Courtesy of CBS
Warning: Spoiler Alert
An older man and a younger man board a moderately sized boat. They get to a spot on the open water. The boat explodes.
To reward the team for their continued hard work, Walter bought them a gift. I think it was delivered in the same crate as Ralphie’s dad’s (A Christmas Story)’major award’. It’s an original stand up arcade game of with some incredible intrinsic value to them. Then Drew shows up to take Ralph to school. Before he does, he wants to have a word with Walter.
In my recapping of this show I have shared a familiarity with some of the subject matter. Going back a few episodes when Drew showed up, I mentioned how damaging this process is. Not because Ralph is a genius but because he’s being raised by a single mother. The vacant parent returns and everything becomes about that. Furthermore, everything becomes about how to keep that parent from ever leaving again. The moment Drew came back, my largest concern for Ralph was, what happens when something else comes up? It normally does. And when the opportunity presents itself and most of these once non-factor parents sees the opportunity, they generally leave again. It’s not their fault. In most of those cases, the child is not the priority. So the child takes a back seat to whatever is the priority.
Drew pulls Walter aside to thank him for the pitching demonstration they did the last episode. It has brought Drew and Ralph closer together. It also helped his delivery and now Drew has a tryout with a farm team in Portland, Oregon. To make matters worse, Drew expects Walter to keep this little secret between just them. Walter’s glare and my words pretty much articulate the same thought. What I said out loud and will not type here is a four word phrase that in most circles would be considered profanity, so I shall refrain.
Cabe decides to take Walter for a trip to a bagel shop. Really it’s just to give them a moment alone so that Cabe can address the current state of Ralph-Paige-Drew. Which quickly becomes something else when Cabe gets a code message text. It’s his ex-wife. She knows too much and someone is attempting to kill her.
Paige: You’re a ‘Cabe Whisperer’, I do the same thing for these guys.
CA 78 SE, which was the name of the file former Mrs. Gallo found actually stands for California 78th District Special Election. The man on the boat was a congressman and the explosion was an assassination.
Walter: Do you still have your ID?
Rebecca: I’m sure they deactivated it…
Walter: Oh, that’s right. You just met us.
Walter rigged the work ID and has made his way in the building. Rebecca dropped the flash drive with the file in a planter. Walter is currently staring at about ten different planters. The moment Walter sees the flash drive, he is addressed by company security. Cabe tells Walter to get out of there immediately. But Walter has grown a little risky in the last month or so. He’s eluded security long enough to grab the flash drive and escape into an office. Which is a short-term fix to a long-term problem. Outside the window is a window washer’s pulley cart. Walter begins to lower himself, but security killed the power to the motor. He does some quick calculations and is able to safely fall to Cabe’s SUV.
Happy, Sylvester and Toby make their way to the marina that holds the evidence of the explosion. After a fun little back and forth between Happy (posing as woman with Homeland Security named Cabe Gallo) with Toby in her ear she gets in and finds just the kind of tampering evidence they were hoping for. They return to Scorpion HQ to find it has been ransacked. Whoever is behind the assassination, attack on Rebecca is now on to them. They need to get ‘off grid’.
Cabe takes them out to almost literally the middle of nowhere. The off the grid ‘safe house’ is actually the house that Cabe and Rebecca shared and raised Amanda in before she died. Walter finds Rebecca and confronts her about the identity of this house. She then tries to tell Walter how much he means to Cabe. And in this moment of otherwise genius solve the case mode, Walter takes another tact. Walter takes the drive to Cabe. Tells him he only read the first line, but there are personal letters from Rebecca to Cabe dating back 15 years. He tries to give Cabe the flash drive.
Cabe finds Rebecca in a room. Considering where they are and what that means, it was a relatively pleasant conversation. Rebecca talks about Cabe today and how he reminded her of the man she fell in love with. Then this house. “And then this brought up all these old feelings. Like when I couldn’t count on you.” Then Walter busts through with news.
They have successfully tied assailant to the purchase of the boat hose to the company Rebecca works for. Time to go to the FBI. There is a scream in the distance. Someone was there slashed Cabe’s tires, grabbed Rebecca and took off. Cabe takes Happy around back where he has an old muscle car under a tarp. Cabe is clearly beginning to lose his cool. Then Walter does something, slightly unexpected from his character. A character that claims to be devoid of emotion. He reaches out to touch Cabe’s arm, look him in the eyes and says, “Cabe, we are going to find her.”
Sylvester hacks into traffic cams within a ten-mile radius around the house, then lay in a filter to help identify the red car. Cabe and Walter give chase in his old ’73 Le Mans. When they get close, they are spotted. A late maneuver sends Cabe’s car into the water buckets on the off ramp. Cabe gives Walter his badge and Walter commandeers a citizen’s car. They pursue again and find them again. Based on speeds and not knowing the destination, Walter decides to attempt a pin maneuver. Needless to say, it worked freakishly exactly the way it was supposed to.
Back at Scorpion HQ and Rebecca finds Cabe. They share things, honest things about the time that forced their split. Cabe even conceded that he abandoned her in a not so required post overseas. She says something about having a family now and we see Walter walk by looking on curiously. Turns to see Walter, then turns back to Cabe. “And so do you.”
Walter: You did right by her. She’s safe.
Cabe: You know, I always put my job before her. And the real shame of it is, the only thing I was ever better at than being a Fed, was being a father.
Walter: For what it’s worth, when I was young, you were like a father to me. Sometimes you still are.
Ralph returns to HQ just as Walter begins trying to fix the Proton Arnold game that Ralph was supposed to get first crack at. Then Drew interjects. As Ralph and Paige walk toward the exit, Drew says to Walter, “Just forget what we talked about earlier”. Claiming that maybe the Portland thing is not going to happen. Or that he may actually be actively focusing on what’s best for Ralph. Then, Drew actually invites Walter to dinner with them. Creating a very compelling sense of no threat. Walter cares about Ralph. Drew cares about Ralph. Walter presumably cares for Paige. Drew’s interest in Paige, beyond mother of his child, is as of yet undetermined.
