Originally aired May 17, 1995
Written by Jon Povill
Directed by Les Landau
On an utopian world, Wade wins the lottery, but it soon turns out that her good fortune has a very dark downside.
Tropes present in the episode:
- As Himself: Geoff Edwards.
- Batman Gambit: To save Rembrandt from the authorities, Quinn gins up a Right-to-Life protest into moving against the truck he's confined in.
- Big "NO!": Wade lets one out after she discovers that Quinn has been shot while escaping from the previous world. It's actually the very last line of Season 1.
- Big "WHAT?!": Arturo when Quinn tells him the lottery is a form of population control.
- Brick Joke: Arturo has a rough time fishing, which Rembrandt mocks him for. Later, while saving Rembrandt from the authorities:Arturo: Never criticize my fishing again!
- The Cameo: Longtime game show host Geoff Edwards, who at the time was hosting the real-life lottery game show The Big Spin, appears as the host of the in-universe lottery show.
- Cliffhanger: The episode, and therefore Season 1, ends with Wade, Rembrandt, Arturo, and Ryan discovering that Quinn has been shot.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Those who try to save the winners get this at the nearest municipal processing center. Rembrandt barely avoids it.
- Death Seeker:Quinn: They don't call it "death." Everybody's in a rush to the afterlife; they call it "making way."
- Devil's Advocate: After learning the truth, Arturo admits to Quinn that this world still has its good points, even if he disagrees with the methods.Quinn: Professor, they kill people to limit the population.
Arturo: And in our world, millions of people die every year through war, famine, disease—caused in part by the fact that we refuse to accept limits on our population. Here, they kill volunteers painlessly and generously reward their beneficiaries. - Dramatic Irony: According to Robert K. Weiss, this is the paradise world that Quinn's double from the Pilot Movie had visited. The immediately friendly locals and various pleasant sights match the double's description of the place, but our Quinn never makes the connection. He doesn't even consider it a place worth giving up home for, even before the big reveal.
- For Want Of A Nail: If the group at the end (in particular Ryan) hadn't taken so long to enter the vortex in order to escape, Quinn wouldn't have gotten shot by the cops.
- From Bad to Worse: After having to watch his love interest die, a devastated Rembrandt is formally arrested for trying to save her and taken to the nearest municipal processing center.Agent 1: That's where you're gonna die, Mr. Brown.
Agent 2: Most uncomfortably. - Hypocrite: Geoff feels his Ironic Fear makes him this.
- I Choose to Stay: Early on, Wade argues the group should consider staying on this world permanently rather than risk the timer giving out in some awful place. Quinn responds that they'd be giving up everything they've worked for. Obviously, the big reveal makes it a moot debate.
- In the Back: Right as he enters the vortex at the end, Quinn is shot by a cop.
- Ironic Fear: Geoff is basically the public face of the Lottery and is constantly surrounded by winners, but he admits to Arturo that he's afraid of death.
- Let's Split Up, Gang!: Justified after Rembrandt is taken away by police. Quinn and Arturo go after him, but Wade has to stay behind so that the authorities don't think she's trying to escape. Quinn gives her the timer and tells her to slide without them if they don't make it back in time.
- Powder Keg Crowd: When the transport vehicle Rembrandt is locked in crosses paths with a Right-to-Life protest, Quinn provokes the crowd into attacking it by revealing that Rembrandt was trying to save the life of another participant.
- Properly Paranoid:
- Wade and Rembrandt are content to ask the machine for large sums of money, but Arturo would rather take the small sums others are asking for.
- Following Wade's big win, Quinn can't shake how unusual it is that a person can win a fortune in response to getting free money.
- The Reveal: The Lottery kills its winners.
- Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman: Joycelyn Elders is the President of the United States in a world where population control is very strictly enforced. In reality, Elders, the US Surgeon General from 1993-94, is a vocal advocate of contraception and population control.
- Romantic False Lead: Ryan was shaping up to be this kind of complication to the Quinn/Wade tease.
- Ship Tease:Wade: I thought we weren't gonna do this.
Quinn: When did we decide that? - Shout-Out: An updating of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery."
- Wham Line: "This lottery? It's population control."
- Wham Shot: After the group makes it to the next world at the end, Quinn abruptly collapses. When everyone checks on him, Wade pulls her hand away from under Quinn, revealing it's covered in blood.
