Warning: Spoiler Alert
Happy is still treating Toby like his date night mistake was equal to the A-bomb over Hiroshima. The wealthy tech tycoon whose daughter was saved by Scorpion arrives with a gift. A rare engine part Walter needs for his rocket project. That, and a Ferrari Testarosa. A ‘loner’ gift that Happy believes comes with strings.
Ralph comes to the shop at Walter’s peak of giddiness. It was picture day at school so Ralph picked his outfit. Paige doesn’t see it yet. Then Toby asks Ralph to take off his jacket so that he won’t get grease on it. Then Happy suggests he roll up his sleeves. The camera pulls back to reveal that Ralph intentionally dressed himself so that he would look like Walter. It’s like Walter has a little ‘mini-me’.
Toby (to Paige): Congratulations. You’re raising Walter.
Paige: Oh God.
The mission centers around a lab the does research on very dangerous chemical agents. The lab is computerized to the hilt. If the trapped scientist keeps his helmet on, he’ll run out of oxygen. If he removes it, the Sarin gas they’ve released into the room will kill him. This is a negotiation. The party behind the hack, wants all pertinent information released about the 1997 Baghdad bombings. The same bombings that Walter inadvertently aided in and Cabe wants to keep buried.
The hacker gave them ninety minutes to comply or “something bad will happen”. While they try to regroup, the time ran out. Our guy with little oxygen, loses all of it. His fiance, another scientist on the other side of the glass had the privilege of watching her future husband pull off his helmet and die of Sarin Gas poisoning in a matter of seconds.
The new solution is to release all of the documents, without the President’s involvement, pertaining to the Baghdad bombings. This will inevitably create a big problem for Walter as he doesn’t have all of the information from the Baghdad bombings. The big missing piece is that Cabe was informed that the software Walter designed was to be used for dropping bombs not food and supplies, three days before it happened. Just knowing that and not disclosing it to Walter until now is visibly a huge problem for Walter, as we would have assumed it would be.
Cabe: Walter, say something…
Walter: If you’re finished, I have a job to do.
Sarah (the fiance scientist) finds the source of the problem. The hard lines have been cut. This was an inside job. This discovery causes Sarah to ‘lose it’. Cabe jumps on the phone and starts throwing around the word trust. Not a great idea considering what Walter is now dealing with. Walter explodes like he hasn’t before this point. What he ultimately says to Merrick, shakes the entire team.
Walter (talking to Dir. Merrick): I want Cabe Gallo off of Scorpion or I quit.
They have pinpointed the inside man. He has access to the Sarin, video surveillance and lost his fiance 16 years ago when a certain piece of software designed by a kid was used to bomb his town. Cabe has left the room, but Walter won’t let it go and it is beginning to affect his decision-making and the clarity of this thinking.
The next step is to send a pair down to access the natural gas within the building, shut it down, so they can get in through the incinerator. Paige runs out to appeal to Walter. They need Cabe for this. Walter resists, but Paige’s logic wins out. This ought to get interesting. Sylvester is able to cut off the gas. Covered in fire suits and holding magnets in their hands, Walter and Cabe try to descend the incinerator. Then remotely the gas is turned back on. All the while Cabe and Walter keep arguing. As they try to climb out, Cabe’s magnets start to lose their strength and Cabe begins slipping downward.
Feeling he is ‘part of the team’ only because Walter told him so, Ralph has snuck out of school and made his way on site.
Once inside Walter changes the role. Walter will address the bad guy face to face and Cabe will have to get the hostages out. Cabe disagrees with the plan but complies. In addition, Walter was able to get the control of the building’s computers back to Sylvester. While Cabe tends to the hostages, Walter approaches the room with the trigger man.
Walter claims to be from SWAT, which forces the hand of our bad guy. He runs to manually release the Sarin Gas. Walter yells out that he is who this man wants. Walter killed his fiance. Then Walter explains how he designed the tracking software for the bombs.
With Ralph stuck in a police cruiser, he decides to use the police issue computer and hack his the Chief of Police’s texts, sending the policemen standing nearby to vacate, quickly. Then Ralph, feeling like a part of the team, breaks into the building. Moments later, Sylvester first but more importantly Paige, see Ralph running in the building.
With Walter at gunpoint, Cabe with the hostages, and now Ralph trying to plug the incinerator hole to prevent the Sarin from billowing out into the Los Angeles air, Merrick attempt to evacuate all personnel. Sylvester refuses to budge. In the incinerator vent, Ralph is able to take the Happy Fun Guy action figure that Sylvester gave him and seal the hole. Problem is, Paige is not interested in plugging the hole. Only to get Ralph out.
As Walter is being led towards the exit, he keeps repeating “no more bloodshed because of Baghdad”. As they reach the door, Walter says “I’m not talking about my life, I’m talking about yours”, then shoves the guy, cuts the wires nearby and leaps out of the sliding glass doors just before they close again. The mastermind behind this plot of revenge just keeps shooting towards Walter at bulletproof gas. Then Walter watches as the Sarin Gas deprives the man of his life.
By pulling the wires upon his escape, Walter reset the system. That includes the gas for the incinerator. Watching Ralph slip slowly, Paige demands Toby and Happy lower down. Once lifted to safety, Paige does what all Mothers do and yells at her child with the tone of fear. Ralph simply replies with, “I’m part of the team”.
Merrick and Walter speak about his ‘personnel change’ but the details of that conversation are not given to the viewers. Cabe follows soon after. Thinking maybe that the success of the job might have cooled Walter’s head, Cabe tries to lighten the mood. Walter isn’t fazed. Cabe then offers his resignation from Scorpion, effective immediately.
Paige returns to HQ and asks for a word with Walter. Walter thinks this is about Cabe’s removal. Walter reminds Paige that she is the one that keeps this team together, not Cabe. To which she replies, “I don’t think I can be a part of this team anymore”. What follows is an emotional exchange that at least I didn’t think I’d see from either one of them prior to this episode. Paige is going to recommend that Drew take a pitching job in Maine, Paige and Ralph will move to Maine with him. Walter let’s her leave.
Walter: I don’t need her and I don’t need Cabe.
Walter grabs the keys to the Ferrari and takes off. Racing faster and faster around curves in the Los Angeles night sky. Eventually driving the Ferrari off the road and down what must have been a ravine at minimum. Credits.
