High Potential returned from its winter break tonight, picking up where things left off. America is obsessed with this adaptation of the French series HPI, and this episode is fittingly titled “Obsessed.” Morgan finds herself working on a case that feels eerily familiar, and she gets a small update on her missing first husband while also starting to realize that she’s getting caught between her new love interest, Tom, and her boss, Karadec.
Episode 8: “Obsessed” – Written by Andy Berman, Nicole French, & Marc Halsey
Morgan Gillory (Kaitlin Olson) and Tom (JD Pardo) have their first date – a breakfast meeting at a diner, the only time Morgan could commit to with her busy work schedule. He expresses interest in cooking dinner for her some time to celebrate the completion of his physical therapy, and she admits that her kids are away with Ludo this weekend. As long as she doesn’t get a case, she could be free Saturday night. Of course, that’s when her phone rings with a work call.
A Black woman was found unconscious on the beach with a headwound. When Morgan arrives, Daphne (Javicia Leslie) and Oz (Dennis Akdeniz) are already there getting all the details. A lifeguard found the woman when they go to work, and she was barely alive. They tried to perform CPR, but couldn’t resuscitate her. However, Morgan asks Adam Karadec (Daniel Sunjata) for his watch, holding it up to the victim’s mouth and seeing the glass fog up.
Back at the LAPD, Morgan explains the Lazarus Effect to her colleagues. Lieutenant Selena Soto (Judy Reyes) asks someone to go to the hospital to be there when the woman wakes up to ask what she remembers. Meanwhile, Karadec checks the missing person’s reports and finds one that was just submitted with a photo that matches the woman – Heather Wallace, a grad student at UCLA. The report was filed by her boyfriend, whom they call in for questioning.
Morris Jardeen (Dana Ashbrook) is the wealthy founder of a leisurewear company and Heather’s much older boyfriend. Karadec and Daphne question him while Morgan and Soto watch through the two-way mirror. Oz comes in with some new information. UCLA doesn’t have a student enrolled named Heather Wallace, but her ran her fingerprints, and they match a woman named Penny Hall. Soto tasks Morgan and Karadec with searching Penny’s apartment.
Penny’s landlord (Robert Arce) lets Morgan and Karadec into her apartment, saying she’s his favorite tenant. He mentions that he offered her an upgrade after her boyfriend died, a tennis player around her age named Lucas Phillips. The landlord believes he was murdered. Morgan finds framed photos of Lucas (Christopher Phi) on the tennis court and with Penny. Her kitchen table is full of bills, and despite the apartment not being expensive and being in a bad part of town, Penny has some very expensive purses. Morgan opens her closet and finds several designer dresses, too. Karadec finds a bill for a billboard on PCH (Pacific Coast Highway). As Morgan inspects the closet, she finds that Penny had a suspect board for Lucas’ death. The board includes people affiliated with the country club where her boyfriend was a tennis instructor.
A photo of Penny’s case board is added to the one at the LAPD. Lucas Phillips was killed two years ago, and his case was never solved. His murder was believed to be part of a robbery gone wrong, with Lucas’ body found on the same stretch of beach as Penny, with a similar wound to the back of the head. Rice was found in his hair, and antifreeze was found in his nose. The detective on the case interviewed employees and members of the Marina Azul Beach Club. Morgan believes that Penny was using Morris to gain access to the club to investigate, buying things she can’t afford to fit in with its wealthy clientele.
Morgan and Karadec visit the Marina Azul Beach Club, where a valet (Adrian Bustamante) loans Morgan a blazer since she doesn’t meet the stuffy club’s dress code attire. One of the club’s owners, Edward Wilson (Charles McElveen), gives Morgan and Karadec a tour, talking about how he inherited the club from his grandfather. Their tour is quickly interrupted by Edward’s brother, Blaine Wilson (David Gridley), whose name was on Penny’s board. Karadec shows them a photo of Penny, and they both recognize her but say they don’t know much about her. He next shows them a photo of Lucas. They remember him as being a popular tennis trainer there, but they don’t remember anything that would be relevant to his murder. On their way out, Morgan notices that the valet has a black eye. He tells her there was a man on the club’s section of beach trying to sell illegal products. He was tasked with escorting the man off the club’s property when he got punched. Morgan asks for the name of the man.
Morgan and Karadec find Cameron Smith (Paul James Jordan), aka “Swizz,” surfing near the club, bringing him down to the LAPD for questioning. He recognizes Penny when they show him a photo, and he tells them she kept questioning him about Lucas’ death, which he says he had nothing to do with. He also insists that he wasn’t selling anything on the club’s beach but was just trying to reach Blaine, who owes him money and keeps dodging him. He saw Penny around 9:00 pm the night before she was found on the beach.
