High Potential episode 5 opens in a vet hospital after hours. Ruben (Chase Yi), a vet tech, is listening to a voicemail from the Dr. Monica Davis (Rosslyn Luke) giving him instructions on how to care for the exotic animals they care for.
Ruben gives a lizard named Coach Romeo some medication but drops the lid as he tries to put it back on the cage. Romeo escapes. While crawling around on the floor with a flashlight trying to find Romeo, Ruben finds Dr. Monica, lying on the floor dead.
Who’s behind the death of Dr. Monica? Read our High Potential episode 5 recap to find out.
Morgan takes a shot at Karadec
The next morning when Karadec (Daniel Sunjata) and Morgan (Kaitlin Olson) arrive at the crime scene, Oz (Deniz Akdeniz) and Daphne (Javicia leslie) are already there. Dr. Monica’s hands have bloody welts on them and there are papers that say "MURDER" strewn on the floor by the body. Morgan looks around and notices a locked cage that should contain two poisonous dart frogs only contains one.
She yells at Karadec to stop as he is about to wash his hands at the nearby sink. He doesn’t listen. Morgan grabs a tranquilizer gun and shoots him. Karadec passes out immediately. But it’s a good thing she did, because the missing poisonous frog is dead inside the hand soap dispenser.
Dr. Monica died because she used soap that contained toxins from the tree frog. That’s why her hands were bloody. Morgan theorizes she used the voice activated printer to print out the paper saying “MURDER” because she was paralyzed by the toxins.
The suspects
Selena (Judy Reyes) calls and tells Daphne and Oz to stay at the scene while Morgan and Karadec go to speak with Bethany Reed (Kathleen Munroe), a friend of Dr. Monica’s who reported her missing. They go to the salon Bethany works at, where Morgan notices a pollinator garden in the front planter box.
Bethany reported Monica missing because she never showed up at Bethany’s son Gavin’s (Cary Christopher) karate tournament, which was unusual. When Bethany’s husband, Nathan (Lucas Kavner) brings Gavin to the salon, the young boy asks Bethany if “the man” hurt Monica. He had heard Monica arguing with a man at the vet clinic days prior. They take Gavin to the station, where to describe the man.
Selena meets with Monica’s parents (Ben Bode, Kerry O’Malley). They tell Selena they were estranged from Monica. Oz brings in the sketch of the man Gavin described, who Monica’s parents identify as Shane Seger (Adam Hagenbuch), Monica’s first boyfriend. He went to prison for armed robbery while he and Monica were dating. He was recently released after 12 years.
Karadec brings Shane in for questioning. He’s not cooperative, but he wasn’t the killer. He has an ankle bracelet that tracks his movements, so he has a solid alibi.
For Fernanda
Daphne starts looking into Monica’s clinic and finds a string of bad reviews, all written by one guy. She and Oz track down the reviewer, tattoo artist Asmodius (Angel Rosario, Jr.), who was angry with Monica because she told him his pet spider Fernanda was sick and needed to be destroyed.
He admitted trying to scare Monica by following her to her apartment but insists he didn’t kill her. However, the apartment that he followed her to wasn’t her apartment in Brentwood. He followed her to an apartment in Hollywood the detectives didn’t know about.
Back at the precinct, Karadec and Morgan recalls seeing a Hollywood address on a food delivery bag that was at the clinic. The apartment is a stash house. Monica was stealing some of the high-value exotic pets her clients brought in for care and selling them for huge amounts of cash. Karadec and Morgan find a pen with a realtor’s name on it, Ty Williams (Anthony Pierre Christopher).
Williams tells them that Monica was buying a house, one with a pollinator garden and apiaries for bees. Morgan remembers the pollinator garden she saw outside the salon and realizes Monica and Bethany were lovers. Monica was buying a house for Bethany and Gavin to share with her.
Karadec and Morgan go back to the salon, where Bethany confirms she and Monica were in love. Bethany was planning on leaving Nathan to move in with Monica. Bethany also reveals Nathan knew about the affair. Nathan becomes the prime suspect. After Oz confronts Nathan with a copy of a book about poisonous lizards found in his toolbox, Nathan confesses to killing Monica.
Morgan doesn’t buy it
Nathan’s confession doesn’t sit well with Morgan. She visits the market that Shane Seger robbed and remembers Monica’s dad knew details about the crime that weren’t in the police report. When Morgan tracks down Shane to ask him about the details she notices he has ear dimples, a hereditary trait that is very rare. Monica also had them, so does Gavin.
Morgan figures out that Gavin is actually Monica and Shane’s son. Bethany adopted him. Monica became Bethany’s friend, then lover, so she could get close to Gavin. Nathan took the fall because he figured out that Bethany killed Monica.
When Morgan and Karadec question Bethany she breaks down and confesses. When Shane was at the clinic he and Morgan talked about their child, which Gavin and Bethany overheard. Bethany knew then that Monica didn’t love her and was just trying to steal Gavin. So she killed Monica.
Oz and Daphne return Fernanda to a delighted Asmodius, and they all move on to the next case.
New episodes of High Potential air Tuesdays on ABC, then are available to stream on Hulu the next day.
