S02.E04: Robots

[paigow]

An explosion sends a top-secret submarine to the bottom of the ocean with limited oxygen, a self-destruct function that's about to activate, and Walter, Cabe and Happy on board.

[Pepper the Cat]

That was bad. Really bad.

I did like Peri Gilpin though. Would like to see mOre of her

[Emily Thrace]

Aw I thought it was better than lasts weeks.  Maybe just because I like Happy more than Sly(he a little high strung for my tastes). The sub stuff was laughable to any scrutiny but its was decent enough for tv. I also like that there was no last second plot twist. This was actually a pretty straightforward get out of peril plot and I think that actually works better for our show.. 

 

I also liked the Happy's dad came back and was used well. I like that he showed some remorse over Happy's childhood but its not beating us over the head with it. There relationship actually feels realistic which is rare for these long lost parent stories.

 

Ray is still annoying as fuck and I wish he disappeared into the ether with Molina. Peri Gilpin is kinda perfect for this show and I think her character is going to fit in well. I already like her chemistry with Paige.

 

My only nitpick is they did a whole show around centered around robotics and not one Terminator reference.

[CoyoteBlue]

I can tell I'm going to hate Ray with the white-hot passion of a thousand fiery nuns. I mean, I already do, but I have a feeling it will reach amazing heights. Any chance he can sacrifice himself for the team sometime? Soon?

[Free]

I can tell I'm going to hate Ray with the white-hot passion of a thousand fiery nuns. I mean, I already do, but I have a feeling it will reach amazing heights. Any chance he can sacrifice himself for the team sometime? Soon?

 

Maybe in an 'accident' on the next mission, it could raise the stakes of the danger a bit even though it's already over the top.

[Couch Potato]

The whole submarine and the fiber optic cable story line was blatantly ripped off from State of Affairs. Note to writers it's probably not a great idea to take story lines especially the lame ones from cancelled shows. 

[Jack Kerouac]

Story was, of course, ridiculous, but overall a pretty good episode. If I was Toby, however, I would tell Happy to take a romantic flying leap and move on.

[thuganomics85]

Throughout all of Travis Van Winkle's scenes, I just kept wondering how did Danny get off The Last Ship and into a submarine.

 

I did kind of like the idea of an episode focused on Happy and Walt, since they both are the ones that tend to hide their emotions the most in Team Scorpion, but the plot was just laughable.  And predictable.  I totally knew it was going to end with them blowing up the submarine and somehow shooting themselves up into the water. It's basic TV logic!  And I don't even have the IQ that Walt has!

 

I like Kevin Weisman, but what is going to be the point of Ray?  Is he just here to show Walt bond with someone else?  Or is he going to be Team Scorpion's mascot or something?  I'm just not sure what he's really bringing to the table right now.  The entire subplot with Paige really felt like a throwaway.

 

I think I read somewhere that Alana De La Garza is going to be in that Criminal Minds spin-off, so I'm guessing that's why she's suddenly gone, and Peri Giplin is their handler.  Although, I can see them busting out Molina again, when they need an antagonist to try and thwart Team Scorpion.

 

Still not sure if I hate the end dance sequence for how cheesy and cliched it was, or love it for getting to see Robert Patrick dance.  T-1000's got moves!

[madfortv]

Peri Gilpin is a welcome addition to the show.

[benteen]

I enjoyed this one.  Always like a good submarine story.  Nice to see Peri Gilpin again.

[ramble]

Throughout all of Travis Van Winkle's scenes, I just kept wondering how did Danny get off The Last Ship and into a submarine.

Me too! I may also have been looking around hoping for a Wolf sighting...

I don't know what it is about this show, but I like it in spite of its outlandish, outrageous plots. At this point the kookier the better. Objectively I know this stuff is crazy, but somehow I don't care. It's not like it's the best cast & chemistry on TV. It's a mystery to me, but I just go with it & enjoy watching.

I liked seeing Happy's dad again. I liked Peri as the new liaison. Ray didn't bother me, but the storyline that is obviously yet to come may change that. (I'm basing that on Paige seeing the picture of him as a firefighter.) I enjoy Walter's interaction with Ralph much more than his interaction with Paige. And add me as a vote for loving the cheesy end dance scene. It made me smile.

