TV Recap: High Potential — "Turn Up the Heat" Burns Bright
A delivery robot becomes an unlikely witness to tragedy. A building concealing a deadly secret sits at the center of a conspiracy years in the making. And as the team closes in on answers, the ground beneath their closest relationships begins to shift. Here is a recap of this week's episode of High Potential.
Season 2, Episode 16: “Turn Up the Heat” – Written by Bob Goodman & Katie McElhenney
A Snacky_Bara delivery robot makes its rounds through the city until a woman on the street notices something wrong, blood on its wheels. She follows the trail to the side of a building, where she finds a young man’s body hanging off a ledge. He fell from somewhere above.
Selena Soto (Judy Reyes), Adam Karadec (Daniel Sunjata), Daphne (Javicia Leslie), and Oz (Dennis Akdeniz) convene in Soto’s office for a case update. Willa Quinn (Jennifer Jason Leigh) attempted to visit Eric Hayworth and was turned away. Soto wants Hayworth in protective custody, concerned Willa is trying to silence him. Wagner (Steve Howey) has already arranged surveillance on her hotel. The call about the body interrupts.
Morgan Gillory (Kaitlin Olson) meets Karadec at the scene. The building, an unfinished architectural landmark called EnCase, is striking. The victim is Tyler Villanueva, 24, with a vandalism record. He was tagging the building when he was struck in the head before falling.
Inside, the team finds Tyler’s graffiti covering the walls, spray cans on the tables, and blood drops on the floor marking where the confrontation began. Morgan notes the building is strangely hot. The head wound came from a cylindrical object heavier than a spray can. Based on the blood trail, Tyler was struck, ran disoriented, hit the ledge, and went over. Morgan examines the last piece he was working on, a tag that reads “Defunct.” She recalls a conversation with Roman about the tagger’s code: Tyler was “ragging,” painting over someone else’s work. Forensics is brought in to process the area.
Back at the office, Oz briefs Soto on Defunct, who has a presumed rival with a grudge. Soto pulls the graffiti binder she has access to. The meeting is cut short when Willa Quinn appears in the doorway. “Catch you at a bad time?”
Willa is placed in interrogation. Morgan wants to go in, but Karadec holds her back. Morgan has already reviewed the tagger binders, no match to the killer’s work. She’s already called in someone who can help. Soto steps out and sees Morgan’s frustration over Willa’s presence. “I have a plan, trust me,” she says.
Soto enters the interrogation room. Willa claims she came to clear her name and offers to help with the Roman case in exchange for proof of her innocence. Soto says she has coded messages from the Blackberry in Roman’s backpack that match the night and time he disappeared. Soto believes Hayworth will cooperate to help decode them. “I think you’re scared that we’ll get to him first and you won’t be able to make sure that he’s gone forever,” Soto explains. Willa turns cold. “Do tell me how that all goes for you,” she says, and leaves. Soto is certain: if Willa is scared, Hayworth is the key.
Morgan and Karadec review the messages together. She doesn’t understand them, and he encourages her. A text arrives for Karadec, Lucia (Susan Kelechi Watson) has secured a house in Lafayette Park. They have dinner plans to celebrate. Morgan jokes that Lucia is angling for a roommate. Karadec reveals they’ve actually talked about him moving in. Morgan is surprised. A knock at the door: Nicole Heisler (June Carryl) enters and hugs Morgan warmly. They haven’t seen each other since Morgan was pregnant with Ava.
Nicole is a professor of urban art who used to tag under the name “Michelangelo.” She identifies Defunct’s work and, examining the piece that was painted over, zeroes in on the style: flares and drip marks unique to a tagger called Psyclops. Half the pieces on the evidence board have been painted over by him, and he and Defunct had a known rivalry. Nicole doesn’t know his real name, but Morgan notices the paint cans are all from the same store, and dented along the seam, meaning they weren’t eligible for sale, so Psyclops likely works there.
