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| Meanwhile, in a flashback of Duncan Macleod... |
Or so I hear, anyway. When you go into fiction and can do things like past lives and psychic ability, you end up with the joy and sorrow that is known as this episode of Sliders.
We begin with two figures riding on horseback while wearing Colonial Era dress. The woman, it seems, is...Wade! But with a completely different set of mannerisms. Apparently her loverboy is Dick Roman from Supernatural, which immediately ups the nightmare fuel to 9001.
I'm not kidding, I absolutely hate the Leviathans, but Dick Roman was the only one who was remotely frightening in the entire sho-oh, crap...
MadCap Crossed The Streams: 3
It seems there's a star-crossed lovers thing going on between Wade and Dick, Dick's father apparently not wanting him to take up with the scullery maid, but they make plans to wed in spite of the madness that would surely follow from their mismatched union...and then we hear the drone of the alarm clock. Wade awakens in a far more modern setting. It seems the Sliders have had to get up early for their slide this morning. After taking one last big whiff of New India, they slide.
The vortex deposits them by a lake and the customary falling and banter therein occurs before Wade notices a figure in the distance approaching, parking his motorcycle nearby and coming over to greet them. He introduces himself as Derek Bond, but because I'm immature, I'm still gonna call him Dick, so there. Dick tells Wade that he's been waiting for her...after the title sequence, he explains that he's a seer. Not the Seer, of course, because then this show would be over and I might be the happier for it. But he sees things before they happen and expresses some intimate knowledge of the Sliders, including their names.
He also, quite out of the blue, invites Wade to dinner and even says when and where he'll pick her up - the Dominion Hotel, seven o'clock. Wade also tells the others that, among other things that were strange, she was dreaming about Dick when they woke up for the slide this morning.
...okay, yeah, nevermind, I'll go with Derek.
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| "Wade! The car! It's a DOOOOOOOOODGE!" |
But Remmy has injured his foot and they muse on the fact that the car did actually stop, so they got the plate before it drove off. In a hospital waiting room while Remmy fills out paperwork, Arturo reads from a newspaper that JFK died...at the ripe old age of 78, two months ago. Apparently with attendees at his funeral being his brother Robert and Martin Luther King. They weren't assassinated on this world.
In the exam room, Remmy gets some quality time with a foxy lady who apparently can diagnose and aid in his treatment without him taking off his sock and shoe or the use of x-rays (not knowing what those are, in fact), calling herself a Fifth Degree Psychic and saying that they must be hiding something about where they've come from, not believing the usual cover story. So, they're forced to tell her. Remmy also points out a compound fracture that he had as a child that the woman knew about, something she couldn't have possibly known unless she were actually psychic. It seems that ten percent of this world's people have psychic ability, and are trained in various fields using their abilities.
At the elevator, Quinn and Wade exchange some words about her going on the date with Derek just before the group is heckled by a pair of policeman carrying sketches of Remmy and Arturo. They are promptly placed under arrest - a Police Oracle says they're going to kill someone. So they haven't done anything yet, but they can still be arrested. Naturally, Arturo demands to know who they're being accused of wanting to kill, the policeman tells him - Wade Welles.
Welcome to Minority Report Earth, everybody!
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| "Mr. Jackson wants you brought in for not agreeing to be in the Hobbit trilogy..." |
Okay, so not Minority Report, just really stupid.
Regardless, it's time for the "Why This Earth Is Different" part of the episode, Arturo reading from a book and speaking of a historical account where a psychic saved President Abraham Lincoln from assassination by John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln, so impressed, created a special cabinet post - Prime Oracle. The rest of the nation fell into line with the idea, and psychic abilities are now a mainstream thing. Indeed, psychics have been able to predict and thus help avert many of the most terrible assassinations and natural disasters of the last century.
Of course, Quinn brings up that they shouldn't sing the praises of the Prime Oracle too quickly - he did try to kill Wade. And in a rare moment of not holding the Idiot Ball, Quinn pretty much laser strikes the main thing that's wrong with the society - namely putting all their faith and trust into one man is pretty much a bad idea no matter what abilities he may have.
Meanwhile, Derek and another woman, Melanie, are waiting to meet the Prime Oracle. She is nervous about this day, though Derek claims he's been ready for years - having seen it coming long ago. She calls him cold and that the anger he holds from a past life will only poison this one. He protests, but they step down to meet them. The Prime Oracle tells them what they fear, he will be dead by this time tomorrow. He speaks some mentor-y words to them, and then tells them he must choose his Successor. His aid tells them each to present themselves.
Long story short, Melanie's caring and disciplined but not all that powerful. Derek's powerful, but uncaring and not compassionate. The Oracle decides that compassion and discipline can be learned, but power is hard to come by. Derek will be his successor, because Wade can teach him.
Bye, Melanie! Thank you for having no point in this episode whatsoever! Bye!!!
