MovieChat Forums > Quantum Leap (1989) Discussion > The Bingo Paradox

The Bingo Paradox

posted 9 years ago by stargazer_1682
9 replies | jump to latest

This may be one of the more... wibbly-wobbly elements for Quantum Leap.

In "A Leap for Lisa," Sam leaps into a younger version of Al (when he went by the nickname Bingo). The ultimate solution to what Sam is there to fix is to have Bingo, who's in the waiting room in the future, step into the Quantum Leap accelerator and leap back into himself prior to Sam's arrival, and stop Chip from going to the beach with Marci Riker; where she would accidentally die.
So the question I always wonder is, after Bingo changes the past; who's in the waiting room?

When Sam first leaps in, Bingo leaps out, into the future - let's call him Bingo Prime; the version of young Al prior to any changes made to his personal history.
Present day Al then puts Bingo Prime into the accelerator and leaps him into himself a few days prior to Sam's arrival, which should mean the Bingo who steps out of the accelerator is a technically younger version of Bingo than even Bingo Prime, albeit by a couple of days. And yet, because he's replacing the man Sam replaced, her invariably still looks like Sam and is entangled with Sam, rather than Bingo Prime.
Now, Sam still leaped in, in the middle of all of this; meaning in the new history Sam leaped into, he ends up trading places with Bingo Prime, while presumably the even younger, second version of Bingo is the one who returns when Sam leaves.

What this would probably mean though, is Bing Prime ends up falling into a perpetual loop of being bounced out by Sam and then sent back to watch Chip; only to be leapt out by Sam again and start the whole thing over.
I've often thought it would be interesting to discover that somehow, somewhere along the way, Bingo Prime, like Sam, became lost in time; that by being leapt back in time through the same means as Sam was, he becomes another leaper, but without the benefit of knowing what's happening to him, or an observer from the present day who can say what history says originally happened.

"Our families are in there! Our, uh, mothers and... and tiny, tiny babies!"

[–] mobiusq-34870 9 years ago

Interesting point, and I've often speculated about the nature of both the leaper & the person in the waiting room. There are actually contradictions within the series: Sam's theory & his usual explanation is that the leaper's "spirit" inhabits the target's body (Killin' Time) - and vice versa; yet there are instances when Sam's own body is obviously occupying the target's life, e.g. he is said to have impregnated Sammy Jo Fuller's mother (Trilogy, Parts 2 & 3). Another oddity is found in "Revenge of the Evil Leaper," in which a second person (apparently Alia's body with Angel Jenson's spirit) shows up in the waiting room. I can't recall anything in the series that would indicate that Sam's theory included "leaping" a physical body from one place to another - in this case from LOTHOS' "holding chamber" to PQL's "waiting room." It makes me also wonder if the "holding chamber" & "waiting room" exist simultaneously or at different times.

I've also looked into quantum theory & the nature of time, and have decided that "linear time" & "cause & effect" might not exist in the way that we have tended to suppose. Consider that Bingo at one point in time is the same Bingo at another point in time - but their experiences are different. Indeed, some of those experiences might not exist in an altered timeline, so there is effectively a "Swiss cheese effect." So, to continually send "that satyr in the waiting room" leaping into himself, until he remembers to not go on that date, could make sense. The odd thing, however, is that it is always Sam's body, in the present time, and it must be very difficult to verify that a transfer, of one Bingo for another, ever took place. Then, finally, when Al returns as PQL observer, we know that the desired change took place. The big problem, for me, are all the unintended consequences of each change of the timeline, as each target's experiences must certainly change in order to align properly with it's new or altered timeline.

[–] stargazer_1682 9 years ago

No, they say throughout the entire series that the person leaping travels physically through time, "body and soul." It's not just his consciousness, but everything. The only thing that stays behind is and a perceptual aura that makes people see him as the person he's leapt into, and presumably bends space around him to some degree, allowing him to always fit in their clothes, and have people look him in the eyes, even when he leaps into someone of a different stature. This also why animals, children and the mentally disabled are able to not only see All, but they see Sam for who he really is. In the very first episode, the dog inflamed by the ballplayer he leaped into could sense he was someone else. In "Another Mother," the youngest daughter of the woman he leaped into - played by Troian Bellisario, Don Bellasario's daughter with Deborah Pratt, who voiced Ziggy/narrator - can see Sam as he really was, and this was in season 2. In season 5, when leaped into the vet who lost his legs in Vietnam, Sam could still walk, appearing in the mirror as if he were floating; and he could swim. When he leaped into a pregnant teen, Sam and All were positive it was impossible for Sam to have the baby, because he was physically male, in the past; and the woman he replaced, along with the baby, were in the future, which was why him going into labor was supposed to be significant.

