‘Scorpion’ season 3, episode 7 review: Walter, Happy face revelations amidst election chaos

We’re not entirely sure precisely when the “Scorpion” writers conjured up Monday night’s “We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Vote” episode, given that the timing on it was scary impeccable. Yes, we’re sure that they were well aware of the election happening tomorrow and when this episode was going to air. Yet, at the same exact time, there was something crazy about it airing at a time when there are so many conspiracy theories out there regarding rigged elections.

Don’t worry: We’re not getting political here: We’re going to be talking instead about what was a pretty fun election-themed episode that contained several super-fun moments, especially in terms of seeing how certain members of the team investigated a hack that threatened to put the entire electoral process into anarchy.

Obviously, the top moment here was using Toby as a diversion during a news broadcast, one where he went on live TV and proceeded to yammer on and on about wanting a 40-party system that was more similar to things in Europe where there were people forced to get along.

So who was actually responsible for said hack? Apparently, a group in China was out to manipulate the results in order to make certain that there was chaos in America, and as a result of that, they could take advantage of a trade arrangement that was heavily impacted by the election. (More irony: China certainly has been a popular topic for at least one candidate during this election.) Walter had to pull a fast one at one point during the investigation, given that the government briefly considered Team Scorpion the guilty party in said hack. To a certain extent, we do get it — they were desperate for answers, and they probably figured out that there are not too many people who could be capable of doing something like this.

There have been times this season where we’ve been reasonably critical of the show for having relatively lifeless story-of-the-week plots, which is tough given they they make up such a huge percentage of the episode and there’s not often time for much else. Tonight’s was entertaining, and packed with some good chase scenes and witty one-liners. Obviously, we had no legitimate fear that the election would be ultimately compromised, given that this would be a really depressing way to end an episode airing this time of year.

One criticism: Cabe should probably be a little more careful dropping a laptop on pavement in front of the Chinese adversaries, right? He at least wants to sell that what he’s doing is important! (Cabe did have the line of the night: “My foot and your a– are going on a date real soon — it was very Red Foreman from “That 70’s Show.”)

The President was grateful for the team’s efforts, which meant that a surprise was coming! That turned out to be the news that he was now an American citizen. Sure, the agent investigating the case knew that he had a fraudulent marriage, but there was nothing he could do about it. Sylvester also had a surprise of his own: He wanted to become an Alderman, which had some unique ties (of course) to some live-action role-playing.

Now, the bad news: Happy isn’t pregnant, and her blood-test produced a false positive. While she could marry Toby now, the circumstances around it are now clearly different. She was devastated by the fact that she wasn’t having a child, and wanted to be left alone for now. Still, she did have Toby, who gave her a more formal proposal that she accepted.

You’re Walter / Paige / Tim update – Paige agreed to go to a gala with Tim, which in turn gave her an opportunity to meet his parents. Ralph, in turn, didn’t feel great about it. He made it clear to Walter that he should’ve made a move while he had a chance.

Grade: A-. While not perfect, this episode balanced out a lot of character moments with a pretty fun procedural story. We do still wish, though, that the show would allow more time for the larger stories — this is the second time this season that the ending felt very rushed.