Home: Where Sam's Heart Is?

What a beauty of a question this puppy is!

Where do you begin with it, eh? What would Sam Beckett do if he ever went home for good?

Call me odd, but I never asked myself this question when I was growing up, one of the generation addicted full-throttle to the eponmous, unforgettable Quantum Leap: I just always assumed that Sam would never go home, and if he did he’d be so used to traveling—plus all those weird things happening to him day in day out—that going home would actually be worse than being chased by the military, or dodging bullets and ferocious Great White Sharks (confession: that may just be my imagination talking–) Yeah, going home might be a chore. I can’t imagine Sam settling into an office job very easily, can you?

I mean, what do you do with yourself after years of being warped back and forth through time? Going to the shops, no. And even venturing to the theatre wouldn’t cut it; even the most exciting incarnation of Joseph and His Technicolor Dreamcoat must surely pale into insignificance when you’ve lived the life Sam Beckett has–

That said, there is one thing I would do if I was in Sam’s shoes: I’d go to an old school reunion and gloat in the faces of all those people who’d disbelieved I’d ever make something of my life; “What have you been up to then? I am in finance,” a posh swine might ask. “Oh, this and that,” I’d reply, holding back an eternity of smugness. Then, just as he’s about to walk away I’d make a small cough and say, with punishing indifference, “I have been traveling a bit actually, yeah. Like to EVERY COUNTRY IN THE ENTIRE WORLD ABOUT A THOUSAND TIMES. It’s a hard life, isn’t it? So how’s finance then?”