• • •

Episode 9: Honor Thy Soldier Part 2

Starring: Charlie O’Connell, Robert Floyd, Alicia Witt, Tembi Locke, Nicholas Lea, and John Haymes Newton as Joel Douglas

Guest Stars: Reynaldo Rosales as Buddy Hanson, Jay Michael Ferguson as Harry Bardou, Kelly McNair as Nurse Margaret Spaulding, Special Guest Star: Freddie Prinze Jr as Raymond Griffith

Synopsis: As the Japanese suicider bombers are firing at anything they could see, officers and civilians are rushing for cover or trying to escape the battleship they occupied. The sliders, excluding Mallory, are rushing out of the hotel and into a wooded area nearby, hoping to find cover. Over aboard the Arizona, Mallory and Harry are rushing around to find a way to attack the enemy, but soon realize the ship is sinking and that they needed to get off the ship as soon as possible, which they do, following a few other officers hurrying up to the main deck.

The Japanese go a second round, continuously attacking the ships, along with some officers on the battleships firing back with what ammunition they had. Mallory and Harry arrive to the main deck, noticing everything in chaos. Mallory looks over to his left to see a ship with men on it, firing back at the enemy and notices Buddy as one of the officers aboard. A bomb is dropped on the vessel, exploding. Mallory soon pulls Harry to the side of the ship, and when Mallory sees a missile heading straight for the Arizona, he tells Harry that they need to jump overboard, which they do with only seconds to spare, before the ship is hit and part of the ship explodes, knocking the two farther from the ship.

As Raymond and a few other officers arrive to the battle ground, he tells the others to head for the airstrip and get in the air to fight off the japs. Raymond tells a couple officers to stay with him, with the three taking off for a ship under siege and find a way to help out, with firing back at the enemy. Mallory soon appears as he comes up from being under water, but doesn’t notice Harry, he calls out to him, but there is no response. He dives back under the water to find Harry, but there is no luck. Mallory swims over a few feet and goes down again and this time he is able to spot Harry, who is unconscious. Mallory pulls Harry to the surface, swimming over to land to get them both out of the water. Mallory starts doing CPR on Harry who finally comes back to life, spitting water in Mallory’s face. Harry thanks Mallory for saving him, but Mallory tells him that the war isn’t over yet and that they needed to get going before a bomb decided to land on them. Mallory helps Harry up, with the two taking off to find other ways to help out.

The sliders get pinned behind a group of rocks, near a beach, as a Japanese bomber was attacking the area. Joel notices a nurse also pinned down not far from them in a very open space to get hit, and tells the others he was going to take the risk and save the nurse. Joel manages to get to the nurse, pulling her out of harms way and take her to the area they were in. The nurse thanks Joel, introducing herself as Margaret Spaulding, with Joel doing the same, with stating that he could tell she was in distress and needed saving. The nurse tells Joel that he was right and hopefully the japs will go away, since she realizes that thousands of people need help, and she can’t do a thing about, since the Japanese decided to use Hawaii for target practice. Diana soon notices Mallory running toward her with a few other officers, she calls out to him, but he doesn’t notice her. A bomb is dropped close to the officers, exploding and knocking the officers down like bowling pins. With the plane disappearing, Diana rushes to Mallory, to realize his face was burned badly and when checking for a pulse, she didn’t feel one. The others look to Diana for an answer, but she looks up and states that Mallory was dead. Diana stands back up, and begins crying as Colin holds her for comfort. The others also tear up, but try not to let it get to them. Margaret is close by, checking the other officers for pulses, which she can find only one, telling the sliders that she needs help to get him back to the hospital so she can treat him and finally save an officer for once in her life. Joel, Ryan and Colin help Margaret pick up the officer and they take off, rushing back to the hospital close by. Diana looks at Mallory’s body, and bends down to close his eyes. She looks to Wade, stating that she didn’t think this war would hit home like it has now. Wade puts her arm around Diana, stating they should catch up before they get attacked again. The two hurry up to catch up with the others, when suddenly another plane approaches, firing at will on the group who hide again from the weapons fire behind a group of rocks to cover them.

