Scorpion - Dumbster Fire - Review: "IQs Off a Cliff"
5 Mar 2018
KP Reviews ScorpionSometimes simple is better. That seems to be the case this week on Scorpion.
Paige and Walter have a disastrous game night with her friends where Walter's Pictionary drawings stump everyone. (He draws a topographical map of the Moon River in Georgia for a card referencing the song Moon River. Meanwhile, Happy and Toby are meeting with different fertility specialists, and Toby has become extremely indecisive about which one they should choose. Sly is getting nowhere in his battles with corporations to reduce the local usage of plastic water bottles. And Ralph is off to a science convention with Florence, where he plans to talk up Sly to her.
The rest of the team has to put their issues on hold as they head out to Colorado to the Particle Accelerator Neutrino Detection Station, where they're to confirm that the station scientists have detected a WIMP (Weakly Interacting Massive Particle). The station also so happens to be the world's deepest lab, located three kilometers under an old gold mine.
Once there, Walter, Sly, Toby, and Happy head down to the lab via the old mine elevator while Cabe and Paige go with the station scientist to the above ground control room. The station scientist warns that they need to be out within four hours, as being that far underground for longer then that will start to cause serious cognitive difficulties.
The team confirms the WIMP by the end of the four hours, but reasoning that their high IQs will cause it to take longer for them to be affected, decides to stick around for a few more minutes and check out the station's particle collider. As they head around on their little tour, Paige and Cabe realize they're all starting to get stupid.
They go to leave when the nozzle from one of the hydrogen gas tanks pops off, which could cause the whole place to go up in flames. Apparently, one of the prairie dogs they keep down there for observation got lose and messed with the lab's wiring. Walter vows he can fix the wiring and get them on their way quickly, but in his newly deficient state, he just messes things up more and accidentally activates the particle collider to full capacity, meaning that although they might still blow up, they also might create a black hole and destroy the universe.
With his intelligence rapidly decreasing, Walter comes up with a plan for him and Sly to try to hack the particle collider, while Happy and Toby work to vent out the hydrogen through the elevator shaft. Unsurprisingly, Walter and Sly fail to hack the system as they dive closer to Dumb and Dumber. Although Happy and Toby are able to start venting out the hydrogen by using a water bottle to hit the button they need to get to, Toby passes out from the pressure and the water bottle lights the elevator certificate on fire, which causes the mind shaft to explode, leaving them trapped.
Raja the station scientist realizes he can get the miners to lower a rope down another mine shaft and rescue the team. Unfortunately, plasma has entered the collider, and destruction of the universe is still imminent. Oh, and Toby's still getting closer and closer to biting it.
Paige reasons that if they vacuum-seal Toby like you would dinner leftovers, they can get rid of the pressure that's pushing the toxins into his brain. As the team gets to work saving him, a seriously dopey Walter starts to connect with Paige in a way he normally can't.
They're able to bring Toby (genius IQ and all) back, and he quickly comes up with a plan to prevent universal destruction by using argon to super-cool the plasma and shut down the next big bang. Walt is sent to cut a pipe and divert the argon down toward the collider. He, however, doesn't think to make sure he's secured before he cuts the pipe and ends up hanging directly above the collider on a broken pipe. Toby tells him he has to let go and try to miss the collider when he falls because when the argon hits the pipe he will freeze to death. As the team races to catch him, he lets go and begins to fall, with them making it there to cushion his landing just in time.
With the end of the world prevented, the miners are able to rescue the team and bring them back to the surface, where their IQs are restored. Back in LA, Sly decides to take a new approach to his project and builds a water filtration system mimicking the taste of the spring water on Cabe's grandfather's farm. He wants to get one in every house in West Altadena, knowing that people will then start using tap instead of bottled water because it'll taste better. Ralph conveniently brings up having Florence use her chemistry knowledge to help him with his project. Toby and Happy, meanwhile, finally decide on a doctor. And Paige, inspired by the dopey Walter moments, finds a show for them to go to, hoping to teach Walter more about music. Now back to his usual emotionless self, Walter rebuffs her, saying he has too much work to catch up on and ends up spending the night working on a new electric feedback mechanism for the particle accelerator with Florence.
Random Thoughts:
- The team chanting the Pi digits to make sure they were smart again was funny.
-I really don't like this love triangle/square thing they're coming up with. It seems like a cheap move. Put Florence with Sly, he deserves some happiness.
-Best lines go to Florence and Paige about Ralph. Florence: "Normally I dislike children. But, he's an abnormal child." Paige: "Thank you. I think."
Do ya'll imagine they're going to continue with this Walter/Florence thing? Are Happy and Toby going to be parents soon? Let me know what you think below!
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