Cracking on with Scorpion season 1
I am actually into season 2 by now. I haven’t reached the point where I started watching the show properly yet, so that’s fun. Also, I learned that there were four seasons, when I’d thought there were three. So the obsession continues.
In this block, from 'Revenge' to 'Love Boat', there are two holiday-themed episodes.
In ‘Revenge’, the team go after a gang of high-end thieves and at the site of their latest job, Sly gets badly injured by an IED. This viewer, Toby, Happy and Paige react emotionally, but Walter shuts down (though he calls on Megan to be on Sylvester watch as he’s operated on) because time is of the essence if the baddies aren’t going to get away. The person who called team Scorpion in, a former colleague of Cabe’s, now working for Interpol, has been chasing after the gang for seven years.
Obviously, Walter does have feelings, which are driving him all episode, and he gives himself away to Sylvester and Megan. I thought Sylvester recovered awfully quickly from major surgery, but in response to Megan’s compassion, his opening up about his feelings concerning what happened to him means that their relationship takes a huge step forward here from just being introduced.
Walter and Paige take a smaller step forward, even though so do Drew and Paige, because the latter asks her out for a ‘just them’ date and the obsessive Interpol lady comes on to Walter. But both choose team Scorpion first, with the whole team claiming to be family so they can watch over Sylvester on his first night in hospital. Only Walter and Paige make Significant Eye Contact.
‘Dominoes’ is a Christmas episode…with a child in real peril for most of it. Strange show.
Walter is, at some level, yearning to be a father all episode, but on the top level, he’s trying to persuade Megan to join some drug trial. Meanwhile, Paige is trying to get the rest of the team to celebrate Christmas, even though they have terrible Christmas memories. She’s using the ‘Do It For Ralph, Who Has Never Seen Snow’ argument. (But this raises all sorts of questions about Paige’s family. She obviously has positive associations with Christmas, but I don’t think we’ve heard anything about her upbringing or any family members.)
Walter and Megan were having their conversation on a beach, where a boy the same age as Ralph got caved into a sinkhole with the tide rushing in.
The team soon joined them, but Sylvester’s maths were off, indirectly following on from his trauma last episode. Megan had an awesome tough talk with him, and I could see why she had to go even if they hadn’t baked in her doomed storyline, because she treads on Paige’s toes as an emotional coach
Paige mothered the boy - his parents were travelling to fetch the grandparents for the holidays and he was in the care of a not-so-effective babysitter - but it was Walter who played the hero (in keeping with his tendency towards risky behaviour, because the officials were all ‘that’s crazy dangerous’.) As the obstacles mounted, Walter even vented a primal sceam of frustration into the sea. That’s the one everyone hears when he claims not to feel any emotions.
Of course, they found their scientifically explained miracle to save the boy and thus, the show’s take on the Spirit of Christmas. Walter had enough tact not to overexplain what they did, and Megan agreed to take the leap of faith and join the drug trial as a reward.
The team had a schmaltzy Christmas celebration, because they’d set up a cool domino gag with fake snow for Ralph. There was great staring at Paige from Walter, and Happy even revealed herself to her estranged father, after Toby talked her into it, and brought Mr Quinn to the garage.
But I had a real problem with the use of TV news as a narrative device in this episode. Granted, Scorpion’s depiction of local TV news might be as shonky as its depiction of anything, but WHITHER PRIVACY?
Disc 4
‘Kill Screen’ worked emotionally (but there’s a ‘but’ coming). Toby got to redeem himself by doing brilliant doctoring after making a fool of himself in front of Happy, while we learned about Sly’s gaming history. But I’m no gamer, so the concept of watching a game play out with Walter as Ralph’s avatar did nothing for me.
In an echo of what happened to Walter, Ralph’s computer skills got him into trouble with the law, all because he’d played a game (off the dark web) with real life consequences. And it turned out that Walter, trying to be cooler than Drew, had introduced Ralph to the dark web (!!!) It certainly crushes the cult of Walter that was building up.
Everybody tore into him for how this was a Bad Idea, and Drew was being particularly reasonable about how this might not be the best environment for his so, so Walter was trying hard to make up for it. You could see how much it all means to him in his final scene with Paige, but she could see it too.
‘Charades’ nodded to Bond, with the CIA needing the team’s help to find a mole, and thus the team got spy gadgets/Chekhov’s guns. But also the shippiness! Happy was maybe jealous of Toby’s admiration of the Q lady.
Paige, meanwhile, was flustered because she had a network-TV friendly sex dream about Walter. Based on what little he knew of it, Toby gave her some rather wonderful advice about putting Ralph ahead of any chemicals in her bloodstream.
It became clear that the leak fell for a honeytrap. Walter, protesting against love all episode (pfft) was required to play a mark so that blah blah blah nerve gas. Paige had to coach him in seduction, Sly had to witness the resulting UST…why? It was partly for lolz, but Sly-as-voyeur seems to feed in a little to who the show thinks the viewers identify with. And yes, he’s lovely, but I don’t exclusively identify with him. Happy-in-a-temper is often The One.
