Magic recalled the time Sam Beckett (played in the original series by Scott Bakula) leapt into him, which occurred in the Season 3 episode “The Leap Home, Part 2 (Vietnam),” with Christopher Kirby playing a young Magic.
He described it as feeling like a nudge, like he was “standing on one side of a door and on the other side, someone had gently pushed against it.” Magic said yes to the nudge and let that person in. Then everything went black, and he came to a day later, not remembering what happened. During that time, he had somehow saved everyone in his platoon, including his commander Tom Beckett (who was Sam’s brother).
Afterward, Magic had vivid dreams of Sam. When he became admiral, he learned that his name was in a top-secret file and pulled some strings to access it. That’s when he found out about the Quantum Leap project, piecing together what happened to him after seeing a photo of Sam. Knowing that he was originally supposed to die before Sam stepped in, and that Sam was still out there somewhere, he felt compelled to restart the program.
“I don’t know if it will ever be possible to get Sam Beckett back,” Magic told Ian, “but after what he did for me — what he did for so many others — I had to try.”
