ABC’s High Potential season two episode five kicks off with two kids arguing over control of a drone, causing it to accidentally crash into Shea Ranch Pond. It’s still filming as it enters the water, and the kids are shocked to see there’s a dead body inside a car underwater.
(This is a recap of season two episode five and there are spoilers ahead!)
Morgan (Kaitlin Olson), wearing super cute boots, surprises Arthur (Mekhi Phifer) as he’s wrapping up landscape work. He’s been ghosting Morgan after checking on her and the kids for Roman. Prior to their recent contact, he hadn’t spoken with Roman in 15 years. Roman used a burner phone and Arthur admits he never saw him. When he doesn’t immediately agree to handing over Roman’s backpack, Morgan threatens to have his business investigated. He has no choice but to agree to meet up again.
Lt. Selena Soto (Judy Reyes) addresses her unit, complimenting them for being tenacious. She introduces Captain Nick Wagner (Steve Howey), also describing him as tenacious. Nick’s there to support the team and looks forward to getting to know each of them. He’s doing one-on-one chats, takes over Selena’s office with her permission, and starts off with Oz (Deniz Akdeniz).
Daphne (Javicia Leslie) and Adam (Daniel Sunjata) fill Morgan in on Nick’s background, describing him as being part of a family dynasty who’ve all made captain. Morgan doesn’t learn much more before heading to the Shea Ranch Pond crime scene with Adam.
Although the driver’s license doesn’t look like the victim, Morgan concludes they’re one and the same. (Tori must have had some work done recently.) The victim is 31-year-old Tori Nolan, and she has two bullet holes in her chest along with what looks like steam or chemical burns and red dye. They examine her car, and Morgan finds a gun and a key to a storage unit.
Tori’s keychain had a Hula Hound fob, so Morgan believes she used the storage company next to it. They discover her unit is full of file cabinets and has a workstation setup, but the laptop is missing. Labels on the filing cabinets match the fake passports with different identities that Adam finds on the desk. Morgan realizes each of the locations was the site of a big scandal. The trashcan is full of shredded paper with red symbols that Morgan decides are editing marks, and the numbers on the file cabinets are dates and issue numbers. Apparently, Tori was an investigative journalist. It’s possible whatever she was recently investigating got her killed.
Later, Daphne and Oz investigate Tori’s financials and Daphne confirms Tori worked for Takedown Magazine. Oz confirms she wrote under pseudonyms and that she’d go off the grid when she was working on a story. Her outlet always had her check in to make sure she was safe, and Daphne forwards a recent photo Tori sent them. Morgan spots poodle dog plants in the background.
Morgan has Adam head to the site of a recent fire in the hills. These bushes sprout after fires, and based on the size of the plant, this area fits the timeline. Morgan’s right, of course, and they find the exact spot where Tori took her recent proof-of-life photo. There’s a no trespassing sign on the hill, and up above is an impressive house.
Morgan explains it’s a “content house” where influencers shoot videos. Tori must have gone undercover as an influencer and one of the influencers recognizes Tori’s photo but calls her Darla. Adam and Morgan gather the dozen or so influencers and learn Tori had been living there for a few weeks. She concentrated on autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) videos, and they all liked her.
Morgan looks around as Adam learns the last time she was home was probably at least a day ago. Morgan believes all the influencers are under a tremendous amount of pressure to make content that generates views and that the guy who runs the house, Phineas, is running the place like a sweatshop.
A couple of the influencers barge in as Morgan’s looking at a dye and confess they killed her. But they take it back when they learn she was shot. Apparently, Raquel and Pranks set up the “devil’s toothpaste” prank in the backseat of Tori’s car. Right after Tori got into her car, the dye exploded, and all her windows blew out. They immediately told Phineas what happened, and he claimed he spoke with Tori. She was fine but angry and was going for a drive to cool off. Adam says that isn’t possible, as Tori had to have been concussed and unable to drive anywhere.
The explosive ingredients were dye, soap, peroxide, and yeast. Morgan realizes Tori’s steam burns were from the peroxide. Plus, the peroxide would have cleaned up the blood from the gunshot wounds that should have been in the car.
Raquel confesses they pulled the prank because Tori stole her L3 protein powder that was supposed to be used for an exclusive video shoot.
Morgan and Adam search the nearby hillside and find red dye and tire tracks. It’s probably where Tori was shot. Phineas drives up, spots them, and races off, with Adam’s first instinct to chase the car giving Morgan the laugh she needed.
Morgan gets home early for once and sends Elliot out of the room to check on the baby so she can tell Ava (Amirah J) she tracked down Arthur. Ava wants to go with her mom to get the backpack, but Morgan won’t let her because it might be dangerous.
Back at the station, Oz and Adam are letting Phineas stew a bit before interrogating him. Captain Wagner speaks with Daphne and Selena and suggests that Daphne should take the sergeant test. Her work’s impressed him, and he’ll even set up the test for her if she agrees.
Morgan joins them and Nick wants to have their one-on-one chat. She wants to postpone, preferring to listen to Adam and Oz’s interrogation. Adam asks Phineas why he shot a reporter who was embedded in his house, and Phineas claims not to have any idea what they’re talking about. Oz whips out Phineas’ financials and suggests he was skimming from the creators. Oz notes that Phineas was charging them $50,000 a month each, and Morgan uses the mic to tell Adam she needs to see his watch. Adam holds it up to the two-way mirror and Morgan says it’s obvious the titanium inside has come in contact with corrosive fluids, like peroxide.
