Scorpion, “Hard Knox” was written by Scott Sullivan and was directed by Omar Madha. Once again, we have a title with a dreadful pun! And by dreadful, I mean awesome – who doesn’t love clever wordplay? The title once again applies on multiple levels – as every good pun should. It pertains to the case – the team are hired to break in to Fort Knox, but several characters take hard knocks of different kinds.
Walter (Elyes Gabel) and Linda (Brooke Nevin) are continuing to date, and as the episode opens he’s taken her to the special opening of a flower – except the flower smells like rotting meat! Hardly romantic, and of course, Toby (Eddie Kaye Thomas) is quick to point out that Walter’s dates are more like field trips. Linda, however, has been enthusiastic about how much she’s learned while being with Walter. Toby explains that it’s just “damsel syndrome.” She’s experiencing an endorphine rush while with Walter because Walter saved her and she associates him with that chemical high.
Ralph’s (Riley B Smith) trial against his professor (Andrew Patrick Ralston) has proceeded extremely quickly and the Judge (Leslie David Baker) is about to rule – and clearly not in Ralph’s favor because Heywood (Horatio Sanz) is a terrible lawyer. He does manage a last minute hail Mary by questioning the competency of his own client – Ralph!
The entire team jumps in to examine the code – that was only just revealed because Heywood didn’t think to ask to see it! We’ll set aside the legal hand waving by the show… They can identify that it’s Ralph’s code by finding his “bookmarks” in it. He’s put numbers that are special to him as place holders while working on the code. Ralph tries explaining how he did something to Walter, and Walter clearly doesn’t understand what Ralph is trying to say! Smith and Gabel are always terrific together.
Walter snaps at Ralph and it seems like he is angry at Ralph because Ralph seems to be smarter about this than Walter is himself. Paige (Katharine McPhee) turns to Walter after Ralph has walked away and demands that Walter apologize to Ralph – or she’s out! She tells Walter that Ralph might be like him but he’s not exactly like Walter and he does feel badly when Walter talks to him in that way.
The two are interrupted by Cabe (Robert Patrick) arriving with Agent Cook (Mark Rolston) from the Department of Defense. He needs them to break into Fort Knox to prove that it isn’t secure. I loved Toby and Sylvester (Ari Stidham) both saying in complete unison: “Crazy man says what now?” And it gets worse because they have to be completely off the books – no one can know. Of course, that means that they will be getting past real guards with real guns – but it also means they’ll be earning $1 million tax free!
Walter is dead set against it – too many variables – until Tim (Scott Porter) agrees with him! Then Happy (Jadyn Wong) and Toby agree with Walter that they can do it… and we’re off! Sylvester offers to provide support at the garage and help for Ralph with the case. Happy uses a toy submarine to hack in and create a plumbing problem so that she, Toby, and Walter can infiltrate as army plumbers by stowing away in the trunk of Cabe and Tim’s car. Cabe and Tim pretend to run a Homeland check on Fort Knox to get the other three into the building.
The three use the Fort’s own knock out gas to take down all the guards – except the one at the vault door. However, they defeat him by turning out the lights and then blinding his night vision googles-enhanced vision by using flashlights to temporarily blind him and knocking him out by taking off his gas mask.
Happy goes to work on the vault lock but an artillery exercise means that she can’t hear the tumblers on the lock, so Cabe and Tim have to go and stop the exercise – which they do by driving into the middle of a mortar practice session! Happy gets them into the vault quickly once she can hear again.
Back at the garage, Paige tells Heywood to stall the Judge who wants the report on Ralph’s competency. She tells him that he’s a good lawyer, and he tells her why he went into law. This is a nice scene to give us some background on Heywood. His mother won a small claims court case against a fraudulent heater repairman, so he got into law to protect the little guy. In his bid to protect Ralph, Heywood takes one for the team and is cited for contempt and sent to County.
Back in the vault, the team tries to “Indiana Jones” the scepter which is on a weight-sensitive alarm/trap system. Happy calculates the weight differential, but when they remove the scepter, the door slams shut and the chamber begins filling with water. I loved Toby's comment that he was expecting a boulder. Ralph jumps in to tell them to let the room fill up with water as that will weaken the door and allow them to get out. Walter agrees. They are able to jimmy the door with a sword they find.
They determine that the scepter is light and that’s why it didn’t work. They also know that tripping the alarm will bring the armed guards. They discover that there is plutonium inside the hollow scepter – explaining why it was light – and demonstrating that Agent Cooper had very bad intentions! Sylvester is able to trace the plutonium back to Cooper. Happy, Toby, and Walter escape the guards only to find themselves trapped in a dead end.
Cabe apologizes to the military and gets back on his com only to be told to commandeer one of the mortar launchers. Tim reveals that the launchers can be hacked – so Sylvester does. Both Paige and Tim aren’t too happy about them “estimating” where to land the mortars though! Tim remarks that the team is “insane,” and Cabe agrees that they are going to give him a heart attack one day.
Cooper shows up to collect the scepter and they let him have it. However, Walter has a plan to break back in. We get another nice series of dreadful puns when Happy remarks that the plan is nuts, and Walter corrects her saying it’s actually seeds – they use pine cones and gunpowder to distract the guards. Toby asks how he’s supposed to trust someone who made a nuts and seeds pun! I’m beginning to wonder if there is a punster on the writing team who is responsible for all of them!
Walter breaks back in and drops Cooper’s badge which they lifted when they gave Cooper the scepter. When Cooper enters Fort Knox, the guards arrest him!
Once they’re back, Toby testifies that Ralph is competent and he testifies that he can prove the code is his. They’ve found the dates he’s embedded in the code as bookmarks: His birthday, Paige’s birthday, and the day he met Walter because that was the day he realized that he wasn’t alone. Gabel is excellent in this scene as it is clear just how much Ralph’s using that date and why means to Walter. In fact, Walter jumps up to add that he can verify that date because it’s very important to him too. Aw!
Naturally, Ralph winning his case warrants a roof top party. Heywood thanks Paige for believing in him and when his mom calls, Heywood can finally tell her that he’s one a case!
Walter tells Ralph that he was touched that Ralph used the date they met and then explains to Ralph why he was upset with him. Walter tells Ralph that he used to tell people he had the fourth highest IQ, but now he’s going to have to tell people the fifth because Ralph is smarter than he is! He tells him that he was upset that Ralph slowed down his own thinking because Walter couldn’t keep up. Walter doesn’t want Ralph to ever hobble his own intelligence for anyone.
Meanwhile, Linda shows up and is about to eat corn, which she’s violently allergic to. Walter realizes that Toby was right and tells her that she only likes him because of the sense memory of the endorphine rush she experienced with him. He tells her, you don’t really like me – just the feeling she associates with him. Even though he says he understands and still wants to be friends, it’s clear that he’s hurt.
While Walter and Linda are saying goodbye, Tim tells Paige he’s off to Seattle to see a specialist about his back – what is it with Paige losing guys to Seattle?! He suggest they could go on a date when he gets back, and because Paige thinks that Walter and Linda are an item, she says yes.
And finally, Toby tells Happy that he’s glad they are just keeping things nice and easy between them. It’s clear that Happy really is pleased that that’s how their relationship is proceeding. But Toby is still moving too fast and manages to devise a clever way to get Happy’s ring size. Sylvester is in on the plan to get a ring… And I’m betting that Happy is not going to be pleased. Will this spell the end of their relationship?
All in all, another fun episode. Both Gabel and Smith turn in particularly good performances. What did you think of the episode? Do you think Happy will freak out if Toby proposes? Is there any hope to see Walter and Paige together by the end of the season? 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.
