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2* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:
3** Was Angelita's angelic status RealAfterAll? She says people will forget her once her job is done, and indeed, Sam claims he has no idea what Al is talking about when the latter asks him about her. However, since ''Al'' remembers her just fine, one wonders if Sam does remember her and is just trolling his friend (or is just suffering from the usual "Swiss-cheese memory"). Or maybe she's a leaper like Stawpah (who also is forgotten once he leaps away), and the angelic leap-out effects only affect people actually within the time period, which Al isn't.
4** Sam's BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil speech to Alia gets her to reconsider killing him. Did she refuse to kill Sam because she believed this bluff on its face? Or did she do it because she realized that killing the good leaper would make her redundant to Lothos, and Lothos would finish her off once Sam is gone?
5* AssPull: In "Deliver Us From Evil", the Evil Leapers came closer to undoing Sam's hard work than just about anyone else. And towards the end, Alia had almost completely [[spoiler: destroyed the La Motta family, with Frank having an affair with a co-worker, Jimmy being falsely accused of rape, and almost no hopes of Sam being able to save the day]]. Despite all of that, however, Sam manages to [[spoiler: give Alia a speech on duality and the two of them being counterparts and somehow manages to save the day and undo all the damage the the Evil Leapers have caused with some kind of time warp]]. Considering how ''Quantum Leap'' has never relied upon Deux ex Machina endings in the past and the fact that there was absolutely no realistic way for Sam to reverse all the damage Alia had done, Sam [[spoiler: giving a rambling incoherent speech on duality to Alia]] hardly seems like a believable way to resolve everything and give the La Mottas their happy ending back.
6* AudienceAlienatingEnding: The very end of the finale, which reveals that Sam [[spoiler:never gets home]] after working for years trying to get home, is one of the most [[BrokenBase base-breaking]] finales of all time.
7* AwardSnub: Neither Creator/DeanStockwell nor Creator/ScottBakula ever won Emmys for their work (in all fairness, they picked up a decent amount of other awards and nominations).
8* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
9** The show's theme song, especially the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gVfvE7Khx4 season 5 remix]].
10** Season 3 adds a couple of original songs. [[https://youtu.be/PnKR-UTEzxM Somewhere In The Night]] from "Piano Man" is a catchy lounge number that fits the episode well, while "Glitter Rock" gives us [[https://youtu.be/8RqT2mFKUxc Fate's Wide Wheel]], which is reminiscent of the series' premise, and [[https://youtu.be/s2jKU0aRTas Rock The Redhead]], a very catchy hair metal number.
11* BadassDecay: Sam undergoes some of this in Season 5. From Seasons One to Four, he was the quintessential ActionHero, going up against a wide array of foes, including mobsters, professional boxers, biker gang leaders, corrupt cops, rapists, and a multitude of criminals and dangerous ruffians, and beat them all. Come Season Five, however, Sam noticeably gets beaten around and roughed up much more. The season debut saw him get beaten down so badly by Lee Harvey Oswald's commanding officer in a bar fight that Sam had to resort to pulling a gun on the man in order to save himself. The Evil Leaper episodes also saw him repeatedly get pushed around, first having trouble fighting against a college frat boy and then getting kicked around mercilessly in a women's prison. Also, when he leaped into Music/ElvisPresley, Sam got into a fight with a woman's jealous fiancé, in what would be his final fight for the series, and got beat down in a humiliating fashion (even though he had proven quite capable of defeating jealous boyfriend/ex-husband/fiancé types in past episodes). While it is conceivable that the Swiss Cheese Effect had denied him a lot of his martial arts abilities in many of these episodes, his portrayal in Season 5 is still somewhat jarring compared to the badass action hero he was in the first four seasons.
12* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: While several of the "kisses with history" could be considered this, one moment in "Camikazi Kid" stands out. In 1961, Sam is talking to Al in a bathroom when a little boy in a suit and white gloves appears and asks Sam who he's talking to. This suddenly leads into a dance off between the two of them set to "Rockin' Robin", with Sam performing several anachronistic moves (including the moonwalk). Then an older boy in the same outfit opens the bathroom door and addresses the first boy as [[Music/MichaelJackson "Mikey"]], who waves at Sam while he moonwalks away. Unlike most of Sam's encounters with future celebrities, it has nothing to do with the theme or plot of the episode and we never see Michael again.
