So our good friends over at The Robot Pajamas had a post today about the Worst Sci-Fi Series Finales. Which featured some interesting choices but one stood out to me as just plain wrong, and that one was Quantum Leap.
You see I'm a nerd, I like sci-fi and when Quantum Leap aired in 1989 I instantly loved the concept of the show. I loved the concept of a time traveling scientist trying to put history right. It wasn't perfect but it was pretty damn good. But all shows must end and so eventually it came to pass the last episode of Quantum Leap was aired.
And it was pretty instantly controversial. I remember talking with some folks the next day and they really didn't understand it, some simply hated, and no one took away the same thing I did from it. If you haven't seen the last episode in a while go watch it or at least go read the synopsis at Al's Place.
Ok up to speed? Good. Now we can get to the good stuff. To understand the last episode you have to think back to the first episode. In the pilot Sam leaps back in time into the body of test pilot. Amnesiac, he thinks he's dreaming until Al appears to explain what's happening. Sam learns that via God, Fate, Time, or Whatever he's got to put things right that once went wrong. And that's what he does for 5 seasons. Or does he? Now we get back the final episode. To understand and appreciate one key thing. And that's...
SPOILER AHEAD FOR A SHOW THAT'S BEEN OFF THE AIR FOR 20 years.
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To understand the last episode of Quantum Leap you need to realize one thing. The Quantum Leap project was a failure. Dr. Sam Bekett died when attempting the first leap. In fact he suggests as much in the pilot. Think of the five seasons we saw as God, Fate, Time, or Whatever preparing Sam for his real job, which for lack of a better word we'll call a guardian angel. Nothing that happened in the series really happened none of the changes that Sam made were really made it was all training for Sam's first mission. The mission we saw in the final episode when he fixed Al's life. When you understand the Sam's been dead the whole time and that the last episode is about accepting that fact and coming to grips with his new existence it all makes sense.
Don't believe me?
Let's look at the clues:
Sam alludes to being dead in the pilot.
Sam's last leap is to the exact moment of his birth.
Despite being a neurological hologram created by stimulating Sam's brain, various animals and children interact with him.
Bruce McGill appears in the pilot as Weird Ernie and in the finale as Al. (this is a big one)
Don Quixote is referenced with it's themes of fantasy and reality.
In the final episode Al (the bartender) is dressed in angelic white.
Other dead leapers appear.
Folks Sam's helped in the past appear as other folks.
There's a poster on Al's Place's wall that mentions a reunion. In death we are all reunited.
Al explains that history is filled with stories of the dead returning to save the living.
In the pilot Sam communicates with his dead dad.
Anyway if you watch it carefully it's all there. It becomes clear Sam's dead and he's been dead for a long time. He's been living a Dante like fantasy, with an illusion of Al his Virgil guiding him through purgatory until he was ready for the next journey. And when you look at it that way Quantum Leaps final episode becomes one of the great finales of all time.
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