“Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome” is episode ten (originally shown as episode eight) of season two of Sliders.
Rembrandt is on a therapist’s couch, talking about Sliding and the strain of adjusting to different worlds. The therapist wants him to start at the beginning; what precipitated this crisis? Rembrandt says it started two weeks ago. The Sliders arrived on a world and Quinn recognised a car. It bears the signs of an accident it had just before they left. They arrive at his house and the professor reminds Quinn they’ve been fooled before. Quinn opens the gate, which squeaks – although, in “Into the Mystic”, they might have got back home but the squeak had been fixed. Quinn’s mother is there and things look promising.
Rembrandt continues narrating events to the therapist. The Sliders were drinking champagne in Quinn’s home and recapping titbits from their travels. The other three join the professor in the basement; Rembrandt has never seen it before. Professor Arturo says they have 95% of what might be the greatest invention the world has ever seen. They just lack the means to control and use it safely and, until they fix the remaining 5%, the professor says they should keep it quiet. Rembrandt would like to use it to boost his career and Wade asks what they are supposed to say; no-one has seen them in 18 months.
Outside, they agree to swear their families to secrecy. Rembrandt thinks the other three have good excuses, but who will believe Rembrandt was touring Asia? The professor thinks that’s reasonable, given the state of his career. As soon as he and Quinn are ready, they will have the biggest press conference the world has ever seen. He and Rembrandt leave and Wade kisses Quinn goodbye.
The professor returns to the university and sees his assistant, Miss Vonbaeck (Stacy Grant). He says he’s ready to resume his duties, assuming the dean hasn’t replaced him. She asks why the dean would do that. All told, her reactions to the professor seem a little off. Rembrandt heads to a music study and finds his agent, Artie. He has something big to tell him.
Later, Wade rings Quinn and tells him to turn on the television. The professor is announcing his discovery of Sliding to the world, with an artefact that will prove it came from another world.
Quinn speaks to Wade and Rembrandt in a bar; Quinn doesn’t care about the credit, only that they agreed to keep it secret. It’s done wonders for Rembrandt’s career, apparently, and Newsweek is serialising Wade’s diary. They offered $1 million. Quinn heads to call the professor, but he’s out of the office. Quinn does see a framed newspaper next to the phone and takes it back to the others. According to him, one of the teams in the Superbowl headline from the paper is wrong. This isn’t their Earth. Neither of them follow American football and aren’t convinced.
Quinn arrives home to find a suspicious-looking van outside and an intruder inside, who gets away in the van but has stolen something. The next day, he heads to find Wade and tells her the timer was stolen. He also has more proof; one boy in his 9th grade homeroom photo isn’t wearing braces and he did on their world. Wade isn’t convinced; everything else matches. Quinn says their doubles could have slid when they did. Wade is convinced they’re home. Quinn is concerned because they never checked the timer. They could end up stuck here if they can’t find the timer.
The professor is going on a complete ego trip, claiming all the credit for inventing Sliding. Quinn isn’t remotely bothered, as he’s convinced they aren’t home. As his evidence is a missing asterisk on a baseball card, a wrong team in the Superbowl and missing braces, Wade and Rembrandt, who are convinced they are home, are getting increasingly worried about him. Then a piece of evidence turns up that’s too big to miss. Yet they somehow did manage to; Wade even realises she did. The professor doesn’t seem to care and is behaving rather oddly and they are still missing the timer.