Oh, Scorpion, what have you done to me?
This is how far behind I am on writing up my reaction posts (see below), I watched the final episode of season 4 last night, and without getting into any detail, I was gutted, because being the spoilerphobe I am, I’d taken the fact that the fourth season DVD is described as ‘The Final Season’ as meaning that the showmakers knew they weren’t coming back, if not at the start of the season, by at its end, and had written an appropriate send off. Nope. We had what would be an adequate season’s end, if another season was coming next. Grr. The show’s four seasons have been comfort viewing for about a year (a very difficult year - I can’t tell you how glad I’ve been that Sylvester Dodd is a fictional character living through an entirely different 2020-21) and now I’m left mumbling ‘Is there a comic book?’ And I don’t read comics however much I guzzle comics-inspired media. It’s a daft action drama that’s been off air for a few years with no canonical resolution. It’s never nice feeling kicked by American network TV ruthlessness.
(I know this will be a time for fanfiction, once I have processed a little. And ideally found the one disc I have somehow lost over the past few months. )
Scorpion season 3 - Disc 4.
I rated these four episodes about the same.
Unsurprisingly, forged money is involved in ‘Faux Money, Maux Problems’. Veronica returns as Walter trials a new approach to teamwork of geniality, which nobody believes will stick. Most of the team, plus Veronica, get abducted by people from a made-up country to counterfeit money for them for reasons. Con artiste Veronica copes well, trusting Walter’s genius and manipulating Paige - their relationship is lots of fun, as underneath all her righteous outrage Paige cares - and Veronica is a kick.
When their lives are threatened, Walter pulls rank, while Paige is trying a more laissez-faire approach with him. And the very different way she’s bringing up her son to Veronica’s parenting impresses her mother, who asks for her help.
Toby and Happy avoid being kidnapped because they’re doing wedding prep, although by the end of the episode, they’ve cracked and admitted they can’t afford the fancy big wedding Toby wanted and Happy had given way to him on, which I’d never really understood.
.
There are the usual clever bits, a Super Fun Guy watch gets used to help them do what needs to be done, while Cabe uses his Marines past amusingly in a fairly creaky/ridiculous set-up.
In ‘The Hole Truth’, Walter is spiralling and Quintis are worried - he got punched twice! - enough to ask Paige to rescind her ‘sink or swim’ policy with him. She won’t.
She has Veronica issues, as this ep follows on closely from the previous one. So, the Dineen ladies are back at the factory where they reunited, conning their way to get the illegal gains Veronica left there. Paige gets to boss her mother, which she clearly enjoys.
The rest of the team are trying to stop a sinkhole, but Walter is behaving Walterishly around a risk-averse foreman they need on side. Toby is desperate enough to ask Happy to play Paige in this scenario and manage Walter. She is terrible at it.
Sly has to deal with a mocking voter after an attack ad was launched showing him dressed up as a wizard (what if the footage of young gamer Sly appeared?)
After the team’s first crack at the job shockingly makes things worse, with the now giant sinkhole growing and toxic stuff threatening to enter a water source, oh, and they need to save the guy who is in danger after helping them the first time around, Happy does remind Walter of what Paige taught him and he finds a way to get the chief onside, which can only help them, and puts his life at risk. Sly gains a voter by brilliantly saving Cabe’s life (after endangering the guy who was so close to death two episodes ago). Upon joining them, Paige and Veronica see this, and Veronica gives Walter the inspiration to save 10 million lives.
I did fall for Veronica’s fall but quickly realised Paige was running a con to get the bad guys off Veronica’s back and so got the team to fake her mother’s death. Veronica is still a Waige shipper and gives Walter the future son-in-law treatment between saying goodbye to Ralph (minor quibble, was he there when Walter had got punched?) and Paige, who has one of the funner last lines over what to do with the money that Veronica has left Ralph. Veronica calls Paige out for lying about her feelings for Walter although this was indirect, the focus being mainly on the women’s relationship. Veronica acknowledges that Scorpion are her daughter’s family now.
The title of ‘Sharknerdo’ rather gives away the big bad and puts the audience a stroke ahead of the geniuses.
Paige is rightly mad at Walter for screwing up a paying job she’d set up over a piece of pedantry that had never occurred to me and which I can’t find myself getting worked up over. He’s all ‘I’ve set up a treasure hunting job!’ which means Toby plays out his pirate fantasies, there’s a pragmatic captain, and a simmering Walter and Paige on a boat…that blows up. Toby and Cabe have to launch a mutiny to go to rescue them.
