Jocko Sims guest stars in High Potential season 1, episode 12. It’s time to break down the events of the episode.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for High Potential season 1, episode 12.
After a classic murder mystery style of episode, we get a little more backstory for Karadec. It’s time to step away from the personal backstory and focus on the professional one. Jocko Sims guest stars as Special Agent Ronnie Oliver, an FBI agent who used to be Karadec’s partner at the LAPD.
Naturally, Ronnie views Morgan as a pet project in the way Karadec once did; something that Karadec even admits to Soto. It means Karadec has to prove Morgan is his secret weapon.
The FBI and LAPD fight for the case in High Potential season 1, episode 12
The episode starts with the murder of a tech giant. Somehow, someone slipped poison into something the tech giant consumed despite having paid bodyguards.
This pulls the FBI into the case. You see, the tech giant had been outside of the LAPD jurisdiction, and had the murder happened outside of the LAPD jurisdiction, it means that it’s the FBI’s case. Of course, that means tension, but not because of the normal reasons. Karadec and Ronnie used to be partners, and it’s clear that something big happened between them.
We do eventually find out that Ronnie and Karadec were the best detectives in the precinct. Some evidence was incorrectly logged on a case, and it looked like Karadec and Ronnie were on the take because the evidence was money. Ronnie jumped ship, and Karadec had to clear their names.
Morgan proves her worth in High Potential
In the previous episode, Morgan had to prove her worth to the captain. In this episode, she proves her worth to the FBI. Karadec knows that Ronnie doesn’t view Morgan as the amazing consultant that she is. The FBI profiler isn’t happy that Morgan disagreed with her, and Ronnie doesn’t think that she’s needed and just wants the case. So, when Karadec makes a bet, Ronnie can’t say no.
If Morgan can find clues to the case, the FBI gets the case in full. If Morgan does what she does best, Karadec and Morgan get to help in full. Of course, we all know that Morgan will see something, and her idea that the suspect is a recluse and hates tech is spot on. Did we doubt her? Not at all.
There’s a turn in the case when Morgan finds the suspect, but he ends up attempting to run from the cops and dies accidentally. Morgan and Karadec need to go through his apartment so they can find out who this guy worked with to slip the poison to the tech billionaire. After all, the recluse only went out once a week to his daughter’s grave, so he wouldn’t be near the man he blamed for his daughter’s death.
It's all about the meeting that the tech billionaire had. Someone he had a meeting with had to be working with the dad. When that proves to be untrue, Morgan is able to work her magic to get to the bottom of it all. If you noticed she looked at the books covered in plastic a little longer than anything else, you would know these books would end up coming up later in the episode.
Morgan notes that one of the books was written by Louisa May Alcott. Her most famous quote is “it takes two flints to make a flame.” Morgan realizes that one of the bodyguards had a flint keychain. Was it possible that the daughter and the bodyguard were together? When the daughter killed herself, the bodyguard worked with the recluse to kill the billionaire?
Sure enough the clue was everything they needed. The bodyguard had held the private jet pilot at gunpoint to get out of dodge. However, one of the hackers the LAPD initially thought was involved in the murder is able to hack into the plane’s systems to shut it all down. It’s justice for the tech billionaire, although with how much the tech billionaire didn’t care about people, you do have to wonder if it was justice.
The good thing to come out of the murder is that the victim’s mother decides that all her sons platforms needed regulation. It’s time to bring in some protection so that nobody else is bullied like the daughter leading to suicide.
There’s also closure for Ronnie and Karadec. Ronnie is so grateful that he is willing to put in a word with the Special Agent in Charge at the FBI. Karadec decided immediately that he didn’t want to take the job. He has a new partner now: Morgan. It shows us how far this partnership has come.
Ludo gets overwhelmed with parenting duties
While Morgan worked the case, Ludo was left with parenting duties. He got way too overwhelmed, realizing just how difficult it is to be a parent. Honestly, I’m surprised it took this long to happen, as I thought this would happen earlier in the series.
However, it wasn’t real overwhelm over parenting. He just forgot to look after himself, and that’s something we can all do whether parenting or just in life in general. Ludo forgot to drink and eat enough, so he ended up collapsing.
It’s a chance for everyone to appreciate each other. Morgan was starting to take Ludo for granted. Just talking to each other and admitting when we need help is important.
This was also a chance for Morgan to give Elliot a letter to help deal with the way his brain works. After seeing his dad collapse, he panicked and got sad. Morgan made it clear that he needed to focus on the good. I think this is something we can all learn from. Of course, we need to accept the bad and deal with it, but we can’t ruminate on it.
High Potential airs on Tuesdays at 9/8c on ABC. Catch up the following day on Hulu.
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