13* BrokenBase: Bellisario has said that, based on the responses he saw, half the fans loved "Mirror Image" and half hated it.
14* CatharsisFactor: Sam beating down the man who raped his current leapee, Katie [=McBain=], in the episode "Raped" is one of the most satisfying moments of OOCIsSeriousBusiness in the whole show.
15* CompleteMonster: [[TheHero Sam Beckett]] and [[TheMentor Al Calavicci]] have faced various evil people throughout their time travel adventures, but these are the worst:
16** "[[Recap/QuantumLeapS4E10Unchained Unchained]]": [[WardensAreEvil Boss Cooley]] runs [[HellholePrison Talawaga prison]] in the cruelest ways. Keeping the prisoners in inhumane conditions, with the chain gang being subjected to beatings and forced labor, Cooley punishes any who resist in the sweltering Punishment Pit, with the option of murdering any who still trouble him. When Sam, in the body of a prisoner named Cole, and his friend, wrongfully accused prisoner Jazz, draw Cooley's ire, it is revealed Cooley is involved in a string of robberies that Jazz is accused for. Cooley murders the robber to cover his tracks and then reveals he regularly hosts "[[InvoluntaryBattleToTheDeath cockfights]]", where prisoners are forced to fight for the death. When Sam and Jazz survive this, Cooley intends to hunt them down and kill them himself.
17** "[[Recap/QuantumLeapS5E05KillinTime Killin' Time]]": [[AxCrazy Leon Randolph Stiles]] is the single most evil leapee Sam Beckett ever leaps into. An illiterate drifter and murderous hick, Stiles is a SerialKiller who lured and brutally murdered prostitutes to sate his urges, with no compunction about killing anyone else in the way as he murdered the daughter of the sheriff pursuing him. Sam leaps into Stiles as he's bartering with the lives of an innocent woman and her young daughter, while Stiles himself breaks out of custody by threatening to gun down everyone in his way while immediately trying to resume his killing spree in the futuristic city outside.
18** "Evil Leaper trilogy": Alia's hologram, [[ManipulativeBitch Zoey]], is far worse than her sympathetic compatriot and one of the most monstrous adversaries Sam ever meets. Zoey, in her service to the malicious A.I. Lothos, steers Alia to leap from person to person across time, utterly ruining their lives and stringing countless bodies behind them, while Zoey does her best to break and utterly corrupt Alia all the while. Zoey is first met trying to frame a mentally impaired man for rape to have him committed while urging Alia to murder Sam when they cross paths, later seen trying to have a reckless student killed in a chicken race and vowing to kill Alia herself when she reneges with Sam. In the final episode of the trilogy, Zoey takes over the body of a corrupt warden to find Alia and Sam, coldly ordering a trembling, claustrophobic woman (inhabited by an amnesiac Alia, unbeknownst to Zoey) tossed into solitary confinement and indicates she's going to use her male body's "equipment" to rape Sam's leapee herself.
19* DryDocking: Sam did not have a wife waiting for him in the event that he ever returned home. [[FanonDiscontinuity No, he didn't!]]
20* FairForItsDay: The show has undeniably aged in some ways (see ValuesDissonance below) and is definitely a victim of MightyWhitey at times. However, it still addressed important social and political issues, including racism, rape, immigration, AIDS, gay people in the military, the death penalty, and the prison system, and often had a fairly progressive message for the time. "Jimmy", for example, uses terms to refer to people with mental disabilities that are now widely considered offensive, but the episode as a whole is about how people with Down Syndrome deserve respect and points out how inhumane mental health treatments were in the 1960s.
21* FanficFuel:
22** Sam's leaps post-finale, and Al's role in them now that he's [[spoiler:married to Beth]].
23** Alia's life as a leaper after [[spoiler:escaping Lothos at the end of "Revenge"]] and whether or not she encounters Sam (or Zoey) again.
24** The premise behind the proposed "[[Script/QuantumLeapABoldLeapForward Bold Leap Forward]]" spinoff, which would have seen Sammie Jo Fuller becoming a leaper to find Sam.
