3x18 - "Don't Burst My Bubble"
The eighteenth episode of Scorpion's less-than-stellar third season, entitled "Don't Burst My Bubble", should actually have been entitled "Don't Burst My Tear Ducts You Cretins" ... Aww I'm not mad at you Scorpion, I just need time for the feels to subside.
"Don't Burst My Bubble" rode the line between heartbreaking and heartwarming - often combining the two - so well that the line blurred more than my eyes did from holding back tears.
Surprisingly, it took to setting up the main meat of the episode practically from the get-go, which while not uncommon is at the very least atypical for the show, which usually spends five or so minutes building the character subplots before Scorpion are called away on their latest mission. Happy's late-night musings with an internet chat mechanic concluded with said internet chat mechanic failing to respond; when in the morning this still remains the case, Happy tracks the user's IP address and leaves the Scorpion team to find out if something is wrong.
Meanwhile, Sly's campaign for Alderman of West Altadenia hits polling: he greets voters early in the morning, which is also used as a setting for Cabe to meet with his love interest and employee of Sly's rival, Ally (Reiko Aylesworth). Cabe continues to keep his relationship with Ally lowkey during the voting, in support of Sly's push for Alderman, but not lowkey enough as Patel, Sly's rival, witnesses their kiss and disapproves.
At the same time Paige is having bigger problems with Tim: on a phone call with him it sounds as if they are breaking up; when Walter asks Paige lies - but gives her space to emote. Eventually, she admits that she is upset because Tim accepted an 8-month stay in Jordan, where he is stationed - later confessing they have indeed broken up.
Walter's sudden obsession with always giving people space in stressful situations is proof that he is finally beginning to understand the nuances of regular human interaction and emotion, but also proof that he is still in the budding stages of putting such understanding into practice, as he is far too happy to vocalise to Toby that he is now able to give stressed colleagues (mostly Paige) the space they (she) need (needs) to deal with their (her) issues privately. It's a dark source of humour that thinly underlines the episode, since Walter's boasting of his newfound ability comes at the most awkward times.
So -to the main plot!
Happy's trip to Lancaster to visit the internet chat mechanic reveals that said mechanic's home has been torn apart by a storm, but surprisingly the fire department haven't cut the electricity to prevent a fire or evacuated at all. Happy is disgusted, until she is told that the woman inside would die if the power was cut - and simply couldn't be evacuated.
When Happy enters, she finds that her friend is a teenager named Ada Pearce who lives her life in an autobiotic isolator, a giant sterile box ("bubble"), due to a "severe immunodeficiency brought on by acquired aplastic pancytopaenic anaemia and a subsequent failed bone marrow transplant", as explained by Toby when the team arrive. Ada cannot be moved from the sterile bubble because of said deficiency: exposure to bacteria would kill her in minutes.
The problem?
A shitload of debris, power lines and an overturned tree threatening to pierce the bubble and kill Ada.
The twist was nice - today the villain isn't some gun-toting Bosnian but the simplest and most dangerous killer of all: nature. Even a tree branch could be lethal here, and navigating that provided an intriguing twist.
Ada: "He must be Walter. Happy said that he was a wackadoodle."
The team's survey of this scene provides an opportunity for Walter's newfound sensitivity to slip, especially when Happy takes control of the team, demanding Walter and Toby remove the debris in a careful order that Sly, back at the garage, calculates to be safest.
The best part of this is that it transpires to be a far harder feat than previous Scorpion missions, simply because they are up against nature. The team struggles, especially when a gust of wind shifts the debris, and in doing so they leave Ada - and the audience - on the edge.
Happy: "It's OK, it's part of the process."
Ada: "The process? Which you learned from saving the other bubble girls?"
The shifting debris cuts the power line which rests upon the bubble and threatens to overheat and pierce it inside 10 minutes. There's no stopping it, so there's a rush to safely evacuate Ada from the bubble. Scorpion use a HAZMAT suit and air filter from the fire department, and sterilise it with ethyline oxide in the bubble, in order to get Ada out safely. All the while, Happy tries to keep Ada calm.
Walter: "People in dire straits often do better when
distracted by conversation. It's one of those examples
where you shouldn't give someone their space."
But Ada has spent the last 3 years of her life in that bubble: even in these dire circumstances she hesitates to leave its confines. That was a huge moment, but the beginning of a spiral towards further on-the-fly solutions to each new problem: once she's out, it transpires she's allergic to the ethyline oxide used to sterilise the HAZMAT suit. The only way to keep her alive is to get her out of the suit, but that would kill her too.
So Scorpion need a solution, a sterile environment where Ada can spend her time until her bubble is restored. They were already working on this: a nearby restaurant's meat locker could be sterilised using fire, if they could get Ada there in time. Cue a pleasant throwback to Paige's experience as a waitress: she knows cooking gel will work to sterilise the environment without becoming a threat to Ada's life.
Toby: "Sly, we cured the hives with hives,
now it's your turn-o to start an inferno!"
