Her Charm - September 26, 1973 - S2-E15
Revealing mistake: When driving to the cabin, the mileage markers on the roadside indicate they are in Los Angeles, nowhere near Boston or Baltimore. (00:20:30)
Her Charm - September 26, 1973 - S2-E15
Revealing mistake: When Al is helping Sam find Dana in the forest, his feet keep kicking up or moving the dirt and leaves, which a hologram shouldn't be doing. (00:39:00)
Her Charm - September 26, 1973 - S2-E15
Revealing mistake: At Boston's FBI, Al's reflection is visible repeatedly, such as on the fire extinguisher's chrome surface in the hallway and on the elevator while Sam talks about the cabin.
Chosen answer: Per the Quantum leap page at http://www.scifi.com/quantum/episodes/season5.html. 8 August 1953: An enigmatic leap lands Sam in a Pennsylvania tavern, as his own grown self on the day of his birth. As Al and Gushie work frantically to locate him, Sam befriends a wise bartender (popular character actor McGill, who'd appeared in a different role in the very first "leap") and a group of coal miners. As a host of familiar-looking faces pass through the bar - with different identities than Sam remembers - Sam ponders his life of leaping with Al the bartender, who tells Sam he controls his own destiny. Pressed for more, Al the bartender simply shrugs and says, "Sometimes, 'that's the way it is' is the best explanation." Sam realizes he must right at least one more wrong before he can go home, and leaps back to tell Al Calvavicci's wife Beth (from "M.I.A.") to wait for Al, who will survive Vietnam and come home to her. The closing title cards state that Beth and Al have four daughters and will shortly celebrate their 39th wedding anniversary ... and that Sam Beckett never returned home.
Boobra