25** Any information behind the evil leaping project, including who they were and ''why'' they were evil.
26** The adventures of Angelita and Stawpah, who are apparently also leapers.
27** The lives and adventures of the leapees after Sam changes their lives.
28** Virtually everything that happened in between Sam going missing at the end of the series and the project's revival in [[Series/QuantumLeap2022 the new series]], that hasn't been discussed yet on the new show. This includes Sam's further adventures leaping, Al's decades of searching for Sam, and the fates of Gushie, Donna, Dr. Beeks, Tina, and Sammie Jo.
29* FanNickname: The force that Sam believes guides his leaps is usually referred to by fans as "GTFW," which stands for "God, Time, Fate, Whatever."
30* {{Fanon}}:
31** Given that the show ended without tying up certain loose ends, the show has steadily built some fanon over the years, some of which has made its way onto the ''Quantum Leap'' Wikia for whatever reason (mostly because there is very little canon info available).
32** Gushie's real name was never revealed on the show, but a fanfic named him "Dr. Irving Gushman" and the fandom adopted it.
33** There's a lot of fanon about the evil leaping project.
34*** Some fans believe that the evil project is actually called "Quanta," based on a line from Thames.[[note]]It is worth noting, however, that the word "quanta" is the plural form of "quantum."[[/note]]
35--->'''Thames:''' When dealing with Quanta, nothing is impossible.
36*** There's a "picture" of Lothos circulating the Internet that is actually a picture of Ziggy from "The Leap Back", except tinted red. Lothos was never actually seen on the show, but given that he's Ziggy's EvilCounterpart, he should look ''something'' like her, right?
37*** There's also a popular headcanon (again, from [[http://www.quantumleap-alsplace.com/quantumretribution/main.html a fanfic series]]) that Lothos is actually a mad scientist in the British Isles who did some BrainUploading into a supercomputer.
38** Al's daughters' names were anonymously added to his Wikipedia article in 2016 without any basis in canon. However, it became a partial case of AscendedFanon when one of the names, Janis, was used for his youngest daughter in [[Series/QuantumLeap2022 the sequel series]].
39* FanonDiscontinuity: The ExecutiveMeddling-born ending. "Sam Becket (sic) [[ExactWords never made it home]]." I don't know who ''he'' is, but Sam ''Beckett'' did!
40* FanPreferredCouple: The most popular ship in the fandom is easily Sam/Al. It easily overshadows the endgame pairing of Al/Beth and Sam with his wife, Donna. This is mainly due to Sam and Al being the main two characters (as well as the only ones to appear in every episode), the chemistry between their actors, and the massive amounts of HoYay between them. The majority of fanfics for this show on [=AO3=] is Sam/Al.
41* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff:
42** The series was very popular in Mexico, partly due to the premise and also because of the [[SugarWiki/SuperlativeDubbing really good voice acting of the Mexican dub]].
43** Another place where it was a smashing hit and remains recognisable to this day is Poland. In this case it's mostly due to a good time slot and the fact it didn't really have a competition in the mid-to-late 90s, when it was being aired.
44* FountainOfMemes: The "I'm retarded" scene. Led to popular copy pastas and responses for years.
45* GrowingTheBeard: "The Color Of Truth" is widely considered the point where the show really began to hit its stride, especially by the cast. It's notable that it's the first episode to use the full leaping effect, as opposed to a simple blueing of the screen used for the earliest episodes.
46* HarsherInHindsight:
47** In "Permanent Wave", Sam has to save a boy that witnessed a man being shot to death in a matter involving drugs. The character's name was Phil Hartman. Seven years later in 1998, Creator/PhilHartman was himself shot to death by his wife, who had a drug problem.
48** "A Little Miracle" is YetAnotherChristmasCarol, with Sam and Al trying to reform one Michael Blake (Charles Rocket). The Christmas Future part of their attempt involves convincing Blake that he committed suicide. During his HeelRealization, Blake openly laments the thought of dying alone. In 2005, Rocket was found dead in a field, and it was ruled a suicide.
