Scorpion: Paige Has A Dream, Walter Becomes An Action Hero

Courtesy of CBS

Warning: Spoiler Alert

We start tonight’s episode in a way that I’ve been hoping for, well for a while. Paige is upright in her bed. She’s talking to someone we must assume is a man off camera. She goes into ‘not letting this affect Ralph’. At this point we assume the he off camera has to be Walter. It has to be. Then she says Drew’s name. Then I repeat, “don’t be Drew, don’t be Drew” at my own television. Then Walter walks out in a bathrobe. He drops a line about her thinking about him, then she startles herself awake. Shippers Rejoice!

Paige arrives at Scorpion HQ frazzled. She mentions a dream to which Walter replies, “about what?” She acts like she doesn’t remember. Walter says a piece about how the mind intentionally suppresses the memory to protect us from bad dreams.

Paige: What does it mean when you remember a dream vividly?
Walter: It means we enjoyed it.

Cabe walks in just in time to see Paige attempt charades only to have all three geniuses in the room guess it before she even finishes. They have a case, but this time it’s not Homeland. It’s the CIA. Someone they can’t identify has leaked something they also can’t identify. Any investigation by the CIA would be futile, as everyone working for the CIA is connected to the CIA and using their own encryption won’t work.

Sylvester cracks the encryption and it reveals a very out-of-place message. “A minute away from you is a lifetime. I love you with all my heart. Soon we’ll be together, B-O-O” While everyone is trying to figure out the acronym for “BOO”, Paige wants to believe its just a pet name. The next step is to visit the local LA CIA office and snoop around.

There we find our team being introduced to some new CIA toys. One of which is a lock stick. A hand-held stick not much larger than chap stick that will unlock any lock. Happy replies with, “all I need is a paper clip”. The CIA lady is not impressed. She moves onto a pair of gloves that allow a person to scale any wall (including glass). The lady looks at Toby and says “cat suit not included”. To which Toby replies, “do you own a cat suit?” Her expression is flirty at minimum. Happy is not exactly thrilled with that. And yet another shipper plot line is included.

Their CIA handler walks them through the halls and informs them that they brought in their top agents, Scorpion has carte blanche. That’s when Walter interjects that the top agents are out doing the exciting work, traveling the world. The leak didn’t come from one of the “cool kids”, they need to look at those responsible for the grunt work. Those in a thankless position. They need to see the basement. Sylvester looks down into the pit. “Ahh, our people.”

While Toby attempts to profile the coders, and is unsuccessful, Paige suggests that maybe the code isn’t really a code. Maybe someone is actually in love. Toby takes that and runs with it. Paige suggests checking into anyone who has a tendency to take off Fridays or Mondays suggesting a long romantic weekend. Toby snaps back into it revealing that one guy has taken off five Fridays and appears to have had a manicure.

With this ‘Leonard’ transported to Scorpion HQ, the interrogation begins. His story is that he stole chemicals to be sent to Yemen to make and use pesticides in order to feed millions of starving people. And why not? He would help this woman do anything, because they are in love. Not exactly the answer that will endear him to Walter.

The chemicals are phosphorous tri-chloride and liquid transmethopurpolaxium (I am positive I misspelled that one). And a third one he has not sent that I won’t even attempt to spell. All three of which combine to create a pesticide. One problem. The short answer is that by modifying these chemicals only slightly creates a very easily weaponized nerve gas. Leonard is so caught up in his own puppy love that he refuses to believe that this woman (Sima) used him.

Toby walks past Paige while they talk about a voice modifier that Walter made when he was a kid. Toby says out loud, “the heart wants what it wants”. This struck a nerve with Paige considering her ‘dream’ and asks Toby for his assistance. She tells him only as much as she’s willing to tell. Toby responds by telling her that she’s leaving vital information out and that he can’t help until she shares everything. She looks at him expressionless and walks away.

Walter’s software will translate his words so that they sound like Leonard’s words. The plan is to call her and set up a ‘date’. The one snag is that Walter will speak to her as if he is scheduling an appointment, not making a date. Paige quickly snatches the phone away and begins to speak to Sima as if she were Leonard. Here’s the funny part, Walter is horrible but Paige is almost equally so on the other end of the spectrum. Whether it’s the excitement of Paige getting the job done or the suggestive sexual undertones, Toby and Sylvester are quietly rooting her on like they had money riding on a football game.

The ‘date’ is only the beginning. Someone needs to impersonate Marvin, a person Paige made up during the call. Circumstances being what they are, that will fall to Walter. So now Paige is compelled to teach Walter just enough about being romantic to not ruin the op.

Painful doesn’t quite cover it. The truly majestic part of this show is how spot on the acting is when applied to the role of a genius. Paige is trying to flirt with Walter, for the op’s sake, and Walter just isn’t picking up what she’s putting down. She then moves onto what to expect when she ‘touches’ him. Walter is confident he can handle it, but Paige wants to be sure. Or she’s just really enjoying acting out these scenarios as a way to test drive Walter.

Paige gets closer and closer, moving up his torso until her hands and face are inches from his. Walter keeps saying he can handle it, but let’s be honest, at this point they are both living out some sort of small fantasy they have for each other and are afraid of acting on under the context of ‘its for the mission’. Sylvester looks on like a single woman watching The Notebook for the first time.

Walter sits at a hotel bar alone while the team are in the van. Sima approaches and Toby upon seeing what she looks like is not confident that Walter can pull this off. Sima suggests he buy her a drink. But he’s drinking water. Luckily Paige is in his coms and walking him through this word for word. Sylvester walks up to the bar. At that moment the meat heads watching the football game yell about a poor play call.

Sylvester: That was an ineffective choice.

