This week’s episode of
Scorpion, “Cuba Libre,” had its usual fast paced caper but with a personal element as the team travelled to Cuba to help an old friend of Cabe’s (Robert Patrick). The episode was written by the team of Rob Pearlstein and Nick Santora and was directed by Mel Damski. I always like when we see the same names in production that helped to make the first season a success. The episode also muses on the importance of finding a balance between emotion and reason in a really thoughtful way.
I really liked how we see many of the characters struggling with their emotions – something we know is an issue for our team with their high IQs and low EQs. Sylvester (Ari Stidham) is struggling to admit his love for Megan, Toby (Eddie Kaye Thomas) is struggling with his aversion to being alone with himself, and Walter (Elyes Gabel) refuses to even acknowledge that he could be influenced by emotion. Of course, Toby is also struggling with Happy (Jadyn Wong) having put him back on the shelf again – her own emotional issues coming to bear. I gotta admit, I’m getting pretty tired of the off again, on again here. Let’s put one couple together and see how they do already!
As the episode opens, Walter and Paige (Katharine McPhee) are meeting with Walter’s lawyer, Kessler (Daniel Kash). Both Kessler and Paige are trying to get Walter to agree to tell the judge that he was driving recklessly the night of the accident because he was emotionally overwrought. Walter refuses, saying he simply hit the coyote because it was night and he was driving a high-performance car. If Walter sticks with that story, he’s facing 90 days in jail.
Once again, McPhee really impressed in this episode. She’s brought a new level of maturity to Paige. Walter continues to struggle in how he relates to her and deals with his emotions in relation to her, but Paige seems to have figured out how to successfully navigate Walter. I loved the scene in which she tells him the story of how she got the job at the diner and had to hold in her emotions to deal with them at a later time. It was really, really smart of the writers to have Sonia (Izabella Miko) be the one to deal with being – perhaps – overly emotional and not use Paige for this. Paige also points out to Walter that deny it as much as he wants, he still makes decisions based on his emotions. She points out that they took the case not for the good of the many as Walter kept harping on, but because he saw a woman in distress and she was Cabe’s friend. The take away is not to deny your emotions but not to be ruled by them either. Good message!
Sonia is an interesting addition to Cabe’s history. We learn that he saved her while fighting in Croatia. It seems Walter wasn’t the only child Cabe took under his wing. Her family had been killed in the war, and he found her an adoptive family in Italy, giving her his own silver star for bravery so that she would be brave. She has dedicated her life to hunting down war criminals and comes to Cabe for help in going after the man – Zoric (Dimiter D Marinov) – who murdered her family. She tells them about the “ratline” which is how these criminals hide. The Hague won’t help her unless she can secure a DNA match. Additionally, Zoric has an encrypted ledger that contains the aliases of 23 other war criminals.
We see Sonia struggling to contain her emotions at several points in the episode, leading us to believe that she’s going to have an emotional outburst that will ruin everything. It’s interesting that Cabe assigns Paige to watch Sonia to make sure she stays calm. We see Sonia take over to get the blood for the DNA test and struggle not to simply kill Zoric while she has the chance. Sonia tells Paige that her pain and anger are all that she has. Paige tells her that unchecked emotion is as bad as denied emotion and stresses the importance of finding a balance.
Walter calls Cabe on letting his hatred of Zoric and his men cloud his judgement. Cabe agrees, but Cabe has also learned to channel his emotion and deal with it when appropriate. Cabe tries to pull Sonia away from Zoric when sitting in the car waiting for the others. He tells her, “I know they killed a lot of people, but they didn’t kill the good in you.” Sonia proves Cabe right when she has Zoric at her mercy and doesn’t shoot him, instead telling him, “You killed my family, no I can kill you. But I’m better than you. I have more humanity than you will ever have.” I liked that they didn’t simply have the woman be an emotional wreck and ruin the mission.
In fact, there’s a really nice parallel with Sylvester throughout the episode which helps to balance the discussion. We see Sylvester distracted and almost paralyzed by his emotions. I loved the scene in which Toby gets him to climb the pole. My favorite Sylvester moment had to be jumping out of the plane. Cabe asks him, “Have I ever put you in an unsafe situation?” You’re expecting ‘no’ but Sylvester gives him the truth – “All the time!” Cabe then grabs him and jumps, saying, “Then you should be used to it!”
The team are really on their own in Cuba which presents all kinds of interesting challenges. Happy calls the Island their kryptonite. I loved Sylvester turning himself into Google by reading the guidebook – in like a minute! I also loved Happy’s rigged silencer on the cement saw. In fact, the entire bank robbery was priceless. I loved them rigging a digital, thermal print using a sausage, but the best part was when the bank manager comes in to find Happy dangling in the middle of the room, and she says, “Hi. Have a sausage” and throws it at him!
I have to say that this episode didn’t have that one too many twist that I often complain about. Having Zoric escape as they rush to the plane might have qualified if it didn’t set up the opportunity for Sonia to rise above her emotions.
Molina (Alana De La Garza) didn’t have a lot to do in this episode. She can’t officially help Cabe due to the sensitive negotiations underway between the US and Cuba – way to make if feel ripped from the headlines, show! – but she does set them up with a pilot and some operatives on the ground – even if Zoric manages to blow them up before they can help. However, we see at the end via the newscast that once the mission is clearly a success, she’s happy to take credit for it. I’m hoping for the same restrained balance in her character. She does care about the team, but she’s also opportunistic about her own career. I can live with that, particularly because it’s a realistic motivation.
In the end, Walter does at least partially accept the lesson and pleads to the charges in the way Kessler and Paige want him to, earning him community service instead of jail time. And hey show, good on you for showing that there are consequences to driving recklessly like that! I also like Sylvester appreciating what Toby was trying to do and even admitting his love for Megan. But Sylvester also proves that he’s a good student of human nature and diagnoses Toby’s issues with being alone. It’s hilarious to watch Toby and Cabe go off for dinner together. This seemed a bit a continuity glitch for them to pass Walter picking up trash on the way to dinner though. After all, Walter would hardly be picking up trash the same night as being sentenced – but then maybe, Cabe and Toby have made this a regular thing?
All in all, I thought this was really a solid episode with good action and a strong message – that didn’t feel preachy and worked on a number of levels. I also really liked the bits of humor – who didn’t love Walter’s face as Paige emerged from the ocean! What did you think of the episode? What was your favorite scene? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
About the Author - Lisa Macklem
I do interviews and write articles for the site in addition to reviewing a number of shows, including Supernatural, Arrow, Agents of Shield, Agent Carter, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, The X-Files, Defiance, Bitten, Killjoys, and a few others! I'm active on the Con scene when I have the time. When I'm not writing about television shows, I'm often writing about entertainment and media law in my capacity as a legal scholar. I also work in theatre when the opportunity arises. I'm an avid runner and rider, currently training in dressage.