Back at the hospital, Wade, Remmy, and the Nurse head out - the Nurse crushing on that Crying Man charm as all the womenfolk are wont to do. There's shopping to be done, however, and Wade's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" montage is skipped over for her to just get the red dress. And finally, she can have it without having to worry about death by Kool-Aid. Everyone thinks she's ravishing except for Quinn, who is too busy moping and fiddling with a Rubik's Cube. Greeted at the door by Derek, she tells the others not to wait up, making Quinn absolutely nettled.
Wade and Derek have their dinner in an abandoned restaurant. He is just vague enough about his promotion to Prime Oracle, but goes on to talk about his love for her and how he's had it for many years. Wade asks what happened to them in their previous life following their marriage, but Derek is confused that she doesn't know, disturbed by the fact that she woke up for the Slide and missed the rest of the dream. However, he is kept from being disturbed by that by being disturbed by something else - the Prime Oracle has just died.
In the Lamplighter Pub, Quinn is drinking away his sorrows. Arturo comes in to try and reassure him that they won't be on this world for long enough for Wade to form a bond with Derek, but Quinn's not having it - saying he knows Wade better than that. Arturo does say, however, that there's no way she'd jeopardize their chances of going home. The two see the TV of Exposition reporting the death of the Prime Oracle and that Derek will be taking his place.
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| "MY PRECIOUS!!!!!" |
And once more, Quinn looks just nettled. Super nettled.
We get another Highlander-esque flashback where Wade or rather "Kate" is warned by a messenger from Derek - that is "Richard" - that his father has found out their plans and Kate should head to the bridge at Hamstead to meet him. She agrees...and then wakes up to the phone ringing. Derek has called to ask her for her choice, which she has apparently not made yet. Remmy, meanwhile, is getting briefed by Arturo and Quinn on the situation and says when the woman puts the ring on her finger, it's all over.
Wade comes in on the tail end and tells the others her plan to talk to Derek, though Quinn allows that green-eyed monster to cloud his judgment on the subject. They have an argument, ending in Wade leaving on her own to tackle Derek at her own insistence. She goes over to Derek's place, and he turns on the charm and smiles over breakfast. She tries to give him back the ring, insisting that she can't marry him in spite of feeling a connection. She won't base her life on a dream she had. He tells her that the former Prime Oracle said that she would be the most important influence in his life. She retorts with the fact that the Prime Oracle tried to kill her, and Derek re-retorts that there must have been some plan involved to bring them closer together.
He begs her to give him a day and a half, the time until the next slide, to choose...
Quinn, aferwards, converses with Wade about Derek and gets hung up on. Remmy consoles him, telling him that trying to manipulate her into dealing with Derek manipulating her won't solve anything. Despite Quinn telling him that they're really the only family that Wade has, Remmy tells her they can't really do anything until she asks for help. Quinn doesn't take it well, but seems to relent all the same.
Back at the Casa di Leviathan, Derek shows Wade...her room, perfectly recreated from her childhood down to the very last detail. She asks how he did this...and realizes he read her mind. She's shocked and outraged and what not and tries to leave...though Derek shows some of his true nature by bullying her into staying. She agrees to stay the night...in this room alone, and that they can talk in the morning.
ESCAPE IN THE NIGHT, WADE! HE'S GOING TO EAT YOU!!!
...ahem, sorry. After he leaves, Wade makes a phone call. The other three Sliders and Remmy's Nurse Lady Friend are then waiting outside somewhere in a car. Quinn is all kinds of ready to kick down the door, and go in guns blazing, but Arturo talks him down. They don't have to wait long, however, before Wade makes her escape and they assist. But, because it was predicted, the cops arrive in record time as does Derek. He is angry that Wade violated his trust which I would be all too happy to agree with except for all the BULLYING AND MIND RAPE he pulled just now...and threatens that she will never see her friends again.
Then we get another flashback of Kate milling about through the woods. She's shot whilst on horseback, and Richard arrives just in time to reveal that the messenger she met was not from him, but from his father who tricked them. But alas, its too late. Kate warns that Richard's father is an evil man, and that attaining power to defeat him will only serve to corrupt Richard. Richard gets his big "NOOOOOOOOO!" to the sky in somehow a less hammy fashion than Wade did at the end of "Luck of the Draw".
Wade, apparently having had this as a dream, tells Derek this over breakfast. Derek insists that he's not a sociopathic mindraping bully, but Wade isn't having it. She insists that no one can make someone love them, even with all the power he has. He puts it off for a meeting with the President. Back at the bar, Quinn and Arturo are discussing the use of Dominique, saying she's connected and maybe she and Remmy had some luck in getting help. The TV of Exposition tells them about the President coming in to meet the new Prime Oracle, Remmy and the Nurse turn up empty handed, and while Quinn mentions that Wade phoned to say she'll talk with the Regent, there's nothing much they can do...at least until Dominique overhears the report on the President landing in San Francisco and mentions she has an old friend in the President's entourage.
...what a remarkable coincidence!
