The final episode, "Mirror Image," was intended to have a much different ending. The original ending was written under the assumption that there would be a sixth season. When the series was not renewed, this ending was replaced at the last minute, after much of the post-production work on the episode had already taken place. A "wet copy" of this episode includes the alternate ending and survives through underground video tape trading on the Internet. If you are intersted in obtaining a VHS copy, e-mail Jerry Seward.

In the meantime, you can download it in .avi format.

What follows is the original script for the ending in its entirety. Most of it must have been nixed early on because even the surviving alternate ending cuts out after the picture of Al's family.

the proposed cliffhanger into the 93/94 season

this picks up where Sam tells Beth that Al is coming home...

130A CLOSE ON BETH

She catches her breath and tears flood her eyes as we move to....

131A SILVER FRAMED PHOTO OF YOUNG AL

sitting on the mantle. We hold for a beat and pull back past another photo. This one is of Al, Beth and four older children. our move takes us past other family photos of Beth and Al and their children. We continue until we reveal that we are in....

132A AL’S DEN

in his home at Project Quantum Leap. It is the year 2000 but this room is a classic den with leather and wood and a warm, comfortable look. Our move continues until we find....

133A THE OBSERVER AND BETH

sitting in an overstuffed chair. He's smoking a cigar and staring at a silver framed photo in his hand. She's sitting half on the chair and half on him. Beth's older and her hair is streaked with gray, but she's still a radiant beauty ... especially when she smiles.

OBSERVER
Wherever he's leaped, Sam’s still himself.

BETH
Because no one's in the Waiting Room?

OBSERVER
There's no other explanation.
(beat)
Ziggy’s starting a nanosecond search in the morning but I got a feeling Sam’s leaped beyond his lifetime?

BETH
Into the past or future?

OBSERVER
(firmly)
The future. Don't ask me how I know, I just do.
(beat)
He's in the future, way in the future... far beyond his lifetime.

BETH
How’d he get there?

OBSERVER
The bartender sent him.

BETH
The bartender?

OBSERVER
Why not? Anyone who has the power to leap Sam through time can be anyone he wants to be ... a bartender, a train conductor ... a steambath attendant.

Beth takes a second to absorb that, then looks down at Al.

BETH
He’d know where Sam was in the future.

OBSERVER
How do I ask him? As a hologram, he couldn't hear me.

BETH
If he's God, I think he'll hear you.

OBSERVER
Good. But without Sam in that bar, I can't get there.

BETH
You could if you leaped.

134A CLOSER ON BOTH

The Observer looks slowly up to Beth, realizing she's hit on the solution.

OBSERVER
I might not come back.

BETH
You'll come back. Anyone who came back from Vietnam can come back from anywhere.

OBSERVER
Thirty five years and you still amaze me.

He pulls her into his arms and passionately kisses her. Then, he's out of the chair and gone.

135A CLOSE ON BETH

watching him go.

BETH
(to herself)
So do you.

Over her face, we hear the....

ANNOUNCER’S VOICE
Here's the windup and the pitch.

CUT TO

136A INT. AL’S PLACE - NIGHT - CLOSE ON RADIO

The dial glows yellow from this old Philco model set in the backroom of the bar. We hear the crack of a bat and the roar of a crowd as the announcer Rosey Rosewell supplies the color. We pull back from the radio.

ANNOUNCER'S VOICE
It's a long fly ball to left field.
(excited)
Open the window Aunt Minnie, here she comes!

our pull back reveals Ghee standing next to the Philco. The miners at the bar stop their raucous celebration and turn to the radio to hear the crash of broken glass that's Rosey's sound effect for a Pirate home run. The miners cheer as the Rosey continues.

GHEE
Do you believe this!
(beat)
They trade Kiner and now half the team’s hitting home runs.

137A ANGLE ON THE BAR - SFX

Al smiles and slides a draft to Miner Ziggy and then picks up Mutta’s glass to refill it.

MINER ZIGGY
Nobody on the Pirates will ever break as many window canes as Ralph Kiner did.

