Forget Me Nots

"I don't just care about giving you the facts and statistics for Ralph, I care about Ralph. You were right I don't, I never had a real relationship with my father, and I know I'm not Ralph's, but I must serve a purpose in his life because he's such an important one in mine, and if he left, then... I know I said being human isn't something I wanted, but since I met your son, I know that's not entirely true. These last few months have been...less me, and that's made me a better person. So no, I don't want him to leave. I,uh, care about him and you."

- Walter to Paige

"Forget Me Nots" is the fifteenth episode of the first season of Scorpion. It aired on January 19, 2015.

Synopsis
''To prevent nuclear weapons from being launched from a secret U.S. nuclear silo, the team has to prod the memory of an injured former Secret Service agent. Drew proposes that moving to Maine might be best for Ralph.''

Plot
At the garage, Toby and Sylvester kill time playing human bowling on a surfboard on wheels. Toby is doing it to impress Happy, who's in deep concentration, finishing her latest project; a clever mechanical gadget, full of delicate movements. Drew comes to pick up Ralph for school, but before he goes, he takes Paige aside and shows her a brochure for a school for gifted children in Portland. She acts defensive right away; she has never said she'd move for sure. But he meant it when he said he wanted to give her informed options besides staying in Scorpion. She promises to take a look, just as they hear the blast of a turbine nearby.

Walter and Ralph have been experimenting for a science fair at school. The project is dangerous, so Drew questions why not just make a paper mache volcano. Walter dismisses it, saying that's the fail safe excuse for parents that can't think of something more stimulating. Paige jumps in to police it before it gets ugly, sending Drew and Ralph on their way to school. Paige wants Walter to be nicer to Drew, but he mocks his choices, and that's when he spots the brochure. She tries to explain that there might be a chance she's considering it, since Drew might move there. He grows defensive and refuses to give her his real opinion on the matter. Paige is upset that he'll only offer a weather commentary about the city. He questions the logic behind Paige's opinion that Ralph would be better off with two parents instead of one, with Drew of all people. He finds the suggestion ridiculous, insulting her and even blaming her stance on something taken out of a daytime talk show. Paige gives him a pass for that one due to the fact he doesn't have a good relationship with his father, but she wants to give Ralph a chance to have one with his own father. Walter finds that biology is not a good enough reason to tie Ralph to Drew's wishes, who he considers an adolescent because of his life choices.

Cabe arrives with the week's case. They meet with Homeland Security Director Merrick. There's been an attempt hack to a facility, but they won't disclose enough information for Scorpion to make their usual assessment. He just wants them to examine the code to find the perpetrator, but it won't be that easy. After Walter introduces a code that brings back what's been redacted by the government to the file, Merrick decides to come clean. The data shows American missile locations within the country and abroad. Sixteen years ago, Milocevich desired to bomb the Kosovo area to take over. Meetings were held in the US secretly with the Kosovan President to prepare for a military response, but in the meeting an attempt was made to kill Bill Clinton. Some of their Secret Service agents were wounded, including Agent Bruce Jones. He was in charge of the nuclear football. While he was being taken care of at the Hospital, the football was stolen. The codes were changed immediately, but now, whomever took possession of the football, has managed to hack their way into the system and is activating it at will. Sylvester doesn't think that they'll be able to track the hacker in time, so Happy thinks that the only solution is to find the football. Even after sixteen years, Toby thinks that approaching Jones might give them a clue about who stole it. They gather up and leave.

Jones has been secluded to a recovery home; he's succumbed to a mental disorder that manifests in a condition very much like dementia. He's hostile toward the staff and Scorpion as well. They take him to headquarters, where Toby tries everything to trigger memories that might help them. He's completely uncooperative. Paige thinks that what they're doing is cruel because he still thinks he's in the Secret Service, and gives Walter an idea. Because of his research to find a cure for Megan, he knows that if Jones is still living in that moment in time, he has access to those memories. Stimulating it with an electrical current might help.

Walter volunteers to go through it to convince Jones, but Toby refuses to let him, so Cabe volunteers to take the opportunity. Toby warns him that this an experimental technique. When they're done, Cabe says he doesn't feel any different. However, a moment later, Walter throws two soda cans at him and he catches them without thinking about it.

They run the same therapy on Jones, walking him through the tale at the ER sixteen years ago. Images come back, but nothing too precise; the doctors yelling instructions, the treatments, random blurry images, but then he remembers a man with a blue finger taking the case and the word "Maplethorpe". The guys try to figure out who would be the person with the blue finger and decide to check on the Hospital records to see if there was someone treated for a broken finger. The records are stored at Homeland Security, since the case was off the record. Paige and Happy stay behind to take care of Jones while they investigate.

The men go to investigate the storage area, but can't find any indication of someone with a broken finger was in the hospital that day. Director Merrick informs Cabe that they're estimating another hacking attempt that might put them on a launch pattern within the next two hours. Cabe discovers that Agent Khara was given Nitroglycerine for a heart condition. Since secret service agents with heart conditions are not allowed to serve, Toby hypothesizes that Khara is hiding something, and he knows a way to find out what it is.

Meanwhile, back at the garage, Jones is irritating Happy and Paige. In the process of prepping Jones some food, Happy comments about Paige possibly moving to Portland. While Paige doesn't want to talk about it, Happy makes the same comment that Walter did: Portland is cold. Paige is annoyed because they seem to only want to comment on a fact, but Happy rationalizes that facts are the foundation of logic. She also states that Ralph would be bored in Portland. Paige states that they're hiding behind facts and numbers to avoid facing uncomfortable topics, such as how they'd feel if she and Ralph left. Paige goes to give Jones his snack but he has taken off.