But getting past that, there's a wonderful moment before Ada goes into the vat of honey, where she enjoys the feeling of the sun on her face for the first time in 3 years. Just for a few seconds. And it was glorious for everyone, including the audience.
We move onto another contrived obstacle once Ada's in the meat locker: she has to hold her breath in the vat of honey for sixty seconds until the fire burns out - only once time's up Ada doesn't immediately emerge, leading everyone to think she has drowned. Scorpion can't risk entering to help without contaminating the meat locker, and so the audience suffers a nervous wait to see if she will emerge until she eventually does. There was no point to this and it felt very forced. It was nice, however, to have Happy continue to reassure Ada that everything would be OK while those sixty seconds were ongoing.
Walter: "Happy is building up Ada's confidence
and keeping her mind off her worries; it's
textbook good friend technique."
Toby: "Just ... when this is over I'm getting
to the bottom of your latest insanity."
But once Ada is out, her safety is completely reestablished. Scorpion create a sterile box outside the meat locker so Ada can communicate with them while her bubble is restored. After an emotional farewell between Happy and Ada, it's back to the garage for Scorpion's makeshift "winter formal" dance - although not before Toby confronts Happy about her hesitation to give him a guest list because she has no non-Scorpion friends.
Happy: "Leave it to me to make the one
friend I can't invite to my wedding."
The "winter formal" scene wraps up a lot of the episode's subplots. Sly reveals he lost the election for Alderman, but a chance meeting with a war veteran at the polling station led Sly to realise the comic book store he wanted to save (which his rival and election winner Patel wanted to destroy) was over 90 years old and he could therefore "file papers to prevent destruction" to the Historic Zoning Commission. A tad contrived too, I suppose, but cleverly done.
Walter reveals to Toby he has received this advice about space and sensitivity from a women's magazine, an unusual source for the man with the 197 IQ, but desperate times, after all ...
Meanwhile, Cabe breaks off his relationship with Ally because she put a video online that ruined Sly's election chances, citing that, even though she was forced to do it by her employer, he needs the geniuses at Scorpion to understand the concept of loyalty and wouldn't be able to if he stayed with her after that. I think it's a shame they ended, but Cabe did it for the right reasons - and reasons I love. He tries to be a good man and, though he is not always successful, his heart is in the right place.
For the final scene, a VR headset created by newly-sensitive-and-boastful-of-it Walter is delivered to Ada in her meat locker home; before Ada dons it for her virtual dance with Sly, Walter in all his boastful sensitivity announces he is going to create an algorithm that will better determine a bone marrow match for Ada. Even if by this point Walter's understanding of sensitivity is becoming that you don't need to tell everyone you're learning to be sensitive every time you display it, it's a sweet gesture.
I'd like to see this become something in the back half of season 3, perhaps leading into season 4. Scorpion are uniquely accomplished at what I might start referring to as "reference arcs", as well as the longer arcs depicted on screen, so even if Ada's bone marrow search only returns in the former capacity I'd be chuffed.
But once that bit of good news from Walter is out of the way it's over to Toby to don his own VR headset and dance with Sly in reality, thus allowing Ada the fantasy of being at her own winter formal and dancing with a real date. Cue another round of tears.
VERDICT
"Don't Burst My Bubble" is the high point of the third season so far, an achievement that the show had been building towards since Tim's departure in episode 11. Not only is it one of the best episodes of season 3, but makes a case for being one of the standout episodes of the entire series, encompassing all of the characters' quirks and nuances to perfection, organically reaching end points in arcs for Sly and Cabe (which would allow room for Ada to feature in the future if Scorpion choose this route for the show), and being exceedingly funny and emotional as well.
But more than that, when I look back I find that the four episodes preceding this ("The Hole Truth", "Sharknerdo", "Keep It In Check, Mate" and "Dirty Seeds, Done Cheap") are also very excellent offerings from the series, and that the quality of the show has considerably improved with not just Tim's exist but Paige's mum Veronica too.
Arcs for our main characters are what make the show strong: when Scorpion tries to venture outside of this it tends to hurt itself in the process. I'm reminded in these past 5 episodes of what the original Scorpion was - and the original Scorpion was the best.
9.5/10
SCORPION RATINGS
VIEWERS: 6.88m
DEMO SHARE: 1.2
(Consistency has been key for Scorpion in its new 10pm slot and it is continuing to prove itself one of CBS's most stable shows, ratings-wise. It's a lock for season 4 regardless due to the Third Season Rule, but good ratings and unrivalled consistency leading into a fourth season, if maintained, can only increase the likelihood of a fifth come this time next year.)
THE WALKING DEAD RATINGS
They were not released until yesterday, so here are the ratings for "Hostiles and Calamities":
VIEWERS: 10.42m
DEMO SHARE: 4.9
(That represents a slight dip down but TWD battled against The Oscars and was likely to take a slight hit. Still, TWD is already renewed for season 8, and with the best ratings on TV it'll be around into double figures at the very least.)
Final thoughts
So that was Scorpion! It won't be returning next week, so what a way to take a break!
Thank you for reading everyone and I'll see you next time!
Sam
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