Scorpion New Episode Review: 'Going South' to Fight the Mexican Cartel

Scorpion returned with a new episode on Monday entitled "Going South" in which the team crossed the border into Mexico to take on the cartel and rescue a billionaire's daughter. If this sounds like a completely absurd plot to you, then congratulations! You're now fully immersed in the world of Scorpion.

As with most episodes of this series thus far, there were some elements worthy of praise and others worthy of a full 360-degree eye roll. But we're optimists around here, so let's start with the good stuff.

As always, this show is at its most interesting when we see how Walter O'Brien relates, or fails to relate in most cases, to the world around him. This includes his own team. The relationship between him and Paige is a special one that the show has explored quite a bit, but too often Walter's interactions with his fellow geniuses boil down to jargon and stay focused on the case.

So it was somewhat refreshing in this episode to see Walter screw up and completely neglect his fellow team members in a television interview. Walter made it sound like he was the entire operation, and the reporter got numerous facts about Toby, Happy, and Paige wrong. Walter, of course, saw no problem with this and didn't even consider his friends' feelings because he figured more eyeballs equals more work and more money for the team.

But this is all territory we've covered before, and eventually Walter's character will have to evolve somewhat. We know that he is more than capable of experiencing emotion and caring for his loved ones. Hell, he's building a rocket ship to try to raise money to fund MS research for his sister! But then we get episodes like this that paint Walter as this robotic, clueless individual. It's a fine line to walk, and Scorpion doesn't always do it well.

What this episode did do well, though, was divide the team in a relatively believable way. It's understandable that his friends would be upset about the interview, and it was refreshing to watch the usually harmonious team deal with some inner turmoil for a change. What's ridiculous, however, is that they would continue to bicker while a young girl's life was hours away from its end. These people have never been portrayed as that petty, but they were here.

As for the eye-rolling stuff, it was the typical Scorpion nonsense. Toby uttered the words "deceit leakage" completely without irony. Happy told Cabe to "aim for the screw" in a shootout with a mounted machine gun, and he sniped it with a handgun to disable it. Cabe took on the Mexican cartel single-handedly with two guns, and he won. Walter saved Paige from a machine gun with a box of oranges.

But to close on a positive note, we actually got a very sweet scene between Sylvester and Megan at the end when he danced with her and supported her. And the conversation between him and Walter was genuine. He knows Sylvester is a wonderful person, but he has not prepared himself for Megan's impending demise the way Walter has. And for someone who feels emotions the way Sly does, it could go very poorly for him.

Notes:

- Happy continues to be a bright spot on this show. "I am lowering a human being off the side of a building with a bed sheet. That is my status!"

- Walter O'Brien will cure MS before this series ends. I'm calling it now.

- Will Walter take that job at the think tank?

- Toby: "Two million in cash? I'd rob us."

- So they left that kid, who is wanted by the cartel, on the side of the road in Mexico with a $5,000 watch. Nope, no way that ends badly at all.

What did you think of "Going South"? Let us know in the comments section.