Interesting Observations/Facts/Questions about Quantum Leap

Here's something to ponder:

Do you think "Devil Al" is actually the Devil? Or do you think he's one of Satan's minions sent to do his dirty work? Or even an evil leaper?
 
He specifically introduced himself as the devil.
"Yin and yang, good and bad, God..."
"the devil."
"In the flesh so to speak."

Though it's my head canon that he is behind or involved with the evil project the way God is involved with Sam's journey.
 
Not necessarily, by saying "The Devil" he could have meant he was the Devil's representative...

Except that Sam said 'the devil' and then he confirmed it by saying "in the flesh so to speak."
The 'so to speak' was referring to the fact that the devil is a divine being and thus doesn't technically have flesh, he'd only been mimicking it with the Al guise. Or rather that is how I read it.

HOnestly I don't believe the devil has "representatives". The devil usually makes personal appearances in works of fiction in which he plays a role.
 
Except that Sam said 'the devil' and then he confirmed it by saying "in the flesh so to speak."
The 'so to speak' was referring to the fact that the devil is a divine being and thus doesn't technically have flesh, he'd only been mimicking it with the Al guise. Or rather that is how I read it.

HOnestly I don't believe the devil has "representatives". The devil usually makes personal appearances in works of fiction in which he plays a role.

You've never heard of demons?
 
I think a demon is the more logical choice in this case, considering Sam defeated it (or at least survived) by strangling it...
 
The question is though, WHY would he will himself to the 1800s - it's a really dangerous time and it was nearly impossible for Al to find him. It would just make Sam's life more difficult...

Curiosity perhaps. Yes, Sam is a true altruist and without a doubt he's a man who cares about other people and wants to help them. But he's also a scientist and there's that part of him that thirsts for knowledge for knowledge sake (a fact his accumulating 6 or 7 advanced university degrees attests to), that wants to understand the why of things. And of course he has always had an insatiable desire to travel back in time and observe for himself what things were like (the Future Boy episode is one obvious example, but in Curse of Ptah-Ho-Tep Sam also talks about his interest in Egyptology and archaeology and how for him it was like traveling back in time). His leap back to the Civil War may be pre-destined by a higher power. Or maybe a part of him wanted to go back and see what it was like, even if it was dangerous. He stepped into the quantum leap accelerator before it was ready, knowing it could possibly kill him (otherwise he would've waited for Al to get back to the project instead of going behind his back with his initial leap), so it's not like potential danger stopped Sam when he was curious about something.

Maybe someone in his family spoke about these ancestors of his even and that piqued his interest.
 
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I think a demon is the more logical choice in this case, considering Sam defeated it (or at least survived) by strangling it...

That's not what happened at all! Time was reset, he was pulled out of the situation, you even said in 'The Boogiem*n' thread that you agree with this notion over it being a dream.
There was no way Sam would have survived that and his stranglehold on Satan had absolutely no effect. It was like strangling a mannequin (and this has nothing to do with the fact that one could clearly see that it was BTS wise). Which has me suddenly finding Al's logic pretty stupid:
"If you can touch him you can hurt him."
Shouldn't he know better that a mere mortal could never dent Satan? He's the one who actually believed in Satan.

Of course I've heard of demons and by the way that was worded a bit on the rude side but I've never seen them as representatives of Satan and that belief is actually highly exaggerated in a lot of fiction.

Believe it or not Demons are religiously associated with Angels. Satan himself is actually an Angel, a creation of God like any other, originally known as Lucifer which means 'Light'.
Early Christianity regarded Demons as the offspring of earth descended Angels and mortal women, I believe this is discussed in The Book of Genesis.
Some interpret it slightly differently, that they were born as the souls left behind by these offspring when they perished.
There is also a belief that Demons are fallen Angels, those who were banished from Heaven for rebelling against God though there are arguments that Fallen Angels are much more powerful than demons.

Whatever way one looks at it one thing is agreed upon by all, Demons originate in some form from Angels but not all versions associate them with Lucifer.

Sources:
http://www.tbm.org/origindemons.htm
http://www.gotquestions.org/fallen-angels.html
http://www.biblestudyproject.org/satan-and-demons-messianic.htm
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04713a.htm

The character we see in Quantum Leap is quite clearly stated to be Satan himself.
1.) The DVD episode summary screen says "Sam matches wits with the Devil" or something to that effect (actually the way they wrote this particular episode summary is idiotic because it gives the whole thing away but I digress)
2.) The being disguised as Al clearly identified himself as Satan. Besides I don't believe a Demon or even an Angel could guise himself like that. Angel didn't guise herself when she appeared to Sam, in fact she was a bit TOO open about her identity hehe. The classic Angel who set the standards, Clarence (a fact that was actually point out in 'It's a Wonderful Leap') didn't appear to James Stewart in guise.

