ABC’s High Potential season two, episode 10, opens with skydivers leaping out of a plane. They celebrate their landings, only to discover their instructor—Padilla—apparently lifeless as he comes in for a landing.
(The following is a recap of season two, episode nine, and there are spoilers.)
Morgan (Kaitlin Olson) confesses to being excited about trying to solve this unusual death. Detective Adam Karadec (Daniel Sunjata) warns her to curb her enthusiasm as Detective Lev ‘Oz’ Osdil (Deniz Akdeniz) and Detective Daphne Forrester (Javicia Leslie) report that Capt. Alonso Padilla teaches skydiving twice a week. Everyone liked him, but there’s a message in his jumpsuit that reads: “I know what you’re doing. Stop or die.”
Adam wonders why you’d threaten someone if you’re just going to kill them. Morgan notices the note wasn’t written today because there’s a halo around the letters. It’s a few days old, at the very least.
Adam and Morgan question Padilla’s students and learn he didn’t seem nervous about the jump. One of the men, Ethan, points out Tina, the owner of the skydiving company, and says she knew him best.
Tina acknowledges Padilla’s military experience was a big draw, but lately he didn’t want to talk about it. However, she didn’t notice anything suspicious before the jump.
Morgan finds a blank white key card in Padilla’s locker that doesn’t belong there.
Back at the station, Morgan’s the first to get the autopsy and reveals Padilla died from lack of oxygen. Which is strange since his helmet and mask were working perfectly. Morgan jokes that she’d work this case for free; it’s so strange.
Solomon (Jesse Bradford) from Internal Affairs learned how Morgan got the autopsy so quickly and that Morgan told the medical examiner to rush it. That led to a $12,000 bill for the rush job. As punishment, Morgan’s being sent to Detective Training Academy and will be off regular duties until she’s done. Unfortunately, she’s not allowed to work on the skydiving case until she passes.
Adam accompanies her to class and confesses he designed the course. He also warns her not to fight with anyone. Adam introduces her to the instructor, Sergeant Dottie Reynolds (Michael Hyatt), and Morgan suggests she just take the final exam. Request denied.
Captain Wagner (Steve Howey) is upset with Lt. Selena Soto (Judy Reyes) because he wasn’t informed that Morgan’s going to detective school. He also informs her he used his own resources to try and keep JAG away from the Padilla case. It’s obvious they’re not happy having to work with each other, and Soto feels he’s stepping on her case.
Wagner uses the fact he outranks her to insert himself in the case and accompanies Adam to Padilla’s house. Padilla’s home is tidy, with nothing out of place. They take his laptop with them.
Meanwhile, even though Morgan’s class is full she can’t help but be the one who speaks up. Morgan’s totally bored but her interest is piqued when Reynolds discusses the position of people’s feet indicates whether they’re being truthful or lying. Morgan suddenly realizes Ethan’s legs showed he was lying about Padilla.
She exits the class and calls Adam, telling him to question Ethan again. And she’s right. As they’re talking, Adam and Wagner hear a noise and catch Ethan trying to flee Padilla’s house. Wagner body slams him and he’s brought in for an interrogation.
Ethan’s an aerospace engineer and was seen arguing with Padilla a month earlier. They inform him he’s being charged with breaking and entering and resisting arrest, but murder is also a possibility. Ethan confesses that his brother Silas was a test pilot with PTSD who recently died in a car accident. Padilla was his therapist. Ethan believed Padilla failed Silas, and that’s why he confronted him. He claims he didn’t kill Padilla but won’t say why he went to his house.
Wagner and Soto argue over their next step, and Wagner overrides her orders and sends Oz and Daphne to Ethan’s place.
Arthur (Mekhi Phifer) calls Soto and asks how Morgan’s doing. He’s okay and escaped the guy who was tailing him. Since then, he’s been staying off the grid. He refuses protective custody and instead wants to go after the men who are trying to get to Roman’s backpack. Arthur’s sure these men know what happened to Roman and wants to handle this his own way.
Adam brings Morgan a Reuben sandwich and warns her not to call them again or she’ll get in trouble with IA. Before he leaves, he asks her to please behave.
Wagner and Adam visit Padilla’s office building and learn that he was acting different after Silas’ death. They’re told that Padilla felt guilty and was worried something was happening with all his patients. He demanded medical workups on his test pilot patients, which meant they were grounded until their evaluations were complete.
It turns out the key card they found matches Padilla’s office, which answers one mystery. They’re allowed into his office to look around and it’s just as tidy as his house. Adam notices a frame on the wall is thicker than it needs to be. He opens it up and there’s a board with details on his test pilot patients. There are notes under each name, but everyone realizes they need Morgan to put together the clues.
Wagner orders Adam to text Morgan a photo of the board, even though it could get her fired. Morgan receives the text while they’re outside learning about preserving crime scenes. Of course, she points out all the inconsistencies and Reynolds is impressed.
Morgan looks at her text as Reynolds continues teaching. She gets on a call with the team, and they fill her in on the background and what they know so far. Morgan immediately recognizes the silhouettes represent anxiety, fatigue, confusion, and headaches—symptoms of PTSD. The Post-it notes indicate different levels of symptoms. And the dates seem to indicate all his patients’ symptoms started and progressed around the same time.
