Quantum Leap
Mirror Image - August 8, 1953
TV Flash files “Mirror Image - August 8, 1953” as a desk essential hour — Quantum Leap (1989–1993) on NBC, season 5, episode 21, aired 1993-05-05, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S05E21: listed hour 95 of 95 in the Quantum Leap guide, last listed hour of season 5. It aired 1993-05-05 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Memphis Melody - July 3, 1954” (S05E20). No later hour is listed in this guide.
Essential hour: “Mirror Image - August 8, 1953”. Mirror Image - August 8, 1953 is the bittersweet closer: the math that still hurts. Oh, boy.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Sam leaps into himself in a 1953 Pennsylvania coal mining town, where he encounters what seem to be familiar faces from people he helped in prior leaps, while learning more about his mission and why he leaps from one point in time to another. Leap Details: Himself, August 8, 1953, Cokeburg, Pennsylvania / April 3, 1969, San Diego, California
Viewer FAQ
Where does Mirror Image - August 8, 1953 sit in the Quantum Leap guide?
S05E21 is listed hour 95 of 95 — last listed hour of season 5, season 5 episode 21.
When did Quantum Leap S05E21 air?
Mirror Image - August 8, 1953 aired 1993-05-05 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Do I have to watch in order?
Leaps are largely anthology, so you can sample, but Sam and Al's project is the serial heart. The finale's bittersweet math lands harder if you have ridden with them.
In the series
Why this series still plays
High-concept anthology-with-heart — Bakula and Stockwell are a perfect odd couple across time. Sam leaps into other lives to put right what once went wrong; Al's hologram smokes the map. 1980s/90s sci-fi optimism with a lump in its throat. The finale's bittersweet math still hurts. Oh, boy.
Oh, boy — already a wound, already a fandom greeting. NBC's Quantum Leap (1989–1993) dropped Dr. Sam Beckett into other people's lives to put right what once went wrong, Dean Stockwell's holographic Al as cigar-smoking guide. Scott Bakula as time-travel everyman in a new body every week. Donald P. Bellisario's zigzag accelerator: social-issue episodes and genre romps, anthology heart inside a franchise shell. **Five seasons, 95 hours, a body-swap mission structure later genre shows still rent.** Rex can keep the…
Filed against
- Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett
Scott Bakula's Dr. Sam Beckett leapt Quantum Leap as high-concept anthology-with-heart — putting right what once went wrong, Dean Stockwell's Al as hologram map, 1980s/90s sci-fi optimism with a lump in its throat. Odd couple across time.…
- Dean Stockwell as Admiral Al Calavicci
Dean Stockwell’s Admiral Al Calavicci smoked the map on Quantum Leap — Sam leaping into other lives to put right what once went wrong, hologram as odd-couple compass, 1980s/90s sci-fi optimism with a lump in its throat. Bakula and…