“Genesis” is episode one of season four of Sliders.
In the season three finale, “This Slide of Paradise”, Quinn and Maggie got separated from Rembrandt and Wade. Quinn says that with the next slide they can get back to Earth Prime. After three months and ten worlds, Maggie doesn’t care; she just wants to get off this world. Where a motorcycle gang has an issue with them because of Quinn’s double. The wormhole opens and they arrive. Maggie is struggling to breather again. More disturbingly, the streets are a mess.
There are looters and burning cars, with debris fluttering around, as Quinn is carrying Maggie to a hospital. She tells him to put her down; she can breathe. Quinn thinks her lungs must have adapted from all the sliding, or the LA pollution index is a lot better. Maggie doesn’t think the world looks like Quinn’s home unless he grew up in a war zone. They head to the hotel to see if Wade and Rembrandt are there. They hide as the sound of a vehicle causes people to run. The vehicle is being driven by Kromaggs (who appear to have decided that Nazi dress sense is snappy).
At the hotel, Quinn explains to Maggie about the Kromaggs. There’s no sign of Wade and Rembrandt and a young man pulls a gun on them. They explain they’re looking for their friends, Rembrandt and Wade. He asks if he’s Quinn. He has Wade’s necklace. Wade waitressed and Rembrandt played and sang in the bar. Then the Kromaggs showed up. Wade gave the man, Otis, the necklace for if Quinn and Maggie showed. The Kromaggs raided and must have got them; Otis hid downstairs with Marta.
Maggie grabs his gun and wants to go downstairs. Where they meet Marta. Maggie and Marta are pointing guns at each other; Quinn asks if he and Otis can move out of the way if they’re going to shoot each other. Wade described Maggie to Marta. Marta explains that the Kromaggs invaded not long after Wade and Rembrandt arrived. In a few days, they were in complete control. So much for friendly extra-terrestrials. Quinn explains what the Kromaggs actually are. Marta asks how he knows so much. They ran into them before. Marta says if Wade and Rembrandt are alive, they are probably in a re-education centre. She has a guy who can hack the database.
They head out into the street – Quinn is upset that after four years he finally got Wade and Rembrandt home to this, but Maggie reassures him – where a mantis ship appears and kills Otis. They arrive at where Marta was taking them. It se3ems some humans are working with the Kromaggs; some collaborating, others brainwashed. Rembrandt is being held in a re-education centre but there’s no listing for Wade. She’s unlikely to be dead. Women are valuable as breeders. Quinn wants to break into the prison; the hacker has its blueprints.
The first step is to take down three human guards and steal their uniforms. Inside the prison, they get keys and find Rembrandt’s cell. He thinks the Kromaggs are messing with his mind again, but Quinn convinces Rembrandt he’s real. Rembrandt doesn’t know where Wade is; he heard she was taken to another prison. On the way out, though, Quinn is injured and captured by the Kromaggs.
After several months of Kromaggs messing with his mind, Rembrandt is uncertain his mind is completely his own. Quinn gets a series of shocks.