Toby, Walter, and Sly wait for Khara outside of a coffee shop. Toby dips his hand in ice water while waiting, all the while Cabe is marveled by his revamped senses and abilities. Khara exits the shop and Toby runs at him, passing himself off as a friend of his brother, while shaking his hand. He won't let go, and Khara gets spooked. Cabe intervenes, making him tolerate Toby's experiment, and sure enough his finger turns blue because he has Raynaud's Phenomena. It's set off because of stress and the cold, stealing that case would be stressful. He says that he has an explanation, but he punches Gallo and runs. Cabe, with his renewed abilities, takes off in pursuit, jumping over the hood of an oncoming car, and onto Khara, detaining him and cuffing him.

They wonder why Khara, a high ranked agent with a spotless record, would steal the football. Cabe did some digging, and it turns out that the man had elderly family members in Pakistan, jailed for no reason over political pressure. After the theft, charges were dropped. While they're now free, they're still in danger; he won't talk. Cabe prompts Walter to find an alternate solution. Paige and Happy look for Jones, to no avail. Walter calls to ask them to take him to the Hospital because he has an idea. They're screwed, but that's when Paige spots a realty sign about a property on Maplethorpe Road. That's the word he stated when they juiced him, so they rush over there.

They find him in front of a house, where a family doesn't know why a man keeps asking for a woman named Lorraine. He's confused and upset. While he's grateful for the fact that the treatment they've done on him brought his memories back, he now he has to face the time he didn't have any of those memories. Like remembering that he's lost track of her, a secretary at the White House he was in love with. He ran away from her when his condition worsened. She ended up moving to Los Angeles and he intended to track her, but it slipped through the cracks of his own illness. He wants to go home.

Instead, the girls take him to Walter, where they stick Jones into a magnetoencephalogram machine. This will track when his memories get activated because of stimuli. Cabe brings out Agent Khara, who he recognizes after a while, and gets angry at the fact that he ruined his life. Khara's voice triggers his brain, and working through the phases, he remembers him in the room, dialing a number. They go back to Scorpion, where they recreate sensory elements of that day in the hospital to trigger his memory. He needs to recognize the dial tone of the phone and then they can track who got the football.

Gallo arrives, announcing that the hackers have broken through the defenses; one missile has been activated and is aimed at St. Petersburg, Russia. They have no way to stop the terrorist from pushing that button and they only have thirty minutes. The terrorists want to provoke a war that would cripple both Russia and the United States.

Jones manages to figure out the tones, and the phone number leads them to a charity for Middle-Eastern children. They track last known address is to a boathouse. Jones, Cabe, Walter, and Toby go after the guy while Happy, Sylvester and Paige stay in the car. They locate the boat, but Toby's cellphone rings gives away their presence. The guy shoots at them while they pursue. Jones saves Cabe from a fatal shot. The terrorist runs away but Happy spots him, and takes off after him in the SUV.

Cabe and Walter close in on him through the boatyard with Cabe leading the way. Shots are fired from both sides; Cabe saves Walter from a close one but they only have two minutes left. The terrorist runs toward the rail tracks and throws the case over the electrified fence and in the way of the oncoming train so that it will hit the button for him. Happy figures out that they can use the nearby crane and the magnet attached to it. While the case is made of aluminum and not magnetic, and the train is very heavy to be able to control it, they can reverse the polarity of the tracks and make the train halt before hitting the case. It works because the terrorist and the train couldn't hit the launch button.

Interpol tracks the terrorists, and the launch sequence has been reverted. Cabe is proud of the team, and of Jones; he saved his life like he would have done for POTUS. Jones takes a bow and allows Sylvester to wreck the football, to make up for all the mockery he subjected him to while they worked together. Walter commends Cabe for his great work. He credits the treatment for his abilities during the case. Walter tells him that the effect of the jolts wore off hours ago. That was all Cabe's doing.

They take Jones back to the hospital; he's thankful for the chance to have a day of fun out there and advises them to treasure their memories since he doesn't get to have his. They have a final surprise for him, they've found Lorraine. She's there, waiting for him.

Walter approaches Paige over their conversation earlier. He quotes endless facts about Portland and Paige smiles at what he's doing. He's hiding behind impersonal conversation. Walter asks if she's finding it funny, because of her reaction; he just cares to give her the best information and facts about it all. And she knows, that he cares, but that's when Walter explains his real feelings. Ralph has changed his life, making him more human, even though he wasn't interested in changing. He doesn't want them to go, he cares about Ralph and her. Paige also admits that she'd miss him too.

Ralph and Drew arrive at that moment, breaking the spell. Ralph happily tells them that he won the science fair. He also got invited to a birthday party, which is progress for his social skills. Walter suggests they go play with his science project, unless they want to leave, to which Paige responds that, no, she doesn't want to.

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
 * Brendan Hines as Drew Baker
 * David Fabrizio as Merrick

Trivia
Der Football Supermind
 * When the episode aired, a phone number (323/248-8049) was used in the plot. For a couple of years after the episode was aired, anyone could call the number and get a pre-recorded message from Walter in which he asked the caller to decode a substitution cipher to prove themselves "worthy" of joining the Scorpion team. The number stopped working just before Season Four aired.