Scorpion 'Single Point of Failure' Review: Getting to Know Walter O'Brien and The Team

The second episode of CBS' new technological thriller Scorpion aired Monday night, and I came away from the second episode with much the same reaction I had after the first. Scorpion is not a bad show, but it's not a good show, either. It's just there. But the second episode did improve in some places compared to the first, so let's start with the good.

The biggest problem with the pilot was the lack of character development. As we said in the review for that episode, it's common for a series premiere to sacrifice that a bit in favor of presenting the premise of the show. A pilot has the tricky task of introducing us to the characters and getting us to care about them while also saying "this is what our show is going to be each week." The premiere of Scorpion did that, but the only real character development occurred for Walter and, to a lesser extent, Paige and her son.

This week, the show informed us that Walter has a sister who is suffering from multiple sclerosis. Walter struggles with this not only because he loves her, but because in his genius mind, every problem must have a solution, so it drives him crazy that he does not have the answer to help his sister. This part of Walter's character is a welcome development. The sick relative is a bit of an easy way to go in order to explain a character's motivations and behaviors, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?

The problem is we don't yet know Walter well enough to be shocked by his behavior. Sure, we can sympathize with him because of his sister, but when Paige asks questions like "Since when does Walter get physical?," my only response was to shrug and say "I don't know. I've only spent an hour and a half with him."

That said, the episode did a solid job of tying Walter's emotional arc to the plot of the episode, in which a "bio-hacker" (does anyone know if this is actually a real thing?) attacked the governor's daughter. The perpetrator lost his daughter, who suffered from a degenerative muscle disease, after the pharmaceutical company for which the governor used to work stopped a drug trial that could have saved her and switched the drug to treat asthma. Grieving father plus knowledge of biology equals bioterrorist.

The thought of losing a loved one to a disease enraged Walter, which led to his smashing coffee mugs and tackling suspects. Paige realized something was obviously wrong and learned the truth. Paige was more active in the first episode, as this time around she basically served as Walter's guide to the human race, perched over his shoulder and offering advice on how to deal with people. She was the Cortana to his Master Chief. The Navi to his Link.

I rolled my eyes a bit in the first episode when Walter asked Paige to help "translate the world" for him because he is apparently incapable of understanding how to deal with people effectively. I didn't think this would lead to Paige literally telling Walter "You can't yell at Sylvester. You have to be patient with him." Or to her stopping a conversation with the governor just to express their condolences, something Walter failed to do. Hopefully Paige gets to do more than just instruct Walter on how to treat people, because her situation with her son is actually quite interesting. She's a mother who just wants to understand her gifted son, and Walter is helping her to do that. The scene at the end with the telescope was a little bit much as far as portraying the three as a family, but it was also sweet.

And credit to Scorpion for fleshing out its other characters a bit more. We now know Cabe lost a daughter, and his look of sadness at Walter, Paige and the boy genius happily sharing a moment together told the whole story. Toby clearly has a gambling problem or some equally destructive issue that has cost him his love and perhaps more. Happy has such deep-rooted daddy issues that she refuses to get close to anyone. She preached to Toby that "tools don't let you down" and then promptly broke one of her tools a few minutes later as the universe tried to teach her a lesson. And Sylvester...hates germs. So there's that.

Scorpion definitely improved on its pilot episode this week as it cut down on the technobabble and jargon, slowed the pace a bit and allowed the characters to grow. As we said at the top, this is not a must-watch show, but the seeds are there for something interesting.