This was one of the best episodes of Quantum Leap. It was very emotional and makes me think of the what if's that always come up, what if I could go back and fix this in my life, etc. Part II was almost as great especially the ending when you find out that Sam saved his brother's life but at Al's expense. Heavy stuff!

The scene where he sings "Imagine" to his sister is one of the saddest, most gut-renching moments in the entire seires.

The most gut-renching moment in the entire seires (in my opinion) was the ending of this episode where Sam finds out that his brother Tom still dies in Vietnam. It still makes me sad when I watch the re-runs even though I know he saves Tom in the next episode.

These two episodes were probably the saddest ever. Anyone who needs a good cry should watch em

Wow. I just saw this episode for the first time
today. It was the best episode of Quantum Leap
I ever saw! I can't wait to see part 2. This really was a great episode.

Many great moments : when Sam hugs his parents,
when Sam sings that song for his sister, when
he yells up in the sky that he quits and esp.
that last moment when Al tells Sam that his
brother still dies..and Sam leaps just as
he is yelling to his brother.

Okay...a couple of nits.

One obvious one : Young Sam and his father don't
look a thing like they did in the pilot episode.

Second : Okay, I can buy the fact that Sam's
actions don't stop his father from dying and his
brother from dying in the war. But his sister?
When she will meet Chuck in the future and
when that song that Sam sung is actually released,
won't she remember what Sam warned her about?

Also, does young Sam actually remember being in
the waiting room in the future? (The series
never actually made it clear if the person that
Sam replaces remembers being in the waiting
room...at least not any episode I remember.)
If young Sam does remember, wouldn't that make him think twice about stepping into the acceleration chamber when he grows up?

Rene, does young Sam actually remember being in the waiting room in the future? Well, I think a couple of episodes imply that the person in the waiting room also experiences a swiss cheese effect on his or her memory. Of course, that also raises problems. Can you imagine not being able to remember a significant event in your life and not knowing why?

Well, when Sam returned to his own time in "The Leap Back", his memoery returned to him...so
assume the same thing happened to the person
that returns back to his own time.

Sci Fi Channel just reran this episode today, and it is indeed a great emotional episode.

Anyway, Rene, I think the question had to do with the person returning home not having memories of the major event for which Sam was present. I always assumed that the memories of what happened were somehow reintegrated into the leapee. Works for me, and the show never said otherwise.

As for the episode, my favorite scene is the one where Al insists that what's happened is fair, after all. You really see the whole episode from Sam's perspective until that point -- why can't he save his own family? But then...isn't it enough to just have a chance to be back with them again?

As for a nit -- well, I find it hard to work up a logical explanation (swiss cheese or not) for Sam being able to remember that Tom shot the first goose and missed the second when they were out hunting that day, but not that it was Tom underneath the Kong mask at practice in the first place. But hey, maybe the doctor was right: maybe Sam didn't really remember Tom shooting the geese after all. Or not. Whatever.

Well, you know, swiss cheese has eyes (holes) and then solid parts. There could be a hole for the mask incident and a solid part for the duck incident.

The greater problem with the duck incident is that it seems like something that could have been changed by the leap. For Sam's prediction to work, Sam and Tom's progression through the hunt would have to be largely unchanged despite the intense conversation they have in the revised timeline. Moreover, Tom being told "There will be two ducks. You will hit the first and miss the second" would have to have no effect on his actions---he's not better prepared for the second shot by the advance warning, but he's also not enough suprised by the accuracy of Sam's prediction to miss the first shot.

What I found really odd about this episode was the frequent reference to "No Nose" Pruett, who had apparently lost much of his nose in a farming accident. When we actually saw him his nose looked fine and he did not seem at all disfigured.

Pruitt's nose, to me, was clearly truncated a little, with scarred flesh.

Pruitt's nose, to me, was clearly truncated a little, with scarred flesh.

On rewatching that part, I see that indeed he does seem to be missing the tip of his nose (it's even dimpled in a bit).

One wonders how the conversation in the waiting room went.

Al : "What's your name?"

Young Sam :"Sam Beckett"

Al : "Sam! You're back?!"

Young Sam : "Who are you?"

yeah they would have shut the machine off thinking he was back but just suffered memory loss. I can see them giving him a tour "and this is your wife, oh and this is your daughter... Sam whats wrong?"

This one always gets me when I see. Probably because, when it first aired, I was too close to it all.

This originally aired in the fall of 1990, only a few weeks after my own father's death. I remember thinking that, if I had found myself in Sam's position, in the body of my younger self, I'd do the exact same thing that he tried to do here.