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The Exodus
Episode no. Season 3
Episode 16 and 17
Written by Part 1:
Paul Jackson
John Rhys-Davies
Tony Blake
Part 2:
Paul Jackson
Tony Blake
Josef Anderson
Directed by Jim Charleston
Guest stars Roger Daltrey (Colonel Angus Rickman)
Kari Wührer (Captain Maggie Beckett)
Mark Kiely (Dr. Steven Jensen)
Wes Charles Jr. (Malcolm Eastman)
Part 1:
Steve Larson (Street Person)
J. Karen Thomas (Lt. Teri Eastman)
Michael Houston King (Dr. Baker)
Krzysztof Pieczynski (Dr. Vladimir Jariabek)
Zitto Kazann
Linda Henning (Mrs. Mallory)
Part 2:
Reba Shaw Alexander (Secretary)
Lisa Galiana (Woman)
Sandy Laufer-Blake (Nurse)
Andrew A. Rolfes (Sergeant)
Production no. K1824
Original airdate February 21, 1997 (Part 1) and February 28, 1997 (Part 2)
Episode chronology
← Previous Next →
"Paradise Lost" "Sole Survivors"
List of Sliders episodes


The Exodus is a two part episode in the third season of Sliders.

On a world about to be killed by the radiation of a pulsar, the sliders are forced to help a military unit improve their sliding technology to evacuate people to a parallel world.

The episode is notable for the death of original character Maximillian Arturo and the introduction of character Maggie Beckett.

Synopsis[]

Part 1[]

Shortly after landing on this earth, the sliders witness the death of a person that Arturo recognizes as Dr. Jariabek. Dr. Jariabek said "pulsar trajectory, 86 not 87" right before dying of being shot. Then Maggie Beckett arrives and points a gun at the sliders and asked them if the suspect said anything before dying. They claimed he said mostly gibberish. Quinn got Maggie's gun away from her and locked her in the hood of a car. Arturo then said that the reason he lied to Maggie is because he decided that since Maggie and the other officers had probably killed Dr. Jariabek, that something suspicious was going on.

The sliders decided to go to Cal-Tech university to see if they can find out more information about what Dr. Jariabek was warning them about. Arturo found some data at Dr. Jariabek's office that indicated that the radiation from a pulsar would hit Russia within the next 24 hours. Maggie showed up at Dr. Jariabek's office and arrested the sliders.

Maggie interrogated Quinn at the military base and accused him of being a spy. Then Angus Rickman arrived and asked him what the timer was. Quinn revealed that it opened up a portal to a parallel universe. Dr. Steven Jensen was present and was interested in Quinn's timer because he had invented sliding, but was unable to make it suitable for human transport. Rickman said that he would confiscate the timer, but gave his word as an officer and gentleman that he would give it back after Quinn helped Dr. Jensen with the sliding technology. However, Quinn was unconvinced that Rickman would give the timer back. Later, Dr. Jensen said he would offer a deal better than Rickman's: if Quinn would help Dr. Jensen invent sliding technology that humans can transport through, Dr. Jensen would agree to give Quinn the ability to store coordinates of parallel worlds and track wormholes.

Quinn put his chip into Dr. Jensen's timer to see if the technology was compatible. After they were able to open a vortex, Rickman ordered Quinn and Maggie to scout parallel worlds. Arturo agreed to stay and help Dr. Jensen invent a chip that could slide a large number of people. Rickman ordered Wade to compile a list of people who would be chosen to slide to the new world.

Rembrandt explored the base and found a child named Malcolm doing some artwork in the basement. Malcolm revealed that the previous night, his step-mother went into a coma for an unknown reason. Malcolm intended to introduce Rembrandt to his father, but then his father collapsed as a result of an unusual assault. Rembrandt confronted Rickman about the assaults and was worried that whoever was responsible for them had significant medical knowledge so would likely be selected to travel to the next world. Rickman was not concerned, which bothered Rembrandt. Later in the episode, it is revealed to the audience that Rickman is responsible for the assaults. Rickman assaulted people by inserting a needle into the victim's neck, removing fluid, and injecting it into his neck. When Rickman does this, the shape of his face temporarily changes to the shape of the face of the victim.

While searching for a new parallel world, Quinn and Maggie arrive on Earth Prime. Maggie stops breathing and Quinn calls the ambulance. At the hospital, Quinn decides that if he doesn't leave immediately, Maggie will die, so he slides promising his mother that he will be back.

Interestingly, while supposedly Quinn and Maggie arrived on Earth Prime, the house he recognises as his looks considerably differerent than it did in the pilot episode, and how it looked in Into The Mystic (when the four sliders had apparently arrived back on Earth Prime). In Into The Mystic, just after the four sliders slid, it was revealed that the squeaky gate had been oiled. Now, assuming they were on Earth Prime, the gate is squeaking again...the house looks different...with the most telling detail being that the HOUSE NUMBER is now different than when Quinn and the other three originally left. Presumably Quinn and Maggie had arrived on Earth Prime, making this a considerable continuity error. (It's worth noting that the house in the pilot episode and in Into The Mystic was likely located in Canada whereas the house featured here was likely in California, and thus short of BUILDING an identical house...or at least a front...this could not be avoided...without filming this short segment IN Canada.)