What I think is more noteworthy is what happens between leaps, when no one hasleapes into the waiting room? In some cases the leaps are instantaneous, like when he leaped out of Doctor Ruth. But in the first episode, Al says they were "popping champagne for a week" after he leaped out of Tom Stratton. But if all there is in the "present" is an aura surrounding the person Sam bounces out, what there in between?
I think it would be interesting if it was revealed that, at least in the early days of his lealing, Sam actually did return to the present, before involuntarily leaping out again, spontaneously. The Swiss cheese effect results in him never remembering his returns when he leaps back in time; and the project rules that prohibited Al from telling him anything he didn't already know, like his name or about Donna, meant that Al actually kept quiet about this fact. The narrations we hear are then Sam in the present being debriefed, and as time goes on his stays in the present become shorter, until he more frequently goes from one leap straight to the next.

"Our families are in there! Our, uh, mothers and... and tiny, tiny babies!"

[–] mobiusq-34870 9 years ago

Yes, you are citing some of the contradictions, and there are others. I'm very familiar with every episode you've cited, but will review them soon in detail. I know I have heard Sam say that his "spirit" transfers to the person he "leaps into," but a lot of this must have been sketchy early in the series. I would really like to figure out what's really going on.
Now, what if LOTHOS' holding chamber is the same location at some future time (the former PQL Waiting Room)? Then Angel Jenson leaped with Liz Tate to that location, but simply at a different point in time.

[–] stargazer_1682 9 years ago

In Killing Time, he tells the hostages "When I leap, you see the person I've leapt into. But when I leap, it's my body that's here. It's my spirit." They make numerous references throughout the series that it's his entire body leaping, not just his soul or consciousness; and that on either side of the equation - whomever Sam leaps into, who bounces into the waiting room at the project, there's an aura that makes them appear and sound like the other person, but that's all it is; they never purport it to be that person's body.
When he leaps into the blind piano player, Sam could still see. When he leaped into the pool shark Al used to know, Sam's eyesight was better than Magic's. When he leaped into the chimp, he could still swim, in spite of chimps lacking the body fat necessary to be buoyant; because it was his body, with his human body fat.

And this tracks with Alia; if they're physically traveling through space and time, then the person they're replacing is also being removed from the point in space and time in the past, and re-deposited in the future. Now ostensibly, in order for Sam to maintain an aura of himself in the "present" at Project Quantum Leap, he must have some sort of tether to that relative time period, that as he replaces someone in the past, that person is drawn to where his aura is in the present. By leaping with Sam, Alia was encompassed in his... leap energy, which presumably is tied in to his aura/tether. As Sam, and by subsequently Alia, are deposited in their next respect personas in history; the people they replace have also been swept up in that same energy, and followed its path to Project Quantum Leap.

Now the relationship between the leaper and their detached aura makes me think of a principal in physics - which I may botch in my description, using likely incorrect terminology, but I don't feel like looking up the specifics - I believe it's called quantum entanglement, where groups of particles do not act independently, even if separated by physical space. Einstein called it "spooky action at a distance." One particle can be observed for properties of another, separate particle. This could be the case with a leaper and their aura; entangled particles separated by time, but still linked; and can act as attractive or repellant forces to one another.
When Sam leaps into a person in the past, he become occupies their aura, presumably becoming temporarily entangled with it, while maintaining his tether to the present in the form of his aura - which ostensibly the person he leaps out, now without that aura, for want of a better term, is now drawn to like a magnet; like they're sharing or exchanging their entangled states across time and space. His quantum leap energy acts as a conduit, connect the times sides of the transition. Because Alia was leapt by Sam's energy, she was swept up in that conduit, leaping with him. As such, the two women they leapt out were sent to where Sam's aura was, at Project Quantum Leap. The person Alia leapt out became a magnet for the aura she was to be temporarily entangled with; Alia's aura. Wherever it was in time and space, it was drawn to where Alia's reciprocal leaper was; which was the waiting room and the terminus for leaping energy/conduit, connected to Sam's aura.

My take on Lothos is that he is another parallel-hybrid computer, created as a result of information Sam spilled under "truth-serum" when he leaped into the UFO spotter; with maybe some of the other effects he's had on time playing a role. Where Ziggy is basically the manifestation of the human psychological ego, Lothos might be said to be the Id; with the leapers caught in-between, acting as the super-ego, trying to balance the two forces; the logical and the impulse. Some, as it is with people in general, do a better job at maintaining that balance; while others can get lost in impulsive tendencies, or even in logic. If Lothos has control any semblance of control over leaping, this would be dangerous for a manifestation of the Id to have; as it can manipulate people to carry out its impulses unchecked by conscience.

"Our families are in there! Our, uh, mothers and... and tiny, tiny babies!"

[–] mobiusq-34870 9 years ago

Very interesting analysis. Thank you! Much to review & think about.

[–] ElizaDushkusGroomToBe 9 years ago

In "A Leap for Lisa," Sam leaps into a younger version of Al (when he went by the nickname Bingo). The ultimate solution to what Sam is there to fix is to have Bingo, who's in the waiting room in the future, step into the Quantum Leap accelerator and leap back into himself prior to Sam's arrival, and stop Chip from going to the beach with Marci Riker; where she would accidentally die.
So the question I always wonder is, after Bingo changes the past; who's in the waiting room?

