We're Gonna Need a Bigger Vote

"You know in elementary school, I was jealous of the other kids because their parents waited outside to take them home, and I walked to the orphanage by myself. I was looking forward to waiting outside for somebody."

- Happy

"A Bigger Vote" is the seventh episode of the third season of Scorpion, and the fifty third of the series overall. It aired November 7, 2016.

Synopsis
On Election Day, as democracy hangs in the balance, Team Scorpion is called on when someone tries to throw the U.S. presidential election into chaos.

Plot
It's Election Day 2016, and Scorpion is called in because there's something funky going on with the machine that's counting votes. It shouldn't be overheating, and yet it is! Except it's not, not in the way they think it is. There's something horribly wrong going on, and the system is being hacked to mess up the votes being counted. The Scorpion team is sent to investigate, but Walter-- since he's under scrutiny for his 'marriage' with Happy by immigration and has been banned by the US government from working this case-- and head over to a news station. I think. Not sure why.

But oh no, the evil news lady won't let them look at footage to find out who planted the frisbee that's messing with the system on the wall! The team decide the best thing to do is cause a distraction, so they manage to put Toby on air with a panel and Toby absolutely loses it, going on an insane political ramble. Happy and Tim break into the footage room and check the tapes, and see that the President's Chief of Staff is messing with things on her tablet. Oh no! The FBI agents that are assisting the Scorpion team and keeping Walter and Ralph in the warehouse are probably setting them up, so it's time to break loose.

A whole big science thing happens, where Ralph and Walter go and steal the tablet to check it, and the rest of Scorpion break free of their FBI agents too. Walter discovers that it's not the Chief of Staff, and they eventually figure out that it's the Chinese. Cabe breaks in there and manages to find the laptop that's been causing all of these problems. He attempts to steal it and manages to get it to the front gate of the embassy building-- Sylvester meanwhile has managed to successfully retrieve the rest of the votes that the bug ate up-- but he's caught first. Toby manages to reach through the gate and grab the computer. Cabe tells the embassy that he's got a tape of them confessing to this meddling, and they're forced to let them both go. Success!

Back at the warehouse, Cabe tells the team that the President sends his personal thanks to Team Scorpion ( thanks, Obama ). One of Sylvester's nerd friends from his nerd club tells him that the comic book shop he loves is going to be destroyed. Sylvester decides to run for office to protect it.

Paige and Ralph are getting dressed up to go out for dinner with Tim's parents. Ralph expresses come concern about Paige liking Tim, but Paige assures him that she really likes Tim. Ralph says that he's happy as long as Paige is happy, and he wouldn't mind Tim being his stepfather. Paige feels reassured by Ralph's words of support, and she leaves to go meet Tim's parents. Walter glares at Tim when he comes to pick them up, clearly jealous. Ralph sneaks over and tells Walter he shouldn't've missed his chance, but that they're friends for life.

The immigration officer that's been following Ralph's case comes by and tells Walter that the President has made Walter a citizen. Happy returns to the warehouse and is unmoved by the announcement. Toby finds her taking apart the baby crib she made. She tells him that she's not actually pregnant after all, but the test was a false positive due to some blood poisoning from working on the solar panels. Toby comforts her and decides to propose. Happy says yes, and the episode ends with the two of them hugging.

Main

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

Recurring

 * Riley B. Smith as Ralph Dineen
 * Scott Porter as Tim Armstrong
 * Siobhan Hogan as Joyce Linehan

Trivia

 * This episode title refers to the line "We're gonna need a bigger boat" from the film Jaws.
 * Tim's parents are in town, but are never seen on-screen.
 * Walter is granted citizenship by special order of the President.
 * This episode is stated to take place during the 2016 presidental election, and it's errorously stated that Obama was running for re-election. Obama couldn't run in 2016 because he had served two consecutive terms in office; 2008-2016.

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