Scorpion season 4 - disc 1
This is really behind the times, I watched these episodes on DVD ages ago. I should say that the DVD case is plastered with ‘The Final Season’, and I knew nothing much about its content. I’d avoided the fandom after I failed to watch the third season when it aired on TV, and even more so as I worked my way through the DVDs in 2020-21.
Disc 1
I preferred the season opener Extinction’ to the other three episodes on this disc.
It’s the morning after the night before and there’s a musical number to express Walter’s feelings. It takes place in his head, with both leads crooning (her better than him), the chance to bring back Happy, Portugese popstar!, and everyone getting involved. I drew mental heart shapes around the whole production and made a note to rewatch ‘Totally Genius’ again.
And then Mark Collins demands Walter visit him in prison to warn him that an extinction event is imminent in the Arctic (or near enough) so Quintis’s second try at a honeymoon is off.
One shouldn’t look too closely at Ralph, because the actor’s growth spurt undermines your belief that this the next day after the third season ended, which was glaringly obvious because I went straight frm one DVD boxset to the next. Sly is angstily questioning his existence after reading his obituary.
Everyone is dubious about Mark Collins, who claims he’s turned over a new leaf. There’s a new director of Homeland who okays Cabe being in charge of Mark Collins’s electronic tag so that, as he demands, he can come along too.
To stop the extinction event, Scorpion have to plug some methane escapting from blah blah blah, but the chemicals they were going to use aren’t suitable due to bad packing. As they work on a plan B, Mark Collins starts to stir as Waige try to navigate their romantic/working relationship. Of course, Quintis have particular beef against Mark Collins, as he endangered Toby’s life that time, and seems to be at it again, when he accidentally (according to him and Cabe) pushes Toby into frozen water, but helps to rescue him.
He is hilariously reminded that he’s not part of Team Scorpion. (Was he around at the same time as Drew? How did he know about all that?) He’s volunteered to help Cabe, which means Scorpion have to rescue him when it goes wrong. But the jerk sows some doubts in Paige’s mind about dating her genius boss. Walter manages to reassure her.
But when Walter starts to reprise his musical number IRL (and what a time for the actor to be losing his voice, although it lowered his voice even more than doing the American accent normally does), they realise that the methane is still leaking…
I was with Happy about still not trusting Mark Collins, whose name I have to use in full, and I didn’t want him interfering with Waige. Dude, we’ve invested three seasons worth (longer in my case) in these two, don’t ruin it!
I was mostly delighted with this opening for the continuity and willingness to continue with altered states of mind, particularly THE MUSCIAL NUMBER.
‘More Extinction’ returns to a more normal type of episode, although the methane causing mass extinction problem remains. Walter deduces that they need to steal a Russian helicopter and two chemicals from a nearby spa to create snow. This means trusting Russian-speaking Mark Collins, who is paired up with Cabe. Waige, still mulling over what Collins has said to them, have to get one of the chemicals and deal with their differences, Walter had rather naively thought things would be effortless once they got together. The other three have to get the other chemical, which involves Toby into some lime green speedos (the poor actor), Happy having to operate an experimental helicopter with Cyrillic instructions while the others shake off suspicious Russian guards.
Collins injures an ankle, of which I was more suspicious than Cabe. Basically, because Cabe has a soft heart, he uncuffs Collins so that he is no longer hurt and then watches as the lying psychopath genius drives off to freedom, and they create snow that will avert global disaster, but cover Collins’s tracks.
Quintis give up the ridiculous motto they’d concocted in favour of trusting their relationship, and Happy does the nice thing I thought she might and gives Sly a more permanent version of his wedding ring. Waige (the writers forgot to explain what happened with Ralph, and I noted that they’d have to be better at that) discuss Collins’s words and say they’ll work at it, before kissing their concerns away. I also wondered here how Collins knew about Paige and the fruit drink, the writers seemed to have granted him the audience’s POV.
But the closer is that Cabe is arrested !!! by the new director for disobeying orders and freeing Collins and thus playing a part in Collins’ escape. The new director clearly didn’t appreciate that that and all the damage they caused was in the service of saving the day. Oh well, Cabe, don’t hire that ambulance chaser with the dreadful name.
