Discuss Scorpion
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Walter is a genius...
posted by wonder2wonderSTAFFMOD on March 25, 2025 at 5:27 PM
... and a liar.
"Moving forward, no more interfering."
That is what Walter always promises, but he continues interfering until he achieves his goal.
That's good when he does it to save the world. However, when he does it to get rid of any other man in Paige's life, e.g. her ex or her new beau, so that he can have her all for himself to satisfy his physical and emotional desires, while he cheats on her with other women who meet his intellectual needs, he is a manipulating jerk and bully, who uses his intelligence - including hacking and digitally stalking someone's life - to remove any other male competitors.
His excuse is that, although his IQ is 197, he has an EQ of a sixteen-year old. So, according to him he doesn't understand that what he is doing is emotionally hurting 'normals'. Well, even if he can't feel it, he is smart enough to read and understand the rules that exist among the 'normals' and should not break or manipulate them for his own selfish satisfaction.
Paige's son Ralph has a higher IQ than Walter and admires him. He goes so far as imitating him when he tries to woo Patty. She doesn't get taken in by him.
Paige, on the other hand, does fall for Walter and will have to live with someone who always has the excuse of a low EQ when misbehaving.
"I cannot be tried in a court of law, since this court can't provide me with a fair trial. You see, it's my constitutional right to a jury of my peers. Which means you'd need to find 12 residents with an IQ of 197 or above. I can tell you that's not gonna happen."
Reply by Philippe LeMarchand
on March 25, 2025 at 6:25 PM
This seems to be part of the "high functioning autistic" Hollywood trope. Similarly Brennan in Bones is supposed to be super smart and a "forensic anthropologist" but cannot see the need to act "normally". I don't know anyone IRL who is in that category, though one online place I frequent has someone who posts in a style you can imagine Walter or Temperance Brennan using. He's not that smart, though.
I do have a soft spot for Scorpion, though. I was surprised to see it has a whole channel devoted to it on, I think, Pluto TV.
Reply by wonder2wonder
on March 25, 2025 at 7:25 PM
I like Brennan. She understands and has learned to adapt well with the help of her friends and Booth. Meanwhile, after Walter has learnt a lesson and he promises to do better, his behaviour doesn't change for the better. As a scientist, he doesn't take into account the consequences of his actions, because as he is smarter than everyone else - except for 3 or 4 other geniuses - he knows what is best and so he thinks that he can't make any mistakes. He is always a step behind, solving each new problem, which follows a failed action, on the fly. He is a grandmaster in chess and can think more than 10 moves ahead, but in dealing with the world and its problems, he doesn't think ahead. Fortunately, he always saves the world at the last minute.
I know, it is all drama cooked up by the writers, but I prefer a genius like Austin James in "Probe (1988)".
Reply by Philippe LeMarchand
on March 25, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Probe sounds vaguely familiar, but I can't remember seeing it on TV this side of the pond. It's likely that the pilot was released to VHS rental as a movie which happened quite a lot around that time. Airwolf had swearing badly dubbed in to earn it a higher certificate. I do remember https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/11398-search aka "Probe" aka "Search Control", though.
Reply by wonder2wonder
on March 26, 2025 at 12:51 AM
I mentioned "Probe (1988)" (TMDb: https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/3304-probe), because the protagonist Austin, who was more sympathetic, was a genius like Walter. The series - co-created by Isaac Asimov - was cancelled in its first season, but you can still find some episodes (VHS quality) on internet.