We'll call the Al from 6/25/57 Bingo Alpha and the Al from 6/22/57 Bingo Beta. So, Sam leaps into and replaces Bingo Alpha, and so now Bingo Alpha is in the waiting room. A couple days go by (now 6/27/57) and they want to prevent all three deaths from that week from occurring, so they put Bingo Alpha into the accelerator to leap into Bingo Beta. Sam, while still in 6/27/57, has to wait the 12 hours or so for Bingo Alpha to keep Chip busy so he doesn't get drunk and rape and accidentally kill Marci Riker. Once that moment passes Bingo Alpha's mission is complete and he leaps back into the waiting room and Bingo Beta goes home (still 2 days from the time Bingo Alpha left). When Al realizes that the Bingo now in the waiting room is the one who still remembered the incident involving Marc, he knew that Bingo Beta was gone and history showed that even though Bingo Alpha remembered the death it hadn't happened. That's when he went back to the imaging room and told Sam, who then confirmed that no charges were pending against him/Bingo and then Lisa showed up to show she was still alive.

In many instances, though, I think there are times when no one is in the waiting room, not even what appears to be Sam, cause the opening narration from Ziggy does mention that Sam vanished when he entered the accelerator.

Formerly l5rfox.
And there was one world with nothing but shrimp. I tired of it quickly.

[–] stargazer_1682 9 years ago

Except that in the final episode, Mirror Image, the lack of anyone in the waiting room is an unusual occurrence for Al and Gushie. If this were normal, they would assume he's between leaps, but instead they conclude that he's leapt as himself, and begin try to find him.

"Our families are in there! Our, uh, mothers and... and tiny, tiny babies!"

[–] ElizaDushkusGroomToBe 9 years ago

It could be that their instruments told them that he was currently leaped into someplace. In the first episode they had two weeks between his first leap out and his "landing" in the next person. Sam couldn't have been in the waiting room in that time since no one had been replaced yet and Sam had not come home.

Formerly l5rfox.
And there was one world with nothing but shrimp. I tired of it quickly.

[–] stargazer_1682 9 years ago

That's actually what I was getting at with the earlier post; I think it would be an interesting, and perhaps somewhat tragic revelation that between leaps, at least between earlier ones, he did leap all the way back, only to leap out again without the aid of the accelerator and completely without warning.
Al says they were popping Champaign for a week - yet they're celebrating, while there's no trace of the man responsible for their success? That seems a little callas. He's traveling through time; if the assumption was that he were returning to the present straight after he leaped out of Tom Stratton, why wouldn't it be instantaneous? He has a tether in the present vis-à-vis the aura left behind that the people he bounces out, leaps into in the waiting room. The moment Tom Stratton checked out of the waiting room, should arguably be the point that Sam would be pulled back to, to fill that void, if he were returning as the people at the project would ostensibly assume. In lieu of that, then there's just nothing there; and by all account, if Sam Beckett isn't in the waiting room, and he isn't in the past, he's dropped off the face of the space-time continuum. And rather than celebrating, you might expect that Al and the others would be concerned and searching for him.

....Unless they knew exactly where he was that week between leaps. There's plenty that Al doesn't tell Sam; he even tells him that if he can't recall, Al can't tell him. He gives him a few choice nuggets, like his last name, but when Al and Sam switch places, we find out that Al has been keeping the knowledge of Sam being married to Donna a secret from Sam for four years; so what else isn't he telling him?
Maybe that he really is leaping all the back between some of his leaps? If Sam doesn't remember, then the leaps would seem instantaneous to him. After he leaps out of Tom Stratton, he leaps all the way back; and everyone at the Project celebrates - it's an apparent success. A week goes by, Sam's settling back in, has ideas to refine the programming, doing some work on the accelerator; talking about making another trip, when suddenly Sam feels weird. Nauseous, kind of a tingling sensation under his skin. Al helps him to the infirmary. Sam sits on the edge of an exam bed, and when the doctor asks, "How are you feeling Doctor Beckett?" he responds, "Dr. Beckett? The names Fox. Where am I?"
Al races down to the control room to tell Ziggy and Gooshie that Sam has somehow leaped. Gooshie insists Sam couldn't leap without the accelerator, only for Ziggy to chime in with some statistic about how Dr. Beckett's first trip through the accelerator may have permanently altered his temporal stability; and that leaping through time without the accelerator may now be a recurring condition for him.
"Are you telling me that Sam could end up bouncing around in time forever?"
"No admiral."
"Good."
"No one lives forever."
Al puts Ziggy to task on working up a new profile for this leap, before he eventually goes to see Sam through the imaging chamber. Just as he does though, Ziggy reminds him of the effects leaping had on Sam's memories the first time he leaped, and that anything Sam can't remember on his own, should not be supplied by Al. Al then finds Sam at the ballgame, but he has no recollection of leaping all the way back. Al plays it close to the vest, per Ziggy's instructions, but still throws him the bone of telling him his last name.
The narration could then be explained as Sam being debriefed between each leap, while the memories stay fresh in his mind. As time goes on, the space between leaps may have gotten shorter, and even eventually non-existent.

This is all pure fan wanking, but it's something of a pet theory of mine.

"Our families are in there! Our, uh, mothers and... and tiny, tiny babies!"