The episode with Sam in the bar

[tvsoda.com]

Who was the bartender, was it supposed to be God? I forget the ending, did he send Sam home, or did Sam continue to jump?

[Pentimento]

If I remember correctly, Sam has to decide whether or not to go back to Al's wife's house (during the time when Al is a prisoner of war) and tell her that Al is still alive so that she'll wait for him instead of remarrying. Sam knows it will probably ruin his chances of ever getting home but he decides to do it anyway. So Al gets the happy ending, but in the altered future he and Sam don't get together and create the Quantum Leap project, so Sam is stuck leaping through time forever.

The bartender (whose name is also Al) tells Sam at one point that Sam has always been in control of his own leaps and that he could have gone home any time he wanted to. I think the bartender did represent a sort of God figure, but I don't recall that it was explicitly stated that he was God.