49** "The Boogieman" is an AllJustADream episode where Sam faces Satan. "Mirror Image" casts a new light on the exchange after Satan asks Sam why he keeps putting right what was made wrong.
50--->'''Sam:''' I'm just trying to get home.\
51'''Satan:''' ''Well, you're not gonna make it...''
52** "The Last Gunfighter" sees Sam leap into the former partner of a gunslinger, Pat Knight, who wants to kill him for lying about their past exploits. Pat is played by John Anderson, who wound up dying about six months after the episode first aired. So naturally, it becomes rather unfortunate hearing him say something like this:
53--->'''Pat Knight''': (to Sam) The mistake you made, mister, was in assuming I was dead; I'm ''alive'', Tyler. Outlivin' you is gonna be easy.
54** In "Shock Theater," one of Sam's past-leapee personalities is Herbert "Magic" Williams, and he shows signs of distress and PTSD. The [[Series/QuantumLeap2022 sequel series]] would later feature Magic as a main character; the episode "[[Recap/QuantumLeap2022S2E5OneNightInKoreatown One Night in Koreatown]]'' directly tells about how Magic had endured trauma from an encounter with a racist cop three years before he'd been Sam's leapee, and how he'd become an alcoholic to deal with his trauma after Ben Song was thought lost.
55* HilariousInHindsight:
56** In "Sea Bride", Weathers Farrington (played by J.G. Hertzler) contemptuously saying "You have no honor, Dumont!" is ''absolutely'' hilarious when you know that he went on to play the Klingon General Martok in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''.
57*** Doubly funny as he's saying this to Sam. A few years after ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' ended, [[YouLookFamiliar Hertzler played another Klingon]] in the ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode "Judgment", where his character, Kolos, and Archer discussed honor and Archer helped him rediscover his own sense of honor.
58*** It's also pretty funny to think that the entire series consists of Captain Archer teaming up with a [[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 Cylon]].
59** In "All Americans", Al mentions that he's watching Super Bowl XXX and that the Pittsburgh Steelers are trailing by three points. Jump head six years to the real Super Bowl XXX, where the Steelers ''were'' playing and ''did'' trail by three points in the final minutes before the second interception by Dallas Cowboys cornerback Larry Brown set up Emmitt Smith to run for the game-clinching touchdown with a few minutes left to secure a 27-17 victory for the Cowboys.
60** In "Killing Time", the lawman in charge of bringing Leon Styles (Sam's current leapee) to justice is named [[Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre2003 Sheriff Hoyt]].
61** In the PilotMovie, the swiss-cheesed Sam initially thinks his experiences are a dream of some kind. In his narration, he remarks he's just waiting for a boogieman of some kind to pop out to scare him and end the dream. That's pretty much what happens in the HalloweenEpisode.
62** In "Stand Up" Sam has to do a comedy double act with a partner played by Creator/BobSaget, in the midst of his ''Series/FullHouse'' fame. Saget gets into an argument with his love interest over sex jokes, she balks at it but he is enthusiastic about being more risque. In later years Saget famously shredded his family friendly image with quite profane material.
63** In "Moments to Live", Sam is currently being held hostage when his two captors leave the room to fight. Upon being told by Al to "use his head" in order to escape, we hard cut to Sam leaping out of a window head first. Or, in other words, [[WesternAnimation/ToyStory2 a hostage situation results in a literal interpretation of "Use your head!".]]
64* HoYay: "What Price, Gloria?" brings this up in universe between Sam and Al. Al finds himself attracted to Sam, as at this point, he sees Sam as the leapee; Samantha Stormer in this case. For much of the episode, he's conflicted by what he sees as his ideal woman: A knockout blonde with the personality of his best friend. Dr. Beeks even tells him he might have some repressed homosexuality in this case. He eventually reconciles this when Beeks assures him that love is part of friendship.
65** In-universe again, in "Unchained", Sam is kind and protective of panicky prisoner Boone - normal for Sam, but [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness unusual enough]] for his hardened lag leapee Cole that the [[WardensAreEvil warden]] repeatedly passes homophobic comment on their closeness. [[JerkassHasAPoint It's not hard to see where he's getting this idea]] since while Sam needs to save Boone so as to leap out, Cole has no obvious reason to be so caring.
