SCORPION Recap: Risky Business

It’s dark and two cars that are so far out of my price range it makes me want to cry are stopped at a light. Walter is in one of them and a tattooed Russian (if I’m gauging the accent correctly) is in the other. They are about to street race. Walter seems quite at ease. I mean he did calculate some stuff that makes him feel confident. The light turns green and off they go. Walter runs a race that would make an Fast & the Furious actor proud until the last second when a truck comes out of nowhere and he loses. He can’t give up the car though because it is a rental. I’m pretty sure you don’t race for pinks when you are driving a rental. The look on the Russian’s face is for sure not amused.

At home the next morning Walter is showing the race footage to his team. The fact that Walter owes a Lamborghini to a man with gang tattoos is not going over well. Toby wants to know what Walter was trying to distract himself from. At that moment there is a knock on the door and Drew (Ralph’s father) enters.

Walter asks Paige how it is going with Drew and Ralph and she said she thought okay. Then she found an algebra quiz in Ralph’s backpack with a D- on it. She asks Walter to talk to Ralph to see if he can’t help figure out what is going on. When Walter asks Ralph what is going on because a D- isn’t him Ralph looks back at his Dad and says, “Maybe that is a good thing.”

They don’t have time to dwell though because they have a case. A dead music blogger named Harold. The team was called in to help because there is a big math equation on a white board that was partially wiped down. Sylvester has no trouble filling in the missing parts of the equation. Through some fancy math they get a suspect name, Peyton Temple. Or at least Peyton wrote the code/equation so they want to chat with them.

Since they don’t have a warrant and Peyton isn’t home Gallo says he will meet them back at the garage and they will try again later. Walter though wants to go into Peyton’s house anyway. Toby wants Walter to confront his issue right now before it affects the whole team. Walter doesn’t listen and goes into Peyton’s yard. He doesn’t get very far as there is an electrified trip wire that he walks right into.

When he comes to Peyton is standing over him with a big dog. They all go inside and Peyton says Harold was his friend and he has an alibi. Peyton created an algorithm that could ensure a mathematically perfect pop tune. The problem is he was listening to the radio a few weeks back and he is certain he heard a song or two that used the formula. The program was stolen off a hard drive some time back. He doesn’t know who to suspect.

Back at the garage Peyton gives Walter the list of songs/artists that he is sure used his equation. Walter narrows it down to one main suspect while Paige makes mention of being a singer at one point in her life. Which is how I still see Katherine McPhee but not the point of the show. The person they narrowed the list down to is, Lucky the King. He is a hardcore manager, has been shot a bunch of times, etc…probably not someone that would want it getting out that a machine wrote his artists hits.

Toby wants to go to Lucky’s office and confront him. While there he will plant a bug so they can listen to see who he calls. He takes the team with him as Peyton’s lawyers. Toby tries to plant the bug but it sticks to his finger and he can’t. Paige ends up getting it done before they get kicked out of the office.

Walter, Happy and Sylvester are at the phone box monitoring his calls. They decide to go back to the office when their van won’t start, they jump out and the van explodes.

Meanwhile Drew and Ralph are at a baseball game. Drew is trying but Ralph is very withdrawn. Drew calls Paige to say maybe this wasn’t a good idea, Ralph isn’t having any fun. Paige tells him he is Ralph’s Dad, he will have to find some common ground.

Also I should mention the gangster that Walter owes a Lamborghini too keeps texting him with bolder and bolder threats. Toby hears Paige on the phone and tells Walter not to let Ralph suffer. Walter takes the phone and suggests Drew show Ralph the mathematical side of baseball. Statistics and such.

Happy and Gallo look at security footage and sees a guy planting the bomb. They find his name through facial recognition. His name is McBride. He works for a security company that works almost exclusively with record companies.

Peyton is ready to head home when McBride comes in and shoots Walter with a stun gun before emptying a syringe of something into Peyton’s neck and dragging him off.

The team does some cross-referencing and finds a client of the security company who also has artists on the list of machine made songs Owen Sugar. They head out to do their own surveillance. They hear Sugar tell his accomplice to take Peyton out.

Happy picks a lock with Walter and Toby while Sylvester calls Gallo and Paige watches from the building across the street. Happy and Walter get Peyton out of there while Toby runs interference. Interference being rapping, very bad rapping for Sugar. This effort gets him hung over the side of the building.

Walter runs back in for Toby and says he will trade Peyton for Toby. At gun point they offer to bring Sugar and McBride to Peyton. In the elevator Walter and Toby hang out while Sugar and McBride get thrown around when Happy messes with the elevator.

When the doors open Gallo is there to arrest Sugar and McBride.

Back at the garage, Paige sings a little while Peyton plays. It’s cut short by Drew and Ralph showing up. Drew thanks Walter for his help and then asks for Walter’s help with Ralph. Walter sets up a program where Drew throws a ball and Walter explains the math before Drew explains the baseball lingo part. They are all working together. Paige is thankful.

At the end of the episode Walter still needs a Lamborghini, something Lucky has. So Walter makes hims a deal, He upgrades Lucky’s internet so that it is a perfect single and free. Walter borrows the Lamborghini and meets the gangster for a double or nothing race. Let’s hope he wins.

Scorpion airs 9/8c on CBS