Dominoes

"How do you live when you are constantly in fear of death?"

- Megan to Sylvester

"Dominoes" is the twelfth episode of the first season of Scorpion. It on aired December 15, 2014.

Synopsis
A 10 year old boy is trapped in a rock slide near the beach and the team must find a way to rescue him before rising tide fills it up with water.

Plot
Paige drops by the Scorpion garage with general Christmas merriment. The crew is busy and blasting Black Sabbath. She's determined to give Ralph a good Christmas since his dad Drew had to fly to Portland for a minor league tryout. She got the team ornaments, but doesn't know what to get Walter. Sylvester remembers getting a weight set from his dad, Happy remembers being sent back to the state by foster families who didn't want to buy her presents and Toby remembers going to the track each year with his dad and learning never to bet the 2 or 5 horse on Christmas.

Meanwhile, Walter and his sister Megan eat burgers on the beach when Walter is distracted by a babysitter's failed attempts to launch a kite and goes to help. He's impressed when the 10-year-old kid, Owen, knows Ben Franklin flying a kite in a thunderstorm is a myth. He rejoins Megan and tries to convince her to participate in a drug trial. He's still trying to convince her when a nearby cliff face collapses. Walter rushes to help. A sinkhole opened up and the rock slide followed, Owen is trapped underneath. Walter takes control and calls in reinforcements.

The Scorpion team are currently setting up a domino line when Paige runs in and tells them Walter called about a boy trapped. The team arrives at Zuma Beach where Dan Heather, with the Army Corps of Engineers, explains that they can't drill right next to Owen because the ground will collapse, so they have to drill at an angle. However, the ocean is quickly filling up the space that Owen is trapped in with water. Sylvester calculates that Owen has about an hour and twenty minutes before he drowns. They're digging at a shallow angle from far away to reach him to avoid a cave-in. Walter leads everyone into the cave to identify where Owen is and they thread a PVC pipe through the rock, sending Owen a phone to Skype. His parents are on their way. They talk to him on speakerphone but their phone dies. Paige steps in to keep Owen calm and prevent him from going into shock. If he passes out he'll drown. She asks him about his Christmas plans.

Toby thinks something's off with his breathing. Owen says he hit a rock in the collapse. Toby checks him out and identifies a collapsed lung, which means he can't use scuba gear if the water rises. Sylvester announces his calculations didn't account for the tide change, and Owen only has 56 minutes. Owen tells them his leg is pinned by a huge rock. The fire department suggests amputating Owen's leg, but Walter says the bone saws vibrations could cause a complete collapse of the cavern. Walter checks the video of the boulder on Owen's leg and Happy suggests building a micro-jack to lift the boulder the small amount required. Her and Toby rush off to go back to the garage to build it. When Sylvester tries to estimate the boulders size and how high it has to be raised, the closest he can get is a 28% differential. Walter, upset that his calculations are off, snaps at him to get his focus corrected.

Walter says Owen has to stop breathing to stay alive. They rush to a nearby hospital for equipment. Back in the sinkhole, the drill breaks through a foot from Owen's head and water is up to Owen's chest. Dan doesn't want to let anyone go into the drilled tunnel before it's stabilized, but Walter goes in anyway, to hook Owen up to the machine to get him oxygen. He puts two IVs in Owen's arms to run his blood through a machine to oxygenate it and explains to Owen that he has to go against his instincts and not breathe in. He tells Owen to knock on the PVC pipe in 15 seconds. Walter promises he'll be back as the wifi signal cuts out.

The water fills the cave and Walter emerges from the tunnel awhile later. They wait longer than they expected but hear Owen knock on the pipe. At the garage, Happy is nearly done with her jack. Toby finds a note she wrote to her dad and learns that she's been working at his garage the past few months. He urges her to tell her dad who she is. Back at the beach, Megan finds Sylvester at a nearby bus stop, planning to leave. He's in total freak-out over the fact that Owen is living out all of his worst nightmares. Megan tells him that even though he's terrified of being in Owen's situation, Owen is actually in the situation. She tells Sylvester that, if he leaves when he was actually able to help, he'll have to live with whatever happens to Owen. After that she reinforces the fact that he needs to stop focusing on himself, and focus on saving the little boy.

Happy and Toby follow their police escort to the beach but get stopped at a truck accident. Happy tries to ask a nearby biker for his ride and Toby jumps him when he says no. In the cave where the rock slide originally happened, there's another rock slide. Walter tries to hold back a falling boulder so it doesn't fall on the machine keeping Owen alive. Sylvester rushes in to hold it and they move the machine. Despite their actions, the rock falls on the IV lines. Walter is frantic on the beach above, but after three minutes under water, they know his chances are slim. Happy's motorcycle runs out of gas and Toby takes off on foot with the jack. When he arrives, everyone tries to talk Walter out of going down since Owen has been without oxygen for six and a half minutes. Walter takes the jack and goes down anyway. He lifts the boulder using the jack and drags Owen to the surface, only for the tunnel cave in around them. Cabe, who has gone into the tunnel with a rope, reaches through the sand and grabs Walter. Everyone pulls him and Owen to the surface.

EMTs get to work on Owen as the team and gathered onlookers wait anxiously. After a long time, Owen coughs up water. At the hospital, Owen is expected to make a full recovery. The team theorizes the machine pumped up Owen's oxygen levels enough that he lasted longer than he would have otherwise. Walter is refusing to chalk it up to a miracle. Megan tells Walter she's ready to do the drug trial. Walter meets Owen's parents. His mom says that Walter was the answer to their prayers and Walter doesn't correct her. After seeing Owen again with his family, Walter states that he doesn't need to talk to the news. they already have the truth that Owen living was a miracle.

Happy watches the family reunion and goes to see her dad at his garage on Christmas Eve. She's about to give him her letter but she bails and tries to leave. Then her dad tells her she looks just like her mother. He knew who Happy was the first time he saw her. He fell into alcohol after her mom died, but he always loved his daughter. Happy brings him back to Christmas at the garage with everyone. Everyone trades presents. Paige gives Walter an ugly light up sweater. Walter takes Ralph into the next room to let him trip an incredibly elaborate domino-launched maze that includes lights strung up like a Christmas tree and a fake snow falling from the ceiling. Walter and Paige gaze at each other, wishing one another a Merry Christmas.

Main Cast

 * Elyes Gabel as Walter O'Brien
 * Katharine McPhee as Paige Dineen
 * Robert Patrick as Cabe Gallo
 * Ari Stidham as Sylvester Dodd
 * Eddie Kaye Thomas as Toby Curtis
 * Jadyn Wong as Happy Quinn

Recurring

 * Riley B. Smith as Ralph Dineen
 * Camille Guaty as Megan O'Brien-Dodd

Trivia
Der Felssturz Les génies de l'impossible
 * Towards the end of the episode, there is a scene in which Cabe moons the camera while walking out of the hospital room in the background.