MUTTA
Panes not canes. Window Panes.

MINER ZIGGY
I said panes.

MUTTA
You said canes.

A blue light materializes next to Miner Ziggy, coalesces with electric, arcing into Al and dissipates. Mutta and Ziggy seem oblivious to Al’s sudden appearance and speak to him as if held been there all along.

MUTTA
(to Observer)
Didn't Ziggy-say canes? Window canes?

OBSERVER
(swiss cheesed)
I don't remember what she said?

MUTTA
She?

OBSERVER
Ziggy.

MINER ZIGGY
You must be a friend of Sam’s.
(explaining to Mutta)
Sam knows a Ziggy who's a woman, an ugly woman.

Ghee joins them.

GHEE
He must have seen you in your dress at the Beer Barrel Reunion.

OBSERVER
You cross-dress?

MINER ZIGGY
Cross-dress?

OBSERVER
Dress like the opposite sex.

GHEE
My Aunt Anna does that.

OBSERVER
Dresses like a man?

GHEE
No, like a woman.

Ghee slaps the bar and, laughing at having put one over on the Observer, moves off with Mutta and Miner Ziggy.

138A FEATURING AL

He wipes the counter in front of the observer who is now slightly isolated from-the miners.

AL
What'll it be?

OBSERVER
Information.

Al shoves the punchboard to him.

AL
Twenty-five cents a punch. Hit the jackpot and I'll answer your question.

OBSERVER
I got to gamble to get info from God?

AL
Who said I was God?

OBSERVER
Sam did. He said you were God or Time or Fate.

AL
(laughs)
Why not an alien while you're at it.

OBSERVER
(stunned)
Oh, my God....

AL
What?

OBSERVER
We didn't think of that!
(realizing)
It makes sense. You could be a higher intelligence from the outer reaches of the universe!

AL
I'm afraid the only alien here is you, Al.

OBSERVER
Why me?

AL
Because you're the only one who doesn't belong here.

OBSERVER
What about Sam?

AL
He's not here anymore ... he's on the job.

OBSERVER
In the future, right?

AL
Right.

OBSERVER
(pissed)
Without me!

AL
I didn't think you were needed.

OBSERVER
(incredulous)
You didn't think I was needed!
(beat)
Who flew the X-2? Me! Who taught him Elvis' moves? Me! Who showed him how to box, shoot pool, draw a six-gun ... kiss the girl!

AL
(amused)
You.

OBSERVER
You're damn right, me!
(quickly adds)
If you're God, excuse the language.

AL
If I'm God, you're excused.

OBSERVER
Sam wouldn't have righted a single wrong if it wasn't for me.

AL
Well....

OBSERVER
Okay. Maybe one or two, but he needs me. And more important... I need him.

139A CLOSER ON BOTH

Al thinks this over for a moment before speaking.

AL
The past has been mere prologue. Where Sam has gone, there is great danger.

OBSERVER
Cut the Star Wars dialogue! Are you going to send me with him or not?

AL
You'd no longer enjoy the safety of a hologram.

OBSERVER
I was kinda hoping that would continue.

AL
You'd be a Leaper, like Sam, with all the inherent risks.

OBSERVER
I still want to join him.

AL
That's all it takes.

OBSERVER
What do you mean?

AL
You just have to want to do it.

Al steps aside and the Observer looks into the mirror.

140A THE OBSERVER’S POV - THE MIRROR

Everything has changed. The bar, the miners, all have leaped far into the future and are space warriors enjoying a night at a space station bar. But the biggest shock of all is the observer ... he's a future version of a blonde bombshell.

141A ON THE OBSERVER

He spins around on the stool to find himself in the space station bar. Ghee, wearing the uniform of space pilot, leans in next to him with a leacherous grin on his face.

GHEE’S VOICE
I've been in a hundred rec bars from here to the Magellic Clouds and believe me, you've got the greatest set of cassabas I've ever targeted.

OBSERVER
Oh, boy.

TO BE CONTINUED