‘Scorpion’ season 3, episode 13 review: Money problems for Happy, Toby, and everyone else

The challenge for a show like “Scorpion” on a weekly basis is that the writers have to routinely find a way to build a better mousetrap almost on a weekly basis. You have to make each case just as exciting as the last, but also find some ways to have them stand out.

What made Monday night’s “Faux Money, Maux Problems” entertaining from the start was because you had a mission where Team Scorpion were by and large the victims. After thinking that they were being hired for more of a routine mission at a winery, the team quickly realizes that what they were set up to was something far more serious: A massive counterfeit operation, one that could threaten to devalue and destroy the entirety of the American economy … and the villains behind this plot wanted Scorpion to make the money or die. They weren’t exactly given many options, where they?

Veronica’s value – Lea Thompson returned for her third episode as Paige’s mother, and it was fun to see almost right away precisely what she brought to this particular plan for the team to escape. The truth of the matter here is that she’s a great liar, and that was an asset in trying to distract the team and help them escape their captors. Oh, and so was her faking a heart attack so effectively that even her daughter fell for it and showed genuine fear for her safety. (We don’t know, honestly, why Paige’s level of concern for her mother was ever in question. Clearly, she didn’t want anything to happen to her.

Veronica didn’t show any signs of wanting to leave town again at the end of the episode. Yet, she also realized that she had another problem — the escape and the big reveal of the operation was dramatic enough to make the local news, and everyone she owed money to got a chance to see her face and therefore knew where she was. Given that this would put both Ralph and Paige both in danger, this could prove to be some rather bad news.

The team pools their resources – As it turns out, escaping a counterfeiting operation this vast was not exactly easy, especially since Cabe’s reinforcements were slow to arrive given that the woman behind everything had diplomatic immunity and they had to find a way around it. When it comes to the sheer plot of taking down the bad guys, this episode wasn’t all that different from any other that we’ve seen over the years — though there were a few good explosions that we got a chance to see at the tail end of it.

Happy and Toby’s side of the story – They were separated for the majority of the episode from the rest of the team, getting a drink and checking out a wedding venue. Basically, they were the victim of some good timing that turned into bad when they were hunted down during a wine-tasting in order to rejoin the team. (Their escape surrounding by wine barrels may have been our favorite action sequence of the episode.)

The thing of value that came out of the story in the end was the two of them realizing in the end that they liked the idea of a wedding at a fancy venue, but at the same exact time, they didn’t have any money. We feel like we’re getting set up for a ceremony at a familiar place to the show, which we wouldn’t mind so long as it is gussied-up and memorable.

Overall – We leaned more about the characters and saw a crazy counterfeiting operation. We’re not sure what more we could’ve hoped for from an episode of this show when the dust settled. Grade: B.

What did you think about tonight’s new episode of “Scorpion”? Share in the comments.