Scorpion's Season Two Winter Review

2x15 - “Da Bomb” - In an episode highly influenced by the movie Speed, we were treated to a thrilling story with the signature Scorpion campiness. When Walter decided to branch out socially, and to start giving the dating scene a go, he didn’t think that it would backfire in such explosive ways. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The team was hired to troubleshoot a secret NASA launch and Sly struggled to train for game shows so he could fundraise money for the pediatric wing of a Hospital in Megan’s name. When they got to the NASA launching pad though, they realized that their old DOJ handler, Agent Merrick, was in charge of the operation and that he was holding back no punches.

Linda - the woman who went on a date with Walter - showed up at the garage with a bomb strapped to her, and a USB stick with a message: if they didn’t sabotage the launch, she’d be blown to pieces. Walter, Paige, and Toby worked out a way to put Linda inside of a bulletproof case to prevent a bigger tragedy in case that they didn’t get to fix the problem.

On top of that, they were being watched, and things got complicated because they had to distract Merrick from discovering that they weren’t helping NASA but actually going against them. Once they sabotaged the rocket, and Merrick made them leave the launching facilities, they discovered that the mission would carry astronauts and that meant that the team would inadvertently kill them now that the rocket had been compromised. So, they had to fix the rocket again.

At the garage, Walter decided to prepare for the bomb to go off, covering Linda with gel so that the bomb wouldn’t cause damage, all the while still trying to identify the bomber. What they found out was alarming; the bomber had been dead for years.. and the link to the plot is Merrick. He was the agent in charge of the case. He had access to them the whole time.

The man tried to stop Happy from fixing the rocket fuel system, but Sly and Gallo got there to help her, getting into a fierce battle that ends up with Merrick falling from the platform and to his death. He had been on a spy mission all along; when he got booted because of the team, he had to resort to other resources. Killing Scorpion was his vengeance. The problem was that the detonator was with him, and they had to leave right before the rocket’s ignition fireball cooked them. With the detonator destroyed, there was no way to stop the bomb from going off. Walter tried to use a metal plank to protect Linda but it slipped and he had to climb into the gel filled box to help her hold the plank to her chest. The bomb exploded, but to the surprise of Paige and Toby, both Walter and Linda survived the blast.

Linda ended up apologizing for being rude to Walter during the day and gave him advice on how to improve next time he dates. The real problem is that he doesn’t feel like he fits in and that he will end up alone, which proves that he’s not all that different from other humans.

Cabe continued to make peace with the fact that he’s getting older, and Happy and Toby continued their odd dance. Paige was about to bow out but reminds Walter that ultimately the best way to go at socializing or dating would be to be himself. She just wants him to be happy… so she and Ralph decided to stay with him and clean up. She really is the only one that gets him. These two should just stop avoiding the inevitable.

I have to say, it was rather satisfying to see Merrick meet his demise, but I almost wanted an even fiercer battle between him and Cabe… even between them and Walter - this man was pure evil and threatened Walter and Cabe’s relationship. Then again, this is Scorpion, and we are supposed to allow for a bit of levity. I liked that we’re moving towards establishing that Page and Walter aren’t going to be together (for a while) but it will be so much more interesting now that Quintis is gaining strength.

2x16 - “Fractured” had Toby and Walter going at each other’s throats and this put everyone on edge, so Paige sentenced them to do “couple’s therapy”. Ralph wanted to explore the tide pools for his marine biology class, but Paige was hesitant. The team convinced her to let the boy be a boy and Sly went with him to explore… even though he was being paranoid as always.

Happy, Cabe and Paige prepared for a meeting with a motor company, even though Happy had a hard time coping with the fact that they’re begging for work. Meanwhile, Toby and Walter went to their therapist, Dr. Rizzuto, who happens to be Penn Jillette from Penn & Teller. He’s frustrating and hilarious.

At the beach, Sly and Ralph were about to start their work when Silvester received an alert from an earthquake alert system on trial. A 7.8 quake had hit the base of the San Andreas fault. They ran for cover and warned the rest of the team. Happy set their comms so they could connect since the rest of the phone system went down. The main problem caused by the earthquake was the way the water lines and gas lines were designed to go side by side, and now that there was a pinch on the water lines, the pressure was building and there could be a huge explosion.

