> Re: My theory
I had to read that several times and I still don't quite get it. When you say "one when," does that mean any given leap? I do understand what you're saying about if the leapee can remain in the future without Sam in the past, though. My theory is no, despite the fact that Sam leaped as himself in "Mirror Image" without needing a counterpart to be in the past.
I believe the Accelerator would be needed in order to "grab" a leapee from the past and bring them into the present (via the retrieval program). Sam could leap as himself because he originally used the Accelerator, allowing him to be leaping in the first place. I don't think the Project could bring anyone to the present without a leaper bumping them out. I think any potential leapee would need the Accelerator to leap without Sam.
Al is able to "observe" the past because Sam is physically in the past, meaning that someone needs to leap there first to get a neural connection with that time. Therefore, it wouldn't be possible to get any type of connection with people in the past to "lock" onto and bring to the present if Sam weren't there. So, bottom line: without Sam being in the past, the retrieval program is useless.
That brings up another question...if Sam were stranded in time at "one when" for a LONG time (e.g. years), would the aura eventually reconnect?
I don't think so. The auras don't seem to be part of the Project's technology (more like a freak side-effect), so I don't see any reason why it would fade away. Now, if Sam were
killed on a leap, maybe the aura would fade as Sam is dying. Most likley, though, the aura probably wouldn't fade away and Sam would automatically leap home (this is more likely because it was a solution in "Genesis").
EDIT: I see what you're saying now about the "where" and "when." But the way I envisioned it, each time Sam leaps, the quantum field "tears" a hole in the space-time continuum, much like a worm hole of sorts. Sam's body remains intact and he passes through this space across time instantaneously (as he explains in his string theory getting from one point in his life to another), and is basically making "shortcuts" through time.
To get
really technical about it, Sam could never leap into the same spot in another year because the Earth would simply not be in the same position in the galaxy. So basically, there is no way for Sam to leap without cutting across space in some form. And because of Alia/Angel surviving the shotgun blast in "Revenge," we know that each person's body leaps out as a whole.