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Scorpion Review: “True Colors” (Season 1, Episode 6)

In medias res: a dramatic device in which you begin in the middle of the action. A number of shows have used this to tremendous effect, perhaps none so frequently and successfully as J.J. Abrams' Alias, which often began somewhere in the middle, and come to think of it also involved fancy parties and the recovery of some stolen object.

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Speaking of the best of the best, CBS worked in some cross-promotional magic this week when the team is introduced to NCIS: Los Angeles boss Hetty Lange. I’m not that familiar with the middle child of the NCIS franchise, so is Hetty supposed to be Edna Mode-esque because that character from The Incredibles sort of looks like Linda Hunt? Or does Hetty have a past as a costumer, or clothing designer hence the comparisons? Regardless, Hetty fit in well as a new asset for Team Scorpion, but why the head of a different government agency would help out a bunch of weirdo geniuses from Homeland is perplexing. I suppose it opens the door to other crossover opportunities now. Imagine how much fun we could have if The Mentalist needed help from Scorpion. Or The Good Wife.

As for the break and enter at Lebeau’s house, it didn’t recover the painting but it did reveal other things that Walter thought didn’t have value. For instance, Paige is a girl! They had to put her in a ball gown to get the ball rolling, but it turns out that Paige is an attractive woman. Now, you don’t need to be a genius to realize that Katharine McPhee is pretty, but then again, you shouldn’t have to be a genius to know that slashing a painting that everyone thinks is priceless is probably the really wrong way to prove it’s a fake. (And Eddie Kaye Thomas’ face when Walter gets the knife out was priceless. He’s Scorpion’s go-to guy for mugging.)

It’s been more or less set from the beginning with Walter’s connection to young Ralph that there was some kind of ‘ship in the future of Walter and Paige, and this week Walter’s forced to deal with the notion that a) he might have feelings for Paige, b) he enjoyed dancing with her so much that he jeopardized the mission to do it a little longer, and c) he got more than a little obviously jealous when Lebeau cut in (as all Frenchmen must inevitably do). Even Hetty, who’s known the team all of 20 minutes, picks up on a change in Walter, and thanks to how far the writers pushed Walter into the robotic earlier in the episode, we all saw the change, too.

Scorpion isn’t really inventing the wheel with any of the moves it makes, it isn’t even trying to rebrand the wheel with a spiffy new package, but the show continues to creep closer to the best version of itself, and like in “Shorthanded” a couple of weeks ago, I think the key is comedy and embracing the fact that our heroes are not the crème de la crème. They didn’t graduate with honors from the naval academy or have black belts in any martial arts, and they can’t plug an ace of spades with a single shot at 50 feet. Nope, they’re just smart people that mean well, and sometimes that’s enough to save the day with a minimum of hurt feelings and destroyed property. Even the shrink from Homeland Security agreed.