High Potential episode 12 recap: Karadec’s past resurfaces

High Potential episode 12 opens on a private plane, where tech bro Anson Pierce (Kyle Harris) comforts his dog during some turbulence. The plane lands safely, but a Anson crosses the tarmac he collapses and starts foaming at the mouth. His security team tries to save him, but he dies.

The LAPD team assembles at the tarmac where medical examiner (Diandra Lyle) says the cause of death is likely poison, but she can’t say for sure until a toxicology screen is complete. Oz (Deniz Akdeniz) and Daphne (Javicia Leslie) check out the plane while Morgan (Kaitlin Olson) and Karadec (Daniel Sunjata) learn more about the victim.

Anson Pierce founded an app that allows users to turn videos they already have into anything they want, which is controversial and dangerous. While Morgan and Karadec are talking some black SUVs roll up with lights and sirens blaring. Out steps FBI. Agent Ronnie Oliver (Jocko Sims), who just happens to be Karadec’s former LAPD partner. They bicker about jurisdiction for the case, but Morgan is more interested in the burst blood vessels and marks on Pierce’s neck and wrists, which look suspicious.

The victim

In the bullpen at the LAPD, the team creates a case board, focused on Anson and who wanted him dead. Turns out, a lot of people did. His app was the focus of protests and attempted government regulations, but nothing ever stuck.

Oliver walks into the bullpen and greets Selena (Judy Reyes). He tells the team he is there to wait for the medical examiner’s findings and to sit in while Karadec questions Pierce’s family and any witnesses, like his security team.

Among the three security guards is a former SWAT member, Parker (Marshall Cook). Karadec notices Parker’s large keychain and comments on Parker still carrying his SWAT handcuff key. Parker says he carries it for luck. There are a lot of things on the keychain, including a flint. The security team doesn’t know what happened to Pierce, they say.

The first lead

Going through the evidence, Morgan finds a flash drive that was in Pierce’s jacket. When Leslie plugs the drive into her computer, all the computers in the building go down. It’s loaded with malware.

The FBI finds CCTV of someone slipping the flash drive into Pierce’s pocket at the airport. They identify him as Simon Keating (Matt Linton) and bring him in for questioning. But Simon isn’t the killer, he was trying to get Pierce’s attention because he wanted to work with Pierce.

The detectives and Oliver reconvene at the LAPD. After more insults and bickering, Karadec tells Oliver to show them all the FBI’s info , saying f they can’t solve it they will hand the case over to the FBI. He agrees, and Morgan and Karadec go back to the FBI field office with Oliver.

Another suspect

Morgan spends hours looking through suspects, photos and other information at the FBI office. She gets overwhelmed and frustrated. Oliver thinks she’s a hack. Karadec helps her work out her gut feeling.

She settles on Kenneth Sutton (Frank Krueger). He was a medical toxicologist for a decade, but quit and went off grid when his daughter killed herself because of a fake video made of her that was created with Pierce’s app. But the FBI’s file on Sutton included surveillance photos of him going to the cemetery every Wednesday to put flowers on his daughter’s grave, but other than that he never left his apartment.

Frustrated, Morgan goes back to the photos. She notices in one photo Sutton is wearing gloves when he puts the flowers on his daughter’s grave. But he didn’t wear gloves any other time. So, she thinks the poison was in the flowers.

Karadec and Morgan go to Sutton’s apartment. But when they approach him, he runs. He tries to escape by jumping over a stair railing, but he falls and breaks his neck.

The real story

Back at the FBI office, Karadec tells Morgan that years ago someone in the LAPD set up Oliver and Karadec to make them look like dirty cops. Oliver jumped ship and went to the FBI, leaving Karadec to clear both their names. That’s why they have bad blood now.

Morgan and Karadec try again to connect Sutton to any of their other suspects, but they can’t figure out who was working with Sutton to poison Pierce. They go over the photos from Sutton’s apartment again and something clicks for Morgan.

One of the books on Sutton’s shelf is Little Women, carefully wrapped in plastic. Morgan realizes the book belonged to Sutton’s daughter, which is why he kept it so carefully. She remembers a quote in the book about needing two flints to make a fire. Parker, Pierce’s security guard, had a flint on his keychain.

Parker was Sutton’s daughter’s boyfriend, so he got himself on Pierce’s security team to get close to him. But how did he poison Pierce? Morgan remembers seeing a leash in Sutton’s apartment even though he had no dog. She realizes Sutton poisoned a dog collar and hid it in the flowers he left on his daughter’s grave. Parker picked up the collar out of the flowers and put it on Pierce’s dog. When Pierce comforted his dog during the turbulence on the plane, the poison got onto his skin and killed him.

Oliver, Karadec and Morgan rush to the airport to arrest Parker before he can take Pierce’s plane and escape. After he is arrested Oliver apologizes to Karadec and offers him a job at the FBI. Karadec refuses, sticking with the LAPD.

New episodes of High Potential air Tuesdays on ABC. Stream them the next day on Hulu.