‘A Female Deer’ starts with an upset Allie telling Walter and Sly about Cabe’s arrest. The team pool their resources to bail him out, although he’s not properly grateful (as Ralph will point out) and will sack his newly qualified lawyer. (My response remained SRSLY, don’t bring back that duff lawyer.)
Hilariously, Patty, the teen reporter from the previous season, is now Alderman’s Sly’s intern. She’s brilliant at politics and flummoxes everyone, except Ralph, who has a crush on her that everyone in Scorpion clocks and is amused by, except mama Paige. I was of the opinion that Patty could and should stay.
So, the team are going to Africa to use rhino poop to bring down a poaching gang (it sounds vaguely plausible in context) and make some money to fill the Cabe-shaped hole in their finances. That’s all the team bar Cabe, who had to hand over his passport, so he and Ralph are the ones providing back-up from the garage. Ralph is now seemingly living in Ray’s van while Paige has moved in upstairs. (The shipper in me squeed.)
Sly is freaking out because ANIMALS and dangerous poachers, but Walter is doing an impersonation of Cabe because he’s strung out and feeling guilty about Cabe’s arrest. Apart from unnerving everyone, this turn from Walter means he’s not playing to his strengths, which they need, because poachers shot a rare doe and the fawn she is /was carrying. Paige goes all maternal and uses threats of no sex to get Walter to help. (Urgh.) There’s crazy Scorpion animal surgery to create a fake womb and keep the fawn alive. Sly has to overcome his repugnance for dirty filthy animals as the poachers come after them.
It all works out. Cabe apologises for being ungracious about the team’s help and rightly goes to apologise to Allie, while the rest of the team settle in to watch the doe and the fawn they saved bond in Africa, while the couples are cute.
In ‘Nuke Kids on the Block’, it’s the emotional stuff that makes a partial rehash of previous elements work. Paige is not unreasonably irked that Happy is hanging out with her and Walt (as he’s become known all of a sudden) as well as the more exected tagalong Ralph. And it’s a fair question as to why Happy doesn’t want to spend time with her brand new husband who only steps into this near the episode’s wash-up.
Toby was busy auditioning lawyers for Cabe with Cabe and Sly. The thought that Sly could represent Cabe flitted across my mind when he spouted some federal law to get Cabe, as a suspended Homeland officer, to work on the nuclear warhead job Scorpion had been given. But Sly is also busy being bossed by Patty (still golden.)
Happy takes Paige’s not unreasonable request that she gives Paige and Walter some space badly and the ladies get so snippy that Walter orders them to switch the comms off. (Walter’s emotional cluelessness is high here.)
The team’s job gets a whole lot more dangerous when an upset Happy drops a wrench, which means there are now vapours that could kill them and set off a chain reaction to worry about.
Once they get the comms back on, they try a repair, but Walter gets KO’d. Happy and Paige have to suit up and rescue him - they work together well. Then it turns out that their fix won’t work and the only possible solution is a controlled explosion. OF COURSE IT IS. So, the three suited people have to work together. The ladies make up, which turns Walter into a confused third wheel.
Sly is inspired by all this to come up with a money-saving wheeze that will help his political ambitions (pf setting up a science club) if he survives. That’s questionable because the warhead has accidentally been activated, but Cabe, who has been teased all episode by an insensitive Toby for being ‘the junior intern’, works out how they can find it with seconds to go. Can an indecisive Happy switch off the timer? (My heart sang at the Waige body language here, with Paige turning toward Walter, and Walter covering her.) Of course, Happy finds a way, and they saunter off for Sly to declare that with team Scorpion’s help, he will be Cabe’s genius lawyer.
Toby diagnoses Happy’s issues (she spent most of the episode wishing Paige had never joined the team, and giving her attitude) as her inner abandoned kid wanting to hang out with the nuclear family forming before their eyes. Happy cops to it and says she wants a baby, harking back to the previous season when she thought she was pregnant.
But Waige get the final coda, sending Ralph off to a sitter and getting their date night. Walter admits to using Happy’s clinginess as cover because he was nervous of alone time with Paige, because he’s afraid she’ll get bored of him. As she points out, she has had a chance to get to know him before they were dating, and she comes up with an inventive date (I reflexively cringed because I thought the waiter would be blind at this lights-off restaurant, but they were going for broad comedy) and it’s all laghs and kissing.
