Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Scorpion 3x05 Review: “Plight at the Museum” (One Problem at a Time) [Guest Contributor: Yasmine]


“Plight at the Museum”
Original Airdate: October 24, 2016

I love when shows take a small break from their crazy action/cases and focus on the characters, and this is exactly what Scorpion did with this episode. The team takes on a private job, at night in the museum, only for it to turn out to have been planned a by a group of evil people there to steal something dangerous. But the case takes a back seat — though it was still fun and dangerous — and the episode focuses instead on the bonds of friendship that tie this group and the current situation that threatens to break them apart. The episode asks characters the question “what does friendship mean to you and how far will you go for your friends?”

Happy is pregnant. Happy wants to marry Toby. Toby wants to marry Happy. But Happy is married to Walter. It is a marriage that has been a secret from everyone for so long, and that fact alone is enough to cause a rift in the group — but the reason behind it is what can cause more problems. The biggest risk in all this messy situation is that Walter may be deported and sent back to Ireland, and thus break up Team Scorpion.

Of course, this would not be Scorpion if this potentially catastrophic situation was not balanced out by something light and ridiculous, even. Enter Walter and Happy’s fake marriage: from them getting married in City Hall and having to share a very awkward kiss, to their photoshopped honeymoon pictures, to eventually having to share a bed in an attempt to convince their caseworker their marriage is legitimate.

In the beginning of the episode Toby finds out they do have an option in which the entire process would be expedited, but that would put them at a greater risk of being found out as frauds and Walter deported. Having just slightly moved on from the fact that Happy had lied to him about being married — he is still angry but his anger is now focused on something else — Toby confronts Walter about this and accuses him of being selfish. Toby claims that he is the one who knows what Happy needs, while Walter claims he knows what she wants.

From there, it is an interesting journey for both men through the episode — Toby as the overbearing father of the unborn child, and Walter as the pragmatic “husband” with a lot to lose in the situation.

The episode strategically breaks the group up into three pairs just before they face their little “situation” at the museum. Paige and Toby are left back at the garage, Sly and Cabe on the loose in the museum, and symbolically enough, Happy and Walter are tied together. While the Sly/Cabe pairing serves mostly as the fighting team for the plot, being the two who discover the break-in and spend most of the time trying to resolve the situation, the other two pairings serve to tackle the emotional aspect of the episode.

As I mentioned above, the episode poses the question of how far one might go for friends and what a person is willing to sacrifice for them. Interestingly enough, the two through whom this question is studied are Walter and Happy. And while these two are the most closed off in the group — and the two with the lowest EQ — they are also both fiercely loyal. While it might come up to the surface as loyalty coming from the concept of the greater good, or justified by some logic, at the end of the day, it is driven by love and compassion for those they love. Happy is willing to sacrifice what is most important to her right now (marrying Toby and starting a family) just so that Walter can stay in the U.S. and, essentially, Scorpion can remain everyone’s family. And by the end of the episode, Walter comes to realize that the risk of being deported is worth it if it means his friends get to be happy and get what they want more than anything.

I cannot state how important that moment is for Walter, and how it is a little silent, subtle Waige moment. This entire season, his journey will be a series of small steps toward consciously and actively becoming the person who deserves and who can be with Paige — who can be the man Paige needs. And in this episode, and with this purely selfless act, he takes another step towards becoming that man.

And speaking of what a woman needs. In the beginning of the episode, Toby claims that he is the one who knows what Happy needs, constantly being overbearing and overprotective. His time spent with Paige, this group’s savior in more ways than one, is very enlightening and educational for the doctor. I love when these two share scenes, and I love how they are always there for each other, supportive of each other, without necessarily being very “vocal” about their friendship. I loved the scene they shared in the end in which Paige reminds him that they’re friends and that what she did for him is what friends do for each other. After providing Happy with parental advice last week, this week, it’s Toby who’s there at the receiving end of Paige’s words of wisdom about what it means to be a parent. But more importantly, she explains to him that Happy does not need him to know what she needs. Happy needs him to ask her what she needs. Toby understands her needs to take a step back, to slow down and to let Happy lead the way. And at the end of the episode, he does just that.

Another great moment of character growth for Dr. Tobias Merriweather Curtis.

I really enjoyed the episode. The case was fun and perfectly set so that the more emotional aspects of the episode can be on the forefront. And every time a character gets to display huge leap of growth, you know it is a good episode.

I have to say, I am really enjoying the season of Scorpion so far and I hope it keeps up this quality of writing.

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