[marketdoctor]

I like this show because it's kind of a reverse-Mythbusters:  you can watch it with non-scientists and discuss, research, and explore which plot points are impossible, which ones are just very unlikely, and which ones are just stupid. 

 

For me, pretty much everything that happened on the sub was in the first two categories:  are subs really that vunerable?  Can three people really shut a hatch door with water coming in at 100 lb/square inch (at that depth, that's the water pressure--and no, not unless two of those people are Superman and the Hulk.)   Can you really hook up a water tank to a sub garbage chute, under water, with no high-pressure leakage?  And finally, if the water tank could take an explosion of a self-destructing nuclear submarine, why don't we make subs out of that water tank material instead?

 

I really liked Peri Gilpin, both as an actress and her character's interactions.

[Actionmage]

Oh, hey, did you get the message that Happy and Walter are unfeeling automatons? Because I think that was what the show was trying to tell us. Because they never show emotion in any circumstance. Also, neither get humor at any time. (I have a rolled up magazine and an itch to smack some writer(s) on the nose.)

 

ITA that Peri Gilpin was welcome, as was Happy's dad. I sort of liked that he opted out of the dance party. 

 

I liked Paige's "I was a waitress" pep talk. It's what we were thinking, for the most part.

 

I like Kevin Weisman, but Ray just is slappable.  My husband commented that Paige needed to just ditch him- waaay before they got to the impound lot. I am hopeful for the Tragic/ Sad Backstory to be good enough for the usually upbeat Ray to get...slappable, but I am not strong in that hope.  I do like that Ray isn't just a joke, but someone who sometimes actually has a good idea or insight. Not often, but he seemed to deal with Ralph okay.

 

I am torn on the dollhouse.  On one hand, it was a personal memory that Toby took in service of his romantic pursuit- Long Game Division.  On the other, if he's honest with himself and he's good with just being friends, then it's a sweet gesture to salvage the good between Happy and himself. By letting her take the lead, literally, in this project, he's being vulnerable but not necessarily a doormat. I hope. But then Toby has various problems in knowing when to stop things, like gambling and previous romantic relationships. I was really hoping that these two could have a largely uneventful coupledom. *sigh*

[Artsda]

Loved the casting "The Last Ship's" Danny the Navy Seal as a Navy man here also.

 

I really can't stand the Ray character, what's his purpose?

[Big Mother]

I've stopped watching this show because... well, you know. I really just want to keep up with it to find out where Paige and Walter are at. Was there any forward movement on their non-relationship in the past few episodes? Wehre are they at?

[Free]

I really can't stand the Ray character, what's his purpose?

 

So far, to be annoying.

[Ms Lark]

I like this show because it's kind of a reverse-Mythbusters:  you can watch it with non-scientists and discuss, research, and explore which plot points are impossible, which ones are just very unlikely, and which ones are just stupid. 

 

For me, pretty much everything that happened on the sub was in the first two categories:  are subs really that vunerable?  Can three people really shut a hatch door with water coming in at 100 lb/square inch (at that depth, that's the water pressure--and no, not unless two of those people are Superman and the Hulk.)   Can you really hook up a water tank to a sub garbage chute, under water, with no high-pressure leakage?  And finally, if the water tank could take an explosion of a self-destructing nuclear submarine, why don't we make subs out of that water tank material instead?

All of the above, plus the temperature of the water that rushed in is the same as that which would "cause hypothermia in 10 minutes," yet they were sitting in it like it was a hot tub. Riiight. Still, this episode was more enjoyable than the last two.

 

I also liked the addition of Peri Gilpin. I think she's a real plus for the cast. Ray needs to go, he really doesn't add much.

[theatremouse]

Oh man, a lot of the dialogue in this one left its usual overly-expository-and-redundant zone and moved into full on after-school-special style writing.

I like Peri Gilpin a lot, but I find it odd that a person who managed to reach her position would be so insecure that she'd not only show it but plain tell Paige. Unless that was supposed to be yet another "Paige is somehow magic with other people's emotions" scenes. Ya know what? Actually, I bet these writers thought it was.

