Okay - so now I have read them
On defending Walter's emotional whiplash - couldn't agree more. The very fact that Walter is unused to dealing with his own emotions makes it likely that he'll have these sorts of extreme reactions to events - especially distressing events. Scorpion is everything to Walter - but not because it's the business he's built up or because it justifies who and what he is. It *is* his only family - and the only family his friends have as well. He wants to protect it because he needs it. When it comes to the effects of emotional upheaval, he's inexperienced and ill-equipped to even know what the possible damage might be, much less how to prevent it or fix it. So he can only go on what little he knows. And that is that tears and emotional scenes tend to lead to near disaster. So his knee jerk reaction is to decide that he simply must prevent them (I heard him in the Grinch's voice there - "I MUST stop relationships from coming!"). I do love your analogy to the system reboot. Channeling TBBT maybe?
But that seems so appropriate to Walter's character. His instinct is to set things back to a time when everything worked. When Toby and Happy were just teammates and friends, he and Paige were the same and there were no tears and no anguish. He simply doesn't understand that humans - even genius humans - just don't work that way. Love is not something you can reboot.
On the premiere - I suppose it's to be expected that there will be some backing off on Walter's part in the S3 premiere, although if they have him somehow rethink all this on the 450 mile drive to Lake Tahoe and end up stammering out some excuse for his appearance that doesn't include anything along the lines of "I figured out that I've been a stupid moron jerk and I love you so ditch Tim and we'll figure this out" then I will be royally pissed. If they want him to decide he needs to take this really slow, I'm fine with that. Even if he doesn't tell Paige that, and she winds up being a bit disturbed and confused and even hurt because he's holding back so much - I'm okay with that as well because it would still reflect a Walter that knows he wants to be with Paige, but simply doesn't have the experience to know how to manage that. But if he gets there and doesn't say
something to Paige about how he feels, or if he gets there and Tim answers the door and he chickens out again I will probably start throwing things.
I should probably invest in some pillows.
