Scorpion’s eighth episode, “Risky Business,†opens with a car race featuring Walter at the wheel! Sadly, his calculations can’t account for other drivers, and he loses the race. Considering his car was only a rental, Walter is now indebted to the man who won.
Their next case takes them to the office of a music blogger. The Scorpion team is brought in to analyze an algorithm that was left on the dry erase board. It appears to be an optimizer, code that would be used in situations such as player statistics in a baseball game. This leads to the question of what a music blogger would want with it. The only clue in the code are the initials PT.
When they find a man with the initials PT, a music prodigy by the name of Peyton Temple, they have no way of getting into the house. Walter and the team try to find probable cause, but they can’t convince the detective to enter the property. Walter decides that he should just go into the house anyway. He tells Toby that high risk situations make him relax, but this could put everyone in jeopardy.
Luckily, Walter only gets zapped by a charged wire on the sidewalk by the house. After meeting Temple in person, the team realizes that he is not the murderer. Temple created the program to manufacture the perfect pop song. He believes that someone has been using his technology to manufacture hits. Temple took his suspicions to the music blogger, Reed, leading to his death.
Temple believes that there are six music hits currently that are using his algorithm. Since he is only allowing Walter to access the list, the rest of the team as well as the audience is in the dark. Naturally, Toby is the one who is the most curious about who makes the list, often making jokes about songs or artists that have to be taking advantage of the algorithm.
Since one music producer has two songs on Temple’s list, that is where the Scorpion team starts. They decide to confront the producer themselves in order to plant a bug in hopes that he will incriminate himself in Reed’s murder. Once the team is back in the van, they hear a strange noise when Walter tries to start the car. Without hesitating, they all run from the van before it explodes only moments later.
After failing with the car bomb, the men after Temple hit the garage where the Scorpion team is. Poor Walter gets electrocuted for a second time this episode after being hit with a taser by one of the bad guys who then promptly kidnap Temple. It is now confirmed that Owen Sugar, who has three artists who use the algorithm, is behind the murder of Reed and the attempts on Temple.
It’s still a mystery why Walter won’t ever call Cabe into these situations. Instead, the Scorpion team goes to confront the killer alone. Well to be fair, they are going to monitor the killer, but we all know what happens in these situations. Walter, Toby, and Happy go in to Owen Sugar’s apartment to get Temple out. To avoid getting caught taking Temple out of the place, Toby “barges†into the apartment saying that his is the next big artist. Unfortunately this only gets him a ride hanging over the balcony. Even though they didn’t call in the cops, they always manage to be there to save the day.
The Verdict
This episode had some more predictability than normal. The best treat of the episode had to be Katharine McPhee singing, even if it was only a small section. Also, Walter helps Drew and Ralph get to know one another. It is a very selfless thing to do and very un-Walter-like. One of the biggest letdowns of the episode was Toby not being able to ask Happy to go to a monster truck show. Lucky for us this is a TV show, and hopefully we have plenty of time to see Toby and Happy’s relationship develop.
+ Some good character development with Toby
+ Walter showed his dangerous side
– Why don’t they ever call Cabe to help with the bad guys?
– Easier episode to predict
