Scorpion: The Cuban Extraction

Warning: Spoiler Alert

Walter reluctantly and obstinately meets with a lawyer to discuss a strategy for Walter’s part in the car accident that almost took his life and cost the city dearly. Walter rejects the plea bargain his lawyer has presented. Walter claims he was not in an ’emotional’ state at the time of the accident. Walter still refuses to accept that he is susceptible to emotional influence.

Happy has ‘benched’ Toby makes Toby restless. Or at least his mind restless. He redirects his attention to Sylvester who is trying to express his feelings to Megan in a card. Toby is all too pleased to commit his attention to providing Sylvester with a ‘therapy day’. One that Sylvester desperately does not want.

In walks a small blonde with a noticeable eastern European or Russian accent. She looks glowingly towards Cabe. We discover that 20 years ago Cabe Gallo rescued this small child from the ravages of genocide. I’m not going to lie, for half a heart beat I wanted to believe that his daughter never actually died. But this was too abrupt and out of character of the show for that to be the case. Speaking of cases, Sonya (the girl turned lady from Cabe’s past) has done her homework. She wants the men responsible for killing her entire village brought to justice, and has a relative plan to do it. General Zorich may very well be the top of the food chain and Sonya knows his present location.

Interpol and The Hague will not levy an international warrant without DNA proof. Sonya has secured a bloody uniform in the hopes of matching said DNA. Next big part of the plan is an electronic ledger. A record of everything. Get a statistical match on Zorich’s DNA, get the ledger, put away 24 agents of genocide.

Sylvester: Are you suggesting that we extract a known war criminal out of a communist country?
Cabe: That’s what I’m suggesting, yes.

Cabe attempts to shore up support for this mission by appealing to Director Molina. She watches a video, nods her head then says no. But while she’s saying no, she quietly moving around the room. Removing a recording device from her lan line phone, closing the blinds, etc. Then she changes her tune. Typical black ops debrief. Do it, but if you’re caught the United States government will disavow any knowledge of your mission. As for how to get in and out, she knows a guy.

The guy she knows is a former drug runner with a plane. An idea that Sylvester is not at all comfortable with, but, it’s about to get much worse for him. It’s clear that this Sonya is almost the anti-Walter, nothing drives her other than emotion. Then Sylvester gets his next bit of bad news. They are about to make the drop.

Sylvester: I’m not going. I can’t do this. You go on without me.
Cabe: Son, have I ever put you in an unsafe situation?
Sylvester: All the time.
Cabe: Then you should be used to it.

The team emerges from the ocean like an awkward scene from a James Bond movie. Walter reaches land first and slowly turns in time to see Paige walking behind him wringing out her hair and looking rather ‘clingy’. Walter goes through about 4 facial expressions before she looks up to say, “what?”

He quickly collects himself and tries to brush it off, deflecting towards something he would almost never say. Just then an official truck pulls up. It appears to be Federales, but we learn that these were some other guys Director Molina knows. Double agents there to assist team Scorpion.
Both teams are in position when Zorich appears. One of the Cubans gets out of the other truck. As he walks away, Cabe and Walter watch to see what he’s trying to do. Then in a flash, the entire truck the Cuban team was in explodes, completely engulfed in flames.

The team convenes in a nearby hotel room. Toby, Happy and Sylvester reflect on the predicament of being trapped in a communist dictatorship with 1955 technology. Cabe walks in to announce that Adriana Molina is true to her word, they are officially on their own. All Sonya can focus on is not missing this opportunity to get Zorich. Toby begins to profile Zorich while Sylvester cross references Toby’s criteria with the travel guide he just memorized. The target intercept is Ernesto’s, a two chair barbershop in the upscale town of Miramar.

Ernesto is diligent with a straight razor. While Zorich gets a shave, Happy has no luck extracting a blood sample from the shop’s drainage system. Ernesto doesn’t make mistakes. Getting the blood sample without stepping foot in the barbershop is a notion that gets thrown out pretty quickly. Inside as they sneak in, Walter and Cabe don’t notice Sonya sneak in behind them. With Ernesto out-of-the-way, she grabs the straight razor before either of the men can. Instead of slicing him ear to ear, she does just enough to get the blood sample. Walter tests the sample, identity confirmed. However, Sonya still has the blade at Zorich’s throat. That’s about the moment Zorich does some math.

