Sumith Prasad
The tenth episode of ABC’s crime drama series ‘High Potential,’ titled ‘Chutes and Murders,’ revolves around the murder of Tara Foley, a young woman who is found dead inside a chute in a public park. Morgan Gillory and Adam Karadec join hands together again to solve the case, which leads them to multiple suspects and unexpected twists and turns within the investigation. The protagonist’s skills and intelligence help her connect several observations that are invisible to her colleagues, who need Christian history lessons to make sense of the case. Morgan sets out to unravel the mystery behind Tara’s killer while caring for her son, Elliot Radovic! SPOILERS AHEAD.
Morgan and Karadec Move From One Suspect to the Next
‘Chutes and Murders’ begins with two kids discovering the dead body of Tara Foley, a young woman who had been working as a nanny. After arriving at the crime scene, Morgan checks the victim’s mobile phone and comes across an angry message from one of her clients. During the preliminary investigation, the officers also learn that Tara had a stalker who frequently followed her before her death. Morgan and Karadec talk to the nanny’s clients, who only have good things to say about her. During the interaction, the officers are informed that a woman named Carina Wilson has targeted the victim through several Facebook posts.
Morgan and Karadec discuss the posts with Carina, who denies writing the ones that targeted Tara. The duo then tries to find the stalker, who happens to be Charles “Chuck” Lavoie (Ken Marino), a private investigator who is known for his unremarkable stint as an LAPD officer. From him, the detective and the consultant learn that one of the nanny’s clients hired the PI to ensure his son’s safety. Lev “Oz” Ozdil goes through the photographs Chuck has taken of Tara and comes across one that strikes him. The particular photograph features Carina’s husband, who appears close to the victim. In another one, he is featured with a baseball bat, which resembles the possible murder weapon used in the case.
Morgan and Karadec go through Tara’s belongings in her apartment to find leads. The search reveals that the victim was a highly pious Catholic with the Exaltation of the Holy Cross marked on a calendar. From the place, they come across the poster of a poetry reading gathering, where they meet Bryan Scholtzky, who is obsessed with Tara. He reveals to Morgan and Karadec that the murderer they are looking for is none other than Carina’s husband. However, he has an airtight alibi, and his supposed murder weapon—the baseball bat—is actually a toy that cannot cause any harm.
Morgan Juggles Between Her Roles as a Mother and LAPD Consultant
Morgan investigates Tara’s murder while also looking after her son, Elliot. He immerses himself in gloom after one of his classmates does not invite him for the latter’s birthday. When she learns about it, she hosts a playdate for the two young boys, only for Elliot to get humiliated by his classmate. After witnessing the other boy’s behavior towards her child, she asks him to leave. The incident only worsens his mood, and he becomes completely cheerless. Since Ava is obsessed with texting her boyfriend, the young boy can’t even expect his big sister to comfort him.
The investigation into Tara’s murder comes to a standstill when leads don’t result in major breakthroughs. That’s when Morgan and others start noticing other people who are ever-present in the same park daily in Chuck’s photographs. These individuals are mainly other nannies who work in the neighborhood. Morgan and Karadec talk to them about Tara, only to learn that she might have survived the fatal attack if she had joined the gang for a gathering they had the night she was killed. The nannies also reveal that the victim was not really cooperative or collaborative, which discloses the distance between her and them.
When Morgan and Karadec ask the nannies about Carina’s husband, they reveal that she had a fight with the man when he was spending time with the late nanny. The duo approaches the same as the motive behind the crime and rushes to the woman’s workplace to arrest her. Carina once again claims that she hasn’t posted anything targeting her. She further adds that the only post she wrote concerned Tara’s predecessor, who was fired from her job after a baby under her care nearly ran into the traffic from a library. When Morgan learns that the library is the venue of a storytelling session for kids, the consultant becomes convinced that Carina is not the murderer.
Morgan Solves Tara’s Murder After Connecting Several Dots
When Carina mentions the storytelling session at the library, Morgan quickly proclaims that the former is innocent and that the real killer is Oksana Petrov, one of the nannies she just talked to with Karadec. The consultant previously noticed that the Facebook posts targeting Tara were posted during the storytelling session, a period when the nannies’ respective kids were engaged. With this in mind, she recollects the date marked in the victim’s calendar as the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Even though Tara is a Catholic, the date marked on the calendar is celebrated by the Orthodox sects within Christianity.
Morgan has also noticed two other things: Oksana making the sign of the cross in the Orthodox way and the names of days spelled without a capital letter in Carina’s Facebook posts like Russians do. The consultant connects these two observations to realize that Oksana is involved in the crime. Morgan infers the motive behind the murder with the help of two more observations. She has seen the lunch boxes of the nannies’ kids with the stickers featuring the English girl group Spice Girls. A similar one was used by Tara’s predecessor, which sheds light on the motive.
Tara replaced one of the friends of the nanny group, which was why they made baseless accusations against the former. The victim knew about it and even threatened to report Oksana to the emigration department if the latter wouldn’t stop harassing her, explaining the young woman’s communications with a law firm. When Oksana realized that Tara knew her secret, she impulsively picked up a big stone and smashed the latter’s head to eliminate a threat. The young woman then hid in the chute and died without receiving any help. In other words, Oksana killed her because of her fear that Tara would report her undocumented status and pave the way for her deportation to Russia.
Oksana’s friends and colleagues initially try to protect her by corroborating her fake alibi. However, they reveal the truth when Karadec bluffs that there are nanny cams in their clients’ houses to confirm whether they had a party the same night the victim was killed with Oksana present. Along with the murder, another predicament also gets resolved at the end of the episode. After seeing Elliot all gloomy, Ava keeps her phone away and plays with him, making her brother and mother immensely happy.
Read More: High Potential: Is the ABC Show Inspired By a True Story?
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