Croaked – The episode begins with a lab assistant arriving at what appears to be some sort of darkened research lab. A quick check of the answering machine reveals a message from Doctor Monica Davis (Rosslyn Lake), reminding him that the reptiles need 12 hours of darkness and to give Romeo his medicine. The inept assistant bungles the task and ends up letting Romeo escape, which eventually leads to the discovery of Monica’s body.

Morgan Gillory (Kaitlin Olson) is navigating another hectic morning in the Gillory house when Ludo Radovic (Taran Killam) arrives to take over. Despite the chaos and her later denial, Morgan notices Ava Gillory (Amirah J) secretly taking some kind of pill. It’s merely minutes later that Morgan and Detective Adam Karadec (Daniel Sunjata) arrive at their latest crime scene. Karadec gets the latest from Daphne Forrester (Javicia Leslie) and Lev ‘Oz’ Osman (Deniz Akdeniz) while Morgan ambles off to do her own thing. It doesn’t take her long to deduce that someone poisoned Monica by putting one of the frogs in the soap dispenser. Unfortunately, for Karadec, Morgan has to shoot him with a tranquilizer gun to stop him from succumbing to the same fate.

Selena Soto (Judy Reyes) eventually dispatches Morgan and Karadec to interview a friend of Monica’s who reported her missing. Bethany Reed (Kathleen Munroe). Karadec sleeps most of the ride over and surprisingly enough isn’t too upset about Morgan dosing him. He even somewhat apologizes. Upon arrival at the friend’s salon, Morgan and Karadec learn that Bethany and Monica bonded several years ago during a yoga class and maintained their relationship. All attention is soon turned to the arrival of Bethany’s very upset son, Gavin Reed (Cary Christopher). He immediately asks Bethany if she thinks ‘that man’ hurt Monica. After learning that Gavin witnessed Monica’s confrontation with some mysterious man during a recent visit, the team attempts to get him to produce a sketch. This doesn’t initially go so well until Oz uses comic book characters to help him convey the man’s features.

At the same time, Karadec and Morgan learn about Mr. Davis (Ben Bode) and Mrs. Davis’s (Kerry O’Malley) estranged relationship with Monica. Mr. Davis is hostile throughout the process and it doesn’t take him long to blame all their problems on Shane Seger (Adam Hagenbuch) once Oz arrives with the sketch. After learning that Shane was recently released from prison, Karadec and Morgan bring him in for questioning. Shane is smug and practically useless. He does alibi himself using his ankle monitor.

Sensing that the case has hit a dead end, Morgan seeks advice from Soto about snooping on Ava. Soto tells her exactly what she needs to hear because seconds later, she’s returned home in the middle of the day to search Ava’s room. Although Ludo is there and heavily advocates against the breach of trust, they both end up in Ava’s room where they discover birth control tablets. Thanks to Ava’s unexpected return, they won’t have long to strategize. In the end, Morgan decides to lie about their reasoning for being in her room.

By this time, Oz and Daphne have uncovered a new lead after learning that Monica’s clinic started receiving 1-star ratings ratings 6 months ago. This all seems to have been inspired by someone using the online handle, Asmodius (Angel Rosario Jr.). It doesn’t take them long to track the name back to the owner of a local tattoo shop who openly admits his disdain for Monica. He apparently blames her for killing his prized tarantula, Fernanda, during a routine examination gone wrong. Asmodius ends up providing another lead when he admits to following her home one night to an apartment in Hollywood. A brief encounter with a ‘Good Times Roll’ takeout bag at the station will lead Morgan and Karadec to the same address.

It won’t be until Oz and Daphne jump the gun on the building’s superintendent, Larry (G. Maximilian Zarou), that the two teams realize they’ve uncovered the same lead. This ultimately leads to the discovery of a hidden room, stocked with all sorts of exotic animals. A photo and a coded list of addresses later and Morgan has deduced that Monica was trafficking exotic reptiles to raise more for a house. A very brief meeting with Monica’s realtor, Ty Williams (Anthony Pierre Christopher), reveals that Monica was buying the house for her, Bethany, and Gavin.

Another visit to the salon not only confirms that Bethany and Monica were having a relationship but apparently, Nathan Reed (Lucas Kavner) knew about it. When Nathan is brought in for interrogation and sees all the evidence against him, he confesses. The easy confession doesn’t sit well with either Morgan or Karadec but being that it is late Friday and he has a date, Karadec wants to push further inquiries until Monday.

As the weekend begins, Morgan can’t let the case die and decides to visit the convenience store that Shane robbed. While she’s there, she remembers Mr. Davis mentioning that Shane was wearing flip-flops during the robbery. Realizing that Mr. Davis would not have known this unless he was involved sends her to question Shane at the Venice Beach Gym. As it turns out, Mr. Davis wasn’t involved but Monica was and Shane withheld the information from authorities because she was pregnant. It is merely seconds after this discovery that she notices Shane and Gavin share an ear dimple.

Along with Ava and Elliot Radovic (Matthew Lamb), Morgan interrupts Karadec’s date to excitedly share her discoveries with him. It’s only minutes later that the entire team is gathered at the station when Bethany arrives under the premises that the authorities have news to share about Nathan. Much to her surprise, she’s pulled into the interrogation room where she is revealed as the culprit. As it turns out, Monica never had a romantic interest in her. She only cultivated the relationship to get close to Gavin, who she was forced to give up years before.

While Oz and Daphne reunite Fernanda and Asmodius, Morgan is immensely relieved to discover that Ava started taking birth control to combat her acne, not because she is being sexually active.

 

High Potential Review

I found the episode surprisingly decent but a bit too in-depth. The constant reveal after reveal made the content extremely boring at times. I’m finding that this is a common problem with the series. I understand why the episodes are written like this, but there has to be a more effective way to get the information across.

It’s not even so as much that the content is bad or overused because I was surprised by most of the reveals. I would have never suspected the reasoning for the birth control or that Gavin was actually adopted. It’s more the way the story is told that makes for such a boring watch. Because of that, I’d have to give the episode 5 out of 10.

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