California Reich

Minutes after an Asian man is beaten and thrown into a black van for being a migrant, the Sliders make their way out of an alley after a rough slide. Passing by a newsstand, Rembrandt picks up a newspaper that talks about the upcoming presidential election with California Governor Schick.

While Rembrandt walks down the street looking for any R&B gigs he could perform at, the same black van pulls up and grabs Rembrandt. Colin, Quinn and Maggie give chase in a stolen delivery truck, but a sanitation truck inadvertently stops their pursuit. Quinn and Colin try and tell the driver to move, but closer inspection reveals something not quite human: a synthetic looking person with no mouth and no ability to respond to what the Sliders say.

Rembrandt is taken to a compound known as the Repatriation Center, where he is admitted and shoved in a barracks with a large group of other minorities. There he meets Harold, another black man in his early 60s who has lived in the center for several years. Rembrandt comments that Schick is a regular Hitler, but Harold doesn’t know who that is. When Rembrandt voices his desire to escape, Harold tells him not to try, as it’s not possible. When people are scheduled to be shipped out, Rembrandt goes with them with an iron bar tucked in his jacket, and makes an escape attempt, but the head guard of the facility, Beck, incapacitates him. Harold keeps Rembrandt from being processed after the attack.

Back at the Chandler, Colin, Maggie and Quinn ask the concierge Vanessa if Rembrandt has checked in. She tells them no, and that as soon as they find him to leave the state or there’ll be trouble. Just then Vanessa’s son Kirk walks in with the men who captured Rembrandt, wearing their uniform as well. Vanessa begs Kirk not to hang out with those men, but Kirk won’t hear of it. Quinn decides to infiltrate the group of Stompers, as they’re called, and try and figure out where Rembrandt was taken. In the conversation, Ralph, head of the Stompers, calls Quinn’s bluff and a fist fight breaks out. When Vanessa tries to break up the fight, Kirk accidentally hits her with a chair, giving her a serious concussion. Kirk, Quinn, Colin and Maggie take her to the hospital.

At the internment camp, Harold tries to acclimate Rembrandt to his surroundings, including his new job of sorting clothes taken from the migrants. Rembrandt is disgusted with Harold’s complacency to the situation. Harold explains that he marched at Selma and fought in other various civil rights crusades. But times have changed, Harold warns. Rembrandt walks away.

In the hospital, Vanessa learns that a blood workup on her was taken and she breaks down, telling Kirk she wished she had told him. Kirk asks her what, but she passes out. The doctor receives the blood workup and it’s discovered that Vanessa and Kirk aren’t racially pure. The four of them leave the building after the Racial police are called. Down on the street, the Sliders try to convince Kirk to help them lead them to where Rembrandt is held, but Kirk blames them for his miseries. Quinn chastises Kirk’s newfound humility and tells him that whatever happens to his friend will happen to Vanessa. Kirk agrees.

At the compound, Rembrandt watches as Vanessa is led inside and taken to Processing.

Later that night, Quinn, Maggie, Colin and Kirk break into the compound and free Rembrandt. Rembrandt then leads them all to Processing, where they find Vanessa. They discover that the Eddies, the automatons that do the day labor in the area, are actually people that have been mutilated and stripped of their identity. Vanessa is partially mutilated. In the escape, Harold helps liberate them at the cost of his own life.

Back at the Chandler, Kirk flies into a rage and swears to kill Governor Schick so that his madness can end. He runs upstairs, grabs a gun and goes out the window. The Sliders and Vanessa follow him to a rally that Schick is holding in City Square. Rembrandt, Maggie and Vanessa head inside the broadcast booth and take it over while Quinn and Colin search for Kirk. When they find him, they convince him not to kill Schick. Suddenly, Rembrandt comes onscreen and exposes Schick’s economic recovery plan as barbaric, showing Vanessa as the intermediate step between humanity and bondage. Schick’s supporters are outraged, and the Sliders plus Kirk and Vanessa slide to the next world which looks to be populated mostly on black people. The Sliders drop Kirk and Vanessa here to fix Vanessa and to allow the two of them to start a new life.