At a hotel lobby, Wagner meets his father (Clancy Brown), who is running for senate and putting together a city council corruption panel to make himself attractive to voters. He’s heard about Morgan Gillory and thinks she’d be an asset. He asks Wagner to offer her the opportunity. WAagner is reluctant, but feels pressured to do it for his dad.
Daphne and Oz head to the paint store, where they find an employee dancing outside in a hammer costume. When Oz asks about Psyclops, the man bolts. They give chase through the streets until he ducks into an alley and hides — badly — behind a dumpster. He’s brought in on suspicion of Defunct’s murder. But he has information: the two of them had called a truce. They were being paid to tag the EnCase building together.
Back at LAPD, Karadec and Oz interview Psyclops, whose real name is Anton (Tim Johnson Jr.). He was paid in crypto for the job and insists he and Defunct were on good terms. His alibi, a traffic stop on his way to work, checks out.
Morgan watches through the glass when Wagner arrives. She asks why he smells like an ashtray. “I had lunch with command.” He pivots: the building’s owners are a Hong Kong consortium that ran out of funding. Why would anyone pay taggers to hit it? Morgan looks up the architect. She also turns down Wagner’s offer of a position on the anti-corruption panel outright, she thinks he’s trying to push her out, and she likes this job. The architect: Gerald Lee (Alex Quijano), made a social post about EnCase being “an inseparable part of my soul.”
Morgan and Karadec meet with Gerald. He feels guilty that his first instinct was concern for the building rather than the victim. He explains that the external beams are structural, they support everything inside. He says he hadn’t known about the tagging, and adds that it may have done a strange favor by droppong the building’s value, triggering a private sale. When Morgan notices he’s holding something back about the buyers, Karadec reminds him that withholding information could make him an accessory.
Gerald leads them to Sandi Latmore’s (Janie Haddad Tompkins) house, where a garage door reveals a blue snake tag by Defunct. Her husband, Brad (Diedrich Bader), emerges. He’s head of acquisitions at Rabner-Hughes, the firm that just purchased EnCase. He admits to orchestrating the tagging scheme to drive down the building’s price, money he pulled from their daughter’s college fund. He made the first payment to Defunct and Psyclops in advance, but tried to cheat them out of the second one. Defunct came by and tagged his garage, triggering him to pay both artists the rest of the fee. Brad’s motive for murder weakens if Defunct was already paid off.
Morgan and Karadec return to EnCase to take another look. The heat inside the building is even more noticeable now. New graffiti — a skul l— marks a wall. Someone has built a fort from pallets. Behind it: an active propane torch, multiple tanks, and a latex glove filled with gasoline rigged above the flame. If it spills, the building goes up. Karadec orders Morgan out and begins dismantling the pallets to cut off the fuel source.
From outside, Morgan watches the explosion. Karadec comes running out, bloodied on the back of his head, and starts to collapse as he calls 9-1-1. Morgan stays with him as the paramedics arrive.
At the hospital, Karadec wakes with a bandage around his head. Lucia arrives. He tells her she looks incredible and apologizes for missing their dinner. She says she’s just glad he’s okay. Then she hears Morgan in the hallway arguing with a nurse about the food they’re bringing him, insisting he needs protein. Lucia steps in. Morgan has brought him a plush gallbladder from the gift shop and a chocolate chip cookie with the chips removed, the way he likes it. Lucia asks why not just a sugar cookie. Morgan and Karadec answer simultaneously: “That’s not the same thing.” The building survived the blast, just some cracked concrete. Karadec is in pain as Lucia tends to him, and Morgan watches from nearby.
Morgan brings Lucia a drink in the hallway and asks if she’s okay. Lucia admits she had a moment of panic at the restaurant, remembering how Karadec used to forget their plans for cases. Morgan tells her that didn’t happen this time. Lucia agrees, and says Morgan is part of the reason he’s changed. “You’re a really good friend,” she tells her. Lucia goes back in. Morgan stays in the hallway, and something unspoken passes across her face.
