Another day, another murder in L.A. in the third episode of ABC’s hit new mystery series, High Potential. Morgan may have natural abilities that the detectives lack, but in “Dirty Rotten Scoundrel,” she also learns that she’s still pretty green. Here’s a recap of the latest episode.
(Disney/Carlos Lopez-Calleja)
Episode 3: “Dirty Rotten Scoundrel” – Written by Dennis Saldua
In a chic Los Angeles hotel, a man (Chad Guerrero) relaxes in a bathtub with candles lit all around it. He’s tired, nodding off while he soaks. He doesn’t hear, or see, a person approach from behind dressed all in black. They walk to the other end of the clawfoot tub, grabbing his feet and pulling him backward, submerging the man’s head underwater, drowning him…
The next morning, LAPD Consultant Morgan Gillory (Kaitlin Olson) arrives at the hotel and proceeds to the guest room where her partner, Detective Adam Karadec (Daniel Sunjata), is waiting for her. He watches Morgan as she steps into her first crime scene with a dead body still present, asking for her thoughts. “Looks like a wild night went south,” she tells him, closely examining the scene. A towel is folded differently from the others, likely used to wipe up splashed water, a theory that is supported by streaks on the tile that wouldn’t have been left by a microfiber mop. The glass on the table of burnt candles also appears to have been wiped clean, and it’s a different type of glass than the others in the room, likely from the hotel bar.
Daphne (Javicia Leslie) and Lev ‘Oz’ Osman (Dennis Akdeniz) searched the safe in the hotel room, finding the ID of a man named Ernesto Lozano from Mexico City. Karadec asks them to review security footage at the hotel while he and Morgan take a trip to the lobby bar to follow a lead.
At the bar, Morgan tells Karadec she believes the killer is likely a beautiful woman who matches the deceased’s level of attractiveness. The bartender, David (CK Bolado), is cleaning glasses just like the one from Ernesto’s room, and he has a unique tattoo on his arm. Karadec shows David a photo of Ernesto Lozano, asking if he recognizes him. David remembers him from the night before and shares that he was with a blonde woman whom he describes as “medium sexy.” He can’t remember her name but says it was something like Gladys or Janice.
In the hotel’s security office, Daphne and Oz show Karadec and Morgan the footage they found. Ernesto arrived at his guest room with a blonde woman at 8:02 pm. She left the room at 8:33, and after that, nobody entered or exited the door until housekeeping got there in the morning. The doorman remembers that the woman drove a red Kia, and she parked in a no-parking zone but wasn’t towed or issued a ticket. Karadec says she probably had license plates that excused her illegal parking, likely for medical reasons. He asks Daphne and Oz to check the parking lots of nearby hospitals for a red Kia with that kind of license plate.
Soon, a blonde woman named Dr. Iris Bowman (Melinda Page Hamilton) is brought into the station for questioning by Karadec and Morgan. She says she was having a harmless fling with Ernesto, whom she met three months prior in a hotel bar. She seems shocked to hear that he’s dead. The evening began like their usual dates, in the hotel bar. When she got to Ernesto’s room, he drew a bath and seemed tired, so she left. Karadec tells her she was the last person to leave the room before he was murdered. Karadec is about to book Dr. Bowman when Morgan has an epiphany. She remembers the type of candles in the room, a brand she’s had before. They burn fast, in only about 4 hours, but one on the floor was only partially burned own, likely snuffed out by splashing water during a struggle. Based on how much was burned, she estimates the time of death was an hour and a half after the candles were lit, which places Dr. Bowman’s exit about an hour before he was killed. Kardec lets her go.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Selena Soto (Judy Reyes) keeps her promise to Morgan, investigating the disappearance of her first husband, Roman Sinquerra. She found a record of him being charged with vandalism for painting a mural, a ticket that was issued by her grumpy colleague, Lieutenant Melon (Garret Dillahunt). She brings it to him, asking for more details, particularly because the address he wrote down doesn’t exist in their database. Soto uses Melon’s love of gambling to get him to take her there. When they arrive, only a portion of Roman’s mural is left, which they bet is either a fishtail or bird feathers.
Karadec gets an unexpected twist in their case when Daphne and Oz report that Ernesto Lozano is alive and well in Mexico City. He did, however, report the loss of his wallet in a rideshare while on a trip to L.A. with a driver who reportedly looked a lot like him. Karadec goes to grab the evidence box, only to find that it’s been replaced by a note from Morgan – “Working from home, see you tomorrow.”