Worlds Visited

	White World California’s Proposition system has taken a turn for the worse on a world where members from any non-white race are rounded up and either converted into a slave labor force or shipped out of the country.
	Black World A world that at a glance seems to be populated entirely by black people.

Details

• The patch on the Stomper uniforms reads AFA (America for Americans) and has an eagle underneath the letters.
• The migrant’s wallet contains a Bank of America card, a picture of a blond woman and another picture of three young children.
• Items in the toy store window include a dinosaur piano, two cheap looking robots and a doll.
• Magazines, et. al at the newsstand:
  • USA Today: Reno says no to probe
  • Power Bars
  • Los Angeles Chronicle: Governor Schick Will Triumph
  • Newsweek
  • Time: Small Towns
  • PC Computing: Top 25 Products of the Year
  • Entertainment Weekly: Amistad
  • Entertainment Weekly: Alien Resurrection
  • Blockbuster Magazine: Face/Off
• The newsstand operator dials 555-6324 to summon the Stompers.
• Signs promoting Governor Schick include “Schick for President,” “Schick Happens!,” and “America for Americans.”
• The USA Today truck’s license plate is 4B49167 and it reads “No. 1 in the USA” on the side.
• A sign at the condos reads “Racial Police Repatriation Center.”
• Proposition 286 is the Racial Repatriation Act.
• Governor Schick holds a rally in City Square at around 7:00 p.m.
• Rembrandt is in cell block B2, and is later moved to barracks 4.
• A sign inside Rembrandt’s barracks reads “Keep 3 ft. clearance in front of fire hose.”
• The doctor on Black World earth is named A. Jones.

Character Information

• We now have definitive confirmation: Quinn’s singing really is horrible.
• Harold marched at Selma.

Money Matters

• Rembrandt picks up a copy of the Los Angeles Chronicle, but it’s complimentary.
• Quinn probably pays for the beer he hoists in the Chandler. Other than that, the Sliders don’t have time to buy anything on this world.

Notable Quotes

• “Welcome to the condos, boy.” — Harold’s greeting to Rembrandt.
• “I didn’t see the film.” — Harold, after Rembrandt makes pointed comments about Hitler and World War II.
• “Freakin’ great.” — Rembrandt, still under contract to use the word ‘freaking’ in every other episode.
• “Pride. You’re just not used to seeing it.” — Kirk to Vanessa, after Vanessa asks her son what’s gotten into him.
• “This isn’t my America!” — Harold.
• “Nothing blows over!” — Rembrandt, to Harold, about why complacency to this kind of monstrosity should never be tolerated.
• “So, you’re a real Schick supporter, huh?” — Ralph.
  “All the way to the White House!” — Quinn.
• “Uh, oh. Get ready.” — Maggie, after seeing Quinn surrounded by Stompers.
• “Oh.” — Colin, understanding why Maggie told him to get ready after a fight breaks out.
• “There are some things that are just so… evil, that you can’t believe a human being is capable of doing them.” — Rembrandt, to Harold.
• “This may end up making you a media sensation. Use that forum wisely.” — Quinn, to Kirk, after sliding them to another dimension.

Nitpicks/Errors

• The Racial Police inside the hospital aren’t wearing the same Stomper uniforms that everyone else in the episode seems to be wearing.
• Is it really wise to leave half-unconscious guards inside an internment camp laying in direct visual sight of the guard towers?

Neatpicks

Cleavant Derricks and Henry G. Sanders really shine in their intense discussions about race and civil rights.

Guest Stars

• Jeremy Roberts as Beck
• Henry G. Sanders as Harold
• Carol Huston as Vanessa
• Shane West as Kirk
• Chris Elwood as Ralph
• George McDaniel as Governor Schick
• James Hornbeck as Doctor
• James Joshua as Doctor #2
• Phillip Tan as Man
• Carl Gabriel Yorke¹ as Director
• Sandra Lee Peckinpah² as Woman

1. Carl Gabriel Yorke appears as a Kromagg Leader in Common Ground and a Technician in The Return of Maggie Beckett.
2. Sandra Lee Peckinpah appears in New Gods for Old as Martha.