SCORPION Recap: Plutonium is Forever

About a mile outside the Montero Nuclear Reactor a man is wandering around. When the military gets there to stop him – Humvees and helicopters and automatic weapons – oh my! The man says he wants to talk to Walter O’Brien.

Gallo bring Walter to Fort Daniels Military Base where they are holding Mark Collins. He is the man they arrested at the beginning of the episode. Walter is there to determine Mark’s threat level. When asked how Walter knows Mark he says Mark used to work for his company, Scorpion. Mark is a human radio of sorts; he monitors every radio signal that passes through the air. He hears everything and he says something big is about to happen. He spouts a few numbers and Walter says he needs his team to meet him at Mark’s house to go over his notes. Also they shouldn’t mention whose house they are visiting. It takes less than a few seconds for the team to figure out where they are. They are not happy. Apparently the parting of Mark and the team was not smooth.

They find the tape Mark told Walter about and it sounds like a scientist from the reactor talking about the brain that controls the reactor system. Mark has monitored the rise in radioactivity and the rise in temperature of the surrounding water. That coupled with this recording proves there is a problem at the reactor that is being actively ignored. The teams new job is to update the nuclear power plant system. Oh that’s all?

At the reactor Walter talks to the military guy and tells him what needs to happen. Then he plays the military guy the recording before insisting he can fix this problem, with the help of Mark. That won’t go over well with the team who is outside telling Paige how terrible Mark is. He was not good for the team and especially not good for Walter.

Sylvester, Mark and Walter stay in the reactor room while Toby and Happy go to the mainframe across the campus. Happy wants to test the system first because it is so old but Mark says no, they don’t have the time. Walter sides with Mark and hits download. Happy calls Walter outside and tells him to never take Mark’s side over hers in public again. She knows what she is talking about. Besides she pulled Walter out of a 10 day bender he had with Mark. He keeps this up and she will disappear on him, for good. She’ll never do this with him again.

The backup generator blows causing alarms to go off everywhere. Happy thinks it is her fault since she started a diagnostic on the computer despite what Walter said. They need to get out now before the containment doors close. Poor Sylvester is freaking out. They all take off towards the exit but Gallo doesn’t make it. He’s trapped in the reactor. Walter tells Gallo to hang on – he’ll figure it out. I hope so because Happy said they have 60 minutes before meltdown.

In the mainframe room the team is trying to figure out a way to get Gallo out while Mark makes a number of snide remarks. It only gets worse, a pipe bursts and radioactive steam starts to spill out into the room Gallo is in. If they don’t get him out in 10 minutes or so he will be contaminated.

Walter sends Mark, Happy, Paige and a few guards back to Mark’s house to find a recording that said where the cooling tube is. Something Gallo can climb into and it will take him out to the ocean – or at least I think that is what he said. The rest of the team stays at the plant to finish the upgrade, hopefully that will right the cooling system.

Paige calls Walter and tells him what pipe Gallo needs to get into. Gallo takes Walter’s word, a little reluctantly, and finds the pipe. Before he jumps in he says, “Okay kid, if this doesn’t work out I’m glad I got to know you.” Walter’s response is, “Ok.” Toby and Sylvester are suitably annoyed with Walter’s response. Plan ride a wave through a tube into the ocean works and Gallo is seen walking out of the ocean moments later. Thank goodness.

While at Mark’s house Paige ends up the recipient of Mark’s snide remarks. She actually looks a little upset – as Toby said, Mark is a bad influence. Speaking of a bad influence – Mark embedded a Trojan horse in the programing. Now there is a third step that needs to happen and it can pretty much only be done at Mark’s house.

At Mark’s house they have two minutes before the meltdown. Air raid sirens are going off and Gallo has a gun to Mark. We are down to mere seconds while Mark expounds on how Walter betrayed him by having him committed and kicked off the team. It’s ironically Paige, the only non-genius, who figures out what code Mark keeps referring too. Walter is able to finish the system upgrade just in time. The reactors cool and everyone is safe.

Walter says his goodbyes to a now locked up Mark and tries to make amends with Happy. She accepts his apology/thanks. Paige shows up and tells the team they are going to stop what they are doing and do something together, cook dinner.

Scorpion airs 9/8c on CBS