Zorich (in Spanish): Ernesto, you must be tired my old friend. You’re slow today. And in three years you’ve never cut me before.

Zorich springs from the barber chair attempting to take on anyone and everyone in the room. He gives a valiant effort. He gains the upper hand momentarily. Walter, on his knees, uses his intellect to regain control of the situation. He spins the barber chair and the leg rest comes around knocking Zorich to the floor and knocking his gun loose. Walter picks it up and places Zorich under arrest under the authority of The Hague. Which he is not empowered to do just yet.

Cabe plays good cop trying to get Zorich to give up the location of the ledger. He doesn’t flinch, predictable for a criminal from a war/genocide type of scenario. Sonya lashes out again and Walter has to ask her to get her emotions in check. During Paige’s attempt to reel Sonya, the two find Walter picking flowers. This is to be used as part of a natural relaxing agent concocted by Toby. Later, Toby slides in to pry the info from Zorich. Zorich thinks he’s standing firm, but Toby reads the body language.

The ledger is in a bank. They have a typical plan. Walk Zorich in at gunpoint to open the safety deposit box. One problem. Toby’s flower cocktail mixed with Zorich’s prescriptions combines to make quite the sedative. The team is going to have to sneak in, all bank heist style. Walter and Happy create a device using an electrical saw, a wooden box and a cell phone which allows them to quietly open a hole in the roof directly above the vault. Once inside, Happy discovers that there is a secondary box that will require Zorich’s finger print scan.

Toby: Holy Bratwurst! I have an idea. Hold on ‘Hap’, I’m gonna save ya.

Using cigarette ash, a registration sticker, water, Zorich’s thumb and a street vender sausage they are able to transpose Zorich’s thumb print on a warm sausage. Inside the bank, Sylvester sees that Scorpion has made the Cuban news. The trick worked and Happy has the ledger. They begin to pull her back up through the hole when she is spotted by a bank manager. Makes little difference as the team escapes the town unscathed.

Using a Sylvester special shortcut, Cabe takes the 1980’s conversion van off-road right about the time Zorich wakes up from his flower induces haze. Going unnoticed, Zorich flings himself from the van. With the evac plane in sight, the team has to decide between a safe return home or getting Zorich. After their slight detour retrieving Zorich, they hustle to get to the plane in time. The team takes on police gunfire as the plane flies off to safety and ultimately back to the garage.

Toby: Another day, not another dollar, but somehow…I’m alright with it.
Paige: That’s because you’re a decent human being.
Toby: No…that can’t be it.

Walter asks for a moment with Paige where he tries to display how emotion almost killed the mission and logic saved it. She retorts with a lovely but somewhat sad anecdote about when she and Ralph got evicted once. Knowing she couldn’t lose it in front of Ralph, they walked until she stumbled upon a diner who was hiring. Long(ish) story short, there is a time and a place for emotion.

Toby (not wanting to be alone with himself) and Cabe go out for good old-fashioned American burgers. Toby shares that he’s felt pretty rotten since Happy put him on ice. Then Cabe points to something that should turn that frown upside down. The sight of Walter O’Brien picking up trash off the side of the road in a bright orange vest.

Here’s a little spoiler, well…episode math if nothing else. During Walter’s trash collection community service event, he meets a man who is also tending to this detail. The man’s name is Ray Spiewack who is played by Kevin Weisman. You may know Mr. Weisman from about a million guest star appearances on a million different shows. But I remember him most notably from Clerks 2, as the guy defending the Lord of the Rings to Randall. A slight rule of thumb. If you can visually recognize the guest star, you can take it to the bank that his stint with the show will last longer than the 30 seconds he was on-screen tonight. According to IMDB, Kevin Weisman will stick around for 5 episodes. The scope of his character should be temporarily significant. Anything beyond that would be speculation on my part.