Courtesy of CBS
Warning: Spoiler Alert
The team takes on a new task. One decidedly outside their comfort zone. However, if done well, it could buy them some breathing room with the people above Agent Gallo.
Needless to say, the op did not go as planned. But as Walter points out, had the situation been handled professionally and not militarily (with the acronyms and mild rookie or civilian hazing) they would have been successful by about 25 seconds or so. But in typical by the book commanding officer presented with an outside the box solution form, the director of Homeland Security sees this as an angle to bench Scorpion.
There is a bomb explosion, which Homeland Security always responds to bombs. But, Scorpion is “on ice”. I get the sneaking suspicion that this is about to become more than a bombing and thus require the services of Walter’s team. Anyone who is familiar with the term “fire sale” as it relates to hypothetical cyber terrorism, will know exactly where this is headed. The bombing takes out the internet from LA to Scottsdale. Then Walter articulates how this will have a ripple effect that will stop finances, communication even traffic.
The team makes every effort to not only convince Cabe but this new “FSG” agent as well, to no avail. So instead of sitting this one out, the move forward. As the saying goes, it’s always easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. Problem is if this goes south, it may be over.
Happy notices a specific key chain. Toby recognizes its origin as he lost $4,000 on a turtle race there. It’s not critical to the story as of yet, so I’ll leave that one alone for now.
Walter (on the phone with Ralph turns to Paige): Any dreams of him making a team or being in student council, its um…not gonna happen.
Paige: I thought you told me he’d eventually fit in.
Walter: Yeah, he will. Just not in school.
Toby: I know she’s sweet and you think she can help but purely from an analytical point of view, what exactly is her purpose here?
Walter: Take it easy. Sylvester, come on, help me out here.
Sylvester:…She’s pretty.
They have followed the clues to locate the bombers location. They believe they’ve found him in an apartment across from the beach. Happy creates a device using a small guitar amp, duct tape and a dingy umbrella to pick up on sounds to verify that there is a person in the apartment. The guy exits and sees the team looking ‘odd’. He bolts and Happy gives chase. Well in some way they all (minus Sylvester whose frozen by fear) give chase. Eventually the guy pulls a gun and points it toward Walter’s car. Then he gets hit by a city bus.
Back at Scorpion HQ , Paige has a one on one with Walter about the previously transcribed conversation about her. The long and short of it is, they may be right most of the time but if they don’t start listening to her this arrangement is going to fall apart. Probably at the hands of Homeland Security.
Gallo arrives with some evidence that he nor the FSG agent can make heads or tails of. Gallo is visibly unnerved by what they’ve been able to do to this point. Like a father to grounded kids, he stays stern and they give answers only as long as is required. Happy breaks down some interesting details in the equipment (mechanical) used to set the bomb and that there will be others. And based on the screen shot after explosions are heard, at least 3 maybe 4 just went off.
Inside there is genius chaos. Theories and speculation and the often timid Paige figuratively punches the tough guy on the school yard. She puts her foot down by explaining something very basic in a logic they all will understand. And just like that, she goes from chaperone to a productive member of the team. This should make for a nice warm moment later.
The team has begun to make progress and surmised that the bombings have been executed as a means to destroy the origin of an email. The storage site for said email. And eventually the shadow file of said email. Toby somehow figures out which router hub holds the email shadow file. When the access it Walter begins to read it. He gets out ‘former FSG agent’, the name of the current FSG agent we’ve already come to know and surveillance of the White House before Gallo tells him to stop reading.
Gallo explains the ‘black’ nature of the FSG and its lack of oversight. He plans to turn this file over to the Department of Justice when Happy hears a noise. By crawling through the air ducts she discovers a bomb. They will need to evacuate the building immediately. Toby and Paige go floor to floor while Gallo and Sylvester leave for the DOJ.
At the precise moment that Gallo is trying to convince Sylvester that there is no such governmental conspiracy they are t-boned by what looks like the same vehicle in a different color. Would you like to wager a guess as to that vehicle belongs to? That’s right, FSG Agent d-bag.
Inside, Walter and Happy have few options. This bomb is going off like it or not. But Happy figures out a way, using janitor supplies and salt packets, to place the bomb in a spackle like substance and if it hardens fast enough it could minimize the casualties.
Side note. Sylvester crawled under a car to retrieve the agents gun. That perplexes me on more than one level.
In between RV’s Gallo and the FSG agent break out into a street fight. And just as it appears that Gallo would lose the upper hand, shots ring out. It’s a bloody nosed Sylvester to save the day.
Paige, Happy and Toby wait at the entrance for Walter to run out. You’re expecting to see him any minute, but before he can there is an explosion and smoke billows out with significant force. Walter trudges out amidst the cloud as if he were some sort of nerdy superhero.
Back at HQ, it appears all is lost and Keening (FSG agent) will be released. Until Sylvester offers up some info that could put him away long-term. Sometimes you see something, a small detail, and discard it. When Walter began to download the shadow file, Sylvester was standing behind him. He was reading over Walter’s shoulder and I let that pass as if it were non-essential information. As it turns out Sylvester was able to memorize the entire message. All of it.
Maybe the most important detail of this show thus far is an admission made by Gallo. Walter inquires about his concerns with the team. Gallo offers up some background that we were not aware of. Gallo was not promoted. He was inches from forced retirement. He needs this team to work so he can ‘remove some blood from his ledger’. Just wondering what Agent Romanoff would have to say about stealing that line, but that’s just a TV/Movie joke.
While I enjoy literally 99.998% of this show, sometimes you gotta pump the brakes. “Rock You Like A Hurricane” by the Scorpions as the theme song of the Team Scorpion on an episode called “Cyclone” is a bit much.
