turningtwo

They go the Professor�s lab at U-Cal (where the Professor was actually just getting home from when he encountered Remmy), and the Professor introduces Rembrandt to Logan (who was there working late). With Wade no longer able to help (for reasons unknown to Remmy, though he feels that whatever has happened, she�s still safe), it is up to the Professor and Logan to figure out how to get Rembrandt back to the Seer�s world, where he left Maggie, Dianna, and Mallory. Rembrandt is leery of trusting Logan, but he�s desperate to get his friends back, and the Professor says that Logan is now trustworthy, so Rembrandt reluctantly puts his fate in the hands of Logan St. Claire.

Obviously, they have to use Logan�s timer, but it has long since counted down to zero; the window of opportunity has long since passed, and opening a vortex now could have such terrible consequences as scrambling the coordinates of Earth Prime. With some work, Logan is able to make some modifications to protect the coordinate-memory; but the modifications will only protect that memory for so long (perhaps as few as three or four slides). After that, there will be no way to avoid their being scrambled. That�s all right, though, because presumably only a few slides will be needed: one to go back to the False Earth Prime, a second to go from there to the Seer�s world, and a third to slide directly back home using the timer�s coordinate-memory.

Once the modifications are made, Logan next scans for photon trails and is able to retrace the way back to the world Remmy has just liberated. Once there, Logan does a localized scan at the exact spot where Remmy emerged from the wormhole (so as to not confuse the timer�s sensors with the photon trails of the recently-departed KroMaggs) in order to trace its course back to the Seer�s world. She then inputs that data into her timer, and the three of them slide to the Seer�s world.

They slide directly into the storage room that Rembrandt slid out of. They are only there for a few minutes when Mrs. Mallory enters the room to greet them...and to deliver some terrible news. In the four days that Rembrandt was gone, the KroMaggs returned. Mrs. Mallory explains that when Dianna deactivated the device that was blocking their ability to slide out (in �The Seer�), she must have also unknowingly disabled the barrier put in place to keep the �Maggs from sliding back in. The �Maggs knew that the virus that forced them from the world in the first place had become inert (as it was said to have in �The Seer�), and so they returned for a massive attack in retribution. They stayed only long enough to destroy several major cities and kill millions of people, but not long enough for the anti-KroMagg virus to be re-released into the air. They are now gone and the world is safe again because it has since re-released the virus into the air and now keeps it there at all times. Unfortunately, however, Maggie, Dianna, and Mallory were among the thousands captured during the onslaught, and they�ve been brought to a KroMagg prison garrison on another Earth.

Rembrandt absorbs all this with a heavy heart. But Mrs. Mallory isn�t done yet. She says that she has a confession to make. It seems that in the four days that Rembrandt was gone, Mrs. Mallory has had some personal revelations. She has come to the realization that she is not the mother of Rembrandt�s Quinn. In fact, she�s from this earth. She really was a prisoner of the KroMaggs, but she was captured when they invaded here, not when they invaded Rembrandt�s world (well, actually, False Earth Prime). After the KroMaggs were kicked off this world, Claire LeBeau took Mrs. Mallory in under the guise of helping to heal her psychological scars, but in reality she was using those scars to brainwash her. Because Mrs. Mallory had been a prisoner of the �Maggs, she had become overly susceptible to hypnotic suggestion, manipulation, and psychological persuasion, and Claire had used that to convince her that the Quinn from the popular TV show was her son and that she was, in reality, from another dimension. Apparently, Claire did it in anticipation of the Sliders� arrival on this world (which was, if you�ll recall, foretold by the Seer and caused by Claire redirecting their wormhole), hoping that the appearance of Quinn�s mother would convince them to stay here and further the cause of Slidology. Since Claire�s arrest a few days ago, however, Mrs. Mallory has had time to sort through her emotions and break the psychological �spell� that Claire had put over her. Mrs. Mallory wholeheartedly apologizes for the part she unwittingly played in Claire�s plan.

Because of what he�d just been through, Rembrandt knew that this Mrs. Mallory wasn�t the one from Earth Prime, but he had just assumed that she was the one from False Earth Prime, and it was a surprise to him to learn that she wasn�t. Rembrandt is angry, but at Claire LeBeau, not Mrs. Mallory. He�s angry that Claire would stoop so low as to manipulate this innocent woman just to further the twisted cause of Slidology. Rembrandt tells this Mrs. Mallory that he holds no ill-will towards her and that it wasn�t her fault.

Once Mrs. Mallory has said what she needed to, she takes her leave of the three of them, knowing that they�ll need some time alone to figure things out. Rembrandt is deeply troubled. He�s finally found his long-lost friend, the Professor, only to lose three of his other closest friends to the KroMaggs. It takes him no time to make up his mind as to what he must do now. He tells the Professor that he now must continue sliding in order to relocate and free the captured Sliders; he owes it to them. He knows that Earth Prime�s coordinates will probably be scrambled within the next couple slides, so he will of course slide back there before that happens to drop off the other two, but he has to find his friends.

Logan says she�ll let him have her timer on one condition. She has no real reason to return to Earth Prime (it�s not her world, after all) so she�d like to go with Rembrandt and help him in his search (after all, she owes Quinn and Wade an apology). Because it�s her timer, because she has technical skills that would no doubt come in handy, and because the Professor trusts her, Rembrandt agrees to her condition. But that�s not all.

The Professor would like to go too because he�d come to think of Quinn as his son, and if Quinn is out there somewhere (in Mallory)�if there�s even a chance he could get him back�he has to go, even if it means never seeing Earth Prime again. Besides, as we observed in Second Chances, there�s no way he can go back to his old life knowing that his friends are wandering aimlessly through the multiverse. Plus, he can�t resist the opportunity to help his friend Rembrandt, and he can�t bear to lose him again after finally being reunited with him after their long separation. The timer reaches zero, and all three of them slide to the next world.

Just as they had feared, the timer�s coordinate-memory becomes scrambled; it can now begin storing new coordinates without a problem, but all the previously-stored coordinates have been corrupted. Another, unexpected, side-effect of the post-window activation of the vortex is that the geographic spectrum stabilizer (the one Logan got from the Sliders in �Doublecross� which limits their sliding radius to two miles) is ruined; Logan will be able to build a new one, but since the only one she knows how to build has a four-hundred mile radius, their slides will not be limited to the San Francisco area.

(As a side note, throughout the first few episodes of the season, Rembrandt will make the occasional casual references to slides from past seasons�slides that he shared with Arturo�s double�giving Rembrandt and his old friend some awkward moments together because of the confusion that arises; sometimes Arturo may get a bit aggravated at Rembrandt�s confusing him with someone else, feeling somehow cheated of getting to know Rembrandt the way Rembrandt got to know him (through his virtually-identical double).)