Scorpion New Episode Review: 'Kill Screen' Endangers Ralph, Strains Relationships

CBS' Scorpion returned Monday night with a new episode entitled "Kill Screen." The series continues to head in the right direction, as Walter O'Brien finally made a mistake that could have been catastrophic and had to race to fix it.

Part of the problem in the early episodes was that Walter and his team would slip up during their cases, but they'd ultimately solve everything and wrap up the problem in a nice neat bow by the end of the episode. And because we didn't care about the characters, we didn't care much about the plots, either.

But the last handful of episodes has truly introduced us to these people, their problems, their fears, and their shortcomings. And in "Kill Screen," Walter's glaring weakness was exposed: his relationship with Ralph.

Ralph has always been an interesting if underutilized character. He's a reflection of Walter when he was younger, and Walter has taken a keen interest in him as a result. There are also clearly some signs of romantic feelings toward Paige on his part, which also plays into his desire to nurture Ralph. Your mileage may vary on this subject, as you might think the show needs a love story or you might roll your eyes if you think it's forced or unnecessary.

Regardless, Walter was showing Ralph some deep secrets on the Internet and never considered the consequences. Sure enough, the poor kid cracked an encryption during a game and accidentally uncovered a plot involving some CIA secrets, which led the government to think the kid might have been an enemy of the state.

If those last two sentences seemed ridiculous to you, that's because they were. The plot for this episode was completely absurd. A rogue game designer decided to try to leak government intel in the most convoluted way possible, and naturally the Scorpion team got involved. For some reason, this genius designer decided to model his game off of a real life location down to the finest detail, which made it easy for Walter and crew to catch him.

It was, however, nice to see Ralph actually involved in the plot at the end and help the team solve the case. Without him, Walter wouldn't have caught the bad guy.

We also saw some escalating tension between Walter and Paige's ex-husband, who returned from Portland when he learned his son's life might have been ruined. Walter made a heartfelt speech about having Ralph's best interests at heart (and even cracked a joke to Paige!), but it seems clear we're headed for some sort of blow up between the two men in Paige's life.

Toby also got the chance to give Walter some advice and reminded him that he can't just be Ralph's friend even though they are so similar; he also has to be the adult in the relationship. He also saved that poor kid's life after Evil Game Designer stabbed him in the gut, which provided a nice hero moment for him. And he gave Walter some technical advice on his rocket, too.

Scorpion still has problems, but it continues to deliver enjoyable episodes and explore its characters.

Notes:

- A young Sylvester as El Guapo was actually really funny. And I think ol' Sly had a chance with the cute gamer girl at the booth who asked Happy if he was really the legendary El Guapo.

- I hope Walter wins that $50 million. His storyline with his sister continues to be one of the show's strongest points, so any way they can explore that is fine with me.

- Happy used the "water on the safe" trick from a few episodes back. Nice continuity.

What did you think of "Kill Screen"? Let us know in the comments section.