Scorpion casts Lea Thompson as Paige's mom — exclusive

Scorpion has tapped Lea Thompson to play Paige’s mother, EW has learned exclusively.

The Back to the Future alum will portray Veronica Dineen, an accomplished con artist who comes back into Paige’s (Katharine McPhee) life after years behind bars during the upcoming Thanksgiving-themed episode.

After getting mixed up in a real estate deal gone wrong, some dangerous colleagues are on Veronica’s tail in the wake of her uncovering a secret and a forgotten nuclear reactor. Eager to reconnect with her disapproving daughter and the genius grandson she’s never met, Veronica brings the team a surprising case, but still has a few secrets of her own she’d like to hide. The team is skeptical at first, but soon discover that the nuclear material in the facility is rapidly heating and threatening to explode.

Will Paige be willing to forgive her mother, or let her into the life she’s worked so hard to establish for herself and her son? Either way, viewers will certainly get more insight into Paige with her mother’s arrival. “You don’t really know that much about Paige’s past,” McPhee tells EW. “This season, you’re going to really learn a lot about what her background is and where she came from. It’s good meaty stuff for Paige. You’re going to see a little more aggressive, frustrated, annoyed Paige [continuing] from the first episode — that’s the most angry you’ve seen her in all the seasons. I think you’ll see a continuation of that.”

Thompson, who most recently starred on Switched at Birth, will appear in at least two episodes starting in late November, with the possibility to recur.

Scorpion airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.

Additional reporting by Chancellor Agard.