Fractured

"So funny, that sounded like you said we're headed towards the danger."

- Toby "Fractured" is the sixteenth episode of the second season of Scorpion, and the thirty eighth of the series overall. It aired February 8, 2016.

Synopsis
After a powerful earthquake rocks Los Angeles, Team Scorpion must fix a pinched gas line to prevent a massive explosion.

Plot
Team Scorpion starts with Walter ranting about hazelnut creamer. Toby calls him a creamer screamer. They bicker and Paige intervenes. Sly and Cabe agree they argue like an old married couple. Paige says they are making everyone miserable and have to go to couple’s therapy.

She hands Toby a card and says they have an appointment this morning. Cabe tells them to go. Ralph comes over and sweetens up his mom and he hands her a permission slip to go kayaking with his college class. She says he can’t go without the professor.

Paige doesn’t like it but Sly offers to go with him. The others pressure her to let him go and she relents but then threatens Sylvester if something happens to Ralph. Walter and Toby argue about who will drive to couple’s therapy and Paige sends good thoughts to the therapist.

Ralph and Sly get to the field trip and Sly says the ocean is the world’s toilet and hands him a life vest which Ralph refuses to wear. Happy, Paige and Cabe work on their pitch for a new airbag. Walter and Toby make it to the therapist.

Dr. Rizutto is played by Penn Jillette – OMG! Sly gets an emergency text about an earthquake. He freaks out and says there is 30 seconds til a major earthquake. He screams, they run, the quake hits and Sly shields Ralph.

Happy, Paige and Cabe get the text moments before it hits and they take cover. Toby and Cabe take cover as the quake hits. Paige tries to make a call and the cell phones are down. They hear sirens and Cabe says it’s infrastructure overload.

Happy changes the coms frequency and Paige reaches Ralph and Sly. Toby and Walter talk to Happy and worry about the water and gas lines causing problems. It could set off a major explosion in Korea Town. Sly says he thinks it will be 35 minutes tops.

Cabe wonders about auto shut off but Toby says the failsafes are likely compromised. Walter paces and poses a question to Happy. Sly says they need to shut off the gas first. Walter tells Sly a hiking road near him with a cutoff station in case of wildfires.

Toby and Walter head for Korea Town and Walter says they need to go underground to avoid the street traffic. They all sync their watches and Walter tells Happy to meet them. Cabe, Paige and Happy hear people screaming for help.

They find three people in a van and a downed power line that are at risk. They run to help. Happy sends them for tires from the garage. Sly freaks out and Ralph suggest taking the lifeguard truck. Ralph says he can navigate since Sly broke his glasses.

They speed and Ralph says they can’t go less than 50. Sly worries that he promised to keep Ralph safe. Paige hears and freaks and Ralph and Sly take out their coms. Sly says he’s a dead man. Toby and Walter keep bickering down in the sewers.

They spot some poisonous ants that have formed a living raft over the hatch they need. Cabe tells Toby to use his pocket of honey packets and mocks their genius. Happy and Paige grab a pipe and Cane stacks towers.

Sly and Ralph stop for a downed tree. The woman in the car has her leg stuck. Ralph says he has an idea and the guy asks why listen to a kid. Sly says he’s not a regular kid. Walter tells Toby if he hadn’t denied him the creamer he wanted, they wouldn’t have honey to distract the ants.

Happy, Paige and Cabe have one minute to save the people in the van. There’s oil dripping so they have to get rid of the fire risk by adding water. Cabe shoots out a tire to lower it. Ralph and Sly help the woman.

Sly freaks when Ralph reaches under the jack to help the woman. He yells but he does it anyway. Sly freaks when the dash collapses but the kid was already out of the car. Sly hugs him hard. The couple thanks them and are stunned by how well Ralph did.

Ralph tells Sly they need the tree out of the way and need to make up lost time. Toby spots a tunnel collapse up ahead. Walter says they can’t move it or it will collapse the rest of the tunnel into a cave-in. Walter show shim which rocks they can move with less risk.

Walter tells Toby he’s sorry for making him angry and being a bad friend for whatever he did. He keeps telling him which rocks to move. Walter says it’s a bad sign since he doesn’t even know what he did wrong. They clear out the rocks and squeeze through the gap.