Cabe’s Allie is unprofessionally nice to Sly, who seems to have Walteresque people skills around teen reporter Patty.
Waige build a raft and get to a buoy that’s near some sharks, which is a perfect opportunity for Walter to charge Paige, who’s been crabby (sorry) all episode with distancing herself from him. Their fight is halted at ‘You pulled an emotional experiment on me at the expense of Scorpion’ (well, yeah, that’s what happens when personal/professional lines are blurred as much as they are with you guys) because there’s now a frenzy of sharks surrounding them. The show has suddenly remembered collective nouns again. I remember being really confused by references to the cyclone during my first brush with Scorpion fandom because they only mentioned the term ONCE.
Sly’s maths help the others find them, but their engine gives out, so Walter makes himself bait for Paige to strike out for the rescue boat. Fortunately, Happy’s machines and swashbuckling from Toby save him.
As loose ends are tied up, we discover Allie hates her candidate and there’s Quintis stuff, but more importanty for me, Paige and Walter talk instead of fight, and she gives up on being mad with him. Walter comes to realise that some of her motivation was from caring for him, and his reward is her talking about their being ‘special friends’ (she literally says this) and even postponing Skyping Tim to help Walter apologise to clients. So, there were grounds for Waige hope after this ep.
Some strands of ‘Check Mate, Please’ worked better than others. Ralph, smitten with Patty, is seeking romantical advice from the three genius men (snerk), which Paige feels is encroaching on her role (although I thought this was a gender thing). They acknowledge this and make Paige feel better.
Coming out of nowhere, Cabe is busy laying out a ‘deal’ that would get Happy’s dad into prison (!) for less for breaking the law a little bit with some bad guys if he’d inform on them, although I was unclear on how valuable the information Patrick had was. Happy is desperate for her dad not to leave her (again) and go behind bars, but we all know he won’t go for the escape plan she comes up with. She feels Cabe has betrayed her.
But the actual case involves getting a super chess player who’s been spying for the CIA out of a made-up country to the safety of Belarus (O RLY, I thought, while watching it in 2020). This involves Walter and Sly playing chess against each other, and being silly little boys over it. Walter has to rely on psychological ploys to win, which means they’re creating obstacles on top of the ones already in play. Meanwhile, Paige has to steal lemons, Toby a dumpster truck, a bathroom gets destroyed and they have to use a bread substitute to cushion a landing.
Despite knowing very little about chess, even I could work out the big sneaky gambit involving a giant horse and decoys.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/457502.html.
(I know this will be a time for fanfiction, once I have processed a little. And ideally found the one disc I have somehow lost over the past few months. )
Scorpion season 3 - Disc 4.
I rated these four episodes about the same.
Unsurprisingly, forged money is involved in ‘Faux Money, Maux Problems’. Veronica returns as Walter trials a new approach to teamwork of geniality, which nobody believes will stick. Most of the team, plus Veronica, get abducted by people from a made-up country to counterfeit money for them for reasons. Con artiste Veronica copes well, trusting Walter’s genius and manipulating Paige - their relationship is lots of fun, as underneath all her righteous outrage Paige cares - and Veronica is a kick.
When their lives are threatened, Walter pulls rank, while Paige is trying a more laissez-faire approach with him. And the very different way she’s bringing up her son to Veronica’s parenting impresses her mother, who asks for her help.
Toby and Happy avoid being kidnapped because they’re doing wedding prep, although by the end of the episode, they’ve cracked and admitted they can’t afford the fancy big wedding Toby wanted and Happy had given way to him on, which I’d never really understood.
.
There are the usual clever bits, a Super Fun Guy watch gets used to help them do what needs to be done, while Cabe uses his Marines past amusingly in a fairly creaky/ridiculous set-up.
In ‘The Hole Truth’, Walter is spiralling and Quintis are worried - he got punched twice! - enough to ask Paige to rescind her ‘sink or swim’ policy with him. She won’t.
She has Veronica issues, as this ep follows on closely from the previous one. So, the Dineen ladies are back at the factory where they reunited, conning their way to get the illegal gains Veronica left there. Paige gets to boss her mother, which she clearly enjoys.