Back at the case board, Morgan updates the team. Karadec will be kept for a few days’ observation. The arsonist and the killer are almost certainly the same person, the propane tanks match the type of object used on Tyler. The theory is that Tyler stumbled on the arsonist at work, was killed, and the arsonist left and returned later to finish setting the trap. Prints and DNA are being assessed. Morgan gets a text from Wagner offering help. Soto asks her to bring him in to requestion Brad Latmore and sends Daphne and Oz back to the architect.
In Wagner’s car, Morgan brings up the job offer, saying she might be interested. He sighs, and tells her not to take it. He explains that his father wants to use her to make himself look good politically. “I’m sorry, Morgan,” he says. She tells him she already figured it out. She wasn’t interested in the job, she wanted to see if he’d be honest. He was. She thanks him.
Brad invites Wagner and Morgan inside. Morgan spots a detailed architectural model of EnCase with a rail line running past it. The rail line addition would have driven property values up dramatically. But the model is wrong — the building is rotated 90 degrees. Brad says the original clients made that change at the last minute. Morgan connects it to what Gerald said: the external beams carry the structural load. She shines a lamp through the model’s window and realizes what that rotation means — the glass-heavy side of the building now faces the direction that receives the most sun. The side that was supposed to be mostly concrete.
From his hospital bed, Karadec calls Soto for an update. Morgan’s theory: the building’s seismic isolators, designed to flex during an earthquake, lose their flexibility when they overheat. If the sun bakes that glass-heavy side long enough, any earthquake above a 5.0 will bring the whole structure down. The fire was staged to damage the concrete on that one side and accelerate the process, then be blamed on the taggers. Gerald Lee, the architect, has everything to lose if EnCase fails. His career is built on it. Oz hasn’t been able to locate him. But Daphne finds his last credit card purchase: a sleeping bag and a lantern. No food. He’s hiding somewhere nearby.
In Gerald’s office, Morgan, Daphne, and Oz search for clues while Oz works to crack the laptop. Morgan finds a cement brick on the desk — bendable concrete, which Gerald used on a previous project. She realizes it’s a miniature, and remembers: the first time he used that material, it was to build an underground bunker. A rectangle on the top of the model is a door. She knows where he’s hiding.
Gerald is brought in. Morgan explains that he designed the bunker himself, and that’s where they found him. The arson and Tyler’s death trace back to his desperation to cover up the catastrophic flaw in his highest-profile project.
Nicole returns to the precinct, this time to say thank you for catching Defunct’s killer. She also brings something for Morgan to pass along to Ava, a Frida Kahlo book that Roman once gave her, the one that first inspired her as an artist. “I thought it might inspire his daughter, too.” Morgan says Ava would love to meet her. After Nicole leaves, Morgan tucks the book away carefully.
Soto’s phone buzzes. It’s Willa Quinn. She’s heard that the FBI took Hayworth into federal custody, apparently tipped off that he had information on an old murder. Soto stays composed. Willa has managed to move Hayworth somewhere out of reach. For now.
At an upscale private club, Willa pours herself a glass of expensive whisky and meets with Wagner’s father. He tells her Morgan is staying at major crimes, the approach didn’t work. Willa’s tone is cold and direct. “Do I have to remind you that we’re in this together? I know where all your bodies are buried. If I go down, you’re going with me.”
And back at the hospital, Karadec has ordered dinner from Arlo’s, the restaurant where he and Lucia were supposed to have their date. They toast with cafeteria yogurts. “I love you, Lucia.” She takes his hand and says it back.
Next Episode: “Second Sunday” - Airing Tuesday, March 31st, at 9/8c on ABC.
Songs Featured in This Episode:
- “HOT TO GO!” by Chappell Roan
- “On My Knees” by Rüfus Du Sol