High Potential Season 2 Episode 15 Recap: A Deadly Prank and a Space Secret

By
Rebecca Murray
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High Potential Season 2 Episode 15 Recap
Deniz Akdeniz, Catherine Haena Kim, Kaitlin Olson, and Daniel Sunjata in ‘High Potential’ season 2 episode 15 (Disney/Mitch Haaseth)

Astronaut Teddy Barrow poses for photos with an adoring young fan as ABC’s High Potential season two, episode 15 opens. His next encounter is nowhere near as friendly. A woman runs by, slamming a pie in his face, causing the astronaut to collapse.

(The following is a recap of season two, episode 15 – “Pie in the Sky” – and there are spoilers.)

Morgan (Kaitlin Olson) insists that she’s going with Lt. Selena Soto (Judy Reyes) to New York to speak with Willa Quinn, the name Eric Hayworth turned over in the Roman investigation. Karadec (Daniel Sunjata) agrees with Soto that it’s far too risky, and Captain Nick Wagner (Steve Howey) joins them and reveals he knows all about the Roman investigation. Wagner doesn’t argue against Soto going but orders her to keep them informed about what she discovers.

Morgan’s stunned to learn Astronaut Teddy Barrow was murdered at the Biltmore Hotel and she wonders how he could have been killed by a pie. Karadec thinks it contained a toxin, which Daphne (Javicia Leslie) confirms wasn’t airborne. Teddy’s fiancé, Heidi, wasn’t injured in the attack and explains she thought the attack was a prank, but then Teddy couldn’t breathe.

Heidi and the team watch the attack captured on security footage and she doesn’t recognize the attacker. Morgan walks around, checking out the area, and discovers the attacker was wearing track spikes commonly used by sprinters. The video shows the attacker was super-fast, and Morgan thinks she could run the 100 in 11 seconds. Plus, her shoes are custom colors matching St. Emily’s Women’s College.

Karadec does a quick check and learns only one sprinter on the team is that fast: Arden Prescott.

Morgan quickly returns home to talk to Elliot (Matthew Lamb) about Teddy Barrow’s death. Elliot’s taking it hard and holds his personal letter from Teddy, unwilling to believe anyone would want to hurt him.

Morgan joins Karadec at the college, and Arden’s roommate doesn’t have many answers. She claims not to know Arden well but agrees to let them look around while she heads to class. Karadec spots an empty pie box in Arden’s trash can and Morgan points out an article about Arden’s track and field coach/choir director, Sister Lucy.

In New York, Selena finds Willa Quinn (Jennifer Jason Leigh) having a business lunch and interrupts. Selena refuses food and cuts straight to the chase, asking about her connection to Roman. Willa doesn’t give up anything and Selena hands over her card, telling her to call that evening if she wants to talk.

Back at the station, the tox screen shows the pie had VX nerve agent in it. VX causes immediate paralysis and death.

Sister Lucy comes in for an interview and is shocked that they suspect Arden of killing someone. When Karadec mentions Teddy Barrow’s name, Morgan notices the nun touches her neck, indicating she knows more than she’s saying. Karadec promises they can help and Sister Lucy leads them to Arden.

Arden swears she didn’t know what was in the pie, and Morgan believes she was set up since her bag is packed with books, not to-go items.

Arden (Lindsay Elston) and her attorney sit for questioning, and she admits that she was contacted by a producer via DM. She’d been working hard to increase her online presence, and a big online viral prank video producer sent her a box with an outfit to wear and info on a prank to pull off. Karadec doesn’t think it was the real producer she was DMing, and Arden describes the box as containing a pie, mask, gloves, and instructions on what to do. She didn’t know who Teddy was and didn’t know the pie contained poison.

Selena calls Morgan and warns her that they can’t underestimate Willa. Willa “guessed” Selena’s flight connected in Dallas, and Selena realizes it wasn’t a guess. Willa knew she was on her way. Selena’s unnerved and thinks Willa’s a step ahead of them. As they’re talking, Selena notices the closet is open, and there’s a dress inside with a letter to meet Willa at a gala.

High Potential Season 2 Episode 15 Recap
Steve Howey in ‘High Potential’ season 2 episode 15 (Disney/Christine Bartolucci)

Captain Wagner claims to understand why Morgan’s not keen on him knowing about the Roman investigation. He just wants to help, but Morgan is skeptical. Wagner explains that his upbringing has taught him to test people to see who he can trust. He’s learned that every detective on the team is a good person.

Wagner believes he’s the right person to help figure out Willa’s involvement. Morgan doesn’t respond and instead gets back to the case with Karadec. His research shows that VX has been used before to kill someone while the killers believe they were involved in a prank. Karadec also learned that some people suspected Teddy was getting too close to the Russians and sharing info he shouldn’t.

