Episode 4, “Shorthanded,” starts with the team working on a Government case with Agent Gallo. Once they wrap up the case, they say goodbye to Agent Gallo before packing up to take a private case in Las Vegas. Although Gallo believes that they aren’t ready to handle private cases, Walter disregards his skepticism and gets the team ready. Even though Walter doesn’t want Toby to come to Vegas because of his gambling addictions, Paige convinces him that Toby is part of the team and deserves to be with them. Naturally, trouble is bound to happen with these geniuses in Las Vegas!
Arriving at the Crimson casino, the team is shown around and given their mission. They are to figure out why the casino is losing money at their tables. Toby is like a kid in a candy store around all of the casino games, so Walter bets him his paycheck if Toby can resist any gambling. After observing the casino floor and applying pressure plates to look at people’s patterns, the Scorpion team looks at the security cameras. Within minutes, Walter realizes what the problem is. They call in the dealer who is losing the casino money. Using zero sensitivity, Walter explains that because the dealer has small hands, he can’t get as many deals through the table per day thus losing the casino money. The dealer is fired right then and there and is extremely upset. Paige attempts to talk with Walter about why he is being so short with people today, but he just ignores her.
Now that the case is over, the Scorpion team deserves a little bit of fun. As they are about to go their separate ways, Walter notices a couple of suspicious guys. He warns the team by telling them that a robbery is about to go down. After the criminals get away with the money, a cop comes to investigate the crime. Since Walter and the Scorpion team were just in the Crimson’s security system, they are the prime suspects of the robbery. Money was even found in their suite. Walter is arrested for the robbery and taken to jail.
After Walter pisses off the judge, his bail is set at $500,000. As Walter is being taken to jail, he tells Toby that the bet is off and to gamble for the bail money. Sylvester studies sports stats and gambles on football and horse racing. We get to see Sylvester break out of his shell and have a little bit of fun cheering on a horse. Once they are up $250,000, it is clear that they can’t get the money in time to get Walter out before the weekend. Toby loses the $250,000 by trying to double it at the roulette table. One of the most honest parts of this episode was the conversation between Walter and Toby when Toby had to tell Walter that they failed.
Not giving up, the Scorpion team, now being lead by Paige, works to prove that Walter is innocent. They decide to break back into The Crimson to download their computer files and see who is responsible for the robbery. While in jail, Walter comes face to face with the dealer that he just got fired from The Crimson. After getting him to calm down, Walter gets his help to try and figure out how the robbers escaped from the casino. Walter concocts a plan to break out of jail, and he joins the Scorpion team at The Crimson to clear his name.
Toby gets caught while trying to access the computer network with Happy. The daughter of the casino owner decides to drive him out to the desert and let him go. While this is happening, the rest of the team realizes that the owner’s daughter is the organizer of the robbery. Lucky for us, everything must come together by the end of the episode.
The Verdict
Walter finally breaks down and calls in Agent Gallo for help in saving Toby and arresting those who were involved in the robbery. It seems that everyone had something to prove in this episode. Toby was trying to prove to Walter that he wasn’t just a screw up. Paige was trying to prove that she is a valuable part of the team. Walter was trying to prove that he didn’t need Agent Gallo’s help. In the end, the team came together to get the job done. Everyone put their pride aside and realized that they all need a little help sometimes.
+ Getting to see Sylvester break out of his shell and have some fun
+ Great scenes with Toby and Walter
+ This episode shows that everyone needs a little help sometimes
– No fedora for Toby!
