A tragic end for Dr. Sam Beckett … One of the most surprising and moving on American television.
We said goodbye to Dean stockwell, this week. The unforgettable Al de Quantum code is dead. But how does the series worn by Scott Bakula ? What happens to Dr. Sam Beckett in the 1993 finale?
Series Quantum code (broadcast between 1988 and 1993 in the USA, then in France on Séries Club and M6) has undoubtedly marked the history of TV series. And in particular thanks to a masterful final, incredibly daring because terribly dramatic. Have you never seen it or have you forgotten it?
In this tragic finale, Sam finds himself transmuted into his own body at the exact time and day of his birth. He then lands in a bar in a small mining town and meets people whose names or faces seem familiar to him. The place is strange and a bit metaphysical …
And for good reason, the boss of the Bar is none other than God in person (or an incarnation of Time or Destiny according to the interpretations). Together, they evoke the temporal journeys of Sam. Who has the control? Why ? In the end, our hero understands that he is master of his destiny and of what he has caused. He also understands that he will never be able to return home and that he must first of all repair the damage he has done to his friend Al (in the finale of season 2).
Sam decides to go back to 1969 to tell Beth that his lifelong sweetheart, Al (Dean stockwell), did not die in Vietnam and will return. She must not remarry and wait for it. That’s what she’s going to do. Sam ends up in the photo frame, lost in space-time :
“Beth has never remarried. She and Al have four daughters and will be celebrating their thirty-ninth wedding anniversary in June. Dr Sam Beckett has never returned home,” announces the series to us as an end message.
Yes, the conclusion is brutal.It must be explained that originally, this episode 22 of season 5 was not to be the very last of Quantum code. It was written and shot before NBC announced the show’s cancellation. It was therefore in the editing room that it was reworked and modified, to serve as a conclusion to the series. A bad for a good because this end of Quantum code has gone down in history as one of the most touching pieces on US TV.