66* ItWasHisSled:
67** ''Al'' being the one that Beth leaves for another man in "M.I.A.". It's such common knowledge among fans that you'd forget that the way the episode is structured, it's supposed to be a twist - with Sam stumbling upon a picture of young Al in Beth's home about halfway through. (Beth actually introduces herself to Dirk as Beth Calavicci early on, but since Al's last name had not yet been revealed at that point, viewers may be forgiven for missing the connection until it's pointed out.)
68** The same thing occurs in "Deliver Us From Evil." It's common knowledge that this is the episode that introduces Alia the Evil Leaper, yet the way it's structured, it starts off looking like a sequel to the episode "Jimmy" (with an added mystery about the good history somehow being rewritten). Even Zoey's first appearance simply looks like Connie Lamotta is talking to a friend or neighbor instead of a hologram.
69* MemeticMutation: The somewhat infamous "I'm retarded?" scene from "Jimmy" got second life as a reaction macro.
70* MemeticPsychopath: A running joke on ''The Quantum Leap Podcast'' is that Sam is a HenpeckedHusband, and Donna Eleese-Beckett wants to whack him with a FryingPanOfDoom for [[spoiler:not returning home]].
71* {{Narm}}:
72** In the climax of "Justice", Sam speaks directly to the leapee's son as he's prepairing to get hung along with Nathaniel. However, one of the Klan members has the hilt of his weapon ''directly'' in front of the kid's line of sight, and you can very clearly tell the actor was told off screen to lift it up mid-scene.
73*** The credits show a montage of some of the dramatic moments of the episode, including the church blowing up and Sam almost being lynched... [[SoundtrackDissonance over the strains of children singing "Glory Hallelujah"]].
74** When Lee Harvey Oswald sees his face in the Waiting Room (actually Sam's face), he understandably [[FreakOut freaks out]]... but we cut to Sam, mouth open, with Oswald's slightly-deadpan scream pouring out.
75** Victor getting struck by lightning in "Blood Moon", combined with his freezing with a really hammy expression on his face before falling off of the top of the castle, is probably one of the more unintentionally funny moments of the series.
76* OlderThanTheyThink: In the second season finale, "M.I.A.", the tearjerker ending has Al sitting with his wife, who thinks him dead, as she listens to "Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers. She then switches to "Georgia On My Mind" by Music/RayCharles, and begins dancing alone, and Al joins her as best he can in his hologram form. Briefly, just as the leap occurs, she senses him with her. This scene, particularly with the use of "Unchained Melody", may seem to have been heavily inspired by ''Film/Ghost1990'' but in fact aired May 9, 1990, 2 months before ''Ghost's'' July 1990 release.
77* RetroactiveRecognition:
78** The radio station owner in "Good Morning, Peoria" is played by Patricia Richardson. She was less than two years away from being Jill Taylor from ''Series/HomeImprovement''.
79** The youngest daughter in "Another Mother" (and Bellisario's real-life daughter) later became [[Series/PrettyLittleLiars Spencer Hastings]].
80** One of the Frat Boys in ''Animal Frat'' is played by Raphael Sbarge, the future voice of [[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Carth Onasi]] and [[Franchise/MassEffect Kaidan Alenko]].
81** Creator/TeriHatcher appeared in the first season episode "Star-Crossed".
82** Creator/AnnaGunn appeared in the fourth season episode "The Play's the Thing".
83** Yes, that's [[Series/{{ER}} Dr. Peter Benton]] as a sleazy music producer in "A Song For The Soul".
84** A young Creator/JenniferAniston is a hospital aide who assists Sam in "Nowhere to Run".
85** Creator/GregoryItzin appears in the show's penultimate episode, "Memphis Melody," best known now for his Emmy-nominated role as the villainous Charles Logan on ''Series/TwentyFour''.
86** Creator/MaryElizabethMcGlynn also prominently appears in "Memphis Melody." So yes, Sam helped [[Anime/GhostInTheShell Major Kusanagi]] and [[WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse Connie's mom]] out.
87** Creator/CarlaGugino in "Ghost Ship."