Part 2[]

Quinn arrives to Maggie's homeworld and takes her to the doctor immediately. Quinn tells the others that he found Earth Prime. Wade and Rembrandt want to go home immediately, but Quinn feels he is obliged to stay on this earth until he finishes helping them. Rembrandt and Wade get angry with Quinn.

Rembrandt tells Wade that he told Malcolm that there was a place he could be safe from the pulsars and that he wants Wade to put Malcolm's name on the list. Wade is angry with Rembrandt for this, because she does not want to feel obligated to put Malcolm's name on the list, because in order to do that, she would have to choose someone else to remove from the list.

After Maggie recovered from her inability to breathe, she was angry at Quinn. She felt that he put the mission in jeopardy and should have left her to die, and that if the situation were reversed, Maggie would let Quinn die. Later, Quinn and Maggie continued to search for a new parallel world and eventually found one inhabited by humans with stone age technology. Maggie felt that this world was not perfect, but it was the best one they could find.

While working on the sliding technology, Dr. Jensen feels that it is safest to take 140 people. Arturo thinks it is possible to take more people, but Rickman wants to set the limit to 140, saying it is better that the 140 people survive than for them to attempt to take too many people and then everyone perishes. Later when Arturo confronts Rickman about taking more people, Arturo says it is comparable to murder to avoid taking more when it is safe and possible, but Rickman still does not want to take more people. Arturo tells Rickman that it is clear that he is not suited for this position and that when the others learn the truth Arturo is sure that the people will relieve Rickman of his position. Rickman then removes an injection from Arturo saying, "You think you're so damn clever." The sliders interrupt Rickman's assault. Arturo says to them "Help me!"

After Arturo and the sliders go to the hospital room, Arturo shows them the wound on his neck as well as the wound on the other assault victims. The other victims went into a coma, but Arturo did not because Rickman did not finish the assault. Arturo tells the sliders at this time, that Dr. Jensen did not finish transferring the coordinates of Earth Prime into their timer. Rembrandt leaves in order to talk to Rickman to convince him that whoever has been assulting people is probably on the list of people scheduled to slide to the new world. Instead, Rembrandt ends up finding evidence that indicates Rickman is responsible for the assaults. Rembrandt finds out that Rickman is suffering from a fungus that attacks the brain, and that he only way for him to survive is to extract brain fluid from compatible donors, and inject them into his brain. After this, the sliders are locked in the room and have to use explosives in order to escape. Wade said that since Rickman can order the slide at any moment, they had better go to the place they were sliding from right away.

Dr. Jensen finds Rickman and tells him that Arturo was right and that they can safely slide more people to the new world. While this happens, Rickman is taking an injection of brain tissue from another person and Rickman's face morphs to the face of the other person and then back. Rickman kills Dr. Jensen. Malcolm was hiding in the room and screams when Rickman killed Dr. Jensen. Rickman points the gun at Malcolm, and then Malcolm runs out of the room. When Rickman got back to Maggie, he told her that the mob got to Dr. Jensen.

Malcolm finds the sliders and tells them that Rickman killed Dr. Jensen. The sliders notice the light from the vortex, indicating that Rickman is sliding without them. Quinn runs to confront Rickman. When Quinn tries to fight Rickman, Rickman pushes Quinn away, Wade and Arturo catch him, and Rickman points a gun at Quinn. Arturo stands in front of Quinn. Rickman shoots Arturo and slides. As Arturo dies, his last words are, "Get them home. Sliders..."

Quinn decides that if they go underground, they might be safe from the radiation for enough time until their timer reaches zero. They go underground, and are able to slide just as radiation reaches dangerous levels. Since Dr. Jensen has now given the timer the ability to track wormholes, they can track the wormhole that Rickman, Maggie, and the 150 people slid through.

They slide to that world, find Maggie, and Quinn asks for her gun. Maggie refuses until Quinn tells her what the gun is for. Then Rembrandt, Wade, and Malcolm tell Maggie that Rickman murdered Arturo and Dr. Jensen. Maggie gave Quinn a gun and said she wants revenge. Rickman grabs Maggie and almost kills her. Quinn starts a fight with Rickman right before Rickman was about to shoot Maggie. Maggie wanted to know why Quinn didn't just shoot Rickman. Quinn said he didn't want to accidentally hit Maggie. Rickman opens a vortex. Quinn chases him, but Rickman slides and Quinn does not catch him. The next morning, Wade, Quinn, and Rembrandt had a memorial for Arturo.

Maggie decides that she wants to join the sliders. The sliders want Rickman's timer because it has their home coordinates on it. Maggie wants revenge on Rickman for murdering her husband. Rembrandt says goodbye to Malcolm and tells him that he can visit anytime because he has this world's coordinates. Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt, and Maggie slide. After arriving on the next world, they find a person unconscious with a wound from Rickman's assault. They also track a wormhole, indicating Rickman just slid. Quinn says that they will eventually find Rickman, no matter how long it takes.

Background and series context[]

The idea for this episode was originally written by actor John Rhys-Davies, however it was extensively rewritten, much to Davies' dismay. Rewrites include changing the government figures from friends into villains, adding pulsars and neutron stars, which Rhys-Davies considered scientifically implausible, and most importantly, killing off his character, Maximillian Arturo.[1]

This is the second episode that mentions that Oliver North is (or was) president of the United States. Summer of Love also featured an episode with Oliver North as president.

This is the show's second two-part episode after the pilot.

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