Total Recall: Sliders “Obsession”
Judging from the title, the opening sequence and the fact that it’s a Wadecentric episode, you might think the sliders have landed on a world that’s like one of those grocery store romance novels and while there’s some of that it’s actually more of a Minority Reportesque adventure as the gang lands on a world full of psychics and there’s a fantastic Issac Hayes cameo to boot!
The aforementioned opening sequence is a weird medieval fantasy where Kate aka Wade is racing on horsback with her love Richard. Richard asks Kate to marry him, even though it will anger his father and jeopardize his inheritance since Kate is a commoner. Kate agrees on the condition that Richard protects her family. Wade then wakes up since it was a dream and the gang heads out for an early morning slide out of New India. Arriving on the next world they are surprised to find a man waiting for them. Wade is the most shocked since the man is the man from her dream. He introduces himself as Derek Bond and claims he’s been waiting for this day for years since he foresaw it happening. Derek also seems to know all about the rest of the group and asks Wade to dinner, telling her he’ll pick her up at their usual hotel.
While the group is trying to figure out what just happened, Wade is almost rundown by a car but Rembrandt manages to push her out of the way but getting clipped in the leg in the process. The car’s license plate reads “Oracle 1” and the car stops long enough for the occupants to look back at the Sliders ominously and then drive away. The group heads to the hospital to treat Remy’s leg and he and Wade find out that instead of X-rays there are medical seers who are able to sense injuries just by sensing them. While in the waiting room, Quinn and Arturo read that JFK just recently passed away at age 78 and that Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were in attendance. Wade and Rembrandt come out with the diagnosis that Rembrandt just has a strain and they also learned from their nurse Dominque that 10% of the population of this world is psychic. Quinn and Arturo are skeptical but Wade, who is always into spirts and the like, quickly buys into it. While the group is leaving the hospital, Rembrandt and Arturo are arrested by the police for the future murder of Wade. They are booked and read their rights but then just have sign some paperwork and they are free to leave. They will only be put in jail when they actually commit their crime.
Meanwhile, Derek and another psychic are called in to meet with The Prime Oracle, Issac Hayes and also the man who tried to run down Wade earlier. Derek and the other psychic, Melanie, are the two potential successors of the The Prime Oracle, who has forseen that he will die within hours due to a brain hemorrhage. The two make their case and ultimately Derek is chosen as the new Prime Oracle. Speaking of the Prime Oracle, Arturo reads in an almanac that the Prime Oracle position was created after a psychic saved Abraham Lincoln from assassination and since the Prime Oracles have prevented pretty much every major war, natural disaster and other unpleasantness that has plagued other worlds.
Wade and Rembrandt go dress shopping with Rembrandt’s nurse Dominque, who has a thing for Remy, and Wade buys a dress for her date that the shopkeeper had put out ahead of time. Derek clears the entire restaurant for their date but it’s called short by both the death of the Prime Oracle and the fact that Derek proposes. Wade tells Derek she has to think about it and she has another dream that continues the story of Kate and Richard. Kate is approached in the woods one day by a messenger who has a message from Richard, telling her that his father has learned of their relationship and is determined to end it. The messenger tells Kate to wait for Richard at a nearby bridge and that he will soon meet her there.
Wade wakes up again and decides to tell Derek she can’t marry him in person. Derek tells her that Prime Oracle said she would be the one to teach him how to be a great oracle and that they are destined to be with each other because of their past. He manages to convince Wade to stay until she has to slide so he can make his case for her to stay. One of his arguments is that he can give her anything she wants, including her childhood room. Wade is overjoyed until she realizes that Derek would have had to have read her mind without her knowing and then accuses him of mind raping her. She angrily demands to leave but Derek won’t have it and Wade finally agrees to stay until morning. She quickly calls the guys however and they attempt to break her out but, of course, Derek foresaw this and the police remove the guys and bring Wade back inside. The guys have only a couple of hours to figure out how to get Wade out and a possible idea is brought up by Dominque, who’s former college roommate is the President’s speech writer and she’s in town for the Prime Oracle inauguration. She, Remy and Arturo head out to try and get an audience with the President and they tell Quinn to stay behind in case Wade calls. Wade, meanwhile, tries to appeal to the Prime Oracle’s regent but he is unable to help since the Prime Oracle’s word is law. Wade is also surprised to get a prescription delivered with a note inside. Wade also had one more Kate/Richard dream where we learn that the messenger was actually from Richard’s father and Kate is killed by an assassin before Richard arrives at the bridge. He promises Kate that he will gain even more power than his father and then get revenge but Kate tells him that his father’s power is what makes him evil. Wade accused Derek of being corrupted by his power over a tense, post kidnapping breakfast
Back at the hotel, Quinn gets a call from Wade, who took the pills and is quickly fading. She tells Quinn that if they get home to tell her mom not too worry and then fades away. Quinn scrambles to the Prime Oracle compound and tells the guards that Wade is dying. They let him through but it’s too late. Derek is distraught and Quinn angrily tells him off and then takes Wade’s body to an ambulance. However, the ambulance isn’t going to the hospital but rather the park and Quinn learns that Wade’s “death” was a con by Arturo, Rembrandt and Dominque. Dominque wrote the prescription and the pills made it seem like Wade was dead but she is quickly resuscitated. Derek senses this and he and the police arrive just before the group is going to slide. He’s learned the error of his ways however and lets Wade go. The gang slides but Derek has a worried look on his face afterwards, claiming he’s seen where they are going next. Where the gang is going next is an episode that had amazing potential for future plotlines but ultimately led to the destruction of the show, the introduction of the Kromaggs in “Invasion”.