Scorpion recap: Ticker

It’s been an up-and-down season of Scorpion, hasn’t it? I mean, every episode has been wonderful, but none of them have been anything short of a near heart attack. And if not a heart attack, then heartbreak. Watching Walter bounce back and forth with his emotions all season has been exhausting, but if there’s one thing that can break Walter’s inhibitions down, it’s a child…and for once, that child’s not Walter.

The Backstory

You know what else is Walter’s weakness? Throwing things. We find this out because the 2016 Scorpion Olympics are TONIGHT. What’s that, you say? Oh, it’s where Happy, Toby, and Sly have some extra time on their hands and chug Slurpee’s and do math problems. For the throwing portion, though, Walter does his best to stay away. He talks about how all that time mankind has spent competing could have been used to figure out more of the world’s problems. They coax him in anyway, and the real reason he’s not into competing is revealed: Walter can’t throw for anything.

After Walter leaves the warehouse, he’s sideswiped by a truck and has to head to the hospital for a quick rundown. While he waits, a mother and her daughter, Olivia, come into the E.R. for Olivia to have a heart transplant. She’s officially the second best kid (#RalphForver) on this show because she’s just spitting all kind of medical game about her condition. She and Walter become quick friends, and it seems like they’ll see each other again.

The Mission

As Walter and the gang attempt to leave, Toby stops a doctor who he believes is treating a patient incorrectly. Toby correctly guesses that his patient has an exotic virus that he received during a blood transfusion. As the team investigates, they find out that the virus has been found in two other areas in Los Angeles and the whole blood bank could be compromised. And unfortunately, it appears that the contamination wasn’t a mistake.

The Execution

Scorpion stops all surgeries, and of course, that means no surgery for our little heart champion, Olivia. Walter steps up and offers as much of his O negative blood as possible, but Olivia has AB negative blood, which is the rarest type of all. And her donor heart only has a shelf life of about 4 more hours, so that’s when Walter’s emotions take over, and he promises Olivia that he and Scorpion are going to save her life.

Sylvester and Cabe begin by tracking down the blood terrorists (how many blood terrorists do you think there are out there?). Meanwhile, Paige and Walter investigate the hospital computer system to see how the system might have been tampered with to infect the blood supply. Walter realizes that the bug that was used to sabotage the blood bank switches up the six-digit barcode of each bag of blood, rendering it completely unreadable. With millions of combinations, there’s no time to make guesses about the code — the team has to find out more about the hackers.

NEXT: Nothing sticks with you like childhood foreclosure

Once Sylvester and Cabe make it to the terrorist’s headquarters, which happens to be more like a “terrorist shack,” they use science (I was an English major, so let’s not get any deeper than that) to develop a giant sheet of metal as if it were a roll of film. The giant metal picture reveals the plates of a man named Todd Wilcox. Apparently, Todd developed a vaccine to get rid of the exotic virus, but by the time the vaccine was developed, the disease was almost eradicated. Feeling frustrated, he does what any entrepreneur would do: He releases it back into the blood system so he can make mad money. They’ve found the culprit, but they still don’t have the algorithm that switched the bags up, though, and time is only running out for little Olivia.

The Revised Execution

Team Scorpion sends Happy and Paige to act as press to see if they can pull information out of Wilcox at his press conference about the virus outbreak. The team picks up on a suspicious answer when he says that he’s been worried about price gouging for the past 30 years, when he’s only 46. After some research, the team puts together an algorithm that stems from the amount of money Todd’s childhood home was foreclosed for.

Olivia’s doctor calls and asks if Walter can guarantee that he’ll get her the needed blood for the surgery. Walter takes the risk and says yes, just as the team figures out the algorithm — the same number that Todd’s childhood home foreclosed for. The only problem is, even with a seemingly correct algorithm, the government isn’t just going to turn the blood over, so the team agrees: They have to hijack the truck.

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The whole team hops in an RV, family-style, and somehow catches up with the truck carrying the blood needed for Olivia’s surgery. As the RV gets closer, Walter, Toby, and Happy secure the ladder from the RV to the blood truck, but as you can imagine, keeping speed with the truck while also securing a ladder isn’t easy at all. Regardless, Walter crosses over and breaks in while Sylvester unlocks the blood bank. Walter grabs three bags of blood for Olivia, but the blood truck driver does not like how close the RV is, so he speeds up and the team loses the ladder, abandoning Walter on the truck.

Completely desperate, the team has to rely on Walter’s throwing skills — yeah, those same throwing skills that he couldn’t manage to get down before. The first bag is spot on, but the second bag doesn’t stand a chance. He throws the last bag just too far, but Sly catches it inside the RV. Walter and the team barely make it to the hospital. He runs in with the two bags, but Olivia needed the blood well before that.

The doctor comes out and let’s Olivia’s mom know that they were able to transplant the heart but they don’t know if Olivia’s body will accept it. Paige is the first to offer to stay behind because that’s how motherhood works, y’all. The rest of the team hangs back as well for good measure. The next morning, the doctor comes back to make the announcement: Olivia is going to be fine.

Turns out, Olivia gave the okay to Dr. Bennett to start without the blood because she knew that Walter would pull through for her. He tells her that it’s good to be different. He tells her to keep up the studying, and she says she will, but first, she’s going to have fun. I’m not crying — I’m just getting all that genius-induced saline out of my eyes.

At the end of the day, Team Scorpion picks up with Scorpion Olympics, and for once, Walter decides to join in on the fun. Even if it’s piece by piece, those emotions keep seeping through for Walter.

Paige’s Feel Board

• Can we please talk about how ridiculous the name Haywood “Jahelpme” Morris is?
• Walter with children is peak Walter, am I right?
• Paige has gotten way smart. Not to say that Paige was ever dumb because I’m a Paige, but she’s really stepping up lately!

We only have a few episode left! Are we going to end up with a Waige reunion? And how terrified were you about that car accident. Walter’s seen one too many car wrecks, in my humble opinion, but who knows. We’ll see soon enough.