Their turkey may have been smaller than ever before because of a lack of income, but Team Scorpion still had a lot to be thankful for in last week’s episode. An awesome family dynamic and the promise of a soon-to-be-on-the-way baby are just a couple of examples. But during a stressful life-or-death situation involving Man of War jellyfish, it was more difficult for some to be thankful than others. So, to keep the Thanksgiving spirit going and make up for the lack of thankfulness on behalf of a couple of characters, here are the things I was most thankful for in episode nine!

Florence

Before this episode, I kept thinking about Florence’s introduction and, honestly, I wasn’t completely sold on her character. She’s harsh and made it clear that she doesn’t like her new neighbors, and while she does seem similar to the geniuses at Scorpion, something about her felt off to me. But now I am 100 convinced that Florence is going to make an outstanding addition to team Scorpion during the remainder of the season.

Why? Florence said herself that she is a chemist, not a “genius”. Granted, from our perspective, a chemist who can build her own successful company from the ground up probably qualifies as a genius. But the point is that despite her high IQ, Florence is an outsider. She is an outsider who is looking for a safe haven in a world that has rejected her. And gee whiz, what a coincidence that she ended up living next door to the cyclone that was formed just for misfits with incredible IQs.

So far, Florence seems like she’s going to greatly benefit from Paige and get a few EQ lessons. I can’t wait to see how her character unfolds, I just hope her development isn’t always inspired while she’s on the brink of death.

Paige Standing up for Herself

Paige is a badass. We have all known from the beginning that she is a strong woman with the kindest heart on Earth, but lately, I’ve felt that her badassery has taken a backseat because of her romance with Walter. This episode, however, gave Paige a reason to remind everyone just how dynamic she really is.

Florence points fingers and deflects blame because she’s terrified of being wrong. And ordinarily, Paige can work around that. But this time things got personal because Florence made a direct jab at Paige’s character, and Paige let loose. What hit me the hardest was when she said, “1) This is your fault, and 2) I am trying to be nice to you, but I draw the line at you bad mouthing my nerds.”

Paige is always the nice one, and even as she threw blame onto Florence, she did it calmly and with no spite behind her words. It was a fantastic reminder that, while she may not be handy with tools or hand-to-hand combat like Happy, Paige is a badass woman who takes crap from no one.

Ugh, I can’t wait to see how she and Florence interact with each other from now on!

Walter Surrounded by Strong Women

Walter was being a particular jerk during this episode because he had already made up his mind that he didn’t like Florence and he was bitter that she was with them. We’ve all been there at some point, so I understand. But his bias was clouding his judgment and it was immediately clear that something was going to go wrong during the assignment.

Normally, either Happy or Paige is the feminine voice of reason that can get through to Walter. But this time Florence was the one to try her hand. And while his logical mind may have understood that her binding agent formula would be more effective, his emotional bias immediately shut her down. It almost seems like Walter is threatened by Florence…we just don’t really know why yet.

All I know is that seeing Walter surrounded by not one, not two, but THREE strong female characters on that fishing boat was overwhelmingly satisfying.

Cabe Gallo

By the end of the episode, I realized that I had been a damned fool for thinking that the opening scene would be the best look we’d get into Cabe’s memories. I told y’all last week that I was not prepared for this, and I was right. I was glad I had a box of tissues nearby.

It must have taken a tremendous amount of focus for Cabe to repress and alter his memories the way he did. Toby jumped through a few hoops to coax those memories out, but the fact that Cabe had no idea what Toby was doing signaled that he really did believe the lie he had been telling himself for 50 years. And once Toby was able to break that wall down, both he and Cabe understood why Cabe had been drawing away from the team for a few weeks: he’s afraid of failing them just like he thinks he failed his father.

Yikes.

But, all’s well that ends well because Toby is finally able to make Cabe understand that the team wants to take care of him just like he has taken care of them for so long. And Cabe actually accepts that. And when Walter and Toby referenced him as a father figure and had him carve the turkey…oh, boy, that teary-eyed speech.

With this breakthrough made, I think Cabe is going to go through some character development during his trial. He’s been resisting letting anyone help him while still encouraging everyone, especially Sly, to just do their best. But now we’re going to see Caber rely entirely on his team, and a big emotional curveball is going to be thrown at us.

What are your predictions for tonight’s episode? Check out the trailer below and let me know!