88** Sam's leapee's mirror image in ''Camikazi Kid'' is played by a young Creator/ScottMenville. Ironically, despite having no spoken lines, he would later become [[WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003 prominent]] as a voice actor.
89** Creator/PatrickWarburton appears in "The Leap Home Part 2: Vietnam" in one of his earliest television roles.
90** A ''very'' young Creator/JosephGordonLevitt appears in "Permanent Wave".
91* StockFootageFailure:
92** The use of ''Film/{{Earthquake}}'' footage in "Disco Inferno" winds up being a minor case of this, due to part of the episode being set around the filming of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJEAAr5eV_Y&t=59s the scene where]] [[LiteralCliffhanger the man falls out a window to his death]], with the actor in question ''very clearly'' not resembling Sam or the person he leapt into (a stunt double).
93** The establishing shot of the bar Sam leapt into in "Piano Man", an episode set in 1985 New Mexico, winds up being this due to it being recycled footage of a different bar from "Disco Inferno", an episode set in 1976 ''California''.
94* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: On the DVD releases, a large number of the original songs were changed for copyright reasons (the songs were usually [[NothingButHits well known songs from the time period that a particular episode is set it]]), which caused a HUGE backlash from fans. In particular, the last episode of the second season, "M.I.A.", removed Music/RayCharles' "Georgia On My Mind" with some generic muzak, ruining what many thought was the best moment of the entire series (Al, in hologram form, dancing with his first wife who left him while he was a POW in Vietnam). Mill Creek, to their credit, did their best to restore the rights to as many songs as they could for the Complete Series set once they got the home video rights, which did include the famous "Georgia On My Mind" sequence.
95** The Season 5 arrangement of the theme song, meanwhile, wasn't very well-received by fans (Universal brought back the original version for "Mirror Image").
96* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
97** Despite being mentioned a bunch, Dr. Verbena Beeks only appeared in "Shock Theater" and "The Leap Back," and only as TheVoiceless. Her absence afterwards is especially glaring during Season 5's Waiting Room scenes, such as in "Lee Harvey Oswald," "Killin' Time," "Return of the Evil Leaper,"[[note]]Which even ''mentions'' Dr. Beeks, but features ''Al'' acting as the leapee's ersatz therapist instead[[/note]] and "Revenge of the Evil Leaper," especially since her role as the Project's resident psychologist would've been the most appropriate in those episodes.
98** A B-plot in the episode "Dr. Ruth" is centered around Al in the Waiting Room talking to Dr. Ruth about his commitment issues and relationship with Tina. It would make ''some'' sense for Tina herself to make an appearance, but Tina's last onscreen appearance in the series was in "The Leap Back."[[note]]And even then, Creator/GigiRice only played opposite Dean Stockwell for less than 30 seconds near the end.[[/note]]
99* ValuesDissonance: ''Quantum Leap'' was a very progressive and forward-thinking show for its time era (the late '80s to early '90s), but there are still some elements of the show that may not hold up so well for modern audiences.
100** Sam's first reaction at seeing his reflection inside a man with Down's Syndrome is "I'm a retard." Before that, he ponders out loud to himself "I'm retarded?" It goes without saying why that line wouldn't be filmed after TheNewTens but it is worth noting that the word in question wasn't considered a slur at the time, being an actual medical term for anyone with mental disabilities.
101** Even with how good the show usually was with gender issues, there were some incredibly cringeworthy things. When Al rather than Sam did a leap, he and a woman who believed he was an old flame were implied to have sex; however, this would have been [[BedTrick rape by deception on his part]]. In another instance, Sam leapt right in as the leapee was having sex with his fiancee. This was in no way Sam's fault, but with [[DoubleStandardRapeDivineOnMortal the implication God was controlling the leaps]], there's three victims, including Sam himself, right there.
102* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Sam grew up watching the space program, which was clearly a major historical event during his lifetime. And yet, none of his leaps took him to outer space. The closest he got to NASA was when he leaped into a [[spoiler: chimpanzee]]. It was not until [[Series/QuantumLeap2022 29 years after the first series ended]] that the franchise visited outer space.
103* TheWoobie: Sam, after he gets stuck leaping for eternity and never gets home.

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