Trick question: the answer is d) all of the above. Unsure whether NBC would renew Quantum Leap after its fifth season, producer Don Bellisario had to devise a concluding episode that was open-ended enough to permit development of a sixth season or a subsequent movie, but that had some kind of closure if neither was possible in the near future. The result, “Mirror Image,” turned out to be so enigmatic that Leapers are still wondering whether the joke was on them or on NBC.

Bellisario combined his memories of his father’s bar in Cokeburg, Pennsylvania with elements from Callahan’s Cross-Time Saloon and The Wizard of Oz to create Al’s Place, a bar where not only everyone knows your name, but anything can happen and nothing is what it seems. From the moment Sam enters, the red-gold hazy lighting gives the bar a dream-like quality. As in a dream, familiar faces and names appear out of context, reality and fantasy merge, and truth is hidden beneath symbolic disguises. Halfway through the Leap, Sam muses, “I no longer knew what was real and what was imagined, and if imagined, whose mind was imagining it, mine or someone else’s.”

It soon becomes clear that no one else’s mind but Sam’s could have imagined Al’s Place and its patrons. Like Dorothy’s Oz, Sam’s Leap is full of familiar faces and names that have significance only for Sam. A bearded halitosic “Gooshie” appears; the abusive Jake Dorleac (from “Southern Comforts”) is rehabilitated into the jovial Mutta; Don Geno Prascotti (“Double Identity”) takes a villainous turn as Mr. Collins, the mine manager; Frank and Jimmy LaMotta (“Jimmy” and “Deliver Us from Evil”) become Tonchi and Pete; there’s even a miner named Herky, just like one of Sam’s high-school teammates (“The Leap Home”). Then, of course, there’s Ziggy, a reincarnation of Moe Stein (“Future Boy”), who appears, not-so-coincidentally, as Sam is watching “Captain Z-ro” (a program about “a research explorer in time and space,” whose introduction sounds strangely similar to Quantum Leap’s own saga cell) on the bar’s TV. Ziggy, a Russian miner who must have studied English under Miss Malaprop, has more in common with Project Quantum Leap’s hybrid computer than is apparent at first glance. Ziggy’s fractured English is a warped version of the computer’s verbal “hiccups,” and also a reflection of the fact that, in spite of Ziggy’s one-million gigabyte capacity, she’s often wrong.

Though he seems unfamiliar at first, Stawpah turns out to be a relative of (Observer) Al’s. With a gravelly voice that could be Al with a Ukrainian accent, Stawpah sounds, looks, and acts like a twisted, cynical version of Al. (In fact, the actor who plays Stawpah reminded me so much of Dean Stockwell that at first, I thought Dean was playing both parts.) Like Al, Stawpah provides Sam with the information he needs to save Tonchi and Pete, describing their entrapment in the flooded mine as if he could somehow see it. And like Al, he acts as a devil’s advocate, countering Sam’s liberal idealism with his own sardonic realism, forcing him to see things as they are, not as Sam would like them to be.

Then, of course, there’s Al, the smug, enigmatic bartender who answers all of Sam’s questions with more questions. Al is a recreation of Weird Ernie, one of the officers in charge of the X-2 testing program from Sam’s first Leap. It seems only natural that Sam should have resurrected this strong authority figure with a paternal manner, given him Sam’s best friend’s name, and turned him into a representation of God, Time, or Fate. Al’s personality matches that of the God Sam often complains and prays to throughout his Leaps: compassionate, but also capricious, humorous (usually at Sam’s expense), manipulative, and mysterious--a God who delights in making Sam figure everything out for himself.

Like Dorothy’s dream, the point of Sam’s Leap is to get him to do just that--to figure things out for himself. At one point toward the end of the Leap, Al suggests that Sam might get a “sabbatical.” He probably isn’t referring to a well-earned (and probably well-needed) vacation, however, but the kind of sabbatical that clergy and educators take to reflect on their past training and acquire new knowledge to prepare for future work. The events and conversations that take place reflect questions and conflicts that have probably been going on in Sam’s mind since his earliest Leaps. Just as Glinda informs Dorothy that she’s not in Kansas anymore, Al the bartender tells Sam, “You’re not where you came from.” And like Dorothy’s dream, Sam’s dream-Leap helps him see himself a little clearer. When Sam first expresses surprise at his older image in the mirror, Al asks, “When’s the last time you took a really good look at yourself?” Sam replies, “It’s been a while.” Al advises, “You let too much time go by, you could lose touch with reality.” Ironically enough, although reality and imagination are continually blurred throughout this Leap, in the end, by letting Sam take that “really good look” at himself, the Leap forces him to face reality in a number of ways.

It’s no coincidence that the bar’s patrons are miners, rather than steelworkers, constructions workers, or any other kind of workers. Throughout his Leap, Sam becomes a miner of a sort, too, digging into his own soul, trying to unearth his own reasons for Leaping, and trying to come to terms with his failure to help Al salvage his marriage with Beth (“MIA”).

