Total Recall: Sliders “The Exodus Part 1”
Well, here we are, The Exodus, the two parter that definitively changed, and most people think killed, Sliders and sent it down it’s path to awfulness that was season four and five. Let’s get right into it.
We kick off the episode on some sort of military base where a female officer detects some sort of space event and calls a scientist to warn him about it but she’s attacked by someone with a syringe and is unable to finish her call. Cut to the next day and the Sliders arrive in the middle of looting in downtown LA. They learn from a bum that the US and Russia are still in the midst of the Cold War but don’t get much else before a car careens out of control near them, flips and explodes. The gang rescues the driver, who Arturo recognizes as Dr. Vladimir Jariabek, a fellow Cosmologist. Dr. Jariabek manages to tell the Sliders with his last breath to warn someone that the “pulsars are on 87 degrees, not 86” and then dies, not just from the car crash but from being shot as well. At that moment, the Sliders are surrounded by the military, led by *sigh* our future fourth Slider, Captain Maggie Beckett (Kari Wuhrer). Maggie demands to know if Jariabek said anything but the Sliders aren’t saying anything and manage to trick and overpower Maggie and her men. Quinn locks Maggie in the trunk of her car and the gang heads off to Jariabek’s office at Cal Tech to find some more information.
At Jariabek’s office, Arturo discovers that Jariabek was studying pulsars, remnants of a collapsed star that are heading toward Earth and will irradiate the entirety of Russia, which the Sliders assume is a good reason someone would want Jariabek dead. The gang is interrupted yet again by Maggie, who manages to actually capture the Sliders this time and brings them back to her base. Quinn is questioned by Maggie and her commanding officer, Col. Angus Rickman (played by The Who member Roger Daltrey) and is uncooperative until another member of the base, Dr. Steven Jensen, asks Quinn if his timer is for traveling to parallel worlds. Quinn acknowledges that it does and Steven excitedly explains that he’s been able to track the coordinates of wormholes but they have been unable to send people through without them getting lost into oblivion. Quinn makes a deal with Rickman to help Steven develop his technology to be able to send humans through safely and in return, he’ll let the Slider slide out on time.
Using the power chip from Quinn’s timer, Quinn and Steven are able to stabilize the wormhole generated by Steven’s timer. Quinn also learns that Steven and Maggie are married and that Maggie used to be a fighter pilot until Steven was in a skiing accident and paralyzed. She took a job as an intelligence officer to spend more time with him. It’s good timing that the duo is able to stabilize the wormhole, because Arturo detects that the pulsar that has already irradiated Russia is just the first wave of pulsars that will irradiate the entire surface of Earth in 43 hours. Rickman orders that Maggie and Quinn use the newly stabilized wormhole to find a new Earth for as many survivors as they can slide through (which Arturo and Steven manage to cap at 300). Rickman also orders Wade to create the list of people who will slide as she’s impartial. Meanwhile, Rembrandt meets a young kid named Malcolm, who’s stepmom was the officer that was attacked in the opening of the episode, and who he bonds with over their shared history of being told they weren’t talented when they clearly are (Remy with singing, Malcolm with drawing). Malcolm tries to show Rembrandt a way to sneak off the base but Rembrandt runs into some sort of force field.
Maggie and Quinn set off on their scouting mission and the first Earth they land on is a world populated by giant versions of everything, most notably golfers and rabbits. Clearly not suitable for a new home for the survivors, Maggie and Quinn move on and slide to a world that is seemingly identical to Maggie’s Earth, complete with a double of her that captures Maggie and Quinn. Brainstorming how they can outsmart Maggie’s double, Maggie explains that she’ll probably be overconfident and respond to flattery about how impressive she is. Quinn manages to distract Maggie’s double while Maggie sneaks up behind her and knocks her down, while Quinn grabs the timer and they slide out.
Back at the base, Rembrandt and Malcolm are heading to Malcolm’s quarters to meet his dad when they find him unconscious outside, in the same way Malcolm’s stepmom was found. Rickman refuses to believe that there’s someone attacking people on the base but we soon learn that he is the one who is attacking people. Rembrandt asks Wade to add Malcolm’s name to the list of people who will slide to the new world, but Rickman has ordered that only people with Type O- blood can slide.
The last world that Maggie and Quinn slide to in Part 1 is seemingly Earth Prime as they land in Quinn’s neighborhood and find his mom and the squeaky gate. Quinn’s mom also found the locket that Quinn had hid under his bed and was going to give to her on the day he slid for her birthday. The reunion is broken up by the fact that Maggie apparently cannot breathe on Earth Prime and Quinn and Mrs. Mallory quickly rush her to the hospital. The doctors are puzzled why Maggie cannot breathe but Quinn realizes he’ll have to slide to save Maggie. He says goodbye to his mom and carries Maggie into the portal.
Be sure to come back next week for the exciting conclusion of The Exodus, where we’ll unfortunately have to permanently say good bye to one of our beloved foursome.