Selena looks stunning in the dress Willa provided, which fits perfectly. Willa claims she has nothing to offer on Roman’s abduction case and after revealing her family history, Selena remains convinced they need to speak again at a more appropriate time. She promises to call Willa’s assistant and get added to her schedule.

Karadec and Morgan visit Heidi to see if she can fill in any blanks about Teddy’s private life. Heidi heard that people were suspicious that he had secret meetings with Russians, and she even asked him about it. Teddy claimed he just met them for dinner.

Morgan finds the speech Teddy was going to give and asks about a company he mentions. Teddy was going to endorse them to build a commercial space station, and the contract would have been worth billions. Heidi confirms the government listened to and respected Teddy, and his endorsement would have been influential in deciding the contract. Morgan believes he was killed to prevent him from giving this speech.

Karadec fills Wagner in on their theory about Teddy’s murder, and Wagner asks how he can get Morgan to let him in on the Roman case. Karadec replies, “You don’t ‘get’ Morgan Gillory to do anything. I’m surprised you didn’t know that by now.”

Selena has her meeting at Willa’s office and Willa claims she likes her approach and tries to hire her, even offering to triple her current pay. Selena quickly squashes that topic and says she’s there about Roman’s disappearance. The clues led her to Willa, and Selena shows her the phone Hayworth was carrying when Roman was abducted. The phone was in Roman’s backpack, and the techs haven’t finished extracting info from it. When they do, it should give them answers about the day Roman vanished.

Selena suggests that if Willa comes clean, the courts will go easier on her.

High Potential Season 2 Episode 15 Recap
Deniz Akdeniz, Javicia Leslie, and Pritesh Shah in ‘High Potential’ season 2 episode 15 (Disney/Christine Bartolucci)

Back in LA, Oz (Deniz Akdeniz) and Daphne interview a competitor of the company Teddy was about to endorse to build the space station. He claims not to know about Teddy’s endorsement since the contents of the speech weren’t made public. Daphne confirms with the symposium that no one knew what Teddy was going to say.

Oz wonders if Heidi is working with a competitor, but Karadec doesn’t think so. She just called him and said she’s going to deliver Teddy’s speech. Heidi’s cleared but now she’s got a target on her back, just like Teddy.

Karadec and Morgan head to Heidi’s and ask her to put off delivering the speech. She refuses, claiming she wants to honor Teddy’s memory. Heidi wants to inform the world of what Teddy believed in, and she’ll be able to do that with his final speech.

Karadec asks for a copy and as she retrieves it, Morgan admits she believes Heidi truly loved Teddy. Heidi also retrieves a stuffed lion that shares Teddy’s record number of hours in space. Since Morgan said Elliot’s Teddy’s biggest fan, Heidi wants her to give it to him.

Later, Elliot’s ecstatic to have Teddy’s “ZGI” – his zero-gravity indicator. Teddy used to post about it all the time. Morgan looks at Teddy’s photos online and notices he was holding a pen in his right hand in every picture for the last month. Teddy was even holding it on the day he died, and Morgan thinks it might indicate something was going on.

The team assembles and Morgan asks for both versions of Teddy’s speech. Karadec points out the changes Heidi made were to words that shouldn’t have been there – like mislabeled items. Morgan believes the switched words – spear for spacecraft, hardhat for helmet – are indicative of something particular, and believes she knows what Teddy’s death is about.

Karadec and Morgan bring Heidi in and reveal they found a different speech on Teddy’s computer that mentioned he was going to tell the world he’d been diagnosed with brain cancer. Teddy thought the cancer was from radiation in space and he was going to announce that there should be a freeze on putting people into space until more safety measures were put in place.

Morgan describes the pen in his hand as a way for Teddy to stop the hand from shaking. The swapped words were from an erosion of his language skills. And as a member of the ground team, Heidi would have been able to get her hands on VX since it was being sent into space to research an antidote.

When Heidi couldn’t talk him out of it, she impersonated a viral video producer and hired Arden to slam a pie into Teddy’s face. Karadec confirms Arden’s being released; this was all Heidi’s doing and Arden was duped into unknowingly carrying out the murder.

Heidi admits Teddy changed after the diagnosis and he wouldn’t have written this speech if he was healthy. She didn’t want him to ruin his legacy.

As Morgan’s heading home after work, Captain Wagner stops her and confirms he’s getting a warrant to investigate Quinn International. Soto’s on her way home, and Wagner thinks an investigation into Quinn is the only way they’ll uncover what happened to Roman. Morgan doesn’t understand why he’s helping, and Nick insists it’s the right thing to do.

Selena’s on the phone with Wagner after she lands at LAX and spots Willa walking her way. Willa smiles and gets into a car.

 

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