Success has nothing to do with leaping

J

jannagalaxy

Guest
Hi everyone!

I've been thinking about something that has been puzzling me.

:withstupid

The first time I had heard :

SUCCESS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH LEAPING

was "A Leap For Lisa" but where is this statement true? Which episode. This statement was also repeated by Al on the following episode.

Please help me it's making me confused! :bang

Thanks

Janna Galaxy
 
:bat

Hey Yo Janna,

This is something which The Rod has mulled over time and again. It is widely believed (Mostly due to Al & Sam talking about it) that if Sam did not succeed at his missions, he would still leap.
However, if you think of all the QL's where Sam has a sense of urgency to complete his mission and leap on, then this points to the whole "Success having nothing to do with leaping" as being inherently incorrect.

The Rod thinks Sam HAS to complete his missions to leap. Simple as that!
 
Well Brian, that episode of "Black And White On Fire" will be airing on my Video Boards on September 5, along with "The Great Spontini" if anyone's interested.

The link again is: Quantum Leap Video Boards
 
I believe that Sam has to complete the mission, but not completing the missions does not mean he won't leap. Strawpah from MI kept coming back time and time again to rescue Tonchi and Pete from the mine. Prehaps at later dates, Sam will return to these places and try to change history for the better.

In the case of Black on White on Fire, Sam was not there to ensure that his brother survived, he was meerly there to make sure that he and Susan stayed together.

Leap On!

<a href="http://www.quantumleaping.com" target="_new">www.quantumleaping.com</a>
webmaster@quantumleaping.com

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good point

Good point, Ziggy. i never thought of it that way. i always presumed that Sam HAD to complete his mission before leaping, but the MI thing makes me wonder...
:leap
 
Success and Sam leaping

I tend to think along the same lines as you do, Dermy. Sam doesn't have to make everything perfect in order to leap, nor need he succeed completely. However, I think it ends up in Sam's mind: have I done enough to leap? I think subconciously, and sometimes obviously, he knows when to leap. (I'm a subscriber to the "Sam controls his own leaping" theory. <G>)

The success is relative, really. Is success doing what Ziggy says, or what Sam says, or what Al says (ie. "M.I.A.")? Maybe Al was right: he was there to put Al and Beth back together. However, saving Skaggs's life was nice, too. :b

... Mike. ^_^
 
Back from the void... :)

Hi, all! Hope everyone's well.

It is true that in the pilot, Sam is told he can't leap unless he completes the mission. Initially this was to give Sam a reason to play along with this notion because his FIRST goal was getting home. He could have just folded his arms and said "I'm not doing anything" and then the series would be over. Bellisario even said in early interviews that he wanted Sam to ALWAYS be successful in his missions, even if HOW he was successful was a surprise. But somewhere along the way, the writers must have realized that there's no suspense about whether or not Sam leaps--we know he has to do that anyway. But there can be suspense as to whether or not Sam succeeds. So by "Leap for Lisa," Sam and Al are talking about how they both "know" that success has nothing to do with leaping. And we're all saying, what gives? When did this happen?

Finally, one day it occurred to me. In "Vietnam," his goal was not to rescue his brother, but to ensure the success of the mission. Sam saved his brother, but the mission did NOT succeed. He did not accomplish what he was there to do, which would have meant rescuing Al. (And Maggie died too.) Sam was allowed to stay long enough to have learned his lesson and to discover that some good did come out of it (Maggie got his Pulitzer, and hey, his brother IS alive) so that he could go on with his life...but he leaped right after that. Not because the mission had been completed, but because there was nothing left to do or for Sam to learn there.

The other possible time that I can think of is "Freedom." Sam was supposed to get the father home to die on his native soul. Depending on how you interpret the scene, either 1) the father died just as they got onto the soul, thus Sam just barely completed his mission; or 2) the father died just before they got there, but Sam had done his best and the father would be buried properly at least, so Sam leaped anyway.

At least, that's my opinion after thinking way too long about this. ;)
 
success or fail

Good point Mike. Fits in well with what Bartender Al says in M.I. The only thing that i question about this whole buisness was the episode where he leaps into that vet and competes with the cowgirl for the ranch. He doesn't leap after going through all that stuff, but only after he helps Buddy Holly write a hit song.

i don't think this disproves your theory. i just think that's one of the funniest moments in the show. That and the scene from the episode (why am i blanking on all these names today) where he leaps into the gangster. The "godfather" say that if he finds out who is doing his mistriss then that person will be singing soprano just as Sam hits this really high note...:sing
 
Re: success or fail

Great points, Arturo and Ian! Actually, I just started reading "The Wall" again for the fifth or sixth time this morning <LOL> :lol , and here is an excerpt from page 22:

Every time he leaped, he was supposed to change something, put something "right". Fix a disaster, however minor or major, in someone's life. He had it down to a science now: he leaped; shortly thereafter Al popped in with the link to Ziggy the computer and told him what Ziggy thought was supposed to change; he changed it, and he leaped again. Except when Ziggy was wrong, of course, which happened more often than not.

But the change had to be made. He and Al had speculated that success had nothing to do with whether he leaped or not, but if he wasn't supposed to change something, what was the point of leaping at all? Or he might try and fail, and Whoever or Whatever was controlling the leaps might send him somewhere Else to try again. If that was so, then there did indeed have to be a Plan, a Final Purpose to his dizzying journey through the last forty-some years of history. And every failure meant even more leaps until whatever, in the greater scheme of things, finally got straightened out, and he could go back...

So, perhaps Sam has to change something, but not necessarily what Ziggy or even he thinks needs to be changed... hmmm... very interesting topic!!

... Mike. ^_^
 
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