- "It could work, or they could die."
- —Happy
"'Chernobyl Intentions" is the twenty-third episode of the second season of Scorpion, and the forty fifth of the series overall. It aired April 18, 2016.
Synopsis[]
Sylvester and Paige become trapped inside a decaying nuclear reactor that the team is trying to repair before a tragic meltdown.
Plot[]
Team Scorpion starts with Toby speaking at a hearing about Mark, their former team member. Toby says if you disagree with one of his constructs, he can get violent. This is for his release from the institution. Mark goes off on a rant to Toby about Walter and sounds like a nut.
Toby says enjoy the unicorn parties. Toby says medically speaking, he’s nuttier than peanut brittle and Mark lunges at him threatening to kill him. They haul him out while he laughs madly. Sylvester is weighing candy to guess what it is before Ralph samples it.
They are weighing it, guessing and having Ralph taste. Happy makes a prediction and calls him lab rat. She has it right and Sly hands over the money. Walter asks about the invoice from Fort Knox and Paige reminds him they flooded it.
Walter grabs then spits out a piece of candy when Happy says Tim sent the candy. Paige tells Happy the candy was for all of them but admits Tim is sweet. Toby calls Walter and says he has to stay longer since the hearing had a pause.
Toby says save me some chocolates then asks if Tim sent them and Walter hangs up. Happy asks if Toby aggravated Mark Collins and Walter says yes. Happy asks him about his two tickets he got for a concert with Linda and then remarks on his obsession with Tim.
Happy says he’s screwing up and is letting Paige slip away and says when he loves someone it ends painfully and rattles off examples. She says he’s pretending the Tim thing doesn’t bother him and will lose her. He insists Tim doesn’t bother him.
Cabe shows up with Oksana Nostrova, the chief engineer of the global nuclear energy council. He tosses Sly a stress grip. Oksana talks to them about the Chernobyl incident and Sly freaks out when Cabe says they have to go there.
Oksana says it was and wasn’t contained. Oksana says they poured concrete to make a dome to trap the radiation. Cabe says this was cold war era garbage thrown up in panic and the core materials may not hold much longer.
Sly says it’s like a chocolate with the worst filling ever. Cabe shows them a photo of the interior that some nut took a few years ago. There’s a radiation disaster of epic proportions brewing and Cabe says 740 million people will be displaced running for it.
Cabe says they built a permanent sarcophagus that will last at least 150 years making it safe again for habitation. Cabe says the ground strength is weak so they have to figure out how to position it so it doesn’t sink in and allow leaks.
Paige asks why us and Oksana says if they are one degree off, it can be a disaster. She says they need the smartest and fastest minds to calculate this out for them. Happy starts talking and they‘re already crunching numbers and seeing what data they need.
Sly says they need to get inside and Happy suggests using a bomb robot and they’re off and running. They touch down in Russia and head to Chernobyl. They set up equipment and Happy mentions how desolate it is and Walter talks about the radiation they’re getting just from here.
Happy has the robot ready to go and they joke about names but Happy insists they call it Randy. Sylvester points out the nearby amusement park that was open for only one day while they were evacuating. Oksana is with them and says Sly will fly with her.
Sly freaks and calls her an inexperienced pilot and says nyet. Walter says he has to go since he run the Geiger software and Paige says she’ll go with him and says delays mean more radiation and suddenly he picks up speed.
Sly freaks out and Paige calms him down. Toby is making a confetti canon and getting ready for his big proposal to Happy. Toby tells Sly he can see leakage from the dome on his sensors. Happy sends in the robot and has to drill through the wall so the robot can fit.
Randy found a crack in the plant he can roll into. There are lights inside and Happy says be careful because if the robot falls over, they’re out of luck. Toby says he doesn’t see the corium and they realize it’s much hotter than estimates.
Walter shows them how bad things are and shows Cabe some cesium rods that can make for another meltdown if the coreum contacts it.
The robot gets closer to get a reading and the robot bursts into flames. Sly says if the robot breaks the shell, it’s trouble. It blows and Oksana struggles because the radiation bloom stopped the engines. The plane is going down and Walter freaks out.
Oksana puts the plane down and it goes through a building. They lived. Oksana says it was her first crash in four years. The team runs over and Happy says get out quickly, you’re in a high radiation zone. They are trapped and Sly says the building doesn’t look stable.
Walter says stay put and stay away from the coreum. Sly asks how she knows and Happy says they’d be dead already. They peek and see the coreum creeping like lava and Sly says he was eaten alive. Paige worries about the radiation.
Happy says this is about to be Chernobyl times three if it reaches the pipes. Toby says in 40 minutes the whole town goes up. Cabe says he called for help but no one will come help because of the danger. Oksana wants to call her husband but Paige says get to work.