Shockingly, Walter was not so good with the flirtation, so Paige had to coach him live via comms (AND YET he dropped an ardent compliment about Paige’s voice while getting hot and heavy with the spy lady. And he later confirmed he absolutely meant it.) It helps that Elyes Gabel rocks the shirt and tie and watch combo.
I loved the little callbacks to past events in ‘Forget Me Nots’. I loved that Paige lampshaded the crazy, as the team tried to solve a modern-day nuke crisis with 16-year-old roots by prodding an amnesiac agent’s memory by experimentally electrocuting his brain. This also gave us juiced-up Cabe, Paige and Sylvester suffering from Happy’s crazy driving, gleeful-at-the-science Walter…
All this was bookended by a discussion about the possibility of Paige and Ralph leaving for Portland. Drew was pressing the point, Paige was torn, Walter would never tell her how he felt about the proposition UNTIL HE DID. He was totally uncomfortable throughout, but capable of admitting how important Ralph was to him and that he cares for Paige, too.
So, when Paige announced she’s not leaving (the garage for home) we and Drew got the message. Her decision was partly because Ralph got invited to another kid’s party in LA. The whole audience doubts that anything in that party will be as kiddish as Toby and Sylvester playing human bowling.
‘Love Boat’ is a Valentine’s Day episode. Walter thinks they have an in-and-out mission on a liner and pooh-poohs Sly’s fears of water etc. Of course, it’s tougher to find, defuse and put a GPS on some rockets than Smartypants thought and seasick Sly has to suffer snails and frog’s legs as he pretends to be their ticket to the luxury liner. Also onboard are arms dealers and Walter’s ex from the pilot. (I had only got as far as sussing that the captain was off.) Not only does it involve Sly and Walter heroics, but also young Ralph hacking a Japanese destroyer!!!
Happy and Toby aren’t on the liner, they’re helping Ralph out with his love life. This gives them an opportunity to discuss their relationship. Happy is saying ‘Wait a bit,’ and Toby nearly gets a kiss. Meanwhile, having been so brave, Sly decides to be brave with Megan, which Paige supports. And Walter, although he doesn’t know he’s doing this, helps Sly date his sister.
For contrast, we have Walter, who was planning a work date with Paige - it was to discuss work, but in a restaurant on Valentine’s Day!? -
retreats, having asked his ex (who has moved on to get engaged in a few months to the kind of guy who can get her a ride on this liner) what he could have done differently in their relationship. Not get bored, she says and well-meaningly advises him not to to do that again. So he puts aside his not-a-date date with Paige. It’s sad to see all the other geniuses advance romantically and Walter retreating.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/430120.html.
In this block, from 'Revenge' to 'Love Boat', there are two holiday-themed episodes.
In ‘Revenge’, the team go after a gang of high-end thieves and at the site of their latest job, Sly gets badly injured by an IED. This viewer, Toby, Happy and Paige react emotionally, but Walter shuts down (though he calls on Megan to be on Sylvester watch as he’s operated on) because time is of the essence if the baddies aren’t going to get away. The person who called team Scorpion in, a former colleague of Cabe’s, now working for Interpol, has been chasing after the gang for seven years.
Obviously, Walter does have feelings, which are driving him all episode, and he gives himself away to Sylvester and Megan. I thought Sylvester recovered awfully quickly from major surgery, but in response to Megan’s compassion, his opening up about his feelings concerning what happened to him means that their relationship takes a huge step forward here from just being introduced.
Walter and Paige take a smaller step forward, even though so do Drew and Paige, because the latter asks her out for a ‘just them’ date and the obsessive Interpol lady comes on to Walter. But both choose team Scorpion first, with the whole team claiming to be family so they can watch over Sylvester on his first night in hospital. Only Walter and Paige make Significant Eye Contact.
‘Dominoes’ is a Christmas episode…with a child in real peril for most of it. Strange show.
Walter is, at some level, yearning to be a father all episode, but on the top level, he’s trying to persuade Megan to join some drug trial. Meanwhile, Paige is trying to get the rest of the team to celebrate Christmas, even though they have terrible Christmas memories. She’s using the ‘Do It For Ralph, Who Has Never Seen Snow’ argument. (But this raises all sorts of questions about Paige’s family. She obviously has positive associations with Christmas, but I don’t think we’ve heard anything about her upbringing or any family members.)
Walter and Megan were having their conversation on a beach, where a boy the same age as Ralph got caved into a sinkhole with the tide rushing in.
The team soon joined them, but Sylvester’s maths were off, indirectly following on from his trauma last episode. Megan had an awesome tough talk with him, and I could see why she had to go even if they hadn’t baked in her doomed storyline, because she treads on Paige’s toes as an emotional coach
Paige mothered the boy - his parents were travelling to fetch the grandparents for the holidays and he was in the care of a not-so-effective babysitter - but it was Walter who played the hero (in keeping with his tendency towards risky behaviour, because the officials were all ‘that’s crazy dangerous’.) As the obstacles mounted, Walter even vented a primal sceam of frustration into the sea. That’s the one everyone hears when he claims not to feel any emotions.
