History Recap / QuantumLeapS5E22MirrorImage

* BackToTheEarlyInstallment: At the end of the episode, Sam leaps to April 3, 1969, at the end of Season 2's "M.I.A.", when Beth is dancing by herself in her house.

** After finally coming to the realization that he should've helped Al save his marriage to Beth back in "M.I.A.", the episode (and series) ends with Sam leaping back to that point, and telling Beth that Al's still alive.

** FixFic: Following this logic, the last scene counts as this: Sam realizes he needs to right one specific wrong for Al... and leaps back to the end of "M.I.A." to tell Beth a little story...

* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: Never has there been an instance of Sam doing just that than in the final scene: Sam leaps back to the events of "M.I.A." and prevents Beth from leaving Al, which is exactly what Al wanted Sam to do back in that episode.

->'''Sam:''' Who are you?
->'''Al the Bartender:''' Bartender.
->'''Sam:''' Who knows everything?
->''' Al the Bartender:''' Only God knows everything. (Sam looks shocked, Al laughs) You don't really think I'm God, do you?
->'''Sam:''' You're more than just a bartender.
->''' Al the Bartender:''' Well that’s true. I ''own'' the place, too.

* BittersweetEnding: History is changed so that Al and Beth never divorce. They're still married and have four daughters. On the other hand, Sam never makes it home.

-->'''Sam''': How do you know all this?
-->'''Stawpah''': I been there... too many time.

-->'''Sam''': I bet I turn blue and tingle with electrical energy! The same way [Stawpah] did when he leaped! (slightly confused) Only no one leaped back in, but that was probably because he was dead.
-->'''Al''': (quietly) That's it, I'm outta here.

-->'''Gushie''': If we could only narrow our search...
-->'''Al''': [[EurekaMoment Sam's birthday!]]
-->'''Gushie''': What about it?
-->'''Al''': Wherever he is, it's his birthday.
-->'''Gushie''': How do you know?
-->'''Al''': I don't- It's just a feeling. I have a hunch. Have Ziggy search his birthdays.

--->'''Sam''': You ''are'' the one who's been leaping me, aren't you?
--->'''Bartender''': I wouldn't say that.
--->'''Sam''': Well, what would you say?
--->'''Bartender''': (points behind himself) That ''he's'' been leaping you through time. (pan over to where the Bartender was pointing... [[TheReveal and it's Sam's reflection]])

--->'''Al''': I've got an uncle named Stawpah.
--->'''Sam''': [[OhCrap (slowly sits down on the bar's porch bench)]] Does he have, um... uh, rheumatoid arthritis, Al?
--->'''Al''': ...he has, uh... it's got him all twisted up like a pretzel...

-->'''Al''': ''What?''
-->'''Gushie''': We started the search on his first birthday, we never checked the ''actual'' day he was born.
-->'''Al''': (looking like he's about to barf) ''Oh my God.''

->'''Sam''': I'm going to tell you a story, Beth. A story with a happy ending. But only if you believe me.
->'''Beth''': And if I don't?
->'''Sam''': You will. I swear you will. But instead of starting with "Once upon a time", let's start with the happy ending. ...Al's alive. And he's coming home.

* CallBack: Sam talking to Al about Stawpah potentially being a dead leaper brings to mind Sam asking Al if he was dead in the pilot.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: ''Captain Z-Ro'' wouldn't have aired in Pennsylvania in 1953, as it was only airing in California at the time. It wouldn't be nationally syndicated until December 1955. But it's a possible {{aversion}} considering that "time's a little funny" in Cokeburg.

* CreatorCameo: Creator/DonaldPBellisario appears as one of the miners in the bar, appropriately making him the doppleganger for the leapee in "[[Recap/QuantumLeapS2E11APortraitForTroian A Portrait for Troian]]" (also played by Bellisario).

* MyGreatestSecondChance: Sam returns to Beth's house on April 3, 1969, to tell her that Al is alive and coming home.

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Because he, Gushie, and Ziggy have concluded that Sam must've full-body-leaped, Al spends most of the episode using the Imaging Chamber scanning to find Sam, and doesn't witness any of the strange goings-on. When Al finally reaches Sam, Sam starts going on like a lunatic about how the bar is full of dopplegangers from previous leaps, Moe Stein's doppleganger is named Ziggy, there's a man named Gushie there with halitosis, something about how a random jolly-looking ''bartender'' is leaping Sam around and might be God or something, something about someone leaping out with no one leaping back in because the leaper (named "Stawpah") was ''dead'', and some mad cackling about Uncle Stawpah's rheumatoid arthritis. Al is so profoundly disturbed by all of this that he leaves the Imaging Chamber to check with Ziggy to see what's going on.

* YouNeedABreathMint: Cokeburg's Gooshie has bad breath just like Project Quantum Leap's Gushie.

** [[AmbiguousSituation Ambiguous:]] Al says he never saw Sam leap out before... despite there being episodes in the past where he alludes to it. But then again, given how freaked out Al clearly was when hearing Sam try to explain what he's experienced in Cokesburg, he could just be lying impulsively.

** Gooshie -- that is, Project Quantum Leap's Gooshie -- makes his final appearance at Ziggy's main console.

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: If Gooshie had only started a year earlier in his search...

* DramaticIrony: After Al [[GutFeeling realizes]] Sam had leapt to his birthday, he tells Gooshie to have Ziggy search Sam's birthdays. Gooshie starts with his first one... in ''1954''.

* GutFeeling: When Al and Gooshie are trying to locate Sam with the Imaging Chamber, Al has a sudden moment of intuition and tells Gooshie to search using Sam's birthday:
-->'''Gooshie''': If we could only narrow our search...

-->'''Gooshie''': What about it?

-->'''Gooshie''': How do you know?

* OneSteveLimit: Defied – The episode features a second Al (a bartender), Gooshie, and Ziggy (coal miners).

* YouHaveGOTToBeKiddingMe: Following Al's guess that Sam leapt to his birthday, Gooshie does a scan of every year from 1954 to the end of the twenty-first century, unable to find him. "...unless, of course... you meant ''literally'' his birthday."

-->'''Gooshie''': We started the search on his first birthday, we never checked the ''actual'' day he was born.

* YouNeedABreathMint: Cokeburg's Gooshie has bad breath just like Project Quantum Leap's Gooshie.

* DramaticIrony: After Al [[GutFeeling realizes]] Sam had leapt to his birthday, he tells Gooshie to have Ziggy search Sam's birthdays, starting with his first one... in ''1954''.