A Little Miracle - December 24, 1962 - S3-E10
Revealing mistake: The fractal of the star stops at a point just below the top of the frame, when in reality it should keep going. This gives away that the star is superimposed over the shot. Oddly enough, when it starts snowing, the effect looks normal.
A Little Miracle - December 24, 1962 - S3-E10
Revealing mistake: The video image over the building that Al shows Michael Blake is placed incorrectly. The edge of the effect is blatantly visible. This effect is corrected later when Blake asks to see the plaza again and the name is changed.
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