Following the cliffhanger of whether or not Quinn would emerge from the wormhole...he does within a few seconds of the start of the episode.
Yeah, get used to that disappointed feeling, cliffhangers very rarely amount to anything in the show as you'll soon see.
The group is overjoyed to be back home, including Rembrandt...who immediately devolves into being really pissed off that his Cadillac is now debris in an ice-nado on another Earth (he does get better, I promise) and warning Quinn to never do that again...which is beyond hilarious, as we'll soon see. He takes off in a taxi, Wade decides to go phone home, and Quinn and Arturo debate the dullness of being back home and Quinn mentions that it's odd that the timer sent them to Golden Gate Park instead of his basement...whereupon they discover a statue of Lenin where there had once been a statue of Lincoln.
Wade, too has some difficulties in using a pay phone. An identity demanded from her, Wade hangs up the phone following what she deems a boring conversation, anyway, and discovers that :"PT&T" stands for "People's Telephone and Telegraph". Rembrandt, too, finds some difficulty with the Russian cabbie and has a moderately amusing moment where he mistakes the Soviet anthem for the Canadian one.
Quinn and Arturo, meanwhile, find the hobo from their universe is apparently running for the U.S. Senate on a pro-Soviet platform that is getting critical acclaim. With Wade's return, they determine that they are definitely not on their Earth.
Rembrandt is arrested at a toll booth for using American currency, illegal now with capitalism being crushed. While his fellow Sliders avoid the looks of the secret police and Quinn resolves to fix the timer, Rembrandt gets interrogated by the Secret Police who believe he is his double from this Earth who died twelve years ago. However, thanks to him knowing of his interrogator from the Prime Earth, he only digs the hole when the Soviets they believe he's part of the American Underground. So, his lawyer hands him over to the People's Court.
...no, really, as in the show, the People's Court.
Elsewhere, the other Sliders walk through some of the sets from the DS9 episodes "Past Tense, Part I" and "Past Tense, Part II", learning of the American Underground and that they're being followed by the phone company thanks to Wade's faux paus earlier - apparently reversing the charges is a capital offense to Mother Russia.
They head off with a resistance fighter who apparently recognizes Wade...who is the Commander of the American Resistance and had apparently been captured three days ago. Wade is brought in, but Quinn and Arturo are tied up. There's a short scene of only three lines of dialogue in which Quinn speaks of a dream he had where his mother could not find him, and his discouragement at being lost. Arturo does his best to raise his student's spirits in a nice little scene that shows their dynamic.
Eventually, they're brought before the Rebel Sub-Commanders, who apparently believe Wade's story that they're from a parallel universe. Apparently, this universe's Wade is being held at the former Southern California University, which is now a maximum security prison run by Civilian General Maximilian Arturo.
And now I get to do a counter gag.
Times the Sliders Have Run into Parallel Versions of Themselves: 3
 |
| Nobody tosses a Russian! |
Long story short, the Sliders learn that America lost the Korean War, which ended with America being economically isolated from the rest of the world and collapsed, the exact opposite of what happened on our Earth. On a television set, the group apparently finds a live broadcast of the People's Court as Rembrandt is indeed on the show in question. Because the easiest way to get rid of a suspected guerrilla freedom fighter as quickly and quietly as possible...is to put him on national television. Rembrandt attempts to summarize the events of the first part of the episode to the Judge, who'll have none of it and throws the book at him.
The Underground determines, somehow, that Rembrandt and their version of Wade Welles are being kept in the same facility - how convenient. Quinn comes up with a plan to get them into the prison using Arturo to imitate his double. Thanks to Arturo putting on a rather stuck up commandeering attitude and passing a handprint scanner, they get through. While they assume all will go to plan, one soldier is suspicious and decides to call this universe's Arturo up.
In the prison, Rembrandt gets released and the search for the Resistance's version of Wade gets underway...then the alarms go off and all hell breaks loose. After a hectic firefight, the Resistance makes it's daring escape with Wade...who has been shot in the back. In another moment of "Jerry O'Connell deserved a way better career than he got", we see Quinn completely overcome with despair at the thought of Wade dying...only for us to learn that it was, in fact, the duplicate of this universe who perished, not our Wade.
Kind of a callous moment, all things considered, but his Wade is okay, so that's all that matters.
Also, Quinn promises to get Wade home. Stow that thought away for a while, it's going to hurt later.
Nevertheless, the Resistance gathers he wounded to be disposed of properly and Rembrandt gives a hell of a rendition of "Amazing Grace". With resources from the Resistance, Quinn and the Professor are able to repair the timer and, with the Professor's calculations, they might be able to have a better chance at controlling where they slide. The four leave the resistance and are immediately accosted by an official who demands to see their papers. Wade does the only logical thing at this point and kicks the guy right in the joy department, after which the group flees back to Golden Gate Park whilst being pursued.
After a tense few seconds of the timer playing dead, Quinn opens the wormhole and they escape. Finding the statue of Lincoln instead of Lenin, and the hobo from before sleeping and dreaming of the joys of Communism, they seem to have returned home. They take a taxi back to Quinn's place, Quinn doing the final test with the squeaky hinge on the gate to determine that they are, in fact, home at last. It is a joyous return and Quinn's mother invites them all to dinner. Over it, they debate what their next move is, Arturo giving the suggestion that they should destroy it due to the negative repercussions it could have, though Quinn is the more optimistic about sliding in general and the multitude of worlds that could be paradise out there on the dimensional plane.
Nevertheless, it seems that they're all back home and all is well...until Michael Mallory walks in the door. Quinn's father who, as it was mentioned in Part One, died in a car accident twelve years ago...which lets the Sliders all know they're not on their Earth and the journey still continues. The last scene is particularly powerful, all of the Sliders giving non-verbal reactions to the news that they're not on their own Earth as they believed, everyone very well displaying feelings of despair and agony.
That is until Quinn melodramatically drops a wine glass that ruins the subtlety of the moment.
So, for the second part of the first episode, it's pretty good. There's a bit too much in the way of conveniences as far as the plot goes and you can tell right away that the Sliders running into duplicates of themselves is not only going to be a thing, but is going to become old very, very quickly. Even so, pretty much everything I said about Part 1 applies here as well. We have our characters, they're pretty well defined, they have their mission, and the writers and producers have five whole seasons to completely demolish all of it. What a journey we have before us!
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