Originally aired April 11, 1997
Written by Nan Hagan & Scott Smith Miller
Directed by Jeff Woolnough
The Sliders' pursuit of Rickman brings them to a town gripped by superstition. Quinn and Maggie end up captured by natives living in a mysterious suffocating fog. There, Quinn encounters a familiar face and learns a shocking truth.
Tropes present in the episode:
- A God Am I: Subverted. Quinn's double cares nothing about being worshipped by the local tribe.
- Berserk Button: Rickman mentioning what happened to Arturo sends Quinn into a rage.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Quinn's response to his double prattling on about being strong enough to protect his home.
- Continuity Nod: The Quinn double is the one from the first episode.
- Fanservice: Maggie is stripped down to her underwear by the Foggins for no apparent reason other than to titillate the male viewers.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Quinn implores his double to not fix Rickman's timer, calling the colonel a killer. The Quinn double simply remarks this isn't the first time he's helped a killer, which quickly gives way to his role in the Kromagg Dynasty's actions.
- God Guise: Quinn's double is considered a god by the local tribe. Quinn muses it's because they saw him emerge from the vortex.
- Hope Spot: The group finds proof that Rickman's timer is too damaged to open a vortex, giving them their best chance to put an end to this hunt. Too bad someone else on this world knows how to fix a damaged timer.
- I Gave My Word: With Quinn safely in the Foggins' custody, his double gets to work repairing Rickman's timer as promised.
- It's All My Fault: The alternate Quinn is guilt-ridden for having given the Kromaggs the solution to the same equation he gave our Quinn three years ago.
- Kick the Dog: Rickman taunts a captive Quinn by asking him "Still worked up about your dead professor?".
- Magic Plastic Surgery: Neil Dickson takes over the role of Rickman from Roger Daltrey. The change in Rickman's appearance is certainly noticed In-Universe and explained as a side-effect of constant spinal fluid injections.
- Misery Builds Character: The double insists Quinn killing him will make up for inadvertently helping the Kromaggs.Quinn: Killing you won't change anything.
Alt-Quinn: It will change you, your will. Make you strong like them—strong enough to get home, to protect it, to protect the ones you love... like I couldn't. - My Friends... and Zoidberg:Wade: We've already lost one of us. I don't want that to happen again.
Rembrandt: That us include Maggie?
[beat, as Wade doesn't answer]
Rembrandt: So, that's the way it is: it's us, then her. - Nothing Is Scarier: Quinn's double ponders this in relation to the sliding equation."This is where it all started—just an equation on a wall. God only knows where it'll lead us... what horrors."
- "Not So Different" Remark: Quinn's double argues that he is exactly what Quinn would be if he lost everyone and thing he cared about.
- The Power of Friendship: Discussed while Quinn's held at the cave.Alt-Quinn: Your friends—they're coming for you, aren't they?
Quinn: Probably.
Alt-Quinn: Must be nice.
Quinn: "Must be nice"? They're probably gonna die in that fog trying to get here! - "The Reason You Suck" Speech: While Quinn's in a cage.Rickman: I wouldn't get too cozy in all that righteousness if I was you, Mallory. Without you, I wouldn't be sliding.
Quinn: I'm gonna get you, Rickman. Nothing's gonna keep me from it.
Rickman: Still worked up about your dead professor?
Quinn: [reaching for him] You bastard!
Rickman: [laughs] You know, the funny thing is, they were going to kill me. Then I told him about you; how you were chasing me. Then everything changed. You're my savior, Mallory. - Sadistic Choice: Either Quinn kills his double or the natives sacrifice Maggie.
- Shadow Archetype: Quinn's double is how bitter and angry our Quinn would be if he lost everyone he cared about. The other Quinn even insists that our Quinn would be just like him if he had slid alone.Alt-Quinn: Here I am: the undeniably horrible, the unimaginably disgusting proof that I'm you without your friends.
- The Stoic: The alternate Quinn has become this, complete with Creepy Monotone.
- This Cannot Be!: Quinn can't believe what his double from the first episode has become.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The Quinn double claims to have given the Kromaggs the answer to the sliding equation, leading to chaos and carnage on numerous parallel Earths (starting with his own).
- Villain Team-Up: In exchange for Rickman luring Quinn into the tribe's clutches, alt-Quinn agreed to repair his damaged timer.Quinn: He's a killer!
Alt-Quinn: Wouldn't be the first time I helped one. - Wham Line: "The Kromaggs happened to me."
- You Fight Like a Cow: After Maggie fires at him in the fog, Rickman flees and yells "You always were slow on the draw, Beckett!".
