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Scorpion Review: “Rogue Element” (Season 1, Episode 9)

Agent Gallo gets a back story, an ex-wife, and a very bad case of the week in the latest episode of Scorpion.

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This week’s episode of Scorpion began with a jaunty fishing trip of a congressman and his aide. They’re taking a break from working on some important legislation, and enjoying the fresh sea air when their boat just blows up. I hate to say it, but it was a laugh out loud moment considering its suddenness and obvious overkill. How this would tie back to the Scorpion team and their problem of the week was immediately unclear, but what did become obvious is that the episode didn’t have the vim and entertainment value of the sudden dispatching of the politician and his lackey. Ultimately, the adventure offered some uninteresting insight into the team’s caretaker by bringing in a supposedly key character who’s never before been mentioned.

The case of the week comes to Team Scorpion courtesy of Cabe Gallo’s ex-wife, Rebecca. It turns out that Cabe was married to Nan Flannagan! Or rather, Jessica Tuck, who played the vampire spokeswoman on True Blood for several seasons until she was mercilessly dispatched. Here, Tuck gets to play somewhat more warmly, fascinated to meet the young man (Walter) who’s become such a big part of her ex’s life. There’s also the fact that both Rebecca and Cabe share a tragedy, the death of their daughter.

Rebecca’s current predicament though is somewhat more precarious and immediate. The death of the congressman is tied to a lobbying firm that Rebecca works for, and a mysterious file she wasn’t meant to see. The gang manages to figure out that the file is a list of donors for a special election in the congressional district of the dead politician, which supposes that the lobbying firm knew there was going to vacancy in that district because they were going to create one. I know that the rate of incumbency is kind of a huge problem in some quarters so far as Congress is concerned, but this is ridiculous.

It’s a compelling case, but Scorpion fumbled badly in the execution this week. First of all, why couldn’t Gallo get them government back-up? I know lobbies are very powerful, but powerful enough to shut down a government investigation unless there’s overwhelming evidence to indite already laid out? That’s a little chicken and the egg if you can’t investigate a crime until you have the evidence to prove who committed the crime. Secondly, why would Cabe take the gang to his old house? If the reach of the lobby (which I’m starting to think should have been called The Firm) was so long that they could find out anything, why would the federal agent take his dedicated group of nerds to property that he owns and is in his name?