M.I.A. - April 1, 1969 - S2-E22
Continuity mistake: In the beginning, when dressed in drag, Sam has a cigarette with a long bit of ash on it. He looks at his "reflection" and there is a short bit of ash on the cigarette, then it cuts back to him and there is a short bit of ash.
M.I.A. - April 1, 1969 - S2-E22
Continuity mistake: Near the beginning, when Sam is undressing and Al is telling him who he leaped into, in one shot Sam is taking off his beaded necklace and in the next his necklace is off and he's taking off his belt, but Al continues the sentence so no time passed during the cut.
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