It is my head canon that he did however send representatives later in the form of Alia and Zoey.
 
This isn't an observation about Quantum Leap, but it still blew my mind.

Dr Ruth Westheimer was a German-born Jew. She escaped the Nazis by being sent to an orphanage in Swizerland. Later, she joined the Haganah - a Jewish Paramilitary force, and was trained as a SNIPER and as a scout!

UNBELIEVABLE!!!

Quantum-Leap-Scott-Bakula_2-199x300.png
 
Something that I recently observed - in "Jimmy", Sam resuscitates Corey after he'd drowned. Since Corey was so close to death, he really should have seen Sam as Sam and also seen Al...
 
I noticed:

- Angelita and Stawpah are both dead and help out the living. When Angelita succeeds, we see her walk away from Sam and he forgets everything, while Stawpah simply leaps immediately. Imagine what we all would have thought if instead of Angelita walking off, she leapt...
If Angelita is an angel (as the show's makers would have us believe), then IMO you're mistaken to call her "dead". Contrary to what many movies, cartoons and television shows depict, angels are not spirits of dead people. According to the Judeo-Christian biblical view, angels are some of God's creatures, who just happen to be created in the spiritual realm rather than the earthly realm.
 
If Angelita is an angel (as the show's makers would have us believe), then IMO you're mistaken to call her "dead". Contrary to what many movies, cartoons and television shows depict, angels are not spirits of dead people. According to the Judeo-Christian biblical view, angels are some of God's creatures, who just happen to be created in the spiritual realm rather than the earthly realm.

But Angelita specifically said she had been alive. She was a flapper and did the charleston, remember? She took a dive into the orchestra pit - auditioning for West Side Story if I remember rightly - and that is what killed her. She is Sam's 'guardian angel' sent to protect him. It was an assignment given her because she had 'too big an ego' and had to learn to care about others.
 
If Angelita is an angel (as the show's makers would have us believe), then IMO you're mistaken to call her "dead". Contrary to what many movies, cartoons and television shows depict, angels are not spirits of dead people. According to the Judeo-Christian biblical view, angels are some of God's creatures, who just happen to be created in the spiritual realm rather than the earthly realm.

That's only one view and Quantum Leap seems to focus largely on a Catholic take which seems from my research to have a divided faith in this area. Some believe that mortals when they pass do become angels. Though there are several verses in the bible that have come up in my findings that seem to say you are right, That humans are not equal to Angels. We become bodiless spirits when we pass but are still inferior.

This is irrelevant however as Angels in Hollywood fiction are almost always deceased mortals and Angela/Angelita being very indiscreet boasts to everyone she meets that she is an Angel. She's also revealed to have once been living/mortal in three ways:
1.) She tells Sam how she'd died while performing a theater audition.
2.) Ziggy was able to find a record of her, something that would be impossible with a being who wasn't born on earth and thus has no birth certificate. She'd had trouble finding it but that's because Angela's lifetime was long before Sam's (even slightly before Al's).
3.) Her explanation as to why she must return to earth to guide the living is exactly worded: "They said IN LIFE I was too vein, I had too big an ego."

It IS possible that said huge ego had caused her to use the wrong word but that is mere speculation.
 
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It is a really nice touch that Adam Affonso, who played Young Sam in Genesis, was brought back to be Young Sam in the mirror image shots of the Leap Home part 1 :D

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I was watching "The Leap Back" last week and I have this nagging question:
What happened to the guy that Al leaped into?
Was he in the imaging chamber all the time?
There is no mention of him throughout the episode. Sam was enjoying his reunion with his wife, while the rest of the team was trying to fugure out why Al leaped into this particular guy.

Then Sam leaps in, Al leaps back to the present day and we can all assume that when Sam did leap the guy returned to his time and place...

This never bothered me when I first saw the ep but it sure bugs me now....:rolleyes
 
I was watching "The Leap Back" last week and I have this nagging question:
What happened to the guy that Al leaped into?
Was he in the imaging chamber all the time?
There is no mention of him throughout the episode. Sam was enjoying his reunion with his wife, while the rest of the team was trying to fugure out why Al leaped into this particular guy.

Then Sam leaps in, Al leaps back to the present day and we can all assume that when Sam did leap the guy returned to his time and place...

This is an interesting point. We know from the pilot episode that someone -- be it Al or Verbena or another person -- talks to the leapee in the waiting room to get information. In this case though I don't know that the leapee could've given them any information that would've been helpful. I doubt he had any idea that the other guy planned to kill them.
 
