Scorpion, “Tech, Drugs, and Rock ‘n’ Roll,” was a super-sized episode written by the team of Elizabeth Davis Beall and Nicholas Wootton and was directed by Sam Hill. The team was in fine form on numerous fronts in this action-packed episode. Both potential couples faced challenges that really brought their feelings to the surface, though I’m not convince it actually moved the relationships along!
The episode begins with Walter (Elyes Gabel) trying to continue his emotional development with the help of Ray (Kevin Weisman). Ray convinces Walter to go to a mixer after a tech-talk. Unfortunately, it’s the night before the team has a huge unveiling of a new high-tech smart building for Richard Elia (Andy Buckley). Walter flirts with a woman at the bar – Stella (Alex Frnka), and Paige (Katharine McPhee) and Cabe (Robert Patrick) find him apparently still drunk or hungover in his hotel room the next morning.
McPhee does a terrific job in the episode. Paige is clearly jealous throughout, but she also doesn’t waver from believing that Walter simply had to be roofied. Stella, of course, immediately tags Paige as the jealous girlfriend. I loved watching Cabe and Paige team up for this one. It was great to see Paige hacking the computer all on her own – seems she’s been paying attention to the team! Paige remarks that seeing Walter out of control is very instructive. How much of his emotional lack of affect is actually due to his repressing those feelings? Paige asks Cabe about Walter’s behavior, and he points out that we all make choices about letting people in.
We have the usual final scene between Walter and Paige. She tells him that her feelings were complicated… but not that she was outright jealous. Walter tells her that he was practicing to be normal. Gabel was excellent in that first scene. It’s clear just how uncomfortable he is with the entire bar scenario, yet he forces himself to try. Paige urges him not to let one horrible experience keep him from trying again, and Walter tells her that he can’t unring that bell. He can’t go back to who he was. Progress? Walter does agree to go to Happy Hour with Ray at the end of the episode.
Meanwhile, on the Happy (Jadyn Wong) and Toby (Eddie Kaye Thomas) front it’s hard to say whether progress was made or not. Happy is clearly happy at the beginning of the episode. Toby is determined to demonstrate his independence from her, but of course, it spectacularly backfires. I love the relationship between Sylvester (Ari Stidham) and Toby. Toby recognizes that Sylvester is regressing to his childhood because something is going on with Megan, but Sylvester also know his friend. Toby asserts that he was happy before Happy, but Sylvester tells him, “You were a dumpster fire!” Possibly the best line in the entire episode!
Toby manages to get out of the elevator on his own and even fashions a fire-retardant suit for himself from insulation to get to the servers. However, when he gets locked in, Walter insists on sucking all the oxygen out of the room. Happy and Toby are both really unhappy with Walter, but what was very instructive about Happy’s behavior was just how frantic she got when she thought Toby was going to die. Happy saves Toby by doing CPR and is angry with him later for his stupid need to be independent. However, they don’t seem to come to any real new resolution about their relationship – friend or otherwise.
Happy and Toby ultimately rescue Sylvester, but he spends most of the episode trapped in a room with a group of kids. This is a nice segue from Toby telling Sylvester that he’s retreated to his own childhood as we see how much Sylvester has grown to be able to actually reassure the kids when he’s terrified himself. Sylvester really connects with Russell (Trevor Larcom) who could be a mini-Sylvester. Sylvester tells him, “You look on the darkside, but I’m learning life is a mix.” It’s great to see how far Sylvester has come - he’s a long way from the “coward” we met. Of course, he’s also the youngest on the team, so less set in his ways perhaps.
Walter is clearly still dealing with a lot of issues. I really like how the show uses all the characters to balance off against each other. Toby gives Walter insight into his relationship with Elia – Walter is desperate for Elia’s approval to the point that he worked himself to the point of exhaustion to make the building perfect. It’s Toby that tells Walter that he can’t unring a bell once his actions are done. It’s interesting to actually watch Walter blame himself and doubt himself in this episode. He identifies himself as the single point of failure – he recognizes that he was the perfect anti-social target at the bar. At first, all Walter can see is correcting that mistake.
When Toby is trapped, it seems as if Walter is prepared to sacrifice Toby for the greater good. It’s highly symbolic, and ironic, when they use the tungsten pen Elia gave Walter to save Toby. I loved them commenting on the fact that they were using the tech of David and Goliath in the most advance smart building!
Once Elia pushes Walter away and says he has to stop listening to him, Walter finally puts his team first and knocks Elia and Adler (Doug Savant) out of the way. He has to come to the logical conclusion that his actions will irreparably harm his relationship with Elia. Elia tells Walter that he over-reached because he was trying too hard to impress him. In the end, the team does save the day, and Walter finds that his relationship with Elia is still intact. Walter is surprised that Elia wants to try again with another building. Elia tells Walter, You don’t know where you are vulnerable until you fail. Failure is part of the process. It’s a nice summary of the lesson that Walter has learned – and why he agrees to go to happy hour with Ray.
There were too many action sequences in this episode to adequately praise all of them! I think this show is clearly the reason for the re-boot of MacGyver that’s in the works. I loved Sylvester pulling a Happy by making breathing masks for the kids. I loved Walter jumping out the window for that ladder – though c’mon. They didn’t lower a harness why??? I loved Toby’s firesuit. I also loved Cabe tasing Smaisley (Corey Brill) to kill the chip in him – I saw it coming but it was no less satisfying for all that! Even the opening sequence in which Walter was retrieving Ray’s hat from the freeway was terrific.
What did you think of the episode? What was your favorite action sequence? Favorite line? How
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.
typical and funny was it that Walter didn’t know who John McLean was?! Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
