FoxPhile

girl under the floor

I made notes through my binge

I'm liking these characters more and more.
Walter not being able to handle emotion, but still encouraging Sylvester all the time.

It stood out to me this episode that Paige is trying to fit in. Walter having faith that she will but she was so right for telling him they need to start letting her in. On the other hand, that seems like a hard thing to expect, she knows they have difficulties with that.

And I'm loving those little tid-bits with Ralph and Walter

I'm glad they got a theme song

FoxPhile

I really liked how Walter backed Paige right from the beginning - and how he explained his views to the rest of the team by relating it to the faith he had in them when they first came on.

It's part of what makes Walter such an interesting character. He's arguably got the lowest EQ of anyone in the group, yet occasionally he comes out with these absolute gems of compassion and understanding - that make you really wonder "Where did that come from" - yet it proves that although he may not always understand emotions, he unquestionably has them and can be influenced by them. Even if he insists it's just logic.

FoxPhile

I've been neglecting out Random Episode Review, so it's time to Revive!

Up this week - Episode 1.03 "A Cyclone".

I loved The Pilot, Single Point of Failure I was sort of meh on, but A Cyclone really captured my interest. Not because of the main plot - but that sense of family that came through so clearly in the final scene. It felt like Scorpion was really meshing as a team - and it gave the fandom a name.

WeBuiltThePyramids

I saw this thread topped and (granted I'm exhausted and maybe still a little sick) I legit almost teared up. I adored this one so much.

Cyclone139

It is a great episode! I haven't watched it for a while so I was delighted to see this thread topped - great excuse for a re-watch.

I agree with Heidi that Single Point of Failure wasn't one of the strongest eps, it was an odd choice for the first one after the pilot - Cyclone would have been much better as it really shows just how much Walter cares about the others and develops the idea of the team as a family.

One thing that struck me as I watched it again today was that when the team were struggling, Walter tells Paige she has to "fix us" - not just to fix him. In later seasons Walter seemed to think that Paige's job was just to help him fit in. At the end of Strife on Mars, Walter's justification for firing her was:

At the start he frequently demonstrated how much he cared about the other geniuses (I love how he says to Sylvester "I've always got your back" ), but as the character evolved, that particularly endearing quality was... not entirely lost, but certainly diluted.

WeBuiltThePyramids

This episode was basically the perfect example of what this show was. Which makes it kinda hard to watch now because the way it ended was like the exact opposite.

FoxPhile

One of my favorite scenes is when Walter defends Paige to the rest of the team - reminding them that they were each in pretty dire straits when he met them - but he saw something in them and he sees something in Paige. It may not be the same sort of something - but it's valuable. That has always been such a hallmark of Walter's character, that he sees the value in people based on the talents they have, and not by some single-focused ruler that values only certain abilities.

Interestingly, in the same scene, Walter is very blunt with Paige, telling her that her dreams of a "normal" childhood for Ralph - student councils and such - are not going to happen. In many ways, that is part of the same character trait. Walter values each individual's abilities, but he is also very realistic about people's abilities. He doesn't expect anyone to do something or be something they simply aren't capable of. He doesn't expect Paige to be a genius - but he does expect her to help his team relate to people. He doesn't expect that Ralph will ever be Big Man on Campus or in a popular clique or part of school politics; but he does expect that Ralph will eventually adjust to the normal world and be able to function - and probably better than the rest of them have. In that area he is surprisingly intuitive and able to teach Paige a thing or two about human nature.

WeBuiltThePyramids

That's a big part of what initially drew me to him!

FoxPhile

I know that sometimes I can be slow on the uptake, but this is ridiculous. I rewatched the episode today and this is the first time I made the connection between the soldiers calling Scorpion SMACKs and that smack was the answer to Walter's riddle.

WeBuiltThePyramids

I didn't catch that until the second or third time I watched it so you're not alone.

FauxDetective

I do remember wondering if Cyclone was originally intended to air before Single Point of Failure, but personally I’m glad they presented them in the order they did. I really enjoyed Single Point of Failure because that episode was where the writers started to flesh out Toby, Happy, and Sly’s characters/backstories. I’m not sure how much I would have cared about the team as a whole in Cyclone without learning more about those three characters first.

WeBuiltThePyramids

I don't have much attachment to 1.02 from a case standpoint, but I agree with Stef that we needed that backstory from the more supporting main characters before we could really get the emotional punch of this one.

Cyclone139

There was some good character development in Single Point of Failure and that was important as we got to know the team a little better, but for me it didn't quite hit the right tone for the first 'proper' episode. I would have swapped them over and put this one first.

Candy83

Gary Fleder did a good job directing the episode—with a nice comic moment when Team Scorpion stands outside a suspect’s place and just about advertises they’re after him—and the two Nicks (Santora and Wootton) had a grip on developing the main characters. (Love that last scene, and the reason why they are “Scorpion,” with Ralph!) A strong moment, I think, happens when Toby tries to run roughshod over Paige who, to everyone’s surprise, asserts her knowledge of her past experience having worked at a grocery store and knowing when deliveries are made. That was an example of Paige putting to rest concerns of other Team Scorpion members Happy and Sylvester as they had been wondering why she was hired by Walter. This is from the first season of CBS’s Scorpion. That was a period of innocence and freshness. And, although I was left angry by how the series was destroyed (and haven’t watched any episode since its finale aired April 16, 2018)—after how that went down—“A Cyclone” is a reminder of the promise of the series. That promise was with the characters building their lives. They were misfits. They were on their way to greatness. (The two Nicks should have re-watched this episode, and that last scene, before they turned out the series’ finale.)