‘Scorpion’ season 1, episode 5 review: Who is Walter’s kryptonite?

Let us say this right away: We are fans of “Scorpion”. This show has a lot going for it when it comes to the team of geniuses. They are four very different people, that have layered personalities and back stories. Then we have Paige and Cabe Gallo. Paige just seems to be floundering around as the genius babysitter that no one listens to and even though she has a small win last week while Walter was in jail, it’s not enough to win us over on the idea that a waitress needs to be on the FBI payroll. Cabe Gallo is also someone that we need to learn more about and 5 episodes in is a good time to give us more on the man that makes everything look so badass.

Gallo asks for just Walter to come on the next case, because the man who was arrested, Mark Collins, asked for Walter specifically. They knew each other years ago when Mark worked for Walter’s company – Scorpion, before Mark went crazy and Walter had him committed to a hospital. Mark has information about a nuclear power plant “meltdown” that will be coming and he can stop it.

When Walter brings the team to Mark’s house to get his recordings, they are  upset. They tell Paige that Mark is a professional at getting into Walter’s head, clouding his good judgement and that he caused major problems in the group. When Walter agrees to help Mark, the group is immediately worried.

Mark easily starts getting into Walter’s head again and begins bossing the team around leaving them unimpressed. The situations goes from bad to worse when Walter trusts Mark over Happy in a judgement call. She reminds Walter that she saved him after his 3 week bender with Mark (years ago) and that she is not going to take another trip down the rabbit hole again, so he can expect her to the group if this is where things are headed.

Happy decides to implement her diagnostic against Walter’s wishes and it starts a meltdown, but not before Toby hands her a mysterious note (all it says is “made you look” – are these two going to hook up?). Everyone gets out except for Gallo who is not only trapped int he power plant, but there is also a pipe pouring toxic steam into the room. With Mark’s help they find a way for Gallo to get out of the room, but they still need to stop the meltdown of the entire plant.

When Walter learns that Mark set it up so that Happy’s diagnostic would cause at the plant meltdown so he would look like the hero and be invited back into the team, Walter is furious. This is all Mark’s revenge for Walter breaking their  friendship apart and sending him to the hospital for two years.

It was great to see that even Walter has a weakness, someone that can get into his head and make him doubt his own brilliance. We were starting to think that there was no kryptonite for Walter’s brain. Episode grade: C

What did you think of tonight’s episode of “Scorpion” and are you a fan of the Paige character more then we are?