Oz and Adam believe Phineas was in Tori’s car after he shot her and got the peroxide on him when he moved her body from the driver’s seat. Phineas confesses he moved the body but didn’t even realize she was shot until he got to the pond. He moved her to keep his landlord from finding out and evicting them.
Phineas claims he was busy buying bots to increase Tori’s channel’s views when Raquel and Pranks told him about the devil’s toothpaste prank. He wouldn’t have bought bots if he was going to kill her.
Later, the team’s looking at the murder board when Oz joins them and reveals Phineas turned over Tori’s bag in exchange for leniency. (He was booked for evidence tampering.) Tori’s laptop is in the bag, but it’s encrypted. Raquel’s protein powder is also in the bag along with lab results of the powder. Morgan thinks the only interesting ingredient is castoreum—beaver butt secretion, which is used as a flavoring agent.
Tori was investigating L3 because the person in charge is Bobby Romano, an old classmate who doxed her and forced her into hiding after she wrote an exposé of his business. Morgan and Adam pay him a visit at his warehouse and he’s super excited about his upcoming powder release. Lamar, the operations manager, joins them and asks if they have a warrant to look around. Bobby doesn’t think that’s necessary; he’s super chill about the whole thing. He assures them Lamar’s just being vigilant since he pretty much runs the operation.
Morgan and Adam point out that Bobby’s former businesses were all scams and that Tori Nolan got them all shut down through her investigative reporting. He claims he regrets doxing her and forcing her to leave school. “I was a stupid kid and I did stupid things,” says Bobby, sounding pretty convincing.
They make it to his office and inform him that Tori is dead. He’s shocked and then suddenly realizes they think he killed her. Bobby admits she called him a week ago and said she was going to take him down for good. He hung up on her and doesn’t know how she was going to do that. Bobby truly believes L3 is legit.
He invites them to look around because he’s an open book and Morgan immediately takes him up on it. She snatches his phone, and he doesn’t really care. Morgan quickly determines he has an alibi for the time of the shooting. He’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, but he didn’t kill Tori.
Adam has his one-on-one with Nick and Nick reveals he didn’t even bother reading his file. Adam has a terrific reputation. Nick asks about Morgan, and Adam says they work well together. The chat ends less than a minute after it began.
Bobby’s phone included mention of a Serenity Arms that he visited once a week. It’s a halfway house for ex-cons and the guy in charge of it, Gavin, agrees to meet with Adam and Oz.
Arthur catches up with Morgan at a diner to discuss handing over Roman’s bag. Ava pops in unexpectedly and demands to be a part of the conversation. Arthur chuckles and says Ava looks like Roman when he’s digging into something. Arthur also confirms he and Roman have known each other for a long time and used to be practically inseparable. Ava explains that she needs to understand why Roman left her, and Arthur says he hadn’t talked to her dad in 15 years. Ava pleads with him to hand over the bag so that her mom can piece together clues. Arthur finally agrees.
Morgan’s so angry she refuses to speak with Ava as they leave.
Gavin tells Adam and Oz he’s never met anyone like Bobby. He says Bobby believes in the protein powder and believes in making the world a better place. Gavin claims Bobby wasn’t angry at Tori after getting out of prison, but recently she showed up at his warehouse and threatened to send him back to prison for life. Following that, Bobby missed a group session and told Gavin he should have taken care of “this” 10 years ago.
Adam and Oz return to Bobby’s warehouse and find him at his desk, dead from a drug overdose. Selena joins them at the warehouse and Adam explains an employee said Bobby was upset after speaking with the police. He sent everyone home and overdosed on the party drug Dazzle Kitty, which is five times more potent than Ecstasy.
Adam confirms the L3 powder was a cover for shipping the drugs. Bags were hidden in select canisters. Oz reveals they found a gun that matches the wounds on Tori’s chest in Bobby’s desk. However, Morgan finds beef and barley soup on Bobby’s t-shirt and his breath smells like it, too. He consumed the soup and then died, but there’s no soup container in the trash cans. There’s a carrot and a half-melted Dazzle Kitty capsule in the drain, which means someone else drugged the soup and killed Bobby. The killer also murdered Tori.
The team converges on a delivery truck driven by Bobby’s counselor, Gavin. Drugs are found in the canisters, and it turns out the Serenity Arms center was the root of the conspiracy. Bobby had no idea about the drugs, but Gavin and Lamar cooked it up together. Lamar has alibis for the time of the murders. Gavin doesn’t and was apparently the mastermind.
The day ends with Nick chatting up Morgan while she puts coolant in her car. She admits she’s not sure about whether he’s a cop who abuses his power, but she has determined he’s smug, misses being part of the action in the field, and likes to keep people guessing why he’s interested in them. Nick admits she got two out of the three correct and that she’s better at this game than he is. He knows if she’s given a puzzle, she’ll obsess until she completes it.
Morgan finally makes it home and is still upset with Ava for following her to the meeting with Arthur. They argue over trust issues, and Ava calls her mom embarrassing. Episode five ends with someone (probably Arthur) dropping off Roman’s backpack at Morgan’s front door.
- High Potential Season 2 Episode 1 “Pawns” Recap
- High Potential Season 2 Episode 2 “Checkmate” Recap
- High Potential Season 2 Episode 3 “Eleven Minutes” Recap
- High Potential Season 2 Episode 4 “Behind the Music” Recap
- High Potential Season 2 Episode 7 “The One That Got Away” Recap
- High Potential Season 2 Episode 8 “The One That Got Away Part 2” Recap
- High Potential Season 2 Episode 9 “Under the Rug” Recap
- High Potential Season 2 Episode 10 “Grounded” Recap
