Just Say Yes

The episode opens with the Sliders falling right into a maintenance closet. Maggie and Quinn are arguing about something, and Colin asks if it’s possible for them to slide inside of a solid object. Quinn objects, saying that there’s a densitometry circuit which prohibits this, but Maggie begins arguing with him again. Rembrandt says he needs a drink and Colin follows him.

We find that the Sliders have slid inside the Chandler Hotel, and Colin asks Rembrandt if Maggie and Quinn always argue like that. Rembrandt just says that when you slide long enough, people will get on your nerves every once in a while. Sitting down at the bar, Rembrandt comments on the eclectic type of drinks available while Maggie and Quinn emerge from off-screen, still bickering. A man in the background named Damon walks up to them and tells them he’s a licensed facilitator and that he’d like to help. When Maggie yells at him, Damon steps back, takes out a dart gun and shoots a tranquilizer into Maggie’s shoulder. Maggie collapses to the ground, a very tranquil woman.

Quinn helps Maggie up and asks Damon what he shot her with and why. Maggie dances around as Damon tells Quinn it’s just a standard mood elevator, and aims his gun to Quinn to try and elevate his mood as well, but Quinn deflects the shot. Unfortunately, it hits Colin, who begins hearing colors and tasting aromas. Rembrandt takes care of Colin as Quinn and Damon run outside to see where Maggie is. Maggie is dancing in the street but in her blissed-out state doesn’t see a bus coming towards her. Quinn saves her life but Maggie begins to have severe withdrawal symptoms, so Damon and Quinn rush her to a clinic around the corner.

Inside, Doctor Helena Malone prescribes a dose of troxoprine for Maggie, a drug that neutralizes any other drugs in her system, while expressing amazement that neither she nor Quinn have medical infusers on their arms. Malone tells Quinn to wait in the waiting room while she makes a quick call, but when Quinn overhears his name being mentioned, leaves and goes to find Rembrandt and Colin. Rembrandt and Quinn drag a drugged-up Colin out of the Chandler and help him come down. However, Colin wants to get high again, and when he sees the vehicle Damon was driving, runs after it. Damon and a group of facilitators capture Colin, but Rembrandt and Quinn escape.

Inside the clinic, Colin is interrogated by Fletcher Lowell, an agent of the Drug Empowerment Administration. After drugging Maggie again, the two are taken outside and to a Reorientation Compound. Quinn and Rembrandt see them being taken away and try to enlist the aid of a tax cab driver, but he’s too drugged up to care. Quinn and Rembrandt then enter the clinic and find out why Quinn is being aggressively sought after when he finds a computer file containing video of his double, a hippie anti-drug activist. Rembrandt finds where Maggie and Colin have been taken and they go to the compound, which looks like 1950s suburbia. Quinn and Rembrandt knock on the door and are greeted by a very happy Colin. Maggie, dressed in a homemaker outfit, descends the stairs and greets them as well. Quinn and Rembrandt find out that on this world, Sigmund Freud paved the way for drug therapy when he gave up on psychology after discovering lithium.

Maggie and Colin sense that Quinn and Rembrandt aren’t happy, so they page a medical emergency, calling several facilitators to the compound. When Quinn attacks one, Colin and Maggie run and hide, and Quinn and Rembrandt flee to avoid capture. On the street, they deduce that taking them on the slide while on drugs could produce bad effects on the next world, so they try to buy some troxoprine from a street source. Lowell finds out about this and gives Damon Decimide — a PCP-esque drug to bring down Quinn and Rembrandt. Damon goes on a rampage, seriously hurting the dealer and chasing Quinn and Rembrandt into a warehouse even after being hit by a car.

Meanwhile, Maggie decides to try cooking. She isn’t very successful.

Quinn and Rembrandt manage to subdue Damon and help him out of his Decimide-induced haze. Damon agrees to help them, and the three drive to the compound, where Damon calls Lowell and Helena on his walkie-talkie and tells them he killed all four Sliders. When Helena and Lowell show up, Damon takes the medication and takes out some troxoprine while Quinn and Rembrandt hold the doctor and agent at bay. Damon administers the troxoprine to Maggie and Colin, and when Lowell tries to up his dosage from Tranquol to Ecstacide, he passes out.

At the clinic, Helena helps clear all the drugs from Maggie and Colin’s system. Damon decides to stay drug-free. Quinn tells Maggie not to get them in trouble on the next world, which prompts another argument, and, well, they slide.

Worlds Visited

	OFF World You may hate mosquitoes, but for God’s sake, don’t swat any. They’re an endangered species here.
	Drug World Early 20th-century research into pharmacology by Sigmund Freud has led to state-sponsored drug usage to manage the highs and lows of human emotion.

