Al reveals that after discovering the portal, he'd concocted a plan to change the past by preventing John F. Kennedy's assassination, hoping that doing so would change history for the better, as he attributed many bad things that happened in the world to events that would not have occurred had JFK lived. He spent four years in the past after entering the portal the previous night, traveling to Dallas, Texas, to track Lee Harvey Oswald, plotting to kill the would-be assassin during his attempted murder of General Edwin Walker. His delay was due to the fact that he wanted to be absolutely sure that Oswald was a killer and would act alone. Al developed cancer, so he had to give up his mission, knowing he would not live long enough to complete it. He recruits a reluctant Jake to complete the task instead.