Walter O'Brien

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"I may not be like other humans, but I have gained humanity."

- Walter to Mark.

Walter Patrick O'Brien (born 1983) is the son of Sean and Louise O'Brien, the nephew of Tobin, the younger brother of Megan O'Brien-Dodd, and the founder and leader of Team Scorpion. He and Paige Dineen recently broke up. Walter was portrayed by Elyes Gabel.

Personality
Walter is incredibly intelligent, and it is that high intelligence that gives him a very low EQ. He is blunt and doesn't really care how his words affect others, causing him to come off as arrogant and rude. Due both to his high IQ and low EQ, he has problems connecting with people, even geniuses he's known for years. He fears being alone, even though he once claimed to not have feelings, a notion he has since rejected. He's confident, and when he sees a problem he wants to solve it, whether it's seemingly impossible -like with Megan's MS- or risks his life. He's extraordinarily observant and thinks fast, which coupled with his bravery makes him invaluable in tough situations. Underneath his calm and at at times cold exterior, is a heart that cares deeply but is unsure how to express it.

He cares for his friends, so much so that he's willing to risk his life for them without a second thought, and when he believed he was going to die, he told them stories of his fond memories of them, his way of telling them he loved them. He has occasionally said warm words to them, but rarely. Not only does he not often express emotions, but when faced with grief or anger or extreme emotion, he compartmentalizes his emotions until something triggers it and then it all comes gushing out. His inability to express emotions normally stems mainly from the fact that for most of his life, he only ever connected with two people: his sister, Megan, and Cabe Gallo. While his relationship with Megan was very loving and the only friction in it was caused by their different views on her MS, his relationship with Cabe was a different story. He met Cabe when he was 11 in 1994, and Cabe immediately became like a father to him. So when Cabe asked him to make some tracking software for humanitarian purposes, Walter did it and because he trusted Cabe, he didn't double check what it was being used for. After he saw the results of the Baghdad Bombing, which his software was used for, he cut ties with Cabe and struggled with his guilt over it for years continuing to the present.

His role in the Baghdad Bombing created a potent guilt that drove him to atone for it, to save at least as many lives as were lost in the bombing. This also may be the cause of whenever he makes a mistake that puts another in danger, Walter is nearly suicidal in his efforts to fix it, taking risks that he normally wouldn't. The Baghdad Bombing also seems to have turned him into a nigh-pacifist: even though he's good in a fight and knows how to use a gun, he has never carried a gun and fighting is always a last resort. Even when Boyd planned and attempted to kill him, Walter still tried to save his life if he would only stop shooting. Also seen with Javier Acosta's death, in which Javier was hanging from a building by one hand and called out to Walter to help him, but Walter hesitated and made it just in time for Javier to slip through his fingers. Even after Sylvester told Walter there was no way for Walter to have pulled up Javier, in fact Javier would have pulled him over, Walter still felt guilty as he hadn't known that when he hesitated.

Deaths over those lost in the bombing, and the deaths of Javier and Boyd, are not the only things that haunt Walter. He had his friend Mark Collins committed to an asylum, and for the next three years wrestled with whether he had done it only for the safety of himself and his team, or whether a tiny part of it had been selfish to see if he too could be pulled from his own mind if it came to that. He can also get jealous, like when another man danced with Paige or when Drew came back into her and Ralph's lives and almost took them away from the team.

Walter can be selfish and arrogant at times, but at heart is a kind individual who is always willing to help others, lay down his life for them if need be, especially those he cares about. He offered his ration of water to Paige, and even traded himself for her to an arms dealer group. He also is great at finding lost souls and guiding them, like he did with his own team. Toby was a gambling addict who was in and out of jail and in debt, Happy was paying others to act as her in competition as she was afraid to be judged, Sylvester was alone and scared in a motel room, and Paige was a waitress and single mother struggling to understand her son she didn't even know was a genius. In spite of all that, Walter worked and made them all a team, even when they didn't see the value in either themselves or each other.

Random Facts

 * He is the tallest member of Team Scorpion.
 * He weighs 160 pounds.
 * Toby mentions that Walter is 13 months younger than him.
 * Walter's blood type is O-, making him a universal donor.
 * He has an IQ of 197 and has a photographic memory.
 * Walter is fluent in Spanish, even being able to tell regional dialects apart. He also learned Morse Code very quickly while trapped on a sub.
 * Walter has nightmares and insomnia because of the Baghdad Bombing and his role in it.
 * Walter solved Fermat's last theorem when he was nine, which is regarded as one of the most difficult conjectures in mathematics.
 * While not as skilled as Cabe or Tim, Walter is decent in a fight, able to dodge quickly, throw good punches, and even knock guns out of another's hands while it is pointed at him. This is partially due to the mild training that he got from Cabe when he was a teenager.
 * Walter hacked the sprinkler system of the cemetery where Amanda Gallo's grave was and made sure her grave was watered twice a day, which made hers the only grave without dead grass.
 * He held Irish citizenship, but was granted American citizenship by a Presidential order after helping on a case involving the election. He may be a dual citizen.
 * Walter has almost-died the majority of times out of all of the team.
 * Walter has the same middle name of Patrick as his ex-father-in-law. However, he was named for his grandfather.
 * After Toby figured out that he was married to Happy, Toby assaulted him. Cabe stopped Toby from assaulting him. Happy later arrived, saying she needed a divorce because she was pregnant and that she wanted to be with Toby as soon as possible. His divorce with Happy was finalized in "Plight at the Museum".
 * He was arrested at the age of 11 for hacking NASA to get blueprints for his bedroom wall.

Goofs and/or Mistakes

 * Walter was born near Enniscorthy in Wexford, before moving to Callan, Kilkenny after growing up. However, every time an Irish person from Callan is portrayed, for example, the family reunion, they all have northern accents, and not accents typical of the region. This could simply be a lack of research on behalf of the creators or lack of actors capable of doing the Wexford/Kilkenny accent.