way for Sam as well?
http://quantumleap-alsplace.com/virtualseasons/season10/1031.html
Of course, you also need to have a bit of knowledge of TVS characters and situations to fully understand and/or appreciate some aspects, but the general idea I had for that particular story has been in my head for over a decade. I just modified some of it to conform with TVS continuity. Plus, that's also the first episode in a 3-episode arc (the others don't necessarily need to be read, though, unless you want to continue following the retrieval chip storyline that links all 3 stories together).
Damon (still trying to think up a new avatar and signature)
Dman176 said:
This would be going by the "flowing river" theory of time-travel. This theory basically says time is like a river, constantly flowing forward and the actual river itself left behind would symbolize the past.
If I'm not mistaken, I think Albert Einstein had his own theories on time, only one of his theories was that of a frozen river. Basically the idea there is that past, present and future have already occurred, set in stone with no beginning, no end, and, therefore, no middle. The idea of infinite parallel universes also works in conjunction with this theory, thereby avoiding the possibility of paradoxes.
I think the idea is that of which we've discussed many times among these threads, where a time-traveler wouldn't necessarily be travleing in time per se, but traveling through parallel universes. If the traveler, for whatever reason, wanted to kill his father before he was conceived (thereby endangering his own existence, hence the paradox), he would, in essence, be traveling to a separate universe which would not affect his existence. In the alternate reality, however, he would never be born. In the reality he came from, it would have never changed. Perhaps the traveler would become an anomaly, as I've theorized with Sam and Al and why they can remember both histories on leaps. Furthermore, every parallel universe would be a single, set timeline (albeit NOT rewritable as most theorize), where any traveling would be part of history all along; the traveler always had arrived in the parallel universe to kill his father. These parallel universes exist in conjunction with one another; where it would be set in stone that the traveler leaves that particular universe, and it would be set that the corresponding parallel universe acquires the traveler. In other words, no timeline gets rewritten at all; the traveler merely jumps from one to the other.
This "frozen river" theory could be the case in Quantum Leap, but there is no way to know since anything beyond Sam's present was never explored. It seems that it has to be one idea or the other, but the series seems to more or less suggest that it follows the "flowing river" ideology. And that, of course, would mean that 1999 is essentially the present becoming the future and so forth.
Dman176 said:Plus, the whole point of what the Bartender was trying to tell Sam in "Mirror Image" was that he was in control of his own destiny and that nothing is set in stone as far as his lifetime is concerned. So, if that really is true, then technically, Sam could die at any time. Whenever Sam leaps back and saves someone whose life ended, he's essentially making the string of that person's lifetime longer than it was in the original history. On top of that, the "leapees" are always leaping into their possible future whenever they arrive in the Waiting Room (sometimes even beyond their lifetimes if their "original" death was supposed to occur within days of Sam's leap-in). It's only when they return to their own time that their timeline has been changed for the better. So, who's to say that it can't work the same way for Sam as well?
There is something I'm still not quite sure of, even though I think it's explained here...
Sam's string theory states that one can only travel back and forth within their own lifetime as we all know. However, is that to say that this idea isn't actually applicable if we have a point of view from someone else in the future, such as a grown Sammy Jo, for example? Would this explain how a "leapee" (let's use Maxwell Stoddard in "Star Light, Star Bright" as an example) can technically travel beyond his lifetime in the Waiting Room? He would have died of natural causes long before time had caught up to Sam's present (despite Sam's changes), both in the original and new history if I remember correctly. Wouldn't this technically be breaking the rules of Sam's theory? I believe what you're saying is that Max can travel to the Waiting Room because according to the "flowing river" theory, a future exists for him to travel to from his point of view. But like I said, what I'm not understanding is how he's arriving at a point in time after his life had ended, whether it exists or not.
asearcher said:
I knew that I read somewhere on the 'Net about this "frozen river" theory and that it was associated with Einstein. It turns out, unfortunately, that it was a post I had read on the BTTF.com website (a site dedicated to the Back To the Future movies and time-travel in general), where someone had posted this idea and said it was one of Einstein's. Normally, I would never take hearsay as fact, only this was an idea that I also happened to conceive over the past few years, being a fan of the concept of time-travel and movies that deal with it. You'll have to forgive the English, and it's quite possible that it's an unreliable source, but the gist of what I gathered from the post matched one of the ideas of time-travel that I always had. The only problem is whether it was a theory of Einstein's or not. I searched the 'Net myself and didn't find anything directly related to his theories so far (in retrospect)... Anyway, this is the post that I originally saw (again, you'll have to excuse the English):
"No matter how hard it tried, you it would not kill your own parents. At least it is what Einstein learn to us. His special theory of the relativity, that is making 100 years, sees the past, the present time and the future of a skill that challenges the common sense. You understand the time as if it was a river that flows in constant rhythm, that is born in the past and ends in the future, certain?
The physicists also think the same. But Albert Einstein discover that this 'river of the time' does not flow. It is congealed. As much the past as the future already happened. This wants to say that it is not theoretically impossible to travel for the past - it would be enough to discover a way to walk stops backwards in this 'frozen river'.
But it wants to also say that you cannot change nothing for there - after all, it already is ready, determined. But, and if you it have a machine that leaves you to ithe past and obtained to kill your father before his having a son (in this case, you)? Einstein was wrong? In 1957, the American physicist Hugh Everett think about an explanation to decide this paradox: the hypothesis of the Many Worlds. Everett agrees with Einstein, the principle: the time continues being seen as a frozen river.
