Depois que Sam não voltou para casa no final, ele e Al ainda eram amigos?

Embora uma pergunta como essa seja inerentemente especulativa, eles provavelmente ainda seriam amigos.

Há muito tempo existe um escrita de um final alternativo em que, após o salto final, Al discute Sam com Beth.

CLOSE ON BETH

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

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....

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....

THE OBSERVER AND BETH sitting man 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 nano-second 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.

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.

Alguns fotos de produção recentemente descoberto por um fã sugere que essa cena (ou talvez outra versão dela) foi de fato filmada, embora nunca tenha sido usada:

Essa cena sugere que Al não apenas se associa a Sam e ao projeto, mas é amigo suficiente para arriscar não voltar de Saltando para resgatá-lo.

Além disso, normalmente por causa da conexão única de Al com Sam, ele mantém algum nível de consciência das mudanças temporais ... mesmo que o salto o fizesse normalmente nunca encontrar Sam, ele provavelmente teria retido algumas lembranças da linha do tempo alternativa.

E de uma perspectiva fora do universo, se o show tivesse continuado, provavelmente teria continuado com os dois membros do elenco e mantido sua amizade e relacionamento.