“The Breeder” is episode twenty-one (originally shown as episode nineteen) of season three of Sliders.
The Sliders are running through a jungle as blobs are landing on them. One lands on Maggie’s face, covering her mouth, and Quinn helps get it off. The slide out of the place and in the new world Maggie collapses, foaming green at the mouth.
An ambulance is called and one of the paramedics sprays Maggie, cryogenically suspending her. She’ll be thawed out after a diagnosis is made. At the hospital, the doctor isn’t sure if Maggie will be alright. She asks if Maggie’s eaten anything unusual recently. Dr Sylvius is told that Maggie might have swallowed something in the fog a few hours ago (a reference to the previous episode, “The Other Slide of Darkness”, which was originally shown after this one). Dr Sylvius wants to show them something. There’s something strange in Maggie’s stomach. As they are looking at the x-rays, Maggie opens her eyes, revealing them to be compound, and another eyelid flicks across them. The thing in Maggie’s stomach is growing, as another x-ray shows. Maggie’s eyes are back to normal as she sits up, but her face distorts. Wade looks around and notices Maggie has gone.
Maggie is found outside, throwing up. She doesn’t remember being in a hospital. Outside a diner, a truck pulls up and the driver starts scanning the crowd. Something with a caduceus symbol implanted in the arm of one of the customers is activated and several men get out to grab her as the Sliders arrive. They try to stop them and Wade and Quinn are grabbed. Neither has donor tags and are put in the truck. Rembrandt is told he may be over 25 but he can still be taken in for obstruction.
Rembrandt wants to take Maggie to hospital but she says she just needs to get somewhere warm. At the hotel, as Rembrandt is trying to find out what happened to the others, Maggie is making the room extremely warm. Rembrandt discovers there’s a mandatory organ donor programme for everyone aged 18 to 25. Then Maggie starts trying to make out with him. And something sticks out of her mouth. She leaps at him, goes through the window, lands on the opposite wall and jumps down to the ground and runs off. She comes across mannequins wearing dresses.
Quinn and Wade come around strapped to beds. They have the implants now and a video explains they will be called upon if their organs are needed to save the life of a valuable American. The restraints unsnap as Rembrandt arrives to tell them they have a problem. No, not the implants, the thing in Maggie’s stomach is more than just a thing.
Dr Sylvius says they ran a DNA test. The thing is like an egg and it’s rapidly replicating, imitating some parts of the host species. She thinks it could put an end to the mandatory organ donation programme. But they aren’t sure how to get it out. The doctor thinks the symbiote is in a breeding pattern looking for hosts. Quinn thinks it might only be able to implant men and asks Wade where a woman looking for guys would go. If she doesn’t care what kind of guy? A bar. They split up to hit the bars.
Maggie is at a bar wearing the dress she saw. She hits on Diggs, feeling his chest, but rejects him as not suitable. She tries a lot of men in the bar that way. None are suitable and one doesn’t take rejection well. Maggie breaks his arm. Wade and Dr Sylvius arrive there and discover that Maggie was there. Diggs explains what happened. The doctor thinks Maggie is looking for people with a higher-than-normal body temperature. She doesn’t want to call the police; they’ll shoot first.
Maggie is trying to find suitable hosts for her eggs. Even if she’s recovered, there’s still the problem of getting the creature out of her without killing Maggie. And Dr Sylvius wants to get it out without killing the symbiote. Perhaps more than she does keeping Maggie alive. Quinn is feeling guilty about getting them all into this and the other two aren’t as bothered about saving Maggie if it risks the rest of them.