The difference is that virtually exists an infinite number of parallel universes in the Cosmos. If Everett is right, means that you do not travel exactly in time, but jumps to a parallel Universe where already was written that one guy would appear from anywhere and will kill somebody. In this place where the murder is certain, you never born. Your father died before have *** with your mother. About your old Universe, nothing happen here. You did not kill your father exactly, but a 'copy' of him in another Universe. And you were born with no problems. The original past will never be changed, with or without a time machine. And Einstein wins again."
asearcher said:
Technically speaking, you're absolutely right. It's also very possible that even Sam, Al and the Project have a misinterpretation of time as well. After all, they do spend the whole series asking more questions than stating answers regarding how to get home, what the "unknown force" is leaping Sam around, etc. As much as it is a cop-out, the swiss cheese effect could be referred to here as well.
So by this line of reasoning, technically "putting right what once went wrong" isn't actually what's going on, as you said, Helen. It's more like the "next best thing," if you will. Every new timeline that Sam creates becomes the new "home." I believe if Sam were to travel back to this new present, he would find his brother Tom alive, yet have no recollection whatsoever of the history that occurred since April 8, 1970── because he was never there to experience it. He would belong there as the "frozen river" theory states, however. So, although this would mean that there is still an original history out there where what went wrong will always remain wrong, Sam and Al will never get back to that reality. But I really don't think that's a bad thing. For all we know, the final statement of "Mirror Image" could mean that it is just another wrong to put right, or move to a universe where it's made right, via the time branch.
I know that it doesn't seem like how it was meant to be, but this is really the only way that I can see how Sam, Al and Ziggy can be aware of all original histories. They're all connected via brainwave connection, thus, they are all a part of each other in some way. We don't know for certain whether the rest of the Project is aware of the original histories (as far as I can remember), but I'm betting that they aren't. The Project, along with the rest of the world for that matter, would never be aware of this original history/parallel universe, because they never departed the one they live in. From their points of view, Sam came along the first and only time and those tragedies never occurred.
Infinity is a common variable no matter what theory of time you believe in. If we are to believe that time is how the series implies it to be, that would mean that there is one universe with infinite "layers" of time, for lack of a better word. With every leap, Sam is supposed to enter one of these infinite layers and change it. The fact that he can even travel into the past in the first place would be proof that there are these infinite layers. Now, the problem here is that you would have the anomaly of Sam. The one we see throughout the series comes from the original timeline where things went wrong, but in subsequent layers of time, there is a Sam who grew up with Tom alive and who would be happier. It's more psychologically satisfying for me to believe that Sam simply moves to another parallel universe without even realizing it, and thus is not an anomaly. The irony here is that everybody in the new parallel universe (if they were able to see Sam for who he is) would see him as an anomaly. In actuality, he would not be, and will have belonged there all along as part of the frozen river.
So, it seems that either there are infinite layers of time and one single universe, or there are infinite parallel universes which are all frozen. While the idea of infinity may sound extremely farfetched, the way I see it, it's not that absurd.
EDIT: I'd also like to briefly add my theory on "Mirror Image," which is that Al's Place and the reality it exists in is another one of these parallel universes. Perhaps it even exists due to changes Sam has made. For instance, as I was stating above, there'd be a universe where what went wrong stays wrong, and another universe where Sam was there to make things right and so on. There's the timeline where Tom was killed, and therefore would not live out his life and presumably get married at some point and/or have kids, hypothetically speaking. Therefore, you have people who exist in a timeline that never existed in another. Al's Place could have been a radical extrapolation of various outcomes like these among these parallel universes.
In this alternate 1953, there would be things that could go wrong just like in any other leap (Tonchi and Pete needing to be rescued from the mine, etc.). It's my belief that in this version of 1953, there is no Frank or Jimmy LaMotta── only a Tonchi and Pete. And the same would go for any of the other "doubles" of people Sam had helped. After all, it wouldn't make sense in our world that there could be multiple versions of the same people in different times with different identities. Or, rather than being a radical extrapolation of other realities, I've also theorized that it could be another dimension altogether. The idea that these outcomes are infinite truly allows ANYTHING and EVERYTHING to potentially be different, even in the slightest way.
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That's an intriguing thought, Helen.
Another possibility along those same lines is the definition of home, for Sam. I'm thinking of how when he leaped into himself at 16, his first words were..."I'm home."
Home with his parents, sister, and brother, but especially his late father and brother. Even after the Leap Back when we learned he'd successfully salvaged his relationship with Donna, I'm not entirely convinced that PQL was what Sam always meant when he said "home."
Taking the idea of the singularity a bit further and extrapolating a bit more toward the theological side of things, home for Sam could be wrapped up a whole lot more than a specific place and time. Perhaps home is being with his father again.
Another possibility along those same lines is the definition of home, for Sam. I'm thinking of how when he leaped into himself at 16, his first words were..."I'm home."
Home with his parents, sister, and brother, but especially his late father and brother. Even after the Leap Back when we learned he'd successfully salvaged his relationship with Donna, I'm not entirely convinced that PQL was what Sam always meant when he said "home."
Taking the idea of the singularity a bit further and extrapolating a bit more toward the theological side of things, home for Sam could be wrapped up a whole lot more than a specific place and time. Perhaps home is being with his father again.