Hangover – The episode begins with Samantha “Sam” Wozniak (Alison Jaye) waking to her blaring cell phone. While briefly speaking with her friend, she realizes that she is in her boss Elaine Barton’s (Katie Ryan) wrecked office, but has no memory of how she got there or how the office arrived at its current state. Matters only get worse when she discovers that she isn’t alone.
Morgan Gillory (Kaitlin Olson) is at home attempting to enjoy her time away from the kids when Detective Adam Karadec (Daniel Sunjata) calls with news of a murder at a company known as Metkair. Upon arrival, they are greeted by a Metkair Liaison, Denise (Nicole Chanel Williams), who provides the essential details about last night’s product launch party and practically promises to assist with whatever else is needed. They only get a brief look at the wrecked state of Elaine’s office and her body before Detective Daphne Forrester (Javicia Leslie) turns them onto Sam and her absentee memory. Despite her lack of memory, Sam is completely open and appears entirely honest until she begins talking about working with Elaine. It doesn’t take Morgan long to pick up on the fake smile and call her out on it, which leads to Sam admitting that she did admire Elaine and her vision but she was extremely hard to work for. Although this is practically where the questioning ends for the moment, it becomes clear that Karadec suspects Sam was pushed to her limit. Morgan, on the other hand, is insistent on proving her innocence. The ensuing search of Sam’s office does not bode well for Sam, especially the drawer full of pills and her journal.
With their new discovery, Karadec brings Sam down to the station for an official interrogation where he all but accuses her of killing Elaine while Morgan and Selena Soto (Judy Reyes) observe from the two-way glass. The interrogation doesn’t last long and even though Sam agrees to remain at the station until proven innocent, this only adds to Karadec’s belief of her guilt. Plans are soon made for Karadec and Morgan to question the husband, Eric Barton (Derek Richardson) while Daphne and Detective Lev ‘Oz’ Osman/Oz (Deniz Akdeniz) contact the party attendees.
Eric appears open and honest as he shares everything from meeting Elaine to falling in love with her drive and passion as they begin working together. Despite Morgan’s best efforts, this brief meeting isn’t very beneficial for Sam, as Eric admits that Elaine was difficult and expected nothing less than perfection when it came to her work.
Before the detectives put their focus on the party guests, Morgan is confronted by a member of the cleaning staff, Tom (JD Pardo). Although he is extremely pleasant throughout the encounter, it’s clear that he has a bone to pick with her about the cheesy fingerprint smudges on the glass in the bullpen. She simply denies being the culprit but he doesn’t push it any further for the moment. After listening to the party guest’s testimony, Morgan uncovers the time of death at anywhere between 10:58 and 11:01 pm. This is later confirmed by the Medical Examiner.
Still determined to prove Sam’s innocence, Morgan suggests she check her pockets for any memorabilia that might shake loose a memory. She finds what appears to be a strip of photos from a portable photo booth. Sam is posing alone in the photos but Morgan instantly recognizes the remnants of the bright red lipstick. Once Denise admits to lying about being at her desk all night, she also provides the next lead when she shares her encounter with an unauthorized guest. It is the small, portable insulin pump that leads them to the Jimenez Family.
Karadec handles the majority of the questioning at the Jimenez house while Arturo (Juan Alfonso) provides most of the answers. Morgan ambles about and quickly deduces that despite the Jimenez’s depressing financial situation, they have just moved into a new beautiful house. At the same time, Karadec learns that Nico Jimenez (Quintun Muno) was one of the earliest test subjects for Metkair’s newest product and to hear it, the product changed his life. Morgan eventually picks up on Carmen’s silence as well as her concealment of her hands. After Morgan purposely knocks over a glass of water, the reason for her doing so is revealed.
Despite Karadec’s best efforts, Carmen maintains her silence at the station. This is until Daphne’s typing in the bullpen causes Morgan to remember the e-mail from Sam’s office she initially mistook for gibberish. As it turns out, the message wasn’t gibberish but a simple hand misplacement. Morgan uses the discovery to get Carmen to open up about taking payouts to hide the fact that Metkair’s newest product had caused asthma in several of the testing groups, including Nico. Carmen would eventually reach her breaking point and that was why she was at the party and wrecked Elaine’s office. Despite admitting to all this, Carmen maintains her claim that Elaine was alive when she left.
Upon learning that it was Eric who was arranging the payouts through his company, Karadec and Morgan embarrass him during a board meeting. He and his lawyer, Hornstock (Rob Mainord) initially attempt to play hardball but due to her time on a law firm cleaning crew, Morgan isn’t completely inept of the law. Much like Carmen, it’s only a matter of minutes before Eric owns up to everything, except for killing Elaine.
Morgan is working late at the station when another confrontation with Tom leads to a major breakthrough in the case. As it turns out, Elaine’s origin story about the creation of Metkair’s latest product was a lie. It wasn’t a complete fabrication but actually came from her friend, Nina’s (Lynn Chen) experience with her anxiety-riddled daughter. Nina not only openly admits to this during her interrogation but gives the impression that she was okay with letting Elaine be the face of her invention, as long as she was fairly compensated. Before the interrogation ends, Nina makes a major lapse when she mentions Elaine being murdered with her own trophy. Karadec realizes that the murderer and Eric would be the only people who should know this detail. Either Nina is the murderer or Eric shared the details. Nina not only admits to sleeping with Eric but claims to have been with him during the time of death.
Much to Morgan’s displeasure, Karadec practically has no other option than to book Sam. When she arrives at the station and hears about the $45,623 check Elaine wrote before her death, she nearly throws up and admits that is the exact amount of her student loans. Although it looks as if Karadec is going to be proven right about Sam, he is graceful and attempts to comfort Morgan.
Later day while they are closing up the case and disassembling the murder board, Morgan takes note of the office in Elaine’s office. This is revealed to be a two-way mirror that unveils Sam did kill Elaine but it was practically self-defense. Even Karadec admits that she won’t likely serve any time with a decent lawyer.
Although Morgan refuses the offer to join the team at the bar for a celebratory drink, she later changes her mind. This is only after she leaves Tom a cheesy little note. Before the episode ends, Morgan will thank Soto for everything she’s done during her time on the job.
High Potential Review
I enjoyed the episode. It was especially nice to see Morgan without her family and bond with her coworkers. Sam’s lack of memory through the whole episode was an intriguing aspect and like always, the case remained twisty and enigmatic right up until the final minute. Unfortunately, that is probably the show’s biggest downfall.
The stories typically play out at a decent pace, but the show’s desire to be suspenseful and keep viewers on the edge of their seats only makes it long and drawn out. At least that is the case for me. Due to that, I’d have to give this episode a 4.9 out of 10.
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