Scorpion (stylized as </SCORPION>) is an American television drama that aired on CBS from September 22, 2014 to April 16, 2018.
The series was officially cancelled on May 12, 2018, after four seasons.
Summary
Walter O'Brien and his team of outcasts are recruited by U.S. Homeland Security agent Cabe Gallo to form Scorpion, said to be the last line of defense against complex, high-tech threats around the globe.
The team consists of O'Brien, one of the most intelligent people in the world with an IQ of 197, and his friends Sylvester Dodd, a "human calculator" dealing in statistics; Happy Quinn, a "mechanical prodigy"; and Toby Curtis, a "world-class shrink" (Harvard-trained behaviorist). Paige Dineen is a former waitress whose intuitive interaction with people translates the real world to the team, and they, in exchange, translate her young mentally gifted son, Ralph, to her.
Cast
Main Cast
- Elyes Gabel as Walter O'Brien, the leader of Team Scorpion. Walter is a genius with a 197 IQ. Agent Gallo was the person who brought him from Dublin, Ireland to America after O'Brien hacked into NASA computers to get a set of blueprints for his wall. While they worked together for several years, O'Brien split with Gallo around age 16 when 2,000 civilians were killed after the U.S. bombed Iraq using software O'Brien provided for what he had originally thought would be used for humanitarian purposes.
- Katharine McPhee as Paige Dineen, a single mother of nine-year-old Ralph. She is a struggling waitress when she meets O'Brien and his team in the pilot episode. She works to help the team interact with normal people and learns from O'Brien that her son is not challenged but really a genius. She also seems to have feelings for O'Brien, but has trouble dealing with them due to O'Brien's belief that love and emotion are not real.
- Robert Patrick as Agent Cabe Gallo, a special agent with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He was the one who brought O'Brien over from Ireland and then worked with him for several years. They had a falling out when O'Brien was 16 over civilian casualties during an attack on Baghdad, Iraq using a computer program that O'Brien had created for humanitarian purposes. In the pilot, Gallo recruits O'Brien and his team to help the government fix a serious air traffic control problem and then asks them to become a liaison team to tackle difficult missions that arise that the main government organizations do not have the manpower or technological prowess to handle, like stolen nuclear weapons and similar issues. Cabe was a Marine and an FBI agent before he transferred to Homeland. He grew up in Brooklyn.[citation needed]
- Eddie Kaye Thomas as Tobias "Toby" M. Curtis, MD, a behavioral psychiatrist. Toby can easily read people and gets annoyed when people call him a psychologist, when he is in fact a psychiatrist. He has a gambling addiction that gets him into trouble. He is shown to have feelings for Happy Quinn, and the two become romantically involved in "Fractured".
- Jadyn Wong as Happy Quinn, a mechanical engineer. She is the sole female of the original team. She has feelings for Toby, but is afraid to act on them because he is one of her best friends; the two become romantically involved in "Fractured". Happy was put in foster care as a toddler by her father because her mother died in childbirth and he could not cope. As a result, she is very hostile.
- Ari Stidham as Sylvester Dodd, a mathematician and statistician. He is a highly sensitive person and struggles with OCD and anxiety. He is a grandmaster at chess. Sylvester has a severe fear of germs, air transportation, boats and open water. He ran away from home as a teenager, and his father, Ken (Jeff Fahey), is a retired United States Army colonel. He has feelings for Megan, O'Brien's sister, who has multiple sclerosis. In the episode "Going South" (1x19), it is revealed that Sylvester and Megan have indeed started dating; they got married in "US vs. UN vs. UK". He is shown on many occasions to be a fan of the Super Fun Guy comic books. In "The Fast and the Nerdiest", Sylvester wins big on "The Price Is Right."
- Riley B. Smith as Ralph Dineen (recurring in season 1, regular in season 2), Paige's son. In the pilot, he is nine years old and appears to be a troubled, mostly silent child. Paige learns from Walter that he is actually a genius. At the end of the pilot, he talks to O'Brien, and Paige comments that Ralph previously has only talked to her. Since then, it has been shown that he has opened up, such as making friends in school. Since "Fish Filet", Ralph has simultaneously been taking classes at Caltech and attending elementary school.