Of course, they found their scientifically explained miracle to save the boy and thus, the show’s take on the Spirit of Christmas. Walter had enough tact not to overexplain what they did, and Megan agreed to take the leap of faith and join the drug trial as a reward.
The team had a schmaltzy Christmas celebration, because they’d set up a cool domino gag with fake snow for Ralph. There was great staring at Paige from Walter, and Happy even revealed herself to her estranged father, after Toby talked her into it, and brought Mr Quinn to the garage.
But I had a real problem with the use of TV news as a narrative device in this episode. Granted, Scorpion’s depiction of local TV news might be as shonky as its depiction of anything, but WHITHER PRIVACY?
Disc 4
‘Kill Screen’ worked emotionally (but there’s a ‘but’ coming). Toby got to redeem himself by doing brilliant doctoring after making a fool of himself in front of Happy, while we learned about Sly’s gaming history. But I’m no gamer, so the concept of watching a game play out with Walter as Ralph’s avatar did nothing for me.
In an echo of what happened to Walter, Ralph’s computer skills got him into trouble with the law, all because he’d played a game (off the dark web) with real life consequences. And it turned out that Walter, trying to be cooler than Drew, had introduced Ralph to the dark web (!!!) It certainly crushes the cult of Walter that was building up.
Everybody tore into him for how this was a Bad Idea, and Drew was being particularly reasonable about how this might not be the best environment for his so, so Walter was trying hard to make up for it. You could see how much it all means to him in his final scene with Paige, but she could see it too.
‘Charades’ nodded to Bond, with the CIA needing the team’s help to find a mole, and thus the team got spy gadgets/Chekhov’s guns. But also the shippiness! Happy was maybe jealous of Toby’s admiration of the Q lady.
Paige, meanwhile, was flustered because she had a network-TV friendly sex dream about Walter. Based on what little he knew of it, Toby gave her some rather wonderful advice about putting Ralph ahead of any chemicals in her bloodstream.
It became clear that the leak fell for a honeytrap. Walter, protesting against love all episode (pfft) was required to play a mark so that blah blah blah nerve gas. Paige had to coach him in seduction, Sly had to witness the resulting UST…why? It was partly for lolz, but Sly-as-voyeur seems to feed in a little to who the show thinks the viewers identify with. And yes, he’s lovely, but I don’t exclusively identify with him. Happy-in-a-temper is often The One.
Shockingly, Walter was not so good with the flirtation, so Paige had to coach him live via comms (AND YET he dropped an ardent compliment about Paige’s voice while getting hot and heavy with the spy lady. And he later confirmed he absolutely meant it.) It helps that Elyes Gabel rocks the shirt and tie and watch combo.
I loved the little callbacks to past events in ‘Forget Me Nots’. I loved that Paige lampshaded the crazy, as the team tried to solve a modern-day nuke crisis with 16-year-old roots by prodding an amnesiac agent’s memory by experimentally electrocuting his brain. This also gave us juiced-up Cabe, Paige and Sylvester suffering from Happy’s crazy driving, gleeful-at-the-science Walter…
All this was bookended by a discussion about the possibility of Paige and Ralph leaving for Portland. Drew was pressing the point, Paige was torn, Walter would never tell her how he felt about the proposition UNTIL HE DID. He was totally uncomfortable throughout, but capable of admitting how important Ralph was to him and that he cares for Paige, too.
So, when Paige announced she’s not leaving (the garage for home) we and Drew got the message. Her decision was partly because Ralph got invited to another kid’s party in LA. The whole audience doubts that anything in that party will be as kiddish as Toby and Sylvester playing human bowling.
‘Love Boat’ is a Valentine’s Day episode. Walter thinks they have an in-and-out mission on a liner and pooh-poohs Sly’s fears of water etc. Of course, it’s tougher to find, defuse and put a GPS on some rockets than Smartypants thought and seasick Sly has to suffer snails and frog’s legs as he pretends to be their ticket to the luxury liner. Also onboard are arms dealers and Walter’s ex from the pilot. (I had only got as far as sussing that the captain was off.) Not only does it involve Sly and Walter heroics, but also young Ralph hacking a Japanese destroyer!!!
Happy and Toby aren’t on the liner, they’re helping Ralph out with his love life. This gives them an opportunity to discuss their relationship. Happy is saying ‘Wait a bit,’ and Toby nearly gets a kiss. Meanwhile, having been so brave, Sly decides to be brave with Megan, which Paige supports. And Walter, although he doesn’t know he’s doing this, helps Sly date his sister.
For contrast, we have Walter, who was planning a work date with Paige - it was to discuss work, but in a restaurant on Valentine’s Day!? -
retreats, having asked his ex (who has moved on to get engaged in a few months to the kind of guy who can get her a ride on this liner) what he could have done differently in their relationship. Not get bored, she says and well-meaningly advises him not to to do that again. So he puts aside his not-a-date date with Paige. It’s sad to see all the other geniuses advance romantically and Walter retreating.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/430120.html.