Back on the battlefield, Raymond and a few other officers close by are firing into the sky at the planes doing some good to help out. Raymond tells a younger officer to take over since he was going to launch a missile at one of the planes to take it out. Raymond starts walking away, when suddenly a plane flies by, firing toward the ship Raymond was on and Raymond is attacked, being shot across his chest. Raymond falls to the floor of the ship, with a couple officers rushing over to help him. Raymond looks nervous and scared as he begins dying with the other officers unsure of what to do. He holds up his dog tags and tells both of the men to give them to Wade Welles. Raymond breathes his last breath with him dying. The officer on his right side closes his eyes and the two officers both go back to firing at the enemy which was swarming around the entire marina.

Once arriving at the hospital, Nurse Spaulding had the guys put the officer on a gurney since there was very little space available for patients. As Nurse Spaulding is pushing the officer down a hallway, she asks the sliders if they could be blood donors for the patients in critical condition. Joel tells the nurse that they all could give blood. Margaret runs into another nurse, telling her to take the sliders to another room to take their blood, which the other nurse does. With a couple hours passing, things still weren’t slowing down at the hospital. The sliders were able to leave the hospital, and be free from all the hell going on there. Down a dirt path by a beach, the group is walking back to the hotel, with Joel telling the others that they should return to the hotel and pack up their bags and get ready to return to New York as soon as possible, since if another attack was coming, they should get away from it all. Ryan states that he still feels bad for this world for not experiencing the attack on the seventh instead of the ninth of December. Diana tells Ryan to shut up since she hates the fact that Mallory had to die just so they could have an enjoyable vacation in a so called paradise. Diana tells the others that from now on, they weren’t going to leave New York unless the city itself was being destroyed. Diana walks off on her own, with Ryan about to go after her, but Colin stops him, stating that Diana needed to grieve and she would show back up later on to join them. A humvee soon arrives, with a young male officer getting out, heading straight toward Wade. He apologizes for her loss and hands Raymond’s dog tags to Wade, stating that he wanted them delivered to her. Wade thanks the officer, asking how he knew she was the one to give the tags to. The officer states that Raymond had pointed her out on the plane ride over to Hawaii. Wade starts remembering the officer who was seated next to Raymond. Wade thanks the officer, stating that Raymond will be apart of her forever. The officer turns around, getting back in the humvee and taking off. Wade starts to cry, with taking a seat on the ground. Joel bends down, giving Wade a hug, who accepts his hug, putting her arms around him. Colin soon notices another humvee arriving close by, and after it stopped, Mallory steps out, and the humvee continues down the road. Mallory looks to the sliders, who are looking confused, since they believed Mallory had already died. Mallory states that they are acting like they’ve just seen a ghost. Ryan tells Mallory that they saw him die a few hours ago and they believed he had died. Mallory tells the group that he learned of a double being in the navy, and he was the one to die instead of him. The sliders are very happy to see their friend alive, with everyone giving him hugs. Colin tells Mallory that they are really glad that he is alive and hopefully they can slide out together. Mallory states that he was about to eat breakfast when the planes arrived and luckily he and Harry made it off the ship, and they’ve been at a medical tent ever since, and then an officer was dropping soldiers off, and when he noticed them walking down the path, he wanted to be dropped off.

Mallory asks where Diana was at, with Colin telling him that she got upset with them and decided to grieve, since she thought he was gone. Mallory states he probably will get slapped when Diana sees him alive. Joel states he wanted to return to the hospital and see if Buddy could be found. Mallory looks down at the ground, and then back up at Joel, stating that Buddy was dead since when they got on the main deck, he noticed him aboard another vessel which exploded and he likely was crushed since he went into the water and a couple vessels tipped over on their sides close by. Joel soon takes a seat on the ground as well, covering his face and weeping, with the others standing around just remaining in silence while two of their friends grieve over the loss of people they grew close to during their time in Hawaii.

By the following afternoon, in a airplane hanger, the sliders arrive, along with Harry Bardou who was now using crutches in to see some of the soldiers who died, fighting for their country, with their picture on top of their coffins. Wade tells the others that she was going to find Raymond and drop off a rose she wanted to give him. Joel tells Wade that if she needed to talk, he, or anyone of the others would be there for her. Wade begins to tear up and starts walking off. Harry tells Mallory that he is still shocked to have seen two of him since he came from a small town and never knew people had twins. Mallory tells Harry that surprises come his way everyday. Harry tells Mallory that he would like him to tag along, since he wanted to see if any of his friends didn’t make it. Mallory walks off with Harry, leaving the others still standing at the entrance. Joel states that he wanted to pay his respects to Buddy and then have the pain to return to his family in New York to say Buddy wasn’t going to be coming home. Joel pulls out Buddy’s dog tags, with Diana asking Joel how he got them. Joel tells Diana that when they were visiting the waterfall, during the tour around the islands, he had asked him to take them and return them to his family since he figured the war would be starting any day and he may not survive it. Diana begins to tear up, with Joel hugging her, stating that at least they all survived this hell and would be able to slide on, knowing of what they experienced even if it’s going to be painful. Joel lets go of Diana, letting Ryan and Colin take over in comforting Diana.