Details

• The Chandler bar serves zucchini juice, beet frappe, frozen okra whip and broccoli with soda.
• Helena Malone runs the Abbie Hoffman Memorial Clinic.
• The DEA on Drug World is called the Drug Empowerment Administration.
• There is a Ritz Merchandise Company across the street from the Chandler.
• The DEA’s minivan license plate reads 3UGT672.
• The taxi cab has two signs printed on its doors:
  • Driver only carries 5 dollar in change.
  • Rates — 75 cents first 1/7th
• The doors in the clinic read “Waiting Room” and “Helena Malone, M.D.”
• Reorientation Compound Four is located at 1402 Elm Street.
• Maggie and Colin are reading the following books:
  • Drugs are Your Friends
  • Domestic Bliss Made Easy
  • Illustrated History of Pharmacology
• Damon’s jacket has a patch that reads “Licensed Facilitator.”
• The alley where Quinn and Rembrandt try to purchase troxoprine is located at 1125 Gould.
• The license plate of the car that hits Damon reads 929-LET.
• The license plate of a Jeep on the street reads 3NRV212

Character Information

• Quinn’s double was arrested twice for non-possession and was believed dead from an underdose. His last known whereabouts are Ensenada, Mexico.
• Rembrandt is no stranger to drugs. While on tour, he’s seen people stoned and even saw a roadie set on fire.
• Maggie is, surprise, a horrible cook.
• It’s apparent from Quinn’s reaction to the drugs around him that he’s not a casual drug user.

Money Matters

• Rembrandt and Colin ponder the drink selection of the Chandler bar.
• Quinn and Rembrandt aren’t worried about paying for two uncut, maximum-strength doses of troxoprine.
• Rembrandt has several hundred dollars that he flashes the cabbie.

Mood elevators

• Tranquol™: Lowest-level commercial tranquilizer. While the dosage can be adjusted, the overall effect produces a please, tranquil mindset.
• Euphoridine™: For those who find Tranquol a little ineffective due to increased tolerance.
• Ecstacide™: Pure bliss. Unless you’re prepared for it, Ecstacide will knock you out.

Stimulants

• Decimide: A PCP-esque drug that enhances strength and rage while reducing pain sensation and, unfortunately higher mental functions. Symptoms of Decimide include fever, trouble breathing and limited mobility. Decimide is so strong that even it is regulated by the government. To authorize its use, field agents must fill out a D-I-1029 form and submit it to the state capital.

Regulators

• Troxoprine™: Neutralizes all other drugs in your system.

Notable Quotes

• “Quinn, you ever wonder why we have so many fingers?” — a doped-out Colin.
• “You sound orange.” — Colin.
• “I knew a roadie once who crashed for three days. Didn’t even twitch when the drummer set him on fire.” — Rembrandt, reliving his glory days.
• “How do you feel? And please don’t say hungry.” — Quinn to Colin.
• “It’s important to experience new sensations. Science demands it.” — Colin.
• “Stay loose. You’re gonna make me forget my mantra.” — Taxi cab driver.
• “Where’s the Beaver?” — Quinn, after seeing the pseudo-1950s design of the reorientation compound.
• “Baking, hmmm… I’ll try anything once.” — Maggie, confirming everyone’s assessment that she’s not much of a homemaker.
• “You’ve gotta be kidding me!” — Quinn, after Damon gets up from a number of different attacks.
• “In that case, these are the worst cookies I’ve ever tasted!” — Colin, after Maggie says it’s impossible to hurt her feelings.
• “Wow… this new formula… outstanding.” — Taxi cab driver after seeing the Sliders enter the vortex.

Nitpicks/Errors

1402 Elm Street… or is it? Dialogue says it’s Street, but in the next shot, it shows a street sign saying Elm Avenue!

Neatpicks

• Maggie does an impressive “Singing in the Rain” impersonation during her high after leaving the Chandler.
• Abbie Hoffman was a counter-culture type that died of a drug overdose in the late 1980s. It’s always been rumored that Hoffman was offed by government agents, as he was about to go public with some sensitive anti-government information. It’s a nice touch that he’s been memorialized as a clinic name, despite the fact that he hated drugs!
• Quinn asks “Where’s the Beaver?” when he and Rembrandt first see the Re-orientation Compound. The house Colin and Maggie live in is the same house as the one seen in Leave it to Beaver.
• Call it a personal like, but the crappy weather that visited California for months gave “Just Say Yes” a Vancouver, BC look that hasn’t been seen since the second season.
• It’s interesting to learn about Quinn’s double and not meeting him. Why should Quinn have a sixth sense on the whereabouts of his doubles? He doesn’t.

Rewind That!

• As Maggie dances in the street, she does a cartwheel. At one point, her underwear is clearly visible.
• Sponsorship rears its ugly head again as a FedEx truck is clearly visible in the alley behind the Chandler.

Rewind That!

Maggie’s laughter is considered “sensuous grunting” according to the closed captioning people.

Guest Stars

• J. August Richards as Damon
• Katherine Moffat as Dr. Helena Malone
• James Sutorius as Agent Fletcher Lowell
• Connie Sawyer as Winifred
• Gonzalo Menendez as Jorge
• David Ursin as Cabbie