When they hear that Penny (Nona Parker Johnson) is awake, Morgan and Karadec go to the hospital to talk to her. Morris is with her, and they ask for some privacy. Penny tells them she went to the beach in response to a call to her billboard ad. The caller said they witnessed Lucas’ attack. While she was waiting, she was attacked from behind. She remembers waking up briefly in the water. She didn’t see her attacker’s face. Morgan notices Penny’s diamond necklace, which she says Lucas gave her the week he died. Penny tells them that Lucas loved his job at the club and the people there, but he had some issues with Blaine, who suspended him and threatened to fire Lucas. She warns them that Blaine is well protected by Edward, who made it hard for her to get anywhere with her own investigation.
Morgan and Karadec return to the club, meeting Edward in his office. He plays digital golf as Morgan notices his shelves are decorated with souvenirs from around the world, with snowglobe and flags from international destinations. He tells them about an annual tradition he and Blaine have to travel, pointing out that it all started with a Mediterranean trip. Edward tells them that his brother has problems with addiction and money, but says he’s not a murderer. Morgan gets a text from Tom, which she doesn’t respond to because she sees someone by the pool with a necklace exactly like Penny’s.
Morgan follows Shelby (Monica Young) to her loungechair, commenting on her necklace. Shelby tells them it was a gift from her husband on their 10 year anniversary. Morgan correctly guesses that it is comprised of 120 diamonds, one for each month of marriage. Shelby brags that it’s one of a kind, but Morgan comments about how they aren’t real diamonds, but moissanite, which refracts rainbow light instead of white. Karadec shows Morgan a picture of Penny and Lucas, and they notice Shelby nervously glance across the pool at her much older husband, who is engaged in conversation. She confesses to giving her diamond necklace to Lucas to keep him quiet. He found out that she was having an affair with Blaine. Her husband is on the city council and if he found out, the club would lose its liquor license.
That night, Morgan is unable to do anything but focus on the case. She gets another text from Tom, asking if she’d like to have dinner another night. Instead of responding, she drives over to Karadec’s. He’s doing the same thing she was, with photos of the suspects laid out on his kitchen table. They order take out and while they wait, Morgan asks about a framed drawing of a blue flower. He warns her that his apartment is not a case to be solved.
Having worked all night, Karadec has softened somewhat to Morgan by the morning, making her coffee. She tells him about how she blew off Tom last night, but he tells her it will happen if she wants it to. She tells him she does. Karadec, in a rare moment of vulnerability, opens up about the drawing of the blue flower. It was a gift from his ex-fiancé, Lucia, who made it for him after they got engaged. She left him because he’s a workaholic. Morgan leaves, but doesn’t get far before she has one of her signature epiphany’s. Looking at a flickering Edison light in the hallway, she re-enters Karadec’s apartment and says, “I know who killed Lucas!”
Karadec drives as Morgan explains. She tells him about how snowglobes were the accidental byproduct of a failed attempt at making a surgical lamp. Snowglobe use various items for falling snow, and some of them contain rice. To prevent them from freezing, the liquid inside a snowglobe contains glycol, one of the main ingredients of antifreeze. And when she was looking at Edward’s office, she thought it was weird that he didn’t have one from Greece, despite the trip that started his collection being of the Mediterranean. She suspects that Lucas went to Edward with information about Blaine and Lucas killed him to cover it up.
They arrive at the club with police backup. Edward sees the officers starting to surround the building from a security monitor in his office. He makes a run for it, with Morgan and Karadec following him to a cliff on the beach where Edward seems intent on killing himself. Morgan tries to talk him down, but it’s Blaine who gets through to his brother. Edward is arrested for the murder of Lucas Phillips and attempted murder of Penny Hall.
Penny tears up when Morgan visits her in the hospital to tell her they got the killer. She thanks Morgan, and Morgan seemingly sees a paralel to her own missing peron’s case, her ex-husband Roman.
That night, Morgan takes Tom up on his dinner date invite. Once again, she gets a work call.
Back at the LAPD on a Sunday night, Soto invites Morgan into her office and asks her to close the door. Her investigation into Roman’s disappearance has uncovered that he had several meetings with a “concierge” named Gio Conforth, someone who lives off the grid and helps procure illegal items for clients. Morgan doesn’t know why her husband would’ve been meeting with someone like him. Soto will work on getting him in for an interview. She asks Morgan to keep this a secret.
Next Episode: “The RAMs” – Airing Tuesday, January 14th, at 9/8c on ABC
A famous baseball newscaster is murdered, and the team is on the case. Meanwhile, Soto and Morgan meet with a potential lead to discuss Roman’s disappearance, and Tom has some personal news to share with Morgan.
Songs Featured in This Episode: