Warning: Spoiler Alert
Ralph is trying to play a rather violent game with his mother’s laptop in the wee hours of the night when he’s supposed to be sleeping. His game looks eerily familiar to the previous scene when a snitch and two government agents were taken out by a sniper. Just tuck that away for the moment.
At HQ, Walter is attempting to do something to a very large rocket booster. Ralph arrives and is immediately hooked by what Walter is doing. A great opportunity to skip school and help Walter. When Ralph is pulled away, Toby inquires as to Walter’s motivation. Suggesting that it is only in part about the research for MS that could be bought with 50 million dollars. And that on some level it’s done to impress Ralph and by some extension Paige.
Paige takes Ralph to school and he resists the idea of hanging out with his Dad in place of working on the rocket. Then you hear a familiar sound. The sound of wheels cut too hard. This is where the government agents swoop in and take Ralph. The video game thing was a tell. The government agency is the Department of Justice. It would have been too convenient to be Homeland Security.
With Ralph and Paige in custody, my first question is why haven’t they called or at least dropped Cabe Gallo’s name yet? Okay. So let’s attempt to get this straight. CIA safe house schematics and location were somehow written into an online video game. Those details were found in a deep-rooted and all but unhackable coding in the game. Two people out of thousands got through the encryption. The drug cartel and Ralph. So now the DOJ believes that Ralph must have had access to top-secret CIA intel or designed the game. Granted, I have the benefit of watching every minute of every episode to this point, but what do you think the probability is that the DOJ agent is barking up two trees and both are wrong? Also, this story line may expeditiously test Walter’s theory about not having emotions.
Walter and Cabe arrive while Mr. DOJ is aggressively grilling Ralph. Ralph admits that Walter showed him the encryption to get to where he could ‘stumble upon’ this dark site. Cabe interrupts the interrogation and Paige, puts this on Walter. Paige’s maternal instincts kick in and she refuses to see the intrigue and allure this would present to a young genius and chooses to focus on the unforeseen risk. Then Drew swoops in. Just when you think the scales are starting to lean the other way.
Here’s where the game begins. The DOJ is getting aggressive and doing of government agencies do when they think they have the answer. Like a hammer to a nail. Cabe won’t let Walter just ‘clear things up’. Instead Ralph is released to Paige’s custody under the responsibility of Cabe. Walter and the team have to solve the case in order to exonerate Ralph. I would like to point out that Paige is being unfairly harsh about this. I am a father of a small child and while his safety is paramount, I can’t understand adding grief and stress to the one person who can actually fix it.
When asked if he helped to design the game, Ralph’s answer was in the negative and prompt. That as it turns out was an important detail. In actuality, the designer communicated to Ralph through a chat room about the quality of the game. Something that often happens on the dark sites for beta version games. Ralph said it was too easy. Then the creator changed the game. Thus, making it appear as it Ralph was responsible in some capacity to help create the game. While the team wraps their head around just how bad this may be, the come to the conclusion that the game designer is the only one who can verify that Ralph’s comments were innocent. Then Toby insulted the designer’s game in a chat room and drew him out.
The last transmission places his whereabouts in what I can only describe as a Comicon for gamers. Cabe looks like a federal agent and they need someone to hold their wallets so credit cards and identity doesn’t get scanned. He looks like the Dad that got stuck holding everyone’s bags while the kids go on a roller coaster.
The last ‘ping’ places the designer inside a VIP tournament. The only way to gain access is to get “30 dino-kills in 10 seconds” apparently something that is virtually impossible. As the team begin to feel despair, Sylvester asks if all of his friends can get in if he can do it. To the team’s amazement, he does it. 33 in 10 seconds. A great ‘drop the mic’ moment. They all go in and the lady guarding the door, amazed, leans in and asks Happy if that was “El Guapo”?
Inside this tournament the team struggles to find their perp. One of the participants won’t take his eyes off of Toby after touching his hand to his ear like an agent would. Using a clever little trick, Toby gets everyone except our designer to remove his red cape. The man in the red cape tries to flee but the commotion caused gives Cabe a moment to collect himself before clothes-lining the guy with a fake battle-ax.
Cabe begins the interrogation. At first, he is convincing as the “wrong guy”. But then Cabe mentions the hacking of the CIA mainframe at Langley and the kid reveals that he knows something. Apparently there is a partner. Of course there is. This partner though, could lead to bigger things. The game and Nate (the designer) are a trojan horse and a patsy. This partner must have used the game as a way to hide the stole CIA intel, used Nate as the patsy and given the CIA information to a buyer. Namely the drug cartel.
Most of the team return pushing in a safe. There was no tech of any kind at this partner’s apartment. They need to crack the safe. Toby fails miserably so they bring in Happy. She uses a glass of water to help find the combinations. Inside is a portable hard drive with the games backups.
Nate, now knowing he has been played for a bigger goal in mind is more than happy to assist in a confession. They drive to where they believe the partner to be. And wire Nate. Nate does as well as he can under the circumstances. Calvin is not his name. This Calvin has a huge rap sheet. Nate is in over his head. Calvin (the partner) says he needs a smoke. They head to the back where Calvin stabs Nate.
Calvin is in the wind. A quick look around and Walter believes they are in the game. Write what you know. In this case, the surrounding area is level one of this game. The best possible way to get Calvin is to have Ralph play the game again.
Inside the game, Ralph is able to guide them to the hidden entrance. Once inside, everything is exactly like the game. Then Calvin hits Cabe from a dark corner with a pipe. Meanwhile Happy is driving Nate to the hospital, fast. Toby is in the back. He uses a tampon to apply pressure and stop the bleeding. Which works, but too well. He needs to get Nate’s heart going again. He does so believe it or not with a battery-powered set of jumper cables. Once they arrive, he gives the nurse the medical terminology for what’s happening and what is needed. He may have actually found a way to gain Happy’s attention.
Toby: I’m rocking so much adrenaline right now my blood is basically Red Bull.
Happy: Impressive.
Walter is following Ralph’s instructions to the letter. The sun has set so the benefit of light is gone. Walter has to trust Ralph implicitly. There is a hesitation, but he does and Ralph is right. Walter was able to detain Calvin.
Everything seems to be coming together for a happy ending. Happy shows up holding a tablet and looks right at Toby when she says, “we have a celebrity in our midst”. Toby thinks she’s referencing the maneuvers in the van. Instead, she is referring to “El Guapo”. Apparently, a young Sylvester was quite the gamer.
Naturally, Drew is at it again. Drew using this situation as leverage to lure Paige and Ralph to Portland away from Scorpion. The problem is he can’t see it for what it is. He misinterprets Ralph gravitating towards Walter as growing up too fast. Walter makes every effort to fix the aftermath. But from the look in Paige’s eyes that won’t be up to Walter. It seems like she has made up her mind and to read her body language you’d think that would favor Walter over Drew if it came to that. And it should, but that’s just my two cents.