Cabe, Paige and Happy rushed out to help but they were faced with having to save a group of people trapped in a cab in the middle of an electrified pond. Meanwhile, Ralph and Sly had to get to the gas line to shut it off and help alleviate the pressure building into the system; they stole a lifeguard’s truck to do so. Sly drove with the kid’s guidance because he broke his glasses, adding much to Paige’s fears. Naturally, they hit a roadblock; a tree fell on top of a car and a woman was trapped in it.

Ralph led the rescue operation, surprising the victims with his domain and knowledge, and they managed to get the woman out of the car in the nick of time. Sly and Ralph rushed to the gas valve station by running and flying over the tree roadblock with the stolen truck. Toby and Walter had to fight a cave in to get to the last part of their path. They struggled to get to the shut off valve and Sly and Ralph used their high tech life vest to force the doors open and shut the gas valve off on their end.

The situation got complicated at the electrified pond: they needed to act fast because aftershocks had begun to hit, the water igniting because of the fuel in it. Cabe managed to get two of the victims out but one was paralyzed by fear. Paige offered to go get the man and they made it out just in time before the car exploded.

Just when they thought that everything was good and saved they realized that the gas was leaking and heading toward Downtown LA. The area was on fire. They rushed toward the critical area and fashioned a chimney to burn the gas before it got to the fires downtown. They prepped a spear and lit it. Cabe - being the only one with athletic abilities - shot and scored. All that’s left was for them to recover and fix things up. Paige was thankful that Sly protected her son and vowed to allow Ralph to do more adventurous things from now on.

Walter meditated about his day and decided to talk to Toby, showing up at his place. He took his apologies, and accepted his own faults, but didn’t invite him in… because Happy was there with him. He’s never been happier, he claimed, and promised not to ruin them.

I have to say that is so satisfactory to see how the relationship between Happy and Toby is being developed, because it’s real, and so in tune with the characters. I’m inclined to say that within the whole campiness and silliness that Scorpion delivers, this is the one part that actually feels the most three dimensional.

From this episode, I highly enjoyed that Ralph is getting to be a more active part of the story and I really hope that it continues to be this way.

2x17 - “Adaptation” opened with a farmer finding a downed drone on his land, and in it, a kilo of very dangerous, ultra-pure heroine. Toby and Walter continued to go to therapy to hash out their problems, this time with the help of puppets to voice their frustrations. It was a battle between the superiority complex vs. Walter’s discomfort with Toby and Happy’s closeness. Oh boy. Things are about to hit the fan.

Meanwhile, Sly continued to prep to participate in “The Price is Right”, guessing all the amounts for random products. Walter and Toby got back from therapy. He knows about them and Toby decides to announce Quintis… I was dying laughing at this because Toby is ridiculous.

Their weekly case involved the Mexican Federal Police. They had to stop the cartel from using drones to commercialize this product before more lives were lost. The Mexican fed enumerated just a few of their victims, including a little girl near his own home. She was doing math, and this wounded Sly. The real danger is that the amount of drugs that could be crossing the borders is way higher than the current offer, so allowing these drones to come to the US would be fatal.

They had a path provided by an informant that would be used by the incoming new fleet of drones. Walter proposed to hit them with a type of energy pulse to scramble their systems. They’d only have one shot and they’d need to practice by shooting down Sly’s drone. Toby continued to annoy Happy and make Walter uncomfortable, which made him decide to order Toby to stay in the garage so that he didn’t distract Happy… leaving him with time to decide. He cannot be in Scorpion if they’re to be in a relationship. Toby of course didn’t take this lightly, and honestly, I call BS… among other things.

Paige stayed behind to calm him down while the Fed, Cabe, Walter, Happy and Sly headed to the desert to test shooting down Sly’s Patroni. Sure enough, Gallo shot it down. Happy arranged with Toby to set up radars, and he continued to throw her compliments that Paige tried to dim down and give advice so as to not irk Walter. But Toby called her out; she’s been trying to make them human, and when they finally acted it, she chastised them. I’m with you, Toby.

