As Time Goes By is the thirteenth episode of the second season of Sliders. It is the season finale. It was originally aired on July 12, 1996.
On three consecutive slides, the sliders encounter doubles of the same group of people, including the double of an old high school girlfriend of Quinn.
Synopsis
San Francisco: Republica de Nueva Espana
On a world where California is part of Spain, the sliders wait on the street with a large group of immigrants, in Spain illegally, are awaiting work. When the police arrive, only Quinn escapes. Quinn finds refuge in a house where Daelin Richards, the double of a high school girlfriend of Quinn, works. Quinn tells Daelin about sliding and that they have to free Quinn's friends before the timer hits zero. Daelin tells Quinn that she is engaged to Dennis McMillan and shows Quinn a picture. Quinn recognizes the man and said that Dennis McMillan was also arrested. Daelin has her brother, Kit, gather information they need to help Wade, Rembrandt, Arturo, and Dennis McMillan escape.
When it is time to slide, Quinn and Daelin stop the deportation bus and get their people off of it. Then the police arrive. Dennis McMillan tells the police of Daelin, Quinn, and Kit's plans to help people escape. Dennis reveals that he did this because he was promised a green card and then he could marry Daelin and they could legally stay in the country. Kit Richards calls Dennis a traitor, runs after him, and then is shot by the police. Quinn opens the vortex and wants Daelin to come with him, but Daelin, saddened that her brother Kit is about to die, chooses to stay.
San Francisco Lyons
Upon arriving on the next earth the sliders believe they might have returned home, until reading an advertisement featuring the local professional American football team, the "San Francisco Lyons". Rembrandt suggests that Quinn, still saddened by Daelin's decision to stay on her earth, try to find Daelin on this earth. Quinn discovers that on this earth, Quinn moved to Seattle, Washington while in high school, while Daelin stayed in San Francisco. This is the opposite of what happened on Earth Prime, where Daelin moved and Quinn stayed in San Francisco.
Quinn meets with Daelin in her home. Dennis McMillan (who is married to Daelin on this earth) arrives and begins fighting with Daelin. It is clear to Quinn that Daelin regrets marrying McMillan, who is frequently abusive on this earth. When Dennis pulls Daelin's hair, Quinn pulls Dennis away, which makes Dennis angrier. He challeges Quinn to a fight. After Quinn hits Dennis, Dennis tells Quinn to take Daelin and Dennis's baby daughter with him. Quinn wants to take Daelin sliding, but since it is too dangerous for the baby, Quinn calls his double in Seattle and arranges for Daelin and her daughter to move in with Quinn's double.
Time's Arrow
At the beginning of the next slide, Quinn, Rembrandt, and Arturo land in San Quentin prison. They are in prison jumpsuits instead of the clothes they were previously wearing. Wade is not found. The timer is counting upwards instead of downwards and Quinn cannot figure out why. Quinn, Rembrandt, and Arturo conclude that Wade must be in a women's prison somewhere. Upon receiving copies of the court's documents, they learn that they are reported to have pled guilty to the murder of Daelin Richards.
Later, they are sent to the courtroom where they meet Wade. The sliders are confused as to why they are back in court since they learned that they have already been tried. After Quinn sees that the clock's face is the reverse of the clock's face of Earth Prime, he concludes that on this world, time goes in the opposite direction (at least, opposite with respect to Earth Prime's time's arrow). All the sliders then plead guilty, and shortly later, a police officer removes their hand cuffs.
The sliders experience the flow of time like a skipping record: they move through time in the same way as everyone else on this world for a while, and then when the record skips, they quickly jump back in time.
Quinn feels obligated to prevent Daelin's murder. Quinn arrives at the murder scene and yells a warning at Daelin, who is a police officer in this world. Her real killer shoots Daelin in the shoulder and Daelin shoots her would-be killer, killing him. Daelin survives with only a wound. Dennis McMillan, who is Daelin's fiancee and police partner on this earth, observed from a distance. The two detectives, unaware that the flow of history has been changed, are angry with Quinn for alerting the attempted murderer and spoiling their opportunity to get information out of him.