Quantum Leap/Mirror Image

Mirror Image
Season 5, Episode 22
Airdate	May 5, 1993
Production Number	68126
Written by	Donald P. Bellisario
Directed by	James Whitmore, Jr.
← 5x21 Memphis Melody	— N/A
Quantum Leap — Season Five

Mirror Image is the twenty-second episode of the fifth season of Quantum Leap, and the ninety-seventh episode overall.

Starring: Scott Bakula (Sam Beckett)

Starring: Dean Stockwell (The Observer)

Guest Starring: Bruce McGill (Al, the Bartender), John DiAquino (Tonchi), Richard Herd (Miner Ziggy), W. Morgan Sheppard (Bearded Gooshie), Stephen McHattie (Stawpah), Mike Genovese (Mr. Collins), Susan Diol (Beth Calavicci), Dan Butler (Mutta), Dennis Wolfberg (Gooshie)

Co-Starring: Kevin McDermott (Kruger), Ferdinand Carangelo (Ghee), Brad Silverman (Pete), J.D. Daniels (Kid #1), Michael Bellisario (Kid #2)

Uncredited: Donald P. Bellisario (Miner at Bar), James Whitmore, Jr. (Police Captain)

Plot Overview

Sam leaps in on the moment of his birth. He walks into a bar in a small mining town and finds himself looking back at him in the mirror. Things get stranger when the people he encounters have either familiar names of faces.

Notes

Leap Dates

• August 8, 1953

• April 3, 1969

Locations

• Cokeburg, Pennsylvania

• San Diego, California

Music

• Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters - "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive"

• Ray Charles - "Georgia On My Mind"

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Sam believes the bartender Al is God or whatever has been leaping him around. This is never confirmed, but it's clear Al isn't who he appears as he is well aware of Sam and his leaping and even more knowledge he doesn't divulge.

• Sam finds that after helping him save two minors, Stawpah leaps, vanishing in the process with no one but Al the bartender remembering he was ever there. He later learns that Stawpah died 20 years ago. He then sees the bearded Gooshie cast a different reflection in the mirror.

• It's revealed that Sam has unknowingly been able to control his leaps.

Characters

• Sam goes back to Beth shortly after he originally leaped out to assure her that Al is alive. As result, she never remarried and the two have four daughters and will soon celebrate their 39th anniversary.

• We're informed that Sam never returned home.

Referbacks

• Many of the guest stars were intentionally cast to play different characters here:
  • Sam mistakes Tonchi (John DiAquino) for Frank LaMotta from "Jimmy" and "Deliver Us from Evil". His brother Pete (Brad Silverman) also has Down Syndrome and Sam briefly calls him Jimmy.
  • Sam notices Ziggy looks like Moe Stein (Richard Herd) who was Captain Galaxy in "Future Boy".
  • Bruce McGill who plays Al the bartender played Weird Ernie in "Genesis".
  • Dan Butler played Jake Dorleac in "Southern Comforts".
  • Mr Collins is played by Mike Genovese who appeared as Don Geno Frascati in "Double Identity".
  • The two boys are also played the actors who played Josh and Martin, Jr., respectively, in "A Tale of Two Sweeties" (although Michael Bellisario had appeared in earlier episodes as different characters).
  • James Whitmore, Jr. and Donald P. Bellisario also appear uncredited as the Police Captain and one of the minors at the bar, respectively.

• Sam recalls the one time he couldn't help Al, when he was supposed to save an undercover cop instead of keeping his wife Beth from remarrying (M.I.A.). Sam later leaps in some time just after he leaped out.

• Hearing Al the bartender use the term "caca" has Sam recall Al use the same term in "Genesis".

• Al the Bartender asks Sam "Who knows what Don Quixote can accomplish?", this likely a reference to Sam's time as the title character in Man of La Mancha from "Catch a Falling Star".

• When the bartender asks Sam if he were a priest, Sam reminds him that he once was (Leap of Faith).

Trivia

The Show

• There is no prologue for this episode.

• The main title sequence is the one used during Season Four, as it also uses the original version of the theme song.

• This episode is somewhat of a bottle episode as nearly all the scenes takes place in Al's Bar. The mine tipple is the only other setting and featured for only two scenes.

