Pilot – The pilot begins with Morgan Gilroy (Kaitlin Olson) arriving for her night cleaning shift at the Los Angeles Police Department. She’ll turn the task into a fun little dance recital until she accidentally knocks over a pile of evidence. While cleaning it up, she’ll note several key facts that indicate the police have incorrectly identified the victim as the suspect. She’ll take it upon herself to point out the mistake, but Detective Adam Karadec (Daniel Sunjata) doesn’t take the assist very kindly the following morning.

Morgan and Henry (Tom Butler) are still putting away her groceries when Karadec and Lev ‘Oz’ Osman (Deniz Akdeniz) show up to drag her down to the station. It’s merely minutes later that she’s pleading her case in Lieutenant Selena’s (Judy Reyes) office. Although Karadec is ready to lock her up, Selena is curious why Morgan thinks they’ve made a mistake. She’ll spend several minutes pointing out the evidence that indicates a third person was involved, which is shortly confirmed by the arrival of Oz and Daphne (Javicia Leslie). Despite this, Karadec still has her held in lockup until they confirm everything.

While Morgan stews in lockup, the authorities will identify the third person as Lisha Zhang (Mya Lowe), an irate civilian who did take too kindly losing a civil lawsuit to Lynette Acosta (Kate Craven). Lisha’s interrogation will reveal she was suing Brian Dimon (Sebastien Roberts) at Spatial Technologies for harassment. Despite Brian’s harassment, Lisha seemed to have more of a beef with Lynette for successfully defending him in court than she did with Brian. Although Karadec has video proof of Lisha being at the Acosta house yesterday, she claims she wasn’t there. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have an alibi to corroborate the claim.

Morgan’s obsessive disorder and colossal collection of useless knowledge come in handy once again when she’s signing her release papers. She’ll notice that the time stamp on the video of Lisha at the Acosta house doesn’t match up with the way the winds blowing. It will be Selena who, once again, advocates for listening to Morgan’s explanation.

Ex-husband, Ludo Radovic (Taran Killam), is waiting for Morgan in the parking lot but they’ll never make it to the car thanks to a verbal dispute that turns physical when a pompous Patrol Cop (Dustin Lloyd) intervenes. While locked up together, Morgan and Lubo’s discussion suggests that Henry and Ludo were having an affair.

Karadec learns from Letty Acosta (Maia Jae Bastidas) that Lynette was recently struggling with a colleague’s suicide. Apparently, several months back, a coworker named Sarah had sent Lynette a letter before killing herself. Along with the contents, the location of that letter is unknown, but Letty suspects it would be at her law offices. Unfortunately, Selena and Karadec learn that getting a search warrant for a defense attorney’s office is nearly impossible. Karadec’s mood certainly isn’t improved when Selena orders him to take Morgan with him to the offices.

Morgan will spend a few minutes with Letty outside the station before Selena approaches her for help. Along with Oz, Karadec and Morgan will escort Letty to Sofia Bellier’s (Sarah Smyth) apartment. Karadec will spend several painstaking minutes counseling Morgan on proper etiquette and procedure but that goes out the window seconds into the encounter. Sofia will claim to know nothing about the letter or the colleague and Morgan doesn’t bother hiding her disbelief. Their dispute will later lead to a bigger dispute between Morgan and Karadec that ends with Morgan walking away.

Karadec will appeal to the head of Lynette’s firm, Emery Walker (Rob LaBelle), to search the offices. He only agrees to the search with a warrant but this turns out to be uneeded. Karadec isn’t happy when Morgan tells him how she’s come about the letter. The letter ultimately reveals that Sarah Atkinson not only worked on the Dimon.

Although Morgan blows up and orders Morgan to put the letter back, he does admit their next best move is to bring Brian in for questioning. This time, Morgan is confined to the viewing room with Oz. Thanks to a phone call from Daphne they will learn that Brian was supposedly in Fontana on the day of the murder. Despite Morgan claiming that a man like Brian wouldn’t be caught dead in Fontana, she expresses urgency for Karadec to ask him why he was there. Before that can happen, an irate Emery will show up to pull Brain out of the interrogation. It turns out that Morgan was spotted trying to return the letter. This will eventually lead to Karadec ordering Morgan to return to her life which is exactly what she does.

Morgan will confront Ava (Amirah J) later that evening when she notices her depressed mood over dinner. Their discussion will reveal that Ludo isn’t Ava’s father and unlike her younger sibling, Ava didn’t get any of Morgan’s quirky genetics. Morgan claims that Ava’s father would be there if he could but nothing more is revealed about him at the moment.

Much to Morgan’s surprise, Karadec shows up the following morning to ask why she was so interested in Brian being in Fontana. Morgan will explain how all of Sofie’s ceramics were dusty, except for the one from Fontana, indicating that she was recently there. When Karadec reminds her of Sofie and Brian’s alibis, Morgan remembers seeing Ranunculus flowers in the background of one of the pictures Letty showed her at the station. After calling Henry over and learning that Ranunculus flowers begin to wilt 4 days after being delivered, the group will begin their mad dash to get the kids to school on time.

Morgan will spend the entire trip explaining Brian’s guilt. According to Morgan, Brain was sleeping with Sofie just to keep close to Lynette in hopes of keeping an eye on the lawsuit against him. Brian and Sofie will threaten Lynette at home when the case begins looking particularly bad. Unfortunately, the unexpected presence of Anthony Acosta (Francisco Trujillo Avalos-Davidson) would cause the situation to spiral. Despite killing Anthony, Morgan suspects that Brain and Sofie didn’t have the heart to kill her sister, which is where Fontana comes in.

After Lynette is found alive in a remote Fontana cabin, Selena will approach Morgan with a job offer. She immediately turns it down, claiming that she isn’t cut out for the work. Watching Lynette and Letty reunite inspires Morgan to speak with Ava about her father, which she immediately does the following morning. Morgan tells Ava that the police never believed her but something had to have happened to her father because he would have never left them. Ava gives the impression of not being interested and even accuses Morgan of lying at one point. When Morgan claims she isn’t lying, Ava will tell her to stop lying to herself. The statement inspires Morgan to take Selena’s offer, with the added perks of a raise, childcare, and help tracking down Roman Sinquerra.

 

High Potential Review

It took me a few minutes, but I finally realized that Morgan was Dee from ‘It’s Sunny.” This is a very different role than anything I’ve seen her in before. I always enjoyed her part on ‘It’s Sunny’ and I felt that she made a decent quirky obsessive. Daniel isn’t so bad as Karadec either and I enjoyed him on ‘Rescue Me,’ but I don’t know if the two of them mesh. Despite the overused theme, I did feel that the creators tried to make it a bit different. Whoever wrote this clearly spent a lot of time and effort researching OCDs and useless knowledge.

The scene at the beginning with the wind blowing and east-facing churches was incredibly intriguing. The family dynamics are a bit cheesy at times as are some of the jokes, but the missing father makes for an interesting plot, although that too is also way overplayed. The story felt a bit longwinded and stale at times, but I’d have to give the premiere a 5.3 out of 10.

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