“The Young and the Relentless” is episode thirteen (originally shown as episode eleven) of season two of Sliders and the season finale.
The Sliders arrive on a new world on the grounds of a large house. They are making their way off the property when Quinn spots someone floating face down in the swimming pool. He dives in and the man is dragged out of the water. It’s this world’s Quinn. The professor tries CPR as Rembrandt heads to the house to get help. The professor says it’s too late for this Quinn as a woman arrives. This world’s Wade.
Wade Two is on the phone to someone. The professor says if they’d only been half an hour sooner, they could have saved Quinn Two. Wade shows the professor a magazine with a presidential candidate on the front. The candidate looks to be a teenager. The Wades talk and Wade Two says Quinn Two was her husband.
Quinn and Wade change into dry clothes; Wade says she and Quinn may not be married, but she thinks she’d have trouble holding it together if anything happened to him. Wade Two will have their wet clothes laundered. And the person takin them swipes the timer. Wade Two is talking about a project her husband, QR, was working on. A computer program to replace the failing public school system. With QR dead, the project will die too.
She talks Quinn into impersonating QR at a party they were having that night. Rembrandt and the professor are unhappy; Quinn, not so much. Wade Two says Rembrandt and the professor shouldn’t come; QR had very few senior affiliates apart from the staff. Quinn suggests they check out the city; they’ll meet at the hotel. Wade Two prompts Quinn on how to react at the party; he gets the impression from Kyle that QR didn’t seem as much behind this project as stated.
Rembrandt and the professor head to the hotel. The profe3ssor reads that the youth took over in 1980 when it was seen that Social Security stood to bankrupt the entire economy. Howard Stern drove Carter out of office and the voting age was lowered to 9. Workers have to retire at 30. They decide to get a drink. The bartender refuses to serve them, as they’re too old, and then goes after them with a baseball bat. He and another come off second best.
At the party, Quinn is approached by another woman. It seems QR was having an affair. Another person calls the education program bogus; it will throw elderly teachers out of work. Quinn finds Wade rummaging in the bathroom’s medicine drawer. She wanted to get to know their doubles better. Quinn does not; he feels the world is full of snakes and he’s one of them. After the party, Wade Two says it was a success; they just need to speak to the governor now. Quinn says he can’t hang around. But Kyle produces the timer and says her has no choice if he wants it back.
The professor and Rembrandt are in court; Arturo says they will plead their case and pay a fine if necessary. He isn’t impressed with the age of the judge. Or Tiffany August, their court appointed public defender. They’re looking at curfew violation and assault. 1 year inside. She’ll plead senility to reduce it to 30 days. Still too long. The judge accepts Tiffany’s suggestion. Because he likes her new ‘do. The professor isn’t helping. On the way out, though, he fakes a heart attack and they flee.
There’s a problem with the computer program, in that the widow of the former head of R&D is suing the company to get a share. And the program itself is advertising dressed up as educational software. Wade Two wants Quinn to stay until next week, which he can’t; they’d be stuck permanently. Things are more dangerous than they look; the Sliders should perhaps have considered that QR was fully dressed in his swimming pool. Professor Arturo has never suffered those he considers fools well, and he considers most of those running this world to be fools. He’s making things worse, and he and Rembrandt are already in trouble.