Walter tried to get Cabe on his side, but he called him out as well; he’d put missions in danger in the past because of Paige. It’s not as simple as managing people’s love life. Even though they save millions of lives, what comes first is debatable at best.

A swarm was incoming, and they got ready to shoot as much as they could, as the drones were also capable of shooting back. They took cover; but they were too far away to do any damage to the drones. The team decided to pack up even though another shipment was coming through. They needed to regroup. But the Fed urged them not to leave, explaining that the girl that died was a friend of his son. They had a go at strategizing a way to corner all the drones and shooting down the leader’s signal so that the whole swarm would come down. The static walls worked, allowing for Walter to down the drones but one of them escaped. It was a different one and they needed to retrieve it so they could find a way to neutralize their type. They tracked it down to a secluded area in the desert, but Cabe was spotted as they tried to get it. A shootout developed, but they managed to escape with the drone.

As they tried to make it out of the area, another drone followed and shot at them. They decided to stop to get a better shot and brought the shooter drone down, but the rapid fire from the sky hit the car and the Mex-Fed as well. They couldn’t use the SUV so Happy and Sly had to make it to a refuge by foot while Cabe and Walter created a boobie trap to distract them from locating the rest of the team.

The fed was bleeding out so Sly crafted a solution using a sponge from a cacti to stop the hemorrhage while being guided by Toby from the garage. Happy and Sly were made super queasy by it, and the man almost died, which supports Toby’s argument that he should have been with them in the desert and not at the garage because of Walter’s punishment. He claimed he could have predicted that he would be needed and that Walter’s letting himself be blinded by his need to justify himself in his opposition to their relationship. Paige tried to level with him, saying that he was letting his emotions get the best of him but Toby calls her out, because at any other time Paige would also advocate for them. According to him, she doesn’t this time because then it would tear down the no fraternization rule that’s the only thing “protecting” them from getting involved. All of this was heard by everyone because their comms were still on. Toby didn’t even flinch.

Meanwhile in the desert, the drug traffickers arrived at the spot where the team’s downed (and boobie trapped) SUV was parked. They lured them to the SUV by ringing Happy’s cell phone and exploded the road flares to stun them. They jumped on the narcos truck, right in time to have another of their buddies tail them. Sanchez offered to guide them through the desert but, as he’s about to, his lung collapses.

Cabe and Walter navigated on their own, and Paige and Toby announced that the med-evac team was 10 min away but that’s too long for Sanchez. They needed to help him by draining the fluid from his chest cavity. Toby guided Happy through this, carefully calming her down and connecting with her while saving Sanchez. Meanwhile Walter and Cabe managed to block the road so the other guys didn’t follow that close, but now that Sanchez was conscious, they realized that they didn’t take the road he would have guided them to, and they’re trapped in a canyon.

The other narcos arrived, guns blazing, while Toby strategized with Sly and Happy. The men wanted to know where the rest of the team were. The team rushed and managed to get Sly’s drone above them and acting as the leader of the armored drone. It created a distraction that allowed for Cabe to disarm one of the narcos and with the threat of the armored drone, the other man gave up. Med-evac got there just in time and everyone makes it out alive.

Back at the garage, Toby issued his own revenge by charging random purchases for the team to the corporate card. Happy was mad at him for jeopardizing their relationship and holding too tight. The truth is that he was, but if it hadn’t been for his crazy tendencies they would all be dead. He’s terrified of losing her after the whole episode in the South Pole. She sternly calmed him down. She’s not going anywhere. Cabe informed that Sanchez would be alright and that the narcos flipped on their boss, bringing the whole operation to the ground.

Walter set off to study the drone they recovered to aid Homeland with their own plan to stop other shipments but not before going to Toby and Happy to rehash the decision they were supposed to make and assuming they had decided to terminate their relationship. Neither Toby nor Happy were… happy. Walter went to his loft where Paige coaxed him into talking about this situation and how it’s wrong to think about Scorpion as something other than a living organism that can evolve, but Walter refused to let Scorpion change. That’s when Toby and Happy came up to his office and declare that if he wants to keep them he will have to accept that they’re a couple now. It’s mutiny. Paige was proud that he’s allowing the team to evolve, even when Walter can only think about how most adaptation ends up in extinction, but he will try to keep an open mind.