Quinn immediately jumps up at the words that there's even a chance that she might get them in to see the President, but Arturo insists that Quinn stay in case Wade calls. He protests lightly, but is eventually convinced to remain in spite of his better judgment. Back at Derek's, Wade sits in her room and meets with the Regent...who can't help her, because he - like everyone else it seems - has his full stock in the Prime Oracle and isn't even going to question why he's keeping a woman in his home against her will. As the Regent leaves, however, a man arrives telling Wade that her prescription has arrived...and giving her a white paper bag. The opens it, finding a bottle that she then opens to read a note from.
Back at the ranch, Quinn reads that they've got an hour and ten minutes left before the slide. The phone rings and Wade is on the other end - apparently having swallowed the bottle of pills. She asks Quinn to remember her and he runs off to go and save her. He tries to get the cops to help, insisting that the Prime Oracle's bride to be is dying. When that doesn't help, he just shoulders his way in to find Derek weeping over her body. Quinn tells him exactly what orifice he can stick his "love" up and takes Wade out for the slim chance that he might save her life. Derek is planning to go with...but is then told that he must go to his inauguration.
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| [Oscar Clip] |
Back at his inauguration, Derek is completely distraught that he's abused his power and thinks he's not fit to be Prime Oracle. Elsewhere, the ambulance stops not at a hospital but near the Golden Gate Bridge. Poking his head out, Quinn finds Arturo, Remmy, and Dominique. This is just in time for Derek to sense that Wade is alive and he heads off after her with a police escort. Back at the ambulance, Remmy insists to a distraught Quinn that they couldn't tell him anything or they'd risk Derek reading his mind and learning the ruse. Apparently, the Police Oracles saying they were going to kill Wade gave Remmy the idea...and the rest is history.
The cops arrive with Derek and it seems all is lost...with only two minutes to go before the Slide....but then Derek says he comes to say goodbye, and asks for forgiveness. He says that the previous Prime Oracle had set up events for Wade to meet Dominique, which would eventually result in Derek learning the lesson he needed to in order to become a better Prime Oracle, and now they're both free. Wade expresses the belief that they might meet again in another lifetime, and Derek agrees and asks Quinn to take good care of her. Then the slide happens, Remmy giving Dominique a goodbye before he joins the other three sliders in going through.
At the last, to close out the episode, Derek gets a worried expression on his face and - when Dominique asks what's wrong - says that he's seen where they're going, ending this episode not on a joke...but a rather ominous note.
I have no doubt that he saw Season 3-5 and knows that this ain't gonna be pretty.
I also have no doubt that this is not one of my favorite episodes. And not for the reasons one might think. It's actually fairly evenly paced (for a Sliders episode), the acting isn't too hokey, and it wraps itself up fairly nicely. My problem is in the character of Derek, who is a remorselessly evil bully who has no qualms about mindraping people. And yes, I'm sure that Mind Reading seems like a minor thing in the grand scheme, but I will just point at the scene where the Prime Oracle is choosing his successor and Derek mentions continually expanding his abilities and just wonder what else he had at his disposal or what he might have done to Wade otherwise.
And while I have often maligned Wade as being nothing more than Sabrina Lloyd being forced to regurgitate upon us the social messages that the writers want to push with absolutely no subtlety, I have to admit that I actually agree with Wade. Even if Derek did it for "love", he still violated Wade's mind, and I doubt that he just did some surface skimming to figure out what her childhood room looked like, seeing as that would be something deep in Wade's memories and not on the forefront of her thoughts given what she's been through over the past year and some change.
For all the world is for being so close to a utopia, it's a climate of fear run pretty much on the whims of a man who has the most magical of the magical powers. It's like in the Star Wars prequel trilogy if Palpatine were openly a Sith Lord and the Jedi Council just went along with it because they feared anything his prophecies might foretell. And Derek is a perfect fit for it, basically bullying others into getting what he wants and abusing his power as such. This is not a good guy.
And yes, he gets his change of heart at the end, but he never really pays for the fact that he kidnapped a woman and then mentally violated her, because I guess that's just common on this world.
Of note on a more positive side is Quinn, who is the light mirror to Derek's dark. It has been built up since "Pilot" and its abundantly clear that Quinn has feelings for Wade and vice versa. This is played on a great deal in this episode, Quinn showing traits of jealousy that had never really come up before, and protectiveness over Wade. Yes, he's a dick quite often, but he is not so pig-headed as to not listen to reason...even if he doesn't like it.
This is a character, ladies and gentlemen.
Quinn is made more three-dimensional by showing that he does indeed have feelings like jealousy, negative emotions of that nature, but that he's also working to overcome them. He does eventually relent to Wade's choices, only intervening at the last when Wade is seemingly dying, actively trying to save her with what little time she might have left.
Also, kudos to the writers of this episode for giving me a genuine twist that I really should have seen coming seeing that Wade was reading "Romeo & Juliet" at the beginning of the story. Good themeing that I really should have caught. Bad Madcap is bad.
This episode, though? Not all bad. As I say, I've said more good about it than bad, but the fact that Derek is essentially a brazen bully who gets a Karma Houdini kind of puts a cloud over the whole thing. Still, there have been and there shall be far, far worse episodes ahead as Derek himself predicted.
On the next world, the Sliders had best be careful, or they may end up sleeping with the fishes...
For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.
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