Takeout: the whole team is invested in Waige working out. Aww.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/474889.html.
Disc 1
I preferred the season opener Extinction’ to the other three episodes on this disc.
It’s the morning after the night before and there’s a musical number to express Walter’s feelings. It takes place in his head, with both leads crooning (her better than him), the chance to bring back Happy, Portugese popstar!, and everyone getting involved. I drew mental heart shapes around the whole production and made a note to rewatch ‘Totally Genius’ again.
And then Mark Collins demands Walter visit him in prison to warn him that an extinction event is imminent in the Arctic (or near enough) so Quintis’s second try at a honeymoon is off.
One shouldn’t look too closely at Ralph, because the actor’s growth spurt undermines your belief that this the next day after the third season ended, which was glaringly obvious because I went straight frm one DVD boxset to the next. Sly is angstily questioning his existence after reading his obituary.
Everyone is dubious about Mark Collins, who claims he’s turned over a new leaf. There’s a new director of Homeland who okays Cabe being in charge of Mark Collins’s electronic tag so that, as he demands, he can come along too.
To stop the extinction event, Scorpion have to plug some methane escapting from blah blah blah, but the chemicals they were going to use aren’t suitable due to bad packing. As they work on a plan B, Mark Collins starts to stir as Waige try to navigate their romantic/working relationship. Of course, Quintis have particular beef against Mark Collins, as he endangered Toby’s life that time, and seems to be at it again, when he accidentally (according to him and Cabe) pushes Toby into frozen water, but helps to rescue him.
He is hilariously reminded that he’s not part of Team Scorpion. (Was he around at the same time as Drew? How did he know about all that?) He’s volunteered to help Cabe, which means Scorpion have to rescue him when it goes wrong. But the jerk sows some doubts in Paige’s mind about dating her genius boss. Walter manages to reassure her.
But when Walter starts to reprise his musical number IRL (and what a time for the actor to be losing his voice, although it lowered his voice even more than doing the American accent normally does), they realise that the methane is still leaking…
I was with Happy about still not trusting Mark Collins, whose name I have to use in full, and I didn’t want him interfering with Waige. Dude, we’ve invested three seasons worth (longer in my case) in these two, don’t ruin it!
I was mostly delighted with this opening for the continuity and willingness to continue with altered states of mind, particularly THE MUSCIAL NUMBER.
‘More Extinction’ returns to a more normal type of episode, although the methane causing mass extinction problem remains. Walter deduces that they need to steal a Russian helicopter and two chemicals from a nearby spa to create snow. This means trusting Russian-speaking Mark Collins, who is paired up with Cabe. Waige, still mulling over what Collins has said to them, have to get one of the chemicals and deal with their differences, Walter had rather naively thought things would be effortless once they got together. The other three have to get the other chemical, which involves Toby into some lime green speedos (the poor actor), Happy having to operate an experimental helicopter with Cyrillic instructions while the others shake off suspicious Russian guards.
Collins injures an ankle, of which I was more suspicious than Cabe. Basically, because Cabe has a soft heart, he uncuffs Collins so that he is no longer hurt and then watches as the lying psychopath genius drives off to freedom, and they create snow that will avert global disaster, but cover Collins’s tracks.
Quintis give up the ridiculous motto they’d concocted in favour of trusting their relationship, and Happy does the nice thing I thought she might and gives Sly a more permanent version of his wedding ring. Waige (the writers forgot to explain what happened with Ralph, and I noted that they’d have to be better at that) discuss Collins’s words and say they’ll work at it, before kissing their concerns away. I also wondered here how Collins knew about Paige and the fruit drink, the writers seemed to have granted him the audience’s POV.
But the closer is that Cabe is arrested !!! by the new director for disobeying orders and freeing Collins and thus playing a part in Collins’ escape. The new director clearly didn’t appreciate that that and all the damage they caused was in the service of saving the day. Oh well, Cabe, don’t hire that ambulance chaser with the dreadful name.
‘A Female Deer’ starts with an upset Allie telling Walter and Sly about Cabe’s arrest. The team pool their resources to bail him out, although he’s not properly grateful (as Ralph will point out) and will sack his newly qualified lawyer. (My response remained SRSLY, don’t bring back that duff lawyer.)
