High Potential

Ah!

Hey.

-Sounds like someone had a night.

-Oh, my God. -What's going on?

I'm in Elaine's office.

-Please tell me she didn't make you work

after the party last night.

-Oh. What happened? -Are you okay?

Sam? Are you there? -Uh-huh.

Yeah, I can fix this. I-I need tape.

Tape? What -- What tape?

-Okay. I'm sorry. I gotta go.

Sam, what are you fixing?

Do you need help?

Elaine.

Elaine!

Oh, God.

Sure.

Yeah? -Hey. You busy?

-Ludo's got the kids till Tuesday,

so I am treating myself to some deep cleaning.

What's up? -A homicide call just came in

at a company called Metkair.

I'm headed there now.

-And you'd like me to join you?

Yes, I would like you to join.

Metkair has the whole floor.

What happened in here?

-There was a party last night to celebrate the launch

of a new product.

I heard it got pretty wild.

-When exactly was the party? -The party started at 8:00.

The last person stumbled out the door around midnight.

-Can you get us a list of attendees?

-You got it. No one enters without signing in.

Building policy. This way. -We tested it

on some special children, who saw immediate results.

With just a few breaths of the KanAIRy,

your child's anxiety

is proven to diminish by 85%.

This is incredible. And it's all homeopathic.

-I'll get you that guest list. -No medicines. No side effects.

Thank you.

Yeah, that. Good morning.

-Hey. -Hi.

Over here.

We have a Elaine Barton,

founder and CEO of Metkair Corp.

Oh.

"Female Innovator of the Year, 2024."

-The shatter pattern on this glass --

It's about the size of a fist.

-Possibly from a fight that ended in Elaine's murder.

-Or the murderer was trying to send a message.

What does this mean? -Let's rush the autopsy

and hope we can lift prints off that trophy.

You said an employee called 911?

-Yeah. Elaine's assistant, Samantha Wozniak.

She's with an officer now.

Is she a potential witness?

-She may be more than a witness.

-How long did you work for Elaine?

-Uh, about four years. -Mm.

Do you have any idea what happened?

I...

I don't remember.

Did you black out?

-I'm not much of a drinker in general,

and I started some new meds recently,

so maybe the -- the two really don't mix.

God, I'm sorry. I'm not helping, am I?

-Well, I assume that you probably knew Elaine

better than anybody else here, being her assistant, right?

Why don't you tell us what she was like?

Elaine was my hero.

I watched this video of her speaking when I was a kid.

Um, I mean, she's the reason I applied to Stanford.

Just tracked her down and begged her to hire me.

I mean, being an assistant isn't glamorous,

but I'm used to grunt work. -You went to Stanford,

but you're used to grunt work?

-Well, not everyone who goes there

came straight from a country club.

You know, I had a scholarship, and I worked two jobs,

yeah, but I still graduated with honors.

-So you liked working for Elaine?

Of course.

She was a visionary.

She was a visionary.

-Sam, have you ever heard of a Duchenne smile?

A Duchenne smile is a smile that reaches the eyes.

It's genuine, as opposed to a Pan Am smile

which stops at the mouth. It's insincere.

It's the kind of fake smile

a Pan Am flight attendant might give,

or a woman who is saying she loved her boss a little bit more

than she really did.

I believed in Elaine's vision.

But?

She wasn't easy.

And I couldn't get everything right, and...

whatever mistake I made, I just wouldn't hear the end of it.

-That sucks. I'm sorry.

-It got worse the closer we got to the KanAIRy launch.

She --

She got secretive. Just paranoid.

She had new locks put on her door.

It just felt like she had eyes and ears everywhere.

We were rushing to scale up production.

Every day was hell.

-And how much can one person take, right?

-Wait. You -- You don't think that I...

No, I would remember that.

-Sam doesn't remember what happened last night.

Let's see what her stuff has to say.

Uh-huh.

You don't believe her.

-Uh, you know, a promising young graduate pins her dreams

to a lady who makes her life hell.

That would be motive.

And Sam had means and opportunity, too.

So if the prints come back on that trophy...

-There are so many questions in that crime scene

that still need answers. Please keep an open mind.

-Mm-hmm. -Okay.

Sam's Web history.

A search last night at 10:21 p.m. for...

gibberish.

Okay. Too drunk to type.

Oh, look at these.

-Okay, so those could have interacted with the alcohol

and made her black out, just like she said.

-Just because you don't remember committing a crime

doesn't mean you didn't do it.

Huh.

You might want to keep an open mind, too.

What?

-Looks like you hated your boss, and maybe one night

after too many drinks, you -- -I didn't kill Elaine.

-Or you don't remember? -This poor kid. I've been there.

You wouldn't believe how many jerks I've worked for.

-Oh, I'm familiar with your work history, Morgan.

-Sam's obviously smart. She's got grit.

I just wish I could go back in time

and tell her she's got the power to walk away.

-Maybe. But this young woman seems

to really have believed in what she was doing.

And in her boss, tough as she might have been.

When you find your calling, it changes the calculus.

You'd be surprised at all the crap

you're willing to put up with.

The question is, did Elaine push Sam so hard

that it wasn't worth it anymore?

Sam Wozniak

is still saying she remembers nothing.

She's agreed to stay at the station for now.

-Well, yeah. She wants to help.

Morgan, you know I love

how you always stick up for the underdog.

But sometimes good people do bad things

and we have to hold them accountable.

-Uh, yeah, obviously, I know that.

I'm just saying -- I don't think it applies in this situation.

-I'll have Daphne and Oz start contacting everyone

on the guest list last night.

We need to find out who saw what and when.

And I need you to break the news

to Elaine's husband, Eric Barton.

-Okay, good. It's usually the husband anyway.

-When Elaine didn't come home last night,

I-I just figured she'd stayed after the party to work late.

We're very sorry.

What can you tell us about Elaine?

-Where do I start? Uh...

The only thing bigger than Elaine's ambition was her heart.

She quit medical school to revolutionize

the healthcare industry.

I was her first investor.

When I saw her passion, I was immediately in...

in every sense of the word.

-What time did you last see Elaine?

I left around 10:00.

The party was in full swing with Elaine at the center of it.

It was her night to shine. And she did.

She was pitch-perfect.

-Were you and Elaine getting along lately?

Is there anything we should know?

We got along fine.

Sure, uh, things have been tense.

She had just closed a huge, uh, distribution deal.

It was stressful.

I'm sorry. I-I just gotta know -- What exactly happened?

-Uh, it appears she was attacked in her office.

Someone used one of her trophies as a weapon.

Oh, my God.

Um...any suspects?

-One. -Who?

-Uh, we'll share more when we can,

but for now, can you tell us if your wife had any enemies?

-Elaine felt that the work she was doing would help millions.