Somewhere between Sylvester scanning Sima’s key card through her purse and Happy and Toby racing off to check her hotel room, Walter started free lancing, telling math jokes. They continue their small talk and Sima extends her hand and runs it up his thigh. DANGER!

Happy can’t pick the lock to the hotel room. Toby has an idea. The CIA lady gave him the gecko gloves that will allow a person to climb up glass. Happy is not thrilled but plays along. She begins to scale the building and seems genuinely impressed with the tech. Then Toby, while staring says something he probably shouldn’t.

Toby: There’s a full moon out tonight…
Happy: Not funny.

Sima begins to move a little quicker. She gets Walter to remove his jacket in the hopes of checking it for his security card. When she doesn’t find it, she assumes its in his pants, so she suggests they go up to her room. Happy is still scaling the wall when Sylvester shows up. The mere sight of a friend hanging on to a wall by her hands sends Sylvester into a panic. Rightfully so as one of the gloves stops working leaving Happy dangling by one hand. The only plan is to use her one working glove and swing. Create enough momentum that she might land on the adjoining balcony. Which she is actually able to do with less difficulty that expected.

Sylvester: Uhhhhh. How did she pull that off?
Toby: Because she’s Happy freaking Quinn.

With Happy inside checking for chemicals, Walter and Sima ride the elevator to Sima’s room. Paige tells Walter he needs to stall. Imagine the expression on the face of a child about to kiss a girl for the first time and intensify the awkwardness and you might be close to what Walter looks like in this elevator.

They approach the room door and Happy is still not out yet. With few options, Happy is frozen. Sima opens the door and Walter is staring right at Happy. He does the only thing he can to prevent Sima from noticing Happy. He pulls her aside and kisses her next to the doorway. Which is surprising to everyone, but appears to mean something else to Paige.

Paige: Oh. My. God.

In the hotel room, this is getting steamier than I ever would have expected from this show. Not complaining though. Meanwhile Happy, Toby, and Cabe get to a storage facility that corresponds to a key Happy found in the hotel room. Inside is a lone refrigerator. Happy opens the door and finds the chemicals they are looking for. One problem. There is a red light in the middle of the freezer. A pressure sensor that has tripped an alarm. Sima now facing Walter from his lap strikes him in the head with the butt of a gun. She removes his coms and can hear Paige’s voice.

Walter wakes up handcuffed to a seat in what appears to be a very nice private jet. A deal has been struck, apparently. She gets all three chemicals and Walter gets to go home. Cabe is willing to comply if it means getting Walter back. On the plane everything goes according to plan until Sima realizes that Leonard isn’t there. Ultimately she shoots Cabe in the chest and kicks him (literally) off the plane, keeping Walter as collateral until they reach neutral airspace. Cabe was wearing another bit CIA tech. A shirt that uses electricity to prevent bullets from penetrating.

On board Cabe slipped Walter that ‘open any lock stick’. He unlocks the cuffs and goes full on MacGuyver. While Sima is not looking he grabs scotch, a fire extinguisher, and a couple other seemingly random items. He begins spilling the scotch all over the wall closest to him. He secures the chemicals just as Sima notices his movements. She asks “what are you doing?” He throws a Zippo lighter towards the wall. It ignites the area and blows a hole in the wall of the plane.

The jolt knocks Sima and the pilot unconscious. The pilot was bearing down on the throttle so the plane is not slowing down. Happy hot wires one of those drivable airport stairs and begins to gun it for the plane. Walter’s concern is the chemicals not his own safety. And idea that Sylvester is naturally not alright with since it involves Walter throwing the chemicals off of a racing plane. Despite his concern, Sylvester is able to securely catch the bag. After falling a bit.

Sima jumps Walter from behind. Using a small knife tries to cut him. Kind of silly actually, considering her role in this, she should be more concerned with securing the chemicals not seeking revenge on the guy that blew a hole in the plane. Walter thinks quickly and jams the small knife in an electrical outlet in the floorboard, electrocuting Sima steadily.

With Sima subdued, again, Walter makes his way out to the wing. Walter then leaps from the wing to the driving stairs. He hangs on but dangles. Sylvester and Toby pull him up.

In the aftermath, Walter has a hard time wrapping his head around the idea that Sima actually loved Leonard and was willing to risk her own safety and freedom to have him. The bad news is that Walter keeps spouting off about love being something that isn’t ‘real’ within earshot of Paige.

All is not lost on the Walter-Paige shipping plot line. Tending to Walter’s wounds, Toby asks, “when did we become action heroes?”  After Toby patched Walter up, Walter offered to read Ralph a story. Robo-Spies issue #1. Walter sits down close to Ralph and begins to read just as Paige walks around the corner and is given the visual of her son with a father figure that Drew can’t live up to. Then Toby walks up and attempts to give Paige advise on her dream again by using Sima as an example. Sima’s most important thing was getting those chemicals back to her country. And she threw it all away for love.

Toby: What’s your most important thing?
Paige: Ralph.
Toby: Then this is my advice. Whatever thoughts you’re having about Drew…or anyone else, you ask yourself, could this hurt Ralph? Then you take care of your most important thing.
(a small smile forms in the corners of her mouth)

For at least the sixth time this episode, Paige says something to Walter that suggests she wants him to acknowledge that love might just not be silly. And every time he misses the hint. As he’s laying into the absurdity of affections for another person, he finds himself stroking Ralph’s hair while he sleeps. Walter feels that connection for Ralph, and he may just be opening the door that what he feels for Ralph is more than a genius commonality. There is a subtle hesitation when he notices this looking at Paige.

Walter: Oh, and Paige, could you record a new outgoing message on the machine?
Paige: Sure, why?
Walter (looking down to avoid the awkwardness): Nothing. Just, realized recently what a nice voice you have.