Walter is thinking and Cabe tells him to get to work. Walter says they can’t dig them out and then calls to Happy and asks how much torque they need. He looks to the amusement park and they have an idea. They tell them to move rubble from the wheels so they can town them out.
There are crashing sounds and a pipe bursts and Sly freaks. Water is flowing onto the coreum and the steam it’s making will make a gas that fries their lungs. They go looking for fresh air and Sly finds emergency oxygen from the plane but they have just 20 minutes of air.
Cabe and Happy take off with Walter dragging chain to the amusement park. They pull up at the amusement park and go running with the chain. They wrap it around the carousel and link the chain. Happy goes to work finding the power source.
Cabe and Walter peel out as Paige says the air tank is running out faster and has to get Oksana moving and starts asking about her husband and says work faster while you talk. She tells her about their courtship and says she married not the handsome guy, but his file clerk.
Paige says two men that are different, that’s a tough choice. Oksana says Nikolai told her about his flaws and he was right. Walter tells them to get back into the plane and Happy gets the carousel going and the plane moves then stops.
Paige goes to check and see what’s wrong and says a sign is caught in the fuselage. They tell her to be careful. She pulls it out and is knocked out of the way to the ground. Walter goes running to the plane. Walter goes for her after grabbing the oxygen mask.
The dome is caving in and Walter has to shield her. They are trapped with a few minutes of air and more debris than before. Paige shows him the coreum is almost to the rods. Walter has an idea how to explode the building to trap the coreum.
Walter looks for a way to save them and Paige spots a beam of sunlight. They wonder if they can squeeze through. There’s a ladder and her helps her up. They start the climb to escape. Outside, Cabe, Oksana, Sly and Happy scramble to make explosives.
Toby gives Happy the info she needs about support columns and sends her 3-D images. Walter says the coreum is five feet away and moving fast and they’re almost to the top with four minutes of air left. She tells Walter to go and she’ll catch up.
He won’t allow that and takes her hand to help her up. Happy rigs the explosives and they scramble. Paige and Walter start up another higher ladder and they have to walk across a beam. Walter slips and almost falls. His oxygen tank drops.
Paige tells him to hold his breath. Toby says he needs air for his muscles. Paige gives him her mask and says they’re getting out of here together. She breathes in air and then breathes it into his mouth. The team hears the sound of the kiss and Walter is back up and walking.
Now they both hold their breath and totter along. They run for the hole in the roof. Toby says they have less than two minutes and must run. They make it to fresh air and now have to get down. Walter has a rope and Happy says move it or lose it.
There’s a flag pole and then Walter finds a cinder block. Happy says 90 seconds or it’s Armageddon. They tie into this and Walter says they need to jump. Walter says press in tighter. Paige is terrified. They have 35 seconds.
Walter asks her to have faith that he’s right. He swings the concrete off and then they go. Toby bites his nail. They land with their feet almost on the ground and now have to untie. Cabe says quick. Oksana says that was bananas crazy.
Happy has to explode it and they have to run 400 feet away. They run as she sets it off. The dust cloud catches up with them as they run for their lives. Toby asks anyone to tell him if they’re okay. Cabe says they’re fine but dirty.
Happy says if it didn’t work they’d all be dead. Walter makes them anti-nuke smoothies. It’s got disgusting ingredients. Toby eats pizza with Ralph and watches them gag. Cabe says save me a slice or I pour this on your head.
Walter sits at his desk watching Ralph and Paige. Happy comes over and says ask her to go to the concert. He says there is too much risk but Happy says she kissed life into you and literally took the plunge with you today.
Happy says it makes her uncomfortable to comment on his personal life and would not say anything unless she thought he was hurting himself. Walter says maybe she doesn’t like jazz and Happy says no one likes jazz, just ask her.
Paige gets a phone call and that buys him time. Toby asks Walter for his car keys and takes off. Walter sits and stews looking at the tickets. Paige ends her call and Walter is right there and startles her. He thanks her for the breath of air and for trusting him to jump off the building.
Happy mutters just do it. Walter asks if they have ever discussed jazz and calls it improvised chaos. He is nerding out. Paige asks why bring up jazz and he says he has tickets. Tim calls on her cell phone and Paige ignores the call and he asks if she wants to go to the festival.
Paige takes the tickets and then Walter says with Tim and that shocks her. He says he bought them to go with Linda but now that’s defunct so they’re available. Happy is irritated with him and Paige is hurt a bit. Paige says she’ll ask Tim to go and Walter says enjoy.
He goes back to his desk and just stares at her. Toby meets Vargas to get the ring. It’s a ring on a nut. Toby snaps a couple of pics of it and sends it to Sly. Then he’s attacked from behind and dragged away. He’s loaded into the back of an SUV by a guy in a hooded sweatshirt. It’s Mark.
Original recap from celebdirtylaundry.com
Cast[]
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[]
Trivia[]
- This episode title references the setting of the episode, Chernobyl, as well as the phrase "noble intentions".