Elliot (Matthew Lamb) helps Morgan look through the box of evidence, both wearing gloves. A teenage boy arrives, Ryder (Hudson Macready), to study with Morgan’s daughter, Ava (Amirah J). Morgan finds out that her ex-husband has allowed Ava to have this boy over to study before when he’s been watching the kids, and she’s not happy about it. She and Ava get in a fight, which is interrupted when Karadec arrives at the house to scold Morgan for taking evidence home, furious when he sees Elliot combing through the box. However, Morgan’s time with the box was productive. She learned from the deceased’s shoes that he must’ve lived near an active construction site, and his tailored suit had a unique type of stitching specific to Madagascar. She believes they can try to identify him by looking for a tailor from that region.
(Disney/Carlos Lopez-Calleja)
The next morning, Morgan and Karadec visit a Madagascan tailor and speak to the seamstress, Raissa (Khamailei Angelil), who recognizes a photo of the deceased as “Mr. Eduardo.” She doesn’t know his last name as he always paid her in cash, but he would buy designer suits second-hand and bring them to her for repairs. As they leave the shop, they hear construction sounds. On a hunch, Morgan pulls a piece of evidence she secretly pocketed – the man’s car keys – using the clicker and hearing a beep. Karadec sends photos of the plates to Daphne to look them up while Morgan breaks another protocol she isn’t familiar with, searching the car on her own and discovering that the man was a rideshare driver for a company called Karpoolz.
“Mr. Eduardo” was Eduardo Cortez, and Karadec and Morgan next visit his apartment building. They learn that he had a history of credit card fraud, which he served time for, and the apartment building seems like it should be unaffordable for a rideshare driver. They knock on his door and hear a little girl shout, “Daddy’s home.” The door opens, and they meet Eduardo’s wife, Regina (Michelle C. Bonilla), and daughter, Luna (Arya Dormiani and Ayla Dormiani). Morgan has a make-believe tea party with Luna while Karadec talks to Regina. Morgan notices a dictionary in the girl’s bedroom that seems out of place for her age and interests. Luna says it was a gift from her dad.
Karadec learns that Regina and Eduardo met ten years prior and that he stopped driving for Karpoolz three years ago when he got a job at his cousin’s wine distribution business. He often travels for work, so his disappearance didn’t seem odd. But Kardec breaks the news to her that her husband wasn’t traveling for business; he was at a nearby L.A. hotel having an affair, and now he’s dead. Morgan is shocked by Kardec’s lack of compassion for Regina as he shows her a photo of Dr. Bowman, whom Regina doesn’t recognize.
Morgan begins to scold Karadec in the hallway, but he explains his reasons. He needed to judge Regina’s reaction to see if she was aware of her husband’s infidelity and had a motive to kill him. Morgan realizes that, despite her natural talents, there’s a lot about being a detective that she doesn’t yet understand. Morgan wonders why Eduardo was using a fake ID.
That night, Morgan returns home to find her ex, Ludo Radovic (Taran Killam), watching her kids as planned. She tells him she knows about Ryder, and she’s mad about it. He defends his decision, saying they need to trust Ava. “Ava is my daughter,” Morgan snaps in defense, which upsets Ludo, who has been the closest thing to a father figure in her life. He walks out, upset.
(Disney/Carlos Lopez-Calleja)
The next morning, Morgan arrives at the LAPD with a box of donuts, letting everyone else choose one before Karadec. Soto received Eduardo’s medical exam report, who had alcohol and Xanax in his system when he drowned, which would explain the drowsiness. Morgan speculates that the killer entered and exited the room through a window, although this room didn’t have a balcony and was four floors up. In photos of the crime scene, Morgan notices one of the windows has an open latch, indicating it was unlocked.
Oz goes to the hotel to check out the window, humming the Spider-Man theme song as he finds white finger markings on the stone ledge outside the window. He returns to the office with photos, plus an update from the hotel manager that it’s part of the housekeeping routine to lock all of the windows, so Eduardo’s was opened from the inside after he checked in. Morgan recognizes the powder as magnesium carbonate, which rock climbers use for a better grip. While looking through Eduardo’s finances, Daphne notices that he deposited checks in large sums from a woman named Glenda Walker.
At an assisted living community, Karadec and Morgan meet with Glenda Walker (Audrey Wasilewski) and her son, Kyle (Graham Rogers), who wears a shirt with the initials LBCC. Glenda’s never heard the name Eduardo Cortez, but when they show Glenda a photo, she recognizes him as Ernesto Lozano… her fiancé! She’s been waiting for him to pick her up and take her to their home in Mexico City, which she helped pay for by giving Ernesto $200,000. Kyle acts shocked by this news.
In the hallway, Karadec asks Kyle how long his mother’s condition has been going on. He says it’s been a year, and she’s only getting worse. He was away when his mom met Eduardo, saying he’s never met him. Kyle says he hasn’t been around since his mom began to get sick.
