 By the time of the fourth season finale, they didnt know whether  they would be renewed and so Tom Fontana (qv) wrote two endings:  one where Beecher got paroled and one where he didnt. If the show  was canceled they would end on the happy note of Beecher being  paroled. The show was renewed but Fontana liked the sequence of  Beechers parole so much that he used it as a dream sequence in the  season finale.