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Scorpion Review: “A Cyclone” (Season 1, Episode 3)

As we open this week's installment of Scorpion, the team is being brought before the Director of Homeland Security to be tested. Obviously, that's forgetting the fact that they've been tested twice now and aced it both times, but I guess we need some sort of drama aside from the case of the week, and because at one point or another, any well-meaning group of outsiders hired to work for the government are held under close scrutiny by said government. Weirdos are weird because they don't do things the standard operating procedure kind of way; thinking outside the box is great, but you've still got to fit inside a box, right?

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As we open this week’s installment of Scorpion, the team is being brought before the Director of Homeland Security to be tested. Obviously, that’s forgetting the fact that they’ve been tested twice now and aced it both times, but I guess we need some sort of drama aside from the case of the week, and because at one point or another, any well-meaning group of outsiders hired to work for the government are held under close scrutiny by said government. Weirdos are weird because they don’t do things the standard operating procedure kind of way; thinking outside the box is great, but you’ve still got to fit inside a box, right?

To wit, Walter and Sylvester take part in an exercise with some Marines, where the oil and water of the Scorpion team and chain of command utterly fails to mix. The Director is unimpressed and benches Walter and the gang, just in time for a bomb to go off at an office building. The building housed a family law practice, but the firm wasn’t the target, the internet node housed under the building was. With internet down across the southwestern United States, the gang gets a very small amount of good will, which they squander when they find the bomber and accidentally chase him into oncoming traffic.

When three more bombs go off, things get even more desperate, but what does a mall, a radio tower and an armored car have in common? Nothing. Two were a distraction, and the third, the armored car, got in the way of a building that houses a “slow server.” A pattern emerges. Someone’s trying to erase all traces of an e-mail sent by a man named Frank Turner by destroying the three points the e-mail was sent through. Only one point remains. It turns out that Frank Turner was a government leaker, and he had a huge file on Thomas Keeler of the Federal Surveillance Group, who was spying on the White House, the State Department, and many more offices. Also, Keeler’s the guy that’s been riding the Scorpion gang through this whole mission.

As Walter and Happy try to stop the bomb, Toby and Paige get everyone out the building while Gallo and Sylvester take the incriminating file to Justice Department. Keeler’s brought to justice despite his attempt to stop the team from stopping him, and Walter and the others are able to save the building and the people in it by making some concoction that absorbs the explosive charge. The team proved themselves, at least for now, but I’m sure the government will have doubts about our nerd heroes again.