By the following morning, the sliders had arrived at the airport, ready to take off, back to New York. Mallory says his goodbye to Harry, stating that he was glad to serve with a good person and hopes this war ends sooner than he thinks. Harry tells Mallory he should have considered staying on in the navy, since he made a great officer. Mallory states, that after he got drafted, he was ready for war, but after experiencing it first hand, he was ready to leave. Harry hugs Mallory, with him turning around and walking away, and finally waves goodbye to Mallory as he exits out the front door of the airport. Joel and Colin arrive near Mallory, with Colin stating the plane was ready and the others were getting aboard. Mallory turns around, and as they start walking outside, he tells the two that he hopes Harry will survive the war and find a nice wife down the road. Joel states that if this world knows what is good for them, they can defeat the Germans and win, but then again all worlds must deal with wars at one time or another.

Once returning to the same New York airport as they had departed, and with the sliders walking back inside of the terminal, Mallory tells the others that it was good to be back home, and in some ways wishes they never left. Wade tells Mallory that she disagrees with him, in that she made a friend, as did Joel, and she will never have regret of going to Hawaii to experience what they did for the few days they were there. With getting a carriage ride back to the Algonquin Hotel, they get rooms for the last few days they had on the world, with them noticing a “Going Out Of Business” sign at the front desk. Joel states that Mortimar, the guy travel agency was right since he had said that the hotel wasn’t going to last long.

As the day came for the slide, and with only four hours left until they departed, the sliders were in the bar, ending their drinks. With Joel finishing his beer, he tells everyone he had something to do before they left and would catch up to them back at the hotel before taking off to find a hidden location to slide out at. Joel exits the hotel to catch a buggy ride and after a half hour, he soon arrives at the address Buddy had given him for his home. Joel seems fearful to face a family he knows will be upset, but has the courage to get out of the buggy and proceed to the door, after opening a grey colored fence and walking up a cemented walkway. After knocking on the door, a woman answers it, asking Joel what he wanted. Joel asks if she was Ruth Hanson, with the woman starting to tear up, shaking her head that she was indeed the wife of Buddy Hanson. Joel pulls out Buddy’s dog tags, handing them to her and proceeds to hug her, which she lets him do.

After a few seconds, Ruth invites Joel into her dining room and gives him coffee. Ruth tells Joel that Buddy was an amazing guy and she was so glad to finally start a family with him with high hopes to be together again once the war had ended. Joel tells Ruth that he didn’t know Buddy long, but after meeting him in Hawaii while on vacation and on the beach, he figured Buddy was a good person and glad he got to know him. Ruth tells Joel that Buddy always loved the beach, since that is where they met and got married on. Ruth tells Joel that Buddy always wanted to fight the good fight and never wanted to back down which is why he was ready to go into the second world war even though she wanted him home and not get killed by the enemy. Joel tells Ruth that Buddy was a brave person and he will always remember him like that. Ruth asks Joel if he would be staying around for the funeral, but Joel apologizes, stating that he other things to attend to, but wished he could stay in the area for a few more days to help out. Ruth thanks Joel, telling him he is a good man and a friend that Buddy could have gotten close to; Joel tells Ruth that it will never be okay that Buddy is gone, but things will look up and she will be able to move on with life along with her kids who will turn out like their dad, because he feels Buddy was a unique person, and he figures his kids will also be unique.

Joel returns to the hotel, catching up to the others still in the bar; Wade comments to Joel that he was cutting it close, but luckily they still have time to go into a quiet area to slide off in. The group exits the hotel, heading down a ways until reaching an alley way. Wade pulls out the timer, looks back to make sure no one was coming and opens the wormhole. The sliders start to enter, with Wade looking to Joel, asking him if he was okay. Joel tells Wade that it might take some therapy to get him over this, but he’ll survive. Wade smiles, with jumping into the void, followed by Joel who is last to enter, with the vortex closing seconds after.