As Al the bartender questions Sam about his motives for developing Project Quantum Leap, he seems to elicit responses that have lain unacknowledged in Sam’s subconscious. Sam readily responds that he created PQL “to travel in time.” But when prompted further, he stutters over his next answers. Al, in fact, has to provide them for Sam. Sam slowly repeats that he wanted “to make the world a better place,” as if only that moment recognizing that as his real motivation, that he had, indeed, intended to “put right what once went wrong,” even if he hadn’t admitted that to himself before.

Sam balks, however, at accepting anything further. “No way will I buy that!” he exclaims, when Al says Sam has been Leaping himself. Like Glinda, the good witch, Al smugly asserts that Sam can go Home anytime he wants to. Instead of offering Sam a pair of ruby slippers and some magic words, however, Al says, “The catch is that you have to accept that you control your own destiny.” Sam still refuses to accept that control until he realizes that it gives him the opportunity to fix something he himself has made wrong.

For this Leap is not just about Sam, but about Al. It’s probably no accident that he’s dreamed himself into a bar called “Al’s Place.” The setting, first of all, refers to the pair’s early friendship, when Sam helped Al to pull himself back from the brink of alcoholism. And the name of the bar is almost a play on words for the ultimate purpose of the Leap. As Sam discusses his friend Al’s place in his own life, he reproaches himself for his insistence on playing “by the rules” and keeping Al and Beth apart, causing Al to lose his place as Beth’s husband.

In a way, Stawpah’s situation parallels Sam’s, and the old miner’s dilemma over helping Tonchi and Pete probably pushes Sam toward making a decision about Al. When Gooshie tells Sam how Stawpah was the only survivor of a mining disaster, he says “it was slate on his back,” referring more to Stawpah’s emotional bitterness than to his physical disability. Stawpah may have been twisted by the mining accident, but he was twisted in a different way by being unable to rescue any of his comrades. The “slate” is the burden he carries for having lived where so many died. He redeems himself, however, by coming up with the ruse that saves the two miners’ lives. Sam, too, has “slate on his back” in the form of his memory of having failed Al. Although he may not remember all he regained, Sam was able to use his Leaps to bring back his brother, his wife, and probably his family’s home--all the things Al’s been denied. Sam missed two opportunities to put Al’s life right. Once he refused to do so, and once, through Al’s own sacrifice in helping Sam to save Tom’s life, he was unable to do so.

As the dream-Leap progresses, Sam begins to realize that his mission is to reunite Al with Beth. Al the bartender’s assertion that Sam can control his Leaps gives him the opportunity to repair the damage he’s done. “I’d like to go Home,” Sam insists tearfully, “but I can’t, can I? I’ve got a wrong to put right for Al.” Upon recognizing that fact and accepting the responsibility, Sam Leaps into Beth’s living room, setting aside his own longing to go Home so that Al can return to his place at Beth’s side.

Is this where the dream ends? Or does Sam’s dream-Leap continue all the way through his meeting with Beth, even up to the closing captions that indicate that Al and Beth will live happily ever after and Sam will never return Home? Perhaps Sam’s experiences at Al’s Place are part of a precognitive dream, like the one he experienced in “The Boogieman.” Although Sam’s encounter with the devil didn’t occur in “reality,” the dream must have been God, Time, Fate, or Whatever’s way of giving Sam the information he needed to accomplish his mission on the Leap (i.e., saving Tully the handyman from falling to his death). If Sam’s Leap into Al’s Place is a similar sort of dream, then his meeting with Beth is “real,” so to speak.

So what of Sam’s inability to return Home? Perhaps Sam himself recognizes that his choice greatly decreases his chances of returning. He asks Al the bartender if the Leaps will get tougher, and Al indicates that they probably will. Perhaps the nature of Sam and Al’s friendship will change so much that Al will not be able to offer as much help to Sam as he used to. Perhaps, by reuniting Al and Beth, Sam has prevented himself from becoming friends with Al. Perhaps he has even created a significant enough temporal paradox to prevent the creation of PQL, thus leaving himself out in Leaping Limbo. Or perhaps Sam will have to continue Leaping alone, without the help of Al or any other Observer. Or perhaps Sam has consciously decided that he can accomplish more good by Leaping than by going Home (although it’s hardly a fair choice, since he’s not allowed to remember enough of Home for him to make an informed decision).

So where is Sam now? According to Donald Bellisario, “He is not dead. He did not leap home because that wasn’t truly what he wanted. Sam is as close to being the most completely altruistic person a human being can be, so he’s still out there fixing things.” (Interview with Adina Ringler in The Observer, May 7, 1993) As for those of us who still cringe every time we read “Sam Beckett never returned home,” just remember, that line comes from the same man who said he’d “never” Leap Sam into the Kennedy assassination, and would “never” Leap Sam into the Civil War.