Dumbster Fire is the seventeenth episode of the fourth season of Scorpion, and the eighty-eighth episode of the series overall.
Synopsis[]
After Team Scorpion's mental faculties are impaired during a job to prevent the creation of a black hole, Paige must simplify the science for them. Florence and Sylvester grows closer after she helps him with a special project.
Plot[]
Walter runs into some problems at game night with Paige’s friends when he refuses to dumb down his answers. He later tells Paige that it will cost him his integrity when really all it did is upset Paige. She wonders why he can't choose the easy way of looking at things and her anger follows them into work where she isn't the only one that is upset. Cabe has also gotten frustrated with geniuses because they've had a case set up for weeks now and no one will explain it to him. He says that he could handle whatever they throw at him and demands to know what their next job is before they board the plane to Colorado, but it seems the team really doesn’t know how to break things down.
The guys have all explained how they were dealing with an underground lab and that this lab deals with the astronomical, they don’t explain like that. They instead use a bunch of scientific words that meant the same thing and that has left the two members of the team who aren't geniuses confused. Neither Paige nor Cabe knows what Team Scorpion is going to be doing down in that mysterious lab and so they chose to sit outside. The two of them decide to stay above ground while the others traveled to a lab deep underground, and they are luckily out of harm's way when the trip to the lab backfires. The geniuses went down there to verify a theory and they had just done so when they risked staying in the lab longer than safely necessary.
They have been warned that they can't stay in the lab for too long or it could mess with their mental capacity. However, they think that because they're geniuses they can stay down a lot longer. They are so happy about proving the theory that they think they can look around. They run into some trouble. They notice the top of a hydrogen gas tank has come off and that a prairie dog is responsible. The critter has somehow gotten in and has started wreaking havoc at the lab like chewing through the wiring as well as knocking off an important ant nozzle. Walter tries to fix the wiring before they leave, but his impaired mental capacity is working against them. He thinks he is fixing the wiring when really, he set in motion the makings of a black hole.
The black hole could lead to a rift in the space and time continuum and so they have to fix it before they can leave. But they aren't geniuses anymore. They are steps away from dying and have started to crack fart jokes about how the hydrogen tank could lead to a gas explosion. Never mind the fact that if something like that were to happen, they will all die. The guys down below do eventually realize that and so there is still some reason with them, just they hate being slower. They think it is like Paige and Cabe and those two are actually still listening to everything, so they are offended. Paige and Cabe want their typical nerds back because the guys they got stuck with aren't all that great under pressure.
The geniuses kept trying to do things like they normally do and none of their plans are working because they are no longer smart enough to carry out any of their plans. Therefore, they mess things up even worse, the longer they are down there and so the team above ground does their best to help. They break things down for the guys below and Paige ends up developing her own plan. She and the others have seen Toby pass out because the toxins in the lab are applying pressure to his brain. She tells the guys downstairs to use a vacuum. The vacuum will help suck out the toxins and she talks the team through the procedure on Toby until he returned to normal. He becomes a genius again and that makes him a tad boastful once he realizes he is the smartest one on the team now.
Toby can't help milking that moment until he is reminded that they could all die. They have tries to stop the hydrogen tank from exploding by letting in air and that has instead caused a massive explosion that ruined the elevator they have to use to escape the lab. That coupled with the fire meant there is only one way for them to exit. They have to be carried out by a rope when the team above ground clears another tunnel for them. In the meantime, the fate of the world rests on Toby. Toby figures out the only way to stop the collider from exploding is cooling it down and so assigned everyone a task. Sly has to reroute the air, Toby has to manipulate the piping, and Walter is in charge of the pipe directly above the collider itself. That’s the pipe that has to do the most work and it’s the one that Walter mistakenly stayed on as he cut through it.
That, unfortunately, means Walter lost his balance when he is finally able to cut through the pipe and so his team is trying to figure out how to stop his fall before he burns himself alive by falling on the collider itself. The three that are the closest to him have run to his side when they hear he is in trouble. With some careful maneuvering they managed to catch Walter before he can hurt himself, so he is alright in the end. They all became the geniuses the moment they escaped that lab and things were easier when they weren't as smart as normal. They realize they could turn to simpler methods and so that helps Sylvester with his idea of cutting down on plastics because he figures out how to turn tap water into great tasting fresh springs water. Sly even brought Florence in on the project.
He sort of has a crush on her, but it seems she is more interested in Walter. Walter is sweet and understanding when he is trapped underground because he didn’t hide behind his IQ down there, but he is back to being a smart jerk when he gets back to the office and so he blows off Paige to continue working. He thinks that his work is the most important thing and doesn’t care that hurt her feelings or that he could easily give up on work. However, he has the opportunity to talk to Florence about his side projects because he didn’t have to dumb himself down for her.
Cast[]
Main[]
- Elyes Gabel as Walter O'Brien
- Katharine McPhee as Paige Dineen
- Robert Patrick as Cabe Gallo
- Eddie Kaye Thomas as Toby Quinn-Curtis
- Jadyn Wong as Happy Quinn-Curtis
- Ari Stidham as Sylvester Dodd
- Riley B. Smith as Ralph Dineen