My main problem with Walter in this episode is that as much as he’s caring for Scorpion, I just cannot side with him. I can understand that he’s so emotionally immature that he sees that the consequences could be tragic to the team if they don’t know how to act, but it is also the despotic and selfish attitude that nullifies any chance I could feel empathy for his cause.

Otherwise, this was an episode that I appreciated for its pace. The hour went by super fast and it was a nice mix of technology that was actually really believable.

2x18 - “The Fast and The Nerdiest” continued with Sly’s efforts to fundraise money to pay for a pediatric ward to be named after Megan. So he went on “The Price is Right” and got selected. Of course not only is it hilarious because of his nerdy accuracy to guess the prices of the items but also because of all the cringing he had to do when people tried to relate normally in such an upbeat show. Of course, he won the grand prize. He will sell most of his winnings and cash in the money prize to be well on his way of funding his homage to Megan.

Toby playfully threw some bets with Sly, trying to guess the nature and price of his prizes, which irked Happy. Now that they’re together, she has discovered details of his past life and addictions. Paige advised her to hang in there, the longest relationship that Happy had held was with a car.

This week’s case was a personal one for Cabe. His friend Mick (played by Eric Roberts) came looking for him. Suspicious at best, and an ex-con, the man and Cabe go way back - to living on the same block as kids. He was in trouble and needed Cabe. He got played by some of his associates and wanted to trade the intel he acquired for a ticket out of the country. Gallo was hesitant because he now works for DHS, but Mick urged him to help since lots of people could get killed over what he knows.

Mick and Cabe went about sharing their friendship and history: lots of shady relationships. He had to leave New York because it was getting too dangerous. Because of the nature of the data that Mick owned, he had to trust Cabe to know it before cutting any deals so as to not compromise Scorpion’s reputation.

Mick had been in contact with a smuggler, negotiating high end vehicles. But the trades weren’t clean and they transported jewels, art and drugs as well. What he found out was that there was a shipment so delicate that it was temperature controlled, and that matched the criteria for a Bio-Agent from the fictional country of Balio in Central America.

Even though Walter saw difficulty in it, Happy figured that they could infiltrate this company to find out if they were handling the shipment, and if there was a shipment of bio weapons, they’d be able to stop it. Walter didn’t like that the situation relied heavily on speculation. Cabe felt responsible for Mick’s life, being that he spent time in Juvee because he defended him in a fight as kids. He didn’t want to dismiss the importance of the information, so Walter accepted to go on a quick mission to infiltrate and assess the computers at this export company. They would walk away if they couldn’t find proof.

The team set out and Toby continued to annoy Happy with tales of his gambling days. While they waited, Sly realized that Mick stole a can of motor oil from him, and Cabe was quick to not give it importance, using an art analogy that later on would reveal a new side of him.

Mick setup their cover with the smugglers, while he took off to avoid danger if things went awry. They went in as his friends but got covered in masks and moved to another location, and Cabe was not happy about it. When they got to the new garage, it was filled with awesome and fast collectible cars that fascinated Walter. They set off to evaluate the garage’s system under Mick’s recommendation so they could make their transactions faster.

Mick told Cabe that the only warehouse that would match the place they’d be taken was in San Pedro, but Cabe was getting leery of his friend. Page was also uncomfortable. Sly poured his nerves into the research and the situation in Balia supposedly involved with this Toxic Bio-Agent. The Aztec tribes in the country were infuriated with the government and this bioagent could be an outlet for their attacks. Walter’s search didn’t give them any valuable information, but Toby remembered how a known gambler would hide his notes in the back of his daughter’s tricycle, and suggested he and Happy should poke around to see if the man kept his data elsewhere.