The symptoms feel like PTSD but were something else. Investigating it is likely what got Padilla killed.
Morgan’s forced off the phone and probably in trouble. The team continues without her help, and they think their next step is informing the other test pilots that they’re in danger. But first Adam and Wagner speak with Ethan about Cadmus, a prototype plane that’s part of the Flagstone Defense Systems. They believe the symptoms were caused by Cadmus. Padilla must have realized something was wrong with the plane, and Ethan confesses he investigated it after Padilla told him what he thought. Ethan discovered there’s a problem with the oxygen system in the cockpit and it is giving the test pilots hypoxia.
Unfortunately, the other pilots are still flying the plane. Ethan hasn’t spoken up because he’s scared; it would cost billions to fix the life support system. He believes the lead engineer, Ramsay Pike, would have had the skill set and the motive for killing Padilla.
Ethan gave Padilla the proof on a flash drive and they were meeting at the skydiving class to talk. He also admits he knew about the death threat and went to Padilla’s place to find the files but couldn’t locate them.
Wagner and Adam confront Pike about the plane’s life support system that’s slowly suffocating the test pilots. He knew the pilots were showing PTSD symptoms but refuses to believe it’s because of his prototype plane. Pike also refuses to turn over his diagnostics and claims he was at work when Padilla died.
They need to get into Padilla’s computer but can’t because of a backlog in TID. Wagner texts Morgan, which could get her in trouble again, and tells her they need to access the laptop ASAP. Morgan raises her hand and suggests a field trip to TID to see them in action, since they’re so important and people take them for granted.
Reynolds agrees, giving Morgan an opportunity to sneak a look at Padilla’s computer. She calls Adam and he’s upset that she’s on the phone, against orders. Morgan was able to get Padilla’s password from Lyle in TID and learned there’s a document still in Padilla’s printer’s queue.
Wagner and Adam use Padilla’s keycard on the printer and get all the diagnostics on the plane. It proves Pike knew about the fatal flaw in the life support system.
Reynolds catches her on the phone again, and Morgan’s called in to meet with Solomon in IA. Dottie’s report labels Morgan a one-woman hurricane who’s difficult, disruptive, and chaotic. However, it goes on to say that Morgan connects with cases the way other detectives cannot. Dottie recommends they retain her services if she has close supervision. But Solomon isn’t taking that recommendation and is firing her!
The team confirms the evidence shows that Pike knew about everything. Unfortunately, this all came too late to save Ethan’s brother and Padilla. JAG has terminated Pike’s contract and is investigating.
They still can’t prove Pike killed Padilla, and Daphne wishes Morgan was there to help.
Later, Wagner tells Soto he’s not sorry he called Morgan and got her assistance. He did what he thought needed to be done. Soto lays into him, telling him he’s undercut her and taken over her cases. She more than earned the position of captain and should have told him this before.
“Morgan was on thin ice and instead of protecting her, you handed her a stone,” says Soto.
She demands that he treat her and her team with respect. Wagner says he understands but doesn’t apologize.
The team dives back into the case from the start. They’re shocked when Morgan joins them, certain it will all blow over. She thinks the paperwork to fire her could take weeks, but Oz points it will just take hours. They’re sorry it worked out this way, but there is no way to appeal IA’s decision.
Morgan is stunned into momentary silence. Tears in her eyes, she jokes that at least she lasted longer than anyone thought she would. Adam tries to take the blame, but Morgan disagrees. Morgan claims that technically she’s on the books until tomorrow, which means they can pull an all-nighter.
Soto privately informs Morgan she won’t stop working on Roman’s case.
Morgan spots a janitor and tells him not to use the knockoff cleaner, which leads to her figuring out what killed Padilla. Wagner, Adam, and Morgan confront Pike as his company’s packing up and shutting down. They’ve learned that Padilla was an ex-Special Recon and had high altitude gear. Morgan explains that Pike altered Padilla’s oxygen mask’s valve to block the release of carbon dioxide. Labs confirm his valve was made with a different material than his students’ masks. He died midair. His cause of death was an excess of carbon dioxide in his blood. And they have video of Pike breaking into the skydiving facility the night before Padilla’s murder.
Back at the station, Soto doesn’t apologize and instead hands Wagner a file with something she’s going to use against Solomon. Soto believes they need to protect their own, always, no matter what. Wagner gives her his support.
Soto confronts Solomon with what Morgan just accomplished, saving the lives of four servicemen. Solomon doesn’t care and won’t back down. So, she hands him the envelope of photos of him and the chief’s wife together.
Morgan’s at home alone, making a banana split when Soto shows up. Soto accepts a banana split and informs Morgan that she still has a job. Morgan’s shocked. She asks what Soto did, and Soto replies, “Nothing that you wouldn’t do for me.”
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- High Potential Season 2 Episode 4 “Behind the Music” Recap
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- High Potential Season 2 Episode 7 “The One That Got Away, Part 1” Recap
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