Still until the whole "desk jockey" speech, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop that there was some twist coming about Gilpin's character. That's how off it read to me. Heck, maybe it still might happen. If so, the show will have managed to do something for the first time: surprise me.

Edited October 14, 2015 by theatremouse

[Texasmom1970]

Loved the casting "The Last Ship's" Danny the Navy Seal as a Navy man here also.

 

I really can't stand the Ray character, what's his purpose?

I watch "The Last Ship," was glad to see some eye candy, even if it is just a one episode deal. I was also glad to see Happy's Dad.

Wish the would stop trying to push Walter and Paige, much rather see Toby and Happy.

Sylvester singing and dancing, priceless.

[bookworm]

Hi, Danny the Navy Seal, glad to welcome you to Scorpion, i.e., Macgyver meets TBBT meets A-Team! :-)  

 

I like to watch this show VOD when I need some inoffensive noise in the house; it reminds me of older, more innocent, TV shows and I like it.  I always know what's going to happen, roughly, but I like seeing how they make it happen.

 

Even though it is extremely predictable I feel that it has lots of heart and I hope they don't lose that to make it more appealing to the jaded Gen-Whatevers.

 

I snerked when I saw Happy's Dad.  I had forgotten that he is played by H!ITG Jamie McShane.  My first thought was "I wonder if Cabe knows he has an IRA gun-running connection in his garage?  Think we'll see SAMCRO come to visit sometime?"

 

I love that (so far) they have been able to keep the Ralph the Wunderkind subplot going, and sometimes show Ralph being really smart, without making him into a Wesley Crusher.  I am so sick of kids who take over the whole show with all the adult characters they took time to create and flesh out becoming props for the amazing wonderfulness of the sooper-genius kid.

 

Lastly, this episode had an illustration of a writing tic that makes me grind my teeth.  I realize that this is a by-product of the premise, but come on writers at least try to be a little more realistic!  I hate (grr!  argh!) that they write moments for Walter where he learns/solves something instantaneously and it's chalked up to his high IQ.  In this ep he told Danny he taught himself Morse code by just listening to it for a bit. How is that something you can do merely because you have a high IQ?  I wish they would focus more on Walter being a grown-up Ralph, a sooper-genius, and not just that his IQ somehow magically makes him able to do everything immediately.  Having a high IQ usually means you are able to learn lots of things and learn them faster than the average person, but it doesn't mean you can pluck complete knowledge from the air.

 

That said, I really do like this show for chore background noise! :-)

[Ceindreadh]

 

Lastly, this episode had an illustration of a writing tic that makes me grind my teeth.  I realize that this is a by-product of the premise, but come on writers at least try to be a little more realistic!  I hate (grr!  argh!) that they write moments for Walter where he learns/solves something instantaneously and it's chalked up to his high IQ.  In this ep he told Danny he taught himself Morse code by just listening to it for a bit. How is that something you can do merely because you have a high IQ?  I wish they would focus more on Walter being a grown-up Ralph, a sooper-genius, and not just that his IQ somehow magically makes him able to do everything immediately.  Having a high IQ usually means you are able to learn lots of things and learn them faster than the average person, but it doesn't mean you can pluck complete knowledge from the air.

 

 

 

Morse code is a straightforward code with every letter having its own dot/dash combination.

If Walter heard a sentence being tapped out and was given the translation, he's got a good enough memory to remember the code for each letter in that sentence.  Translate a few sentences for him and he'll have the code for enough letters to be able to guess the missing ones in the next line of code tapped out. 

 

I think that him picking up morse code was probably one of the less implausible things in the episode! 

(although I'm surprised he wouldn't have learned it at some stage already)

[John Potts]

Did like that they DIDN'T treat the Ensign(?) as somebody to be completely ignored: when he said he HAD to destroy the mini sub, they did in fact respect that decision (at least at the point when they were all minutes from death). And of course ride the explosion to safety (yeah, I'm sure that would work...).

Also liked that it was Cabe who went to get swim out in the improvised diving suit. He was the logical choice of the people there, IMO. The only quibble I had was that after he'd left, they should have had MORE time (one less person breathing the air), although that might have been counteracted by having to flood the diving tube.