Toby created an even a bigger distraction, challenging the smuggler into a car race, for a double or nothing on their services. While the men were outside, Happy went back to the office to continue looking for clues. She found paperwork hidden in the ceiling but Walter could only stall so much while she looked through it, especially because the smuggler kept poking his wounded ego. Meanwhile, Sly and Paige went to look for the place from where the emails and documents came. They found fresh tracks, and Paige went in before calling the cops.

In San Pedro, the race started and Happy rushed to try and find out what’s going on. Sly and Paige found biohazard labels in the abandoned place; it held a bio weapon specially designed to attack members of a certain tribe in Balio. But they needed more proof, like where the smuggler was keeping this virus. The problem was that Walter won the race, and as the men started to go back to the garage, they discovered Happy going through the paperwork, having just found the address to a refrigerated storage.

Mick took off before they could track the mission back to him, and Cabe was left on guard, all the while the team was being held at gunpoint. The smuggler demanded they tell him who they were working for before he started shooting them down. Toby took a punch, but Gallo came barging in with their SUV, crashing through the gates. He picked them up and raced with Paige and Sly to the refrigerated storage before they lost the weapon.

Only they never got to it. Mick stole the weapon and they proceeded to notify everyone of the direness of the situation. Cabe is sure that he was heading south and that one way they could get to him was by contacting his old girlfriend Lorraine. She’s a known gambler, so they profiled her to try to predict where she’d be. Paige thinks this was a shot in the dark, but they had to hustle before the weapon made it out of the country.

Happy and Paige went to the last known address, and Happy was taken aback by the situation in which people lived in the building. She feared that Toby might fall into those practices again. Toby and Cabe surveyed the other side, and located Lorraine right away - only they were not the only ones there. The smuggler’s boys were just next door. Walter spotted an oil stain from Mick’s car. It was fresh, he’d just left. They needed to get her out of the room to make a deal with her… so obviously they built a hack into her TV feed and communicated via their phones. Easy, right?

Cabe warned her that he would be the only one that could help. They threw her a rope to tie to the metal brace of the window AC to pull it out and give her space to escape the room just before the thugs came in and they took off for the garage. Lorraine was sure that Mick would come for her. But then Mick called; he was back at the motel and had called Cabe’s bluff. Gallo had no more patience, and planned to make Lorraine an accessory to his crimes. Lorraine started to get scared over this and pleaded with him to come to the garage to negotiate with Cabe. But Mick wouldn’t - it’s his payday - and he wished her luck. Cabe poked at her one last time, threatening that if people died because of her silence, she would never come out of jail.

The only information she had was that he was heading south to charter a boat to Balia. They moved to the area and located him, forcing him away from the freeway. Happy tailed him and Cabe comes at him front and center in a game of chicken. They’re both defiant, but Cabe didn’t flinch and forced Mick out of the road and into some freeway cones. His car died and he’s forced to surrender and the bio weapon was recovered safe. Cabe took him into custody.

Back at the garage, Sly managed to continue making headway on his sale of the items he won on the game show. The DOJ managed to get all of the information from Mick and he didn’t involve Lorraine in the whole ordeal but gave up the smugglers. Gallo apologized for letting his feelings for his friend make them bend the rules; he should have known that no one changes. He felt guilty for putting them in danger. But all is forgiven when it comes to the man that gave Scorpion a chance. Walter apologized for letting his ego ruin their cover, but Toby flaunts that his gambling problem saved them. Happy won’t have it, calling him aside and scolding him for being so insensitive about his problem and her fears. And this is one of the best scenes ever in this show. Jadyn Wong really killed it. Eddy K. Thomas dominated too. Toby promised that the only gamble he will do is betting on them.

Meanwhile, Walter hacked some of Gallo’s records and discovered that he had an artistic streak, and after teasing him a bit, he informed him that he had gotten him art classes at the community college. When he went, he faced the blank canvas, remembering how Mick encouraged him to paint once, being a good friend.

