As season 2 of ABC’s breakout drama High Potential kicks off, we see a woman who looks an awful lot like Morgan dancing her way to her car after leaving a club. She never makes it to her car as we cut away to Morgan’s home.
Morgan is desperately trying to figure out who the Game Maker is and David Giuntoli’s mysterious character is haunting her. After enjoying a pillow fight with Ludo and Elliot, a knock at the door brings the fun to an end as Selena shows up at the door. We learn that Morgan has been lying to the kids about the Game Master as Selena gives Morgan a quick update on the search for Roman. He’s in Nevada and they’re trying to pinpoint his exact location, but don’t have much information.
The morning after, Morgan finds a piece of junk mail in her mailbox with the wrong address and heads off to investigate. When she gets to the house, she hears “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” playing and finds a door open. She tries calling the team, but no one answers so she comes blasting into the bullpen to tell them about her finding and concern that the Game Maker has struck again. The victim’s sister just so happens to be in the waiting area and overhears the conversation, letting them know her sister, Maya, didn’t come home last night.
Morgan is convinced the Game Maker is behind Maya’s disappearance
We learn the missing woman is named Maya and that she never came home following a night out with a coworker after she won free tickets to a show. We learn that Maya is in the midst of a custody battle with her ex and Morgan quickly picks up on similarities she shares with the victim.
Morgan and Karadec retrace Maya’s footsteps which leads them to the parking lot which is when Morgan works her magic. She notices the busted streetlights which gave Maya’s abductor cover. Maya fought back which is when her lip balm, candy and glass fragments went flying out. She ran to the booth where the parking guard would have been, but she clearly didn’t get it. The biggest piece of the puzzle comes via heel marks which leads Morgan to discovering one of Maya’s lost heels under another car, confirming this was indeed where she was abducted.
Back at the precinct, Morgan gets bad news in that the only prints on the mail she found were hers and the postal worker’s. The team heads out to Maya’s house to continue the investigation and Morgan finds bags from brands Maya couldn’t afford, but they’re all empty. Morgan is convinced they weren’t stolen but sold as she spots a bone-shaped sticker mark on a keyboard in the living room leading her and Karadec to the bone yard.
While speaking with the bone yard owner, he reveals Maya was outside arguing with someone. It turns out the man she was arguing with was her ex, Derek. Karadec tells him about Maya getting the gun and Derek is shocked, telling them that Maya hates guns. He’s got an injury to his hand, but can’t recall what happened as he blacked out after getting home, but he’s adamant he’d never hurt Maya.
Oz and Daphne bring in the woman Maya was with at the club. Morgan asks about the gifts and her friend mentioned that it was their boss, Jason, who was sending them. The case is hitting close to home so Morgan goes to get some air, before working her magic again.
The Game Maker is trying to frame Jason, but why?
Morgan realizes that Jason just so happens to have connections to the Game Maker’s crimes and suggests that he’s trying to frame Jason for the crime.
Karadec and Morgan head out to meet with Jason after tracking him