Life on Mars Season 1 Episode 8

The Good Father

Sam encounters his parents again in 1973; he believes that if he keeps his father from running away he will be awoken from his apparent coma. The closer he gets to apprehending his father, the more he hears sounds that tell him he's close to waking up. However, rather than traumatizing his family more by arresting his father, he instead lets him run away. Flashbacks throughout the entire series are revealed to have been from young Sam's memories of this incident.