When I first saw the episode, I have to say it was the first time in a long time that I enjoyed anything with Eric Roberts in it. And I’m a sucker for a good car movie. So this was really appealing to me. The betrayal story, the gambling, it was a mix between Gone in 60 Seconds and many more. The problem for me was actually the whole Aztec Virus thing. It seemed a bit like a throw away that I couldn’t quite get… and I’ve been wondering about science in shows as of late! Admittedly, this wasn’t really the biggest plot of the show, and it was just given in broad strokes for us to know what we needed to know. I would have liked a bit more of a reserve about the consequences of this genocide… and probably to come from Mick’s character.

As for the Quintis of it all, this was a brilliant part of the episode. It really was one of my favorite scenes of the season, and I really commend Jadyn for pulling no stops on it. With a character that usually is reserved and stoic, this was a great breath of fresh air.

The Cabe Gallo past continues to puzzle me. I imagine him as a kid, as the man that lost his wife to a divorce and his child to a disease and this last artistic bit surprised me. Maybe because I don’t picture Robert Patrick having this side to him, but he is an actor after all and what’s more artistic than that? It would be interesting to see how they’ll incorporate this detail later on, if they do.

2x19 - “Ticker” began with a funny gag of the team hosting the Scorpion Olympics, which are just math competitions. Toby won but only because he cheated, and Sly was aggravated because he kept getting rejection letters from game shows since he totally crushed it in “The Price is Right”. Walter came by, with a rant against the Olympics as a whole, but in reality it was just resentment that he didn’t have any athletic abilities. He tried throwing a bean bag but missed the mark, and proceeded to make sad excuses for his lack of sports experience. Happy takes a shot and hit the mark, front and center. It seems like this genius has finally found his weak spot.

Walter then went to run an errand and got hit by a car in an intersection. This landed him in the hospital, where the nurse refused to let him go because he had a concussion and he hadn’t gotten the appropriate tests yet.

While waiting, a man approached him with a white coat, a lawyer poaching for new clients. The guy was a bit too industrious. Then, a mother and her daughter were rushed in; Olivia is next on the list of heart donors and one had become available. She was looking very weak but in great spirits and she joked with Walter. She talked to him about her condition very aware that she doesn’t have much time. She has read up on her illness and wants to become a doctor. She doesn’t get out a lot doesn’t have a lot of friends because she can’t keep up with her condition. Walter commiserated since he was also the odd duck one organ of his body also wasn’t like everyone else's.

Just then the whole team got there. They were worried that he hadn’t been seen but he just wanted to go; he felt like he was wasting his time not working. Just as they set up to leave a patient came in convulsing and showing odd signs that Toby identified as a virus. The doctors said it was just complications after surgery but Toby was certain it wasn’t and begged that they test the man. They finally concede after threatening to arrest him if he was wrong… but he was right and had the doctors baffled as to why he’d been exposed to the illness.

The team figured that the man had been exposed via a blood transfusion and that the supply might be contaminated and they offer to analyze the bank to find the contaminant. But when they got on their computers they didn’t find any tampering. Their surprise was short lived though because the doctors received an alert that other patients had been diagnosed with the virus in other hospitals. That meant that the whole inventory of the county might be contaminated due to a proximity of an experimental batch in the same facility. The labels are barcoded so the doctors were baffled as to how this could happen. The blood supply was compromised and they needed to shut it down until all was tested. It only got worse when the hospital got an email that confirmed that the contamination was intentional.

Walter couldn’t trace it and they feared that any medical procedure or relief would now be compromised by the fact that all the blood supply was tainted. That’s when they realized that this would also affect Olivia’s surgery and she couldn’t afford to wait because of her rare blood type. Risking to do the surgery with tainted blood wasn’t an option either because of legal issues. The time was ticking and the team promised Olivia that they would be able to provide for her to have her surgery.

They split up to try and cover the sources of the contagion whether it was based on donations or distribution centers. Happy and Toby got to the distribution center; they couldn’t find any evidence of tampering or hacking. Cabe and Sly tried to trace the metadata from the email but they couldn’t find markers that helped. The only clue they had is that it was sent via a very slow modem and upon monitoring the places where something like this could be used they decided to head to Santa Clarita and locate it.

At the Lipsger Blood Depository Walter and Paige talked to the director and learned that once it arrives the blood goes through a state-of-the art labeling system that ensured proper processing. Walter theorized that a recent software update could have disabled the firewalls leaving their security exposed.