Recurring Cast
- Camille Guaty as Megan O'Brien, Walter's sister and Sylvester's wife who suffered from multiple sclerosis, a condition that Walter sought to "fix" in order to repay the favor of her always being there throughout his childhood. She died in the episode "Arrivals and Departures" after suffering complications due to her disease.
- Brendan Hines as Drew Baker, Ralph's biological father who is a struggling minor league baseball player.
- Daniel Zolghadri as Young Walter
- David Fabrizio as Merrick (season 1, guest in season 2), Director of Homeland Security. After the events of season 1, Merrick was demoted and reassigned as Homeland Security's liaison to NASA. He dies in the episode "Da Bomb" during a fight with Cabe Gallo when Cabe pushed him off the rocket's launch platform.
- Andy Buckley as Richard Elia, billionaire tech mogul who wants Walter to work for his company
- Alana de la Garza as Adriana Molina (season 2), the new Director of Homeland Security who is Merrick's successor, eventually as of "Fish Fillet" she is no longer interacting with team Scorpion since Cabe called her a disappointment for offering to leave Sylvester in a prison to die.
- Kevin Weisman as Ray Spiewack (season 2), Walter's new buddy from community service, Ray is a former firefighter who is suffering from post-traumatic stress after losing his best friend in a fire 10 years ago.
- Peri Gilpin as Katherine Cooper (season 2), the Deputy Homeland Security Director who takes over for Molina as Scorpion's Homeland liaison; prior to working with Scorpion, Cooper had never served in the field.
- Pete Giovine as Chet (season 2), Happy's "date", a comedian who is her comedy coach.
- Brooke Nevin as Linda (season 2), a matchmaker in speed dating that Walter ends up briefly dating in an attempt to try and connect emotionally with others.
- Scott Porter as Tim Armstrong (season 2), Homeland Security trainee and former military that Cabe brings in to work with Scorpion. Armstrong starts to develop feelings for Paige on their first meeting, and he soon takes Paige out on a date. Armstrong also takes Paige to a Jazz concert that Walter insisted; however, Walter intended the tickets to the concert were for Paige and Walter.
- Horatio Sanz as Heywood "Jahelpme" Morris, (season 2), lawyer with his own TV commercial who first takes on Sylvester's game show contract case, then eventually becoming the team's personal attorney.
Seasons overview
| Season | Episodes | First air date | Last air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | 22 | September 22, 2014 | April 20, 2015 | |
| Season 2 | 24 | September 21, 2015 | April 25, 2016 | |
| Season 3 | 25 | October 3, 2016 | May 15, 2017 | |
| Season 4 | 22 | September 25, 2017 | April 16, 2018 | |
Production
According to Walter O'Brien, the idea for the show came from his company Concierge Up when they asked the question, "How do we attract more bright people to contract with our company to work on interesting projects?". They decided to pitch the idea for a 10-season show that would compete with CSI: Crime Scene Investigation' and "inspire a whole generation to see that 'smart is cool'".
CBS leadership viewed the show as a dramatic variation of another CBS show, TBBT – at that time the nation's most popular TV comedy – which featured a cast of similar brainy-young-nerd characters. CBS Primetime senior executive vice president Kelly Kahl, in a 2014 interview, indicated that CBS had intended the show as "kind of an extension of The Big Bang Theory but in the drama world."
Reception
Scorpion has received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, season one holds a rating of 42% based on 48 reviews, with an average rating of 5.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Typical procedural plot lines and boring characters using a distracting amount of geek-speak make Scorpion a forgettable show without sting." On Metacritic, the show has a score of 48 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
The show premiered on September 22, 2014, earning a 3.2 rating in the 18–49 demographic and 13.83 million total viewers. This improved CBS' Monday 9 p.m. time slot from the previous season by 66% in total viewers and 22% in the 18–49 demographic. It was also Monday's top new series in viewers and key demographics. The number of viewers during the first season across all platforms was 26 million.
Gallery
External links
- Scorpion Wiki on Fandom
- Scorpion on Facebook
- Scorpion on Wikipedia