Behind the Scenes

• While this episode was written to also serve as a series finale, everyone had assumed the show was going to be picked up for another season. The idea was the episode was going to set up Season 6 with Sam now being able to leap into the future (implied with Stawpah). The ending text was the product of NBC, but a more proper ending had been scripted. This was filmed, as confirmed by production stills recovered in 2018 with behind-the-scenes footage of the filming of the scene also found. This ending picks up where the aired version ends and pans out to show family pictures of Al, Beth, and their daughters and then we see Al and Beth talk about trying to find Sam. Bellisario also wrote a more outlandish cliffhanger that sees them talk about where Sam is with Al assured that he's in the future, outside his lifetime. Al needs the answers, the bartender being the only source. Beth winds up providing the idea for him to leap to be able to return to Al's Place. He does and winds up talking with the bartender before he finds himself in a space station in the future. This ending was never filmed. A more complete alternate ending had been recovered in which the picture of Al "leaping" continues to show it transform into a family photo of Al, Beth, and their children.

• The town of Cokeburg was the birthplace of Donald P. Bellisario. Al's bar was modelled on the one his father had, recreated under direct supervision by Bellisario. The characters were recreated from the town and Bellisario told the actors how to talk and about the accents. The photo of Al the bartender sticking out his belly is actually Donald's father. The image shown over the closing credits are of Donald with his father.

Goofs

• The closing text misspells Sam's last name as Becket.

Quotes

• Sam: You know, I'm getting a little tired of you calling him "dummy".

Stawpah: Why?

Sam: Well, how would you like it if people called you "cripple"?

Stawpah: I am cripple.

Sam: Wouldn't "physically disabled" be a more humane way to describe your condition?

Stawpah: What you call it no gonna change it.

Sam: No, but it might change people's attitudes toward you.

• Sam: You created all of this, didn't you?

Al: I built the bar, if that's what you mean.

Sam: This is more than just a bar.

Al: There is something special about this place.

Sam: Dead men save miners' lives and then - then vanish into an aura of blue light? Yeah, I'd say there's something special about this place, all right.

Al: Books are full of the dead saving the living.

Sam: So Stawpah was here?

Al: I remember him.

Sam: Why don't they?

Al: That's the way it is.

Sam: "That's the way it is"? One moment he's - he's one of them, and the next he's just a memory, and all you can say is, "That's the way it is"?

Al: Sometimes "that's the way it is" is the best explanation.

Sam: Not for me.

Al: I'm not sure you're ready for more.

Sam: Try me.

Al: Can you accept what you see as reality?

Sam: Which reality do I accept? That one or - or that one?

Al: Haven't you accepted both, looking in all those mirrors?

Sam: You are the one who's been leaping me, aren't you?

Al: I wouldn't say that.

Sam: Well, what would you say?

Al: (pointing to mirror) That he's been leaping you through time.

Sam: No. No, no, no. No way. No way will I buy that.

Al: Why did you create Project Quantum Leap, Sam?

Sam: To travel in time.

Al: Why did you want to travel through time?

Sam: Because... I w-w - I wanted to, um...

Al: To make the world a better place?

Sam: Of course. To make the world a better place.

Al: To put right what once went wrong?

Sam: Yes. But not one life at a time.

Al: Oh! I got Mother Teresa here. Do you really think that all you've done is change a few lives?

Sam: Basically, yes.

Al: At the risk of over-inflating your ego, Sam, you've done more. The lives you've touched touched others, and those lives, others. You've done a lot of good, Sam Beckett, and you can do a lot more.

Sam: I don't want to do more. I want to go home.

Al: They why haven't you?

Sam: Because I don't control my future. You do.

Al: Sam, you will only do this as long as you want to.

Sam: Are you saying I can leap home anytime I want?

Al: Technically, yes.

Sam: What's the catch?

Al: The catch is that you have to accept that you control your own destiny.

• Sam: Al's uncle.

Al: I've always found coincidence amusing.

Sam: And you still want me to believe that I'm leaping me?

Al: Sam, if you became a priest--

Sam: I've been a priest.

Al: So you have. If the priesthood had been your chosen life, even though the church might move you from parish to parish, don't you have to accept responsibility for the life you lead?

Sam: Even priests can quit.

Al: That's true. But they can also take sabbaticals, especially before embarking on a difficult new assignment.

Sam: Are you telling me that the leaps are gonna get tougher?

Al: Where would you like to go, Sam?

Sam: Home. I'd like to go home. But I can't, can I? I've got a wrong to put right for Al. You knew that, didn't you?

Al: God bless, Sam.