At Santa Clarita Cabe and Sly located a trailer that held the computer that sent the email. The place was rigged to send it without anyone being there. They had a head start but now the media had picked up on what’s happened; soon panic will begin to spread. Gabe lamented that they have no clues but that’s when Sly saw something that might help.

Back at Lipsger Walter analyzed the software registry and detected that someone tampered with the system during a certain period of time. If they could track the signal the ghost code and whoever did this they would be able to resort the supply. A system shutdown would have been known by a lot of organizations and they would have to start hitting up all the people that would have known. Walter discovered it was a bug that scrambled the system and ended up sending the wrong blood to hospitals. If they could find the algorithm that de-scrambles the code they’ll be able to figure out what happens.

Meanwhile back in Santa Clarita Sly theorized that because of a bullet hole in a shed they might be able to get a rudimentary photo of the car that was parked by the trailer. The hole had created a pinhole camera and the fertilizer stored there turned the metal into a piece of photo paper. They took the piece of tin to the garage and they used coffee and lemon juice to develop the film. Sure enough there was a picture of the car and license plate.

The car was registered to the owner of Wilcox Pharma and one of the people notified of the shut down. The company among other things produced a vaccine for the virus affecting the supply. So there’s motive. His research developed a cure just when the virus was eradicated and so he created a demand for his product. Chances were that he wasn’t going to confess so they had to find the algorithm in a different way. They needed to get to know him to see which digits had meaning to him.

The cardiologist called and they needed to operate on Olivia but if the blood reserved for her got to the federal lab there wouldn’t be a chance to save her. So they had to continue hacking Wilcox’s brain.

The man called a press conference and they rushed over to look for a tell. The man started pimping his vaccine and they played to his ego. The conference revealed to Toby that he had been brewing on this for a while thirty years to be exact. Also it revealed that it had to do with a traumatic event with his parents. It turned out that they had a major financial crash that put his family on the street. The doctor called then they needed to start the surgery. Time was running out and that’s when they boys finally found the magic number. Their debt to the bank.

The number worked to de-scramble the barcodes but Olivia’s bags were already on the transport to the federal lab so… they had to steal the blood. The team set out for Bakersfield to intercept the truck but the SUV wasn’t tall enough so they got the trailer that they found in Santa Clarita. The thing is slower than the truck but they fashioned a bridge to climb over. Walter scurried to the other side and got inside the transport located and took three bags just in case. But the driver picked up speed and they lost the bridge. Walter had to toss the blood bags to them which turned out to be a draw of luck on his abilities as he lost only one of the bags. They had to rush because Olivia only had forty-five minutes. Walter jumped to the other side in a risky move that proved that white men and nerds can jump.

Back at the hospital Olivia was hemorrhaging but Walter got there just in time. The surgery went well but they had to wait twelve hours to see if the body would accept the heart. The team waited together with the mother until Olivia woke up. The woman was very appreciative of this little family she’s taken on. Olivia talked to Walter to thank him for saving her and he reminded her that they’re the same because they’re different and it’s good to be different. He recommended that she keeps studying and she will but she wants to break in her new heart as well.

Wilcox went to jail. Sly got rejected yet again from another TV show because he’s too intelligent. And that’s when Walter remembered that he had the card from the cooky lawyer. Maybe he could help Sly sue these people over discrimination. The team was tired and wanted to leave but Toby wanted to finish the Scorpion Olympics. So they sucked it up and actually engaged in a round of surfboard bowling… Walter was about to leave them to go to work but then realized his place was with the team. He has to make every second count.

At last some progress for Walter O’Brien. I’m happy that we’re breaking away from his penchant to being a robot and I’m happy that he’s doing so by understanding that not only is he missing out on life but people are also missing out on him.

In an episode that was mostly plot driven I was glad to see that they’re still finding a way to hit the right points when it comes to keeping interesting sciency moments and the humor that identifies this show. Quintis continues to progress the family sense is stronger and so we’ll continue to see what this progress will be faced with next week.