I was watching "The Leap Back" last week and I have this nagging question:
What happened to the guy that Al leaped into?
Was he in the imaging chamber all the time?
There is no mention of him throughout the episode. Sam was enjoying his reunion with his wife, while the rest of the team was trying to fugure out why Al leaped into this particular guy.

Then Sam leaps in, Al leaps back to the present day and we can all assume that when Sam did leap the guy returned to his time and place...

This never bothered me when I first saw the ep but it sure bugs me now....:rolleyes

If the Imaging Chamber was sealed off because of fear of radioactive fallout, it makes sense that the Waiting Room was probably sealed off too. So Tom was probably stuck in the Waiting Room in solitary confinement, until Al sent the letter that told them how to override. They probably had to hurry to look after him after that. Good thing they did too, otherwise he might have died of thirst...
 
Has anyone noticed the multiple appearances of Calla Lilies throughout Quantum Leap? So Help Me God, Future Boy, MIA... Now we know why :D

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Deborah also told me that she got to keep the Calla Lilies that were in Beth's garden in MIA. She planted them in her own garden, and they are still growing there to this day :D
 
I had a thought - it's funny that when the show did homages to "A Christmas Carol" and "It's A Wonderful Life", they didn't do one for "Groundhog Day". They actually already have the means to do it, because Sam would just have to keep redoing the same leap over and over until he finally completes his mission :p
 
I had a thought - it's funny that when the show did homages to "A Christmas Carol" and "It's A Wonderful Life", they didn't do one for "Groundhog Day". They actually already have the means to do it, because Sam would just have to keep redoing the same leap over and over until he finally completes his mission :p

Groundhog Day wasn't released until 1993 - the same year QL finished. It would have been a bit new for such an homage.
Though in a way, that's exactly what is going on in 'Mirror Image' - the events in the mine keep playing out for Stawpah until Sam leaps in to save Tonchi & Pete.
 
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Groundhog Day wasn't released until 1993 - the same year QL finished. It would have been a bit new for such an homage.
Though in a way, that's exactly what is going on in 'Mirror Image' - the events in the mine keep playing out for Stawpah until Sam leaps in to save Tonchi & Pete.

That's a good point about Mirror Image. It just seemed odd to me that if they wanted to do a holiday show, they have the perfect film to emulate :)

On another note - in "Leap of Faith", Tony actually beat the death penalty because there weren't any witnesses (Father Mac admits he pretended to have seen it), and so was only ever convicted of the attempted murder of Father Pistano (Sam), which actually DID have a witness.
 
This is an idea that someone came up with on the Podcast Facebook page:

They should have done a spinoff series about Angela.

What an AWESOME idea! It could be an anthology, just like Sam's story, with her "leaping" to different people to help them out, but this time as a guardian angel, rather than a time traveller.

SPEECHLESS!
 
This is an idea that someone came up with on the Podcast Facebook page:

They should have done a spinoff series about Angela.

What an AWESOME idea! It could be an anthology, just like Sam's story, with her "leaping" to different people to help them out, but this time as a guardian angel, rather than a time traveller.

SPEECHLESS!
Brilliant idea! I'd watch that for sure. Maybe someone should do a fanfic series.
 
I had a thought - rewatching "A Little Miracle" (possibly the best take on "A Christmas Carol" in all television btw :p ) it was a fluke that Michael Blake's brainwaves were on a similar enough frequency to be able to pick up Al, so Al retunes his frequency so that he is off Blake's radar, until he's needed to be the Ghost of Christmas Future.

Do you think that Al would be able to do this with anybody? If he was able to find their frequency of course. This could make things a lot easier on leaps if he had to pass on a message and Sam was indisposed...
 
I had a thought - rewatching "A Little Miracle" (possibly the best take on "A Christmas Carol" in all television btw :p ) it was a fluke that Michael Blake's brainwaves were on a similar enough frequency to be able to pick up Al, so Al retunes his frequency so that he is off Blake's radar, until he's needed to be the Ghost of Christmas Future.

Do you think that Al would be able to do this with anybody? If he was able to find their frequency of course. This could make things a lot easier on leaps if he had to pass on a message and Sam was indisposed...

Now, now, that would make things TOO easy Hayden!
 
Now, now, that would make things TOO easy Hayden!

That is true, maybe there's only a limited number of possible frequencies Al can take in order to be connected to Sam and make the holographic link in the first place. Compared with the number of possible frequencies there are, then the chances of it ever happening again is probably slim to nothing...