Different perspective on the finale

I've mentioned it here and there but I wanted to talk about it in its own thread. There's a lot of weird stuff going on in the final episode. After netflix finally added it back in, I watched it again and I feel differently about it than I used to.

Many people think Al the Bartender was God. But, now I think Al the Bartender is actually an older version of Sam (that's leaped into the body of the bartender) that is helping to guide him. He denies being God, but instead of denying if he's the one leaping Sam around, he replies "I wouldn't say that--" and says that Sam is leaping himself. Al seems to know that harder leaps will be coming ahead, seems to know all about Sam and his leaps, and Sam is convinced until the end that Al is leaping him and is the one that pulled him from his first leap. But really, it would've been an older Sam pulling himself out, knowing how important this mission is. Who knows, if Sam gained more control over his leaps, maybe he's full on Time Lord by then, recruited many more leapers (to stop the evil leapers), and created this place in time for them, or just invented this whole scenario for Sam. It's not the first time there's been a "dream leap". The Boogieman episode was. But it would explain the coincidences.

There's also a point where Sam says that this is where it all started. He's right, in the sense that this is when Sam Beckett was born. If the theoretical limit of time travel was Sam's own lifetime, and he's the inventor, then this is when it all started.

Then there's Stawpah. Sam theorizes he's some sort of ghost. He could be a leaper who failed. It's been established that if Sam fails a mission, he'll never leap. Stawpah failed to save the miners from a fire years ago. It's not until he helps Sam save these ones, that he feels he can leap. When he does, it's like it changes the timeline back to the original. Or maybe he's a ghost. Or another Sam playing a role. Sure whatever.

Many people don't like that Sam never returned home, but returning home was just Sam's excuse to keep going. It's not until this episode that he realizes and accepts that setting things right and helping others is what is really driving him. Sam never truly wanted to go home. If he did, he would've never stepped into the accelerator in the first place. Would you step into something that could potentially kill you if you wanted to stay home?