Trivia / Quantum Leap S 5 E 22 Mirror Image

• The Danza: "Stawpah" is Russian for Steve. Stawpah is played by Stephen McHattie.
• What Could Have Been:
  • While the cast and crew were well aware that this would probably be the final episode, a cliffhanger ending was written just in case NBC renewed the show for a sixth season. In it, Al tells Beth (in the present) that Sam is still lost and that he will have to run another nanosecond search to try to find him. Al is despondent that he will ever find Sam again but Beth tells him not to give up because that is what friends are for. For years, it was unclear as to whether this ending had actually been filmed. That is, until 2018 when online reviewer and Quantum Leap superfan Allison Pregler bought some old negatives depicting scenes from the show. They included images of Dean Stockwell and Susan Diol (who played Beth) in what appeared to be Al's house. Allison realized that the scene being depicted was the alternate ending and shared her find on her YouTube channel. In 2019, a rough cut of the ending surfaced on Reddit, proving once and for all that it had indeed been filmed.
  • A second alternate ending would have had Al the Observer leap to 1953 to confront Al the Bartender and then leap into a buxom woman in a futuristic bar. While there is documentation that suggests this ending was scheduled to be filmed, there is no evidence that it actually was filmed.
• You Look Familiar: Enough of the guest stars appeared in earlier episodes that this could have been the title of the episode.