High Potential episode 6’s case begins with young office assistant Sam Wozniak (Alison Jaye) waking up to her phone ringing. She’s huddled on a couch, groggy and wearing last night’s clothes and makeup. Sam realizes she’s at work, the office is a mess and her boss Elaine Barton (Katie Ryan) is dead on the floor behind her desk. Elaine was stabbed with one of her own trophies.
Karadec (Daniel Sunjata) and Morgan (Kaitlin Olson) arrive to investigate. Office security head Denise (Nicole Chanel Williams) walks them through the remains of a lavish party that happened the night before on their way to Elaine’s office. A video screen plays a video of Elaine talking about the new product, the KanAIRy: a homeopathic device for children. Oz (Deniz Akdeniz) and Daphne (Javicia Leslie) are already there, processing the scene.
Morgan and Karadec question Sam in the office conference room. Sam says Elaine was a visionary, but Morgan can tell Sam’s smile when she’s talking about Elaine is insincere. Sam admits Elaine wasn’t an easy boss to work for, and Elaine became paranoid as they got closer to the KanAIRy launch.
Morgan starts looking around the office and through Sam’s things to see if they can piece together what happened. Karadec is already sure Sam killed Elaine, but Morgan isn’t convinced.
Karadec brings Sam to the station for more questioning. Morgan, watching the interrogation with Selena (Judy Reyes), seems to really see herself in Sam. She desperately wants to prove Sam isn’t the killer. Daphne and Oz bring in the other party guests to establish a timeline while Morgan and Karadec go to tell Eric Barton (Derek Richardson) about his wife’s death.
Morgan wants Eric to be a suspect so they can clear Sam, but Eric tells them he left the party around 10. He is upset, not acting suspicious and asking how Elaine was killed. Eric also tells them that Elaine had some enemies.
Thanks Kelly Clarkson
Back at the police station, Morgan is approached by Tom (JD Pardo), a member of the janitorial staff. They have a brief flirtation before he goes back to work.
The party guests come in for questioning. First up is Nina (Lynn Chen), Elaine’s former assistant. Nina was happy for Elaine and said she left the party around 9.30. Morgan watches the questioning for all of the other guests.
She figures out that the time of death was around 11 based on the order of the karaoke songs that were being sung. She theorizes that Elaine was killed during a group of people singing Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” because it was loud enough to cover the sound of the struggle and the murder.
It doesn’t look good for Sam
Taking a break, Morgan sees Sam in the hallway and gives her some advice: check all the places women put stuff when they don’t have pockets. Sam finds a photo strip from a photo booth in her dress. The photos of her, with smeared lipstick on her face, holding up photos of Elaine with devil horns drawn on it in lipstick.
Morgan recognizes the lipstick. It’s security officer Denise’s. Under questioning she admits that after signing in all the party guests she left her desk to join the party. She and Sam made out a little and had some fun with the photos. Denise admits she saw a woman who wasn’t authorized leaving the party after 10. The woman had a small device on her arm, which Morgan knew to be an insulin pump. Denise identifies the woman as the one in a promo photo for KanAIRy, Carmen Jimenez (Natasha Elias).
Questioning Carmen at home with her husband, Morgan notices an unemployment check and furniture that doesn’t really fit the house. Eventually, Carmen admits the family had just moved into the house, paid for with payouts from Elaine Barton. The KanAIRy was giving off “forever” chemicals and ended up damaging Nico Jiminez’ health permanently. Carmen admits to being in Elaine’s office and arguing with her that night, but says she didn’t kill her. But Carmen reveals she ran into Sam in the bathroom when she was leaving, and Sam was very upset with Elaine after Carmen told her everything that happened.
Morgan sits down in the squad room with a laptop and watches a video of Elaine talking about how she created the KanAIRy when her niece had a panic attack. But Morgan knows there were no photos of a niece anywhere in Elaine’s home or office. Tom comes in, wanting to clean up the mess Morgan has made before he leaves for the day to go to his night classes.
As Morgan talks to him she realizes that Elaine’s story was really her assistant Nina’s story. Nina created the prototype of the KanAIRy when her daughter had a panic attack. They bring Nina back in for questioning, who admits Elaine bought the story and rights from her. But it also comes out that Nina and Eric were having an affair. Eric and Nina were together at the time of the murder.
Morgan was right
Sam is booked as the murderer. As Morgan dismantles the case board, she remembers Sam saying that Elaine became paranoid. Morgan notices a mirror above Elaine’s desk in a photo.
They go to Elaine’s office and find a hidden camera in the mirror. The video from the camera shows what happened that night. Sam came in to quit and was going to reveal to everyone the KanAIRy was toxic. Elaine attacked Sam, and during the fight Sam hit her head and passed out. Elaine fell on her trophy, so her death was accidental. Morgan was right after all.