The rest of the team are trying to stop a sinkhole, but Walter is behaving Walterishly around a risk-averse foreman they need on side. Toby is desperate enough to ask Happy to play Paige in this scenario and manage Walter. She is terrible at it.
Sly has to deal with a mocking voter after an attack ad was launched showing him dressed up as a wizard (what if the footage of young gamer Sly appeared?)
After the team’s first crack at the job shockingly makes things worse, with the now giant sinkhole growing and toxic stuff threatening to enter a water source, oh, and they need to save the guy who is in danger after helping them the first time around, Happy does remind Walter of what Paige taught him and he finds a way to get the chief onside, which can only help them, and puts his life at risk. Sly gains a voter by brilliantly saving Cabe’s life (after endangering the guy who was so close to death two episodes ago). Upon joining them, Paige and Veronica see this, and Veronica gives Walter the inspiration to save 10 million lives.
I did fall for Veronica’s fall but quickly realised Paige was running a con to get the bad guys off Veronica’s back and so got the team to fake her mother’s death. Veronica is still a Waige shipper and gives Walter the future son-in-law treatment between saying goodbye to Ralph (minor quibble, was he there when Walter had got punched?) and Paige, who has one of the funner last lines over what to do with the money that Veronica has left Ralph. Veronica calls Paige out for lying about her feelings for Walter although this was indirect, the focus being mainly on the women’s relationship. Veronica acknowledges that Scorpion are her daughter’s family now.
The title of ‘Sharknerdo’ rather gives away the big bad and puts the audience a stroke ahead of the geniuses.
Paige is rightly mad at Walter for screwing up a paying job she’d set up over a piece of pedantry that had never occurred to me and which I can’t find myself getting worked up over. He’s all ‘I’ve set up a treasure hunting job!’ which means Toby plays out his pirate fantasies, there’s a pragmatic captain, and a simmering Walter and Paige on a boat…that blows up. Toby and Cabe have to launch a mutiny to go to rescue them.
Cabe’s Allie is unprofessionally nice to Sly, who seems to have Walteresque people skills around teen reporter Patty.
Waige build a raft and get to a buoy that’s near some sharks, which is a perfect opportunity for Walter to charge Paige, who’s been crabby (sorry) all episode with distancing herself from him. Their fight is halted at ‘You pulled an emotional experiment on me at the expense of Scorpion’ (well, yeah, that’s what happens when personal/professional lines are blurred as much as they are with you guys) because there’s now a frenzy of sharks surrounding them. The show has suddenly remembered collective nouns again. I remember being really confused by references to the cyclone during my first brush with Scorpion fandom because they only mentioned the term ONCE.
Sly’s maths help the others find them, but their engine gives out, so Walter makes himself bait for Paige to strike out for the rescue boat. Fortunately, Happy’s machines and swashbuckling from Toby save him.
As loose ends are tied up, we discover Allie hates her candidate and there’s Quintis stuff, but more importanty for me, Paige and Walter talk instead of fight, and she gives up on being mad with him. Walter comes to realise that some of her motivation was from caring for him, and his reward is her talking about their being ‘special friends’ (she literally says this) and even postponing Skyping Tim to help Walter apologise to clients. So, there were grounds for Waige hope after this ep.
Some strands of ‘Check Mate, Please’ worked better than others. Ralph, smitten with Patty, is seeking romantical advice from the three genius men (snerk), which Paige feels is encroaching on her role (although I thought this was a gender thing). They acknowledge this and make Paige feel better.
Coming out of nowhere, Cabe is busy laying out a ‘deal’ that would get Happy’s dad into prison (!) for less for breaking the law a little bit with some bad guys if he’d inform on them, although I was unclear on how valuable the information Patrick had was. Happy is desperate for her dad not to leave her (again) and go behind bars, but we all know he won’t go for the escape plan she comes up with. She feels Cabe has betrayed her.
But the actual case involves getting a super chess player who’s been spying for the CIA out of a made-up country to the safety of Belarus (O RLY, I thought, while watching it in 2020). This involves Walter and Sly playing chess against each other, and being silly little boys over it. Walter has to rely on psychological ploys to win, which means they’re creating obstacles on top of the ones already in play. Meanwhile, Paige has to steal lemons, Toby a dumpster truck, a bathroom gets destroyed and they have to use a bread substitute to cushion a landing.
Despite knowing very little about chess, even I could work out the big sneaky gambit involving a giant horse and decoys.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/457502.html.