Courtesy of CBS
Warning: Spoiler Alert
Toby has still not warmed to Happy bringing her new fling around, throwing it in his face. But team Scorpion has bigger concerns. Namely, Deputy Director Kathleen Cooper. Director Molina no longer wants any part of interacting with Scorpion after last week’s reaction from Cabe Gallo. If you follow the ‘inside baseball’ aspect of network television, transitioning from Molina to Cooper was really not new information.
Cooper has a mission. A black ops mission that only requires three specific members of the team. She seems somewhat guarded and is not accustomed to the personality and approach of Scorpion. Operating under the sense of need to know, she is tight-lipped. It doesn’t take Toby long to piece together the big details of this mission just by reading Cooper’s reactions to things he says.
Cabe (to Cooper): Welcome to Scorpion.
Someone is intercepting communications from a Naval Nuclear Sub. Happy will need to build and extension of an arm on the sub to tap into, using Walter’s computer as the way into the mainframe, exactly who is listening. On-board we discover that Lt. Green from The Last Ship makes an appearance as an officer aboard this nuclear attack sub. He doesn’t exactly sign off on the team using their coms.
Happy accesses a device with the sub’s arm with ease. They attach the cable to the access port with ease. And Walter hacks the mainframe with ease. Those three things add up to something Walter is not comfortable with. It was too easy. His instincts are right as usual. Before they can get the go ahead to abort, what they thought was a listening device exploded. In short order they brace for impact as the sub makes impact with the ocean floor.
Naturally, the sub sitting on the ocean floor is not the big problem. There is potential flooding in other compartments. Thus the fail safe of a sub is to contain such an issue to only the affected compartments. Bigger problem than that, based on Walter’s math they have a little over an hour of oxygen.
With little options, Walter and Happy use deflated rafts to construct a suit for Cabe to wear that should protect him in sub freezing temperatures as he ascends to the surface to get help. As per his words, he does look like the Michelin man. The suit works and Cabe narrowly makes his way to the surface. Even with Paige lobbying for Cooper to intervene a rescue mission, time is taking its toll. They are running out of time and Cabe is minutes from full on hypothermia. Just then, Cabe hears the glorious tones of a US Coast Guard ship. Shortly thereafter, Cabe gets in contact with Toby and Sylvester. Cabe reads off Happy’s grocery list. Having no idea where to get these obscure and some large items, Happy left special instructions.
Toby and Sylvester race over to Happy’s father’s garage. They give only the important details and he doesn’t even think of stopping them as they start pillaging his garage for supplies.
As oxygen becomes less and less abundant, Walter is struck with a brainstorm that eventually gets shot down. If they flood their compartment with exactly the right amount of water, it will cause the sub to list just right in the other direction. This will move the escape hatch doors from contact with the silt on the ocean floor and making them usable again. Allowing the other 9 sailors to escape and potentially bring help. Walter’s approach has the CO and Happy escaping to the surface while he is left with more time to breathe but not the best chance for survival. Happy refuses to go as does the CO. Walter’s robotic adherence to math and science take over and he agrees that they three of them increases their probability for success.
The three below attempt to execute their plan while Mr. Quinn works on Happy’s rig. The hatch door opens more than they’d like knocking all three down. They are able to get the hatch closed without letting in too much water and the ship slowly rocks back to upright. While Paige tries to talk Cooper off the ledge about her first time in the field, Toby notices approximately nine men in protective suits popping up out of the water. A nice follow-up to confessing his love for Happy to Happy’s father. All that’s left is for Mr. Quinn to construct Happy’s device and somehow get it down to them. One of these days Happy’s going to realize she can depend on Toby.
Happy (sarcastically): So, our lives are in Toby’s hands. Terrific.
Minutes from certain death, Happy takes this opportunity to reflect on the idea that she is not completely a robot. For the first time since last season, she opens up about the gravity of finding her father. This prompts Walter to also open up slightly. Admitting that saving the nine sailors may have just been a decision made at least slightly out of sentiment. Just as despair almost sets in, they begin to hear the angelic tones of a gloating Toby Curtis. The tank is right outside the hatch ready for their departure.
Before they can attempt to depart, the lone sailor notices a specific smell even though he misdiagnosis it at first. He believes its sulfur. Walter insists its chloride. This new piece of information gives them five minutes. They execute a protocol to ensure no nefarious parties can seize the ship once they’ve gone. By blowing it up.
The risk inherent to the next amended plan beats sitting in the sub. They enter the tanks now affixed to the outside of the sub. The sailor plays the ‘my duty to go down with the ship’ garbage but Walter isn’t buying it. The sailor is too wide to fit in the tank, so thinking quickly, Walter pops his shoulder out of socket so he’ll fit.
With a rescue sub ten minutes out an Mr. Quinn watching from the deck of a smaller ship, the explosion from the sub is visible in that water spews upwards like a mushroom cloud. A parent’s worst fears are realized in Mr. Quinn’s eyes. Mr. Quinn, Toby, Paige and even Cabe all believe for a moment that they’ve died. By the time Happy emerges from the tank, there is a monumental sigh of relief.
On the roof, Walter opens up further, this time to Paige about making decisions differently than he used to. Evaluating that variables to his decisions he once thought were detrimental turn out to add to the success of Scorpion. And maybe he should reconsider some other previous decisions. And in typical network television fashion, they cannot just allow the moment to happen. In runs Ralph excited to share his decision of choosing robotics as his major for when he starts college at ten years old.