Ralph and Sly make a ramp with the safety boards and they’re worried. Ralph says his mom tells him he’s an indoor cat and they both agree they need to be outdoor cats. Ralph and Sly agree not to tell his mom that he’s driving.

He hits the gas heard and they ramp over the tree. Ralph stops and Sly’s life vest poofs up. An aftershock hits while Cabe is on top of the ladder and the live wire sparks a fire. Walter and Toby are knocked down in the tunnel.

The people in the van start to panic. Happy and the others move faster. Toby and Walter have seven minutes til the gas line blows and both were injured in the aftershock. Sly and Ralph make it t shut off valve which is locked.

Walter says he has to do it. Walter and Toby have to lean on each other and do a three legged race sort of deal. Sly tries to break the lock and then he tells him to run get his life vest and a bottle of water. Walter and Toby struggle to make the joined legs work.

Paige listens to them singing More Than Words to keep their steps in sync. Happy says it’s ready and they kick over the stack of tires and make a bridge to the van. Cabe tells them to get moving. Paige says if an aftershock hits, they’ll die.

The fire gets closer to the fuel tank and they tell them to hurry. Happy tells them to go faster. The driver is scared and Cabe says move or die. Toby says he’s frozen and says someone has to go get him. Paige says she has to go get him since they need Happy’s mind.

Paige goes to him and asks his name and says look at me. She says he can do it but chokes on the smoke. Cabe says now. She says do this for your grandson. She tells him to move his ass now and gets behind him and pushes.

Happy says go now before it blows. She tells her to get up and run. She does and it explodes. Paige goes flying and Cabe catches her. They saved them just in time. Paige says she misses being a waitress. Sly and Ralph use the expanding life vest to bust the lock.

Sly turns off the gas shut off valve. He tells Walter it’s shut. Walter and Toby hear the gas detector and realize that a pipe is cracked. Toby says Korea Town is safe and they need to get out now. Walter says the ventilation goes East to downtown.

He says in 17 minutes it will hit the fires and downtown will go boom. Walter tells them to meet them and gives an address and says they have to burn the fire to avoid a massive explosion. Walter and Toby take a police car and speed along planning.

He tells Happy they need a projectile. Toby says they borrowed a car from someone who was directing traffic. Cabe asks if the stole a cop car and they tell him maybe. Toby and Walter are there first and start building a chimney.

They pop the manhole cover and Toby gets into a crane. He moves a shipping crate up and over the hole to make a chimney. Happy, Cabe and Paige show up and Happy has a pole and a coat hanger. They lit the spear they made into a projectile and Cabe launches it.

The fire flames up and Walter says that will suck off all the gas and let it burn out so downtown is safe. Toby asks Cabe to cover for them for stealing the cop car. They clean the garage and listen to the news and Paige says she’s impressed Walter and Toby were able to work together.

Sly and Ralph show up and Paige hugs him. She says she heard they had an adventure that was dangerous. Paige goes to Sly who is scared. She says he took his son and drove blind near landslides and brought him home safe. She hugs him and thanks him.

Paige runs to Ralph and hands him the permission slip for his kayaking trip. She says it must be safer than driving with Sylvester. Sly calls the kid an outdoor cat. Everyone works together to put the garage back together.

The place is shipshape and we hear an instrumental version of More Than Words. Walter fiddles with something and then goes to Toby’s house. He’s surprised to see Walter there. Walter says he thinks they could finish their couple’s therapy.

Walter says he never had many friends and says he wants to be a good friend. Toby says he didn’t do anything and says they have both been self-destructive. Toby says he’s been doing good lately and so he picked a fight with him because he was happy.

Toby says he’s sorry and Walter says that’s messed up. Toby says maybe seeing the shrink is a good idea. He invites Toby for coffee but he says rain check and Walter leaves. Turns out Happy is there and says he’s never been happier. He smiles and tells her he won’t ruin this thing they have.

Original recap from celebdirtylaundry.com

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
 * Penn Jillette as Cecil Rizzuto

Quotes
"Walter, I don't want my last act on earth to be singing acapella with you"

- Toby

Trivia
Die Erde bebt
 * This episode is the first appearance of Dr. Cecil Rizzuto.
 * The song played in the garage at the very end of the episode is More Than Words, by Extreme.
 * The episode's title is a reference to both the state of Walter and Toby's friendship, and the event of an earthquake, both colliding together in the episode.