Hilariously, Patty, the teen reporter from the previous season, is now Alderman’s Sly’s intern. She’s brilliant at politics and flummoxes everyone, except Ralph, who has a crush on her that everyone in Scorpion clocks and is amused by, except mama Paige. I was of the opinion that Patty could and should stay.
So, the team are going to Africa to use rhino poop to bring down a poaching gang (it sounds vaguely plausible in context) and make some money to fill the Cabe-shaped hole in their finances. That’s all the team bar Cabe, who had to hand over his passport, so he and Ralph are the ones providing back-up from the garage. Ralph is now seemingly living in Ray’s van while Paige has moved in upstairs. (The shipper in me squeed.)
Sly is freaking out because ANIMALS and dangerous poachers, but Walter is doing an impersonation of Cabe because he’s strung out and feeling guilty about Cabe’s arrest. Apart from unnerving everyone, this turn from Walter means he’s not playing to his strengths, which they need, because poachers shot a rare doe and the fawn she is /was carrying. Paige goes all maternal and uses threats of no sex to get Walter to help. (Urgh.) There’s crazy Scorpion animal surgery to create a fake womb and keep the fawn alive. Sly has to overcome his repugnance for dirty filthy animals as the poachers come after them.
It all works out. Cabe apologises for being ungracious about the team’s help and rightly goes to apologise to Allie, while the rest of the team settle in to watch the doe and the fawn they saved bond in Africa, while the couples are cute.
In ‘Nuke Kids on the Block’, it’s the emotional stuff that makes a partial rehash of previous elements work. Paige is not unreasonably irked that Happy is hanging out with her and Walt (as he’s become known all of a sudden) as well as the more exected tagalong Ralph. And it’s a fair question as to why Happy doesn’t want to spend time with her brand new husband who only steps into this near the episode’s wash-up.
Toby was busy auditioning lawyers for Cabe with Cabe and Sly. The thought that Sly could represent Cabe flitted across my mind when he spouted some federal law to get Cabe, as a suspended Homeland officer, to work on the nuclear warhead job Scorpion had been given. But Sly is also busy being bossed by Patty (still golden.)
Happy takes Paige’s not unreasonable request that she gives Paige and Walter some space badly and the ladies get so snippy that Walter orders them to switch the comms off. (Walter’s emotional cluelessness is high here.)
The team’s job gets a whole lot more dangerous when an upset Happy drops a wrench, which means there are now vapours that could kill them and set off a chain reaction to worry about.
Once they get the comms back on, they try a repair, but Walter gets KO’d. Happy and Paige have to suit up and rescue him - they work together well. Then it turns out that their fix won’t work and the only possible solution is a controlled explosion. OF COURSE IT IS. So, the three suited people have to work together. The ladies make up, which turns Walter into a confused third wheel.
Sly is inspired by all this to come up with a money-saving wheeze that will help his political ambitions (pf setting up a science club) if he survives. That’s questionable because the warhead has accidentally been activated, but Cabe, who has been teased all episode by an insensitive Toby for being ‘the junior intern’, works out how they can find it with seconds to go. Can an indecisive Happy switch off the timer? (My heart sang at the Waige body language here, with Paige turning toward Walter, and Walter covering her.) Of course, Happy finds a way, and they saunter off for Sly to declare that with team Scorpion’s help, he will be Cabe’s genius lawyer.
Toby diagnoses Happy’s issues (she spent most of the episode wishing Paige had never joined the team, and giving her attitude) as her inner abandoned kid wanting to hang out with the nuclear family forming before their eyes. Happy cops to it and says she wants a baby, harking back to the previous season when she thought she was pregnant.
But Waige get the final coda, sending Ralph off to a sitter and getting their date night. Walter admits to using Happy’s clinginess as cover because he was nervous of alone time with Paige, because he’s afraid she’ll get bored of him. As she points out, she has had a chance to get to know him before they were dating, and she comes up with an inventive date (I reflexively cringed because I thought the waiter would be blind at this lights-off restaurant, but they were going for broad comedy) and it’s all laghs and kissing.
Takeout: the whole team is invested in Waige working out. Aww.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/474889.html.