Television: Scorpion, "Father's Day"

A hunt for three escaped convicts coincides with the arrival of Ralph's father, a minor league baseball player named Drew who hasn't seen Ralph in seven years.

Really, the best thing about the episode, though, was the Peek Freans.

So the overarching theme, then, as given away by the episode title, is fathers and father figures. The actual plot about the convicts only tangentially intersects with this theme in that one of the convicts is a genius named Percy who is trying to play Walter, Cabe and their league of extraordinary whatevers. Walter takes this personally because it drudges up those feelings of betrayal he had back when his code was used to harm instead of aid (and Walter still blames Cabe for that, though Cabe swears he never knew that was the government's plan). Geniuses, in Walter's view, are supposed to stand together. One trying to leverage another is a betrayal of sorts.

Anyway. Walter and Toby go against Paige's wishes and dig up info about Drew. And Happy is off having more issues regarding her abandonment by her own father. I feel like they've hit that button a few too many times already, so it was nice to see the episode end with Happy finding her father and—though not identifying herself—interacting with him. As it turns out her dad is a mechanic, so they have something in common.

Still, it was kind of sudden to go from Happy always pointing out (like the Batman joke): "I never had real parents!" to her finding her dad. I know they explained it with the photos in the file and everything, but it was still a bit jarring.

The flashbacks with young Walter and Cabe (with a terrible toupée) were somewhat unnecessary as well. I think we more or less gathered all that without it being made overt. The ending shot was really all we would have needed, and it was lovely: Walter and Cabe leaning against the car and eating their Peek Freans. In that one coordinated movement one can see how the older man has shaped and influenced the younger.

It continues to be a cute show, but like all episodic television, some episodes are better than others. This one was okay. Not great, not awful, just . . . fine. It did more on the character development front than anything else, and I usually really like those kinds of episodes. But this had no amazing "pow" moments of character insight. It was all stuff we knew or suspected. So it was only middling.