Soto visits Morgan at home to give her an update on Roman’s case. She tells her about the citation he received while painting a mural in a part of town known for its criminal activity. Selena speculates that Roman may have seen something he shouldn’t have there. Morgan pulls out a box of photos of Roman’s murals, confirming that the remaining piece Soto bet on with Melon is a bird’s feather – a phoenix. Morgan gives Selena all of Roman’s mural photos in case they are helpful and offers her a cookie. Selena is surprised when Morgan pulls out a container of Metamucil, her secret hiding spot, so her kids don’t eat them all. And then Morgan realizes – “I bet you could fit a lot of cookies in a dictionary.”
Morgan returns to Eduardo’s apartment, where Regina and Luna let her look at the dictionary. Sure enough, it’s hollowed out and full of cash, around $50,000. Morgan tells Regina that she believes her husband was scamming vulnerable women. Luna opens up a digital camera her dad gave her and begins showing Morgan photos of her and her dad. In one of them, Morgan notices an arm with a familiar tattoo.
Morgan arranges a rendezvous with Karadec at the hotel bar. When he arrives, she shows him Luna’s camera and the photo of the tattoo she recognized. “Who reaches a lot of vulnerable women?” She asks him. “A hotel bartender,” he realizes aloud, looking at the bartender’s arm. David realizes he’s being implicated, and he makes a run for it. Karadec takes off after him, chasing him through the kitchen, where David grabs a knife. Karadec is almost stabbed as he makes the arrest. He’s furious at Morgan for not warning him about what he was walking into. “How can someone as smart as you are do so many stupid things?” he asks. Morgan has had enough. She announces her intentions to quit and walks away.
Daphne joins Karadec for David’s interrogation. He shared a prison cell with Eduardo. After they both got out, he was doing fine as a bartender, but Eduardo was struggling, so he came up with a plan to help his friend. David would receive a “finder’s fee” for pointing Eduardo in the director of vulnerable women. But he didn’t kill him. “He was my goose; he laid golden eggs,” he tells them.
Karadec tells Soto that Morgan quit. “She didn’t quit,” Soto says knowingly. Karadec tells her about how he chewed Morgan out, but Soto isn’t convinced. “She needs this,” she declares.
The next morning, Ludo arrives at Morgan’s house to watch the kids, surprised that she’s not at work. She tells him she quit, which upsets him since they paid him for childcare. Morgan apologizes for what she said, saying he’s the closest thing Ava has to a father. He asks her to apologize to the LAPD, telling her how he overhead Elliot bragging to his friends at school about his mom being a detective. Morgan holds the hand of her baby, Chloe, looking at her short nails, which gives her an idea.
Morgan returns to the LAPD with more donuts, saying that climbers must keep their nails short, so whoever climbed into Eduardo’s room had to have short nails, too. She asks Karadec if he’s familiar with the Long Beach Climbing Club, and Karadec remembers the group’s initials on Kyle’s t-shirt. He asks Daphne and Oz to go bring him in. “I thought you quit,” Karadec asks Morgan. “I did, but you need me,” she responds. He congratulates her, and she says he couldn’t have done it alone. And now it’s Karadec’s turn to have an epiphany.
(Disney/Carlos Lopez-Calleja)
Dr. Bowman is brought back in for questioning and interrogated in a separate room from Kyle. The full story is revealed. Iris had lost her husband six months before meeting Eduardo at the hotel bar and starting a love affair with him. He scammed her the way he did all of his marks. Kyle learned about Eduardo and the scam he played on his mother. He tracked him down to the hotel where he, too, met Iris, informing her that she was being played. By that point, Iris had already given Eduardo a lot of money she would never get back. The two worked together to get revenge. Iris put the drugs in Eduardo’s drink to ensure that he would be drowsy. After going up to the room and getting him in the bath, she unlocked the window and left. Kyle climbed in, killed Eduardo, and climbed out.
Kyle begs Morgan and Karadec to let him say goodbye to his mom. They arrange for a video call in front of a picture of the Rocky Mountains, with the climber informing his mother that he got his dream job and won’t be able to visit her anytime soon.
Another case closed, Morgan leaves the office, telling Karadec she will see him tomorrow. When he goes to his desk, he finds a special donut just for him, his favorite, a detail only Morgan would pick up on – an apple fritter.
Next Episode: “Survival Mode” – Airing Tuesday, 10/15, at 10/9c on ABC
Morgan is excited to get her official LAPD badge despite Karadec’s reluctance. The detectives work tirelessly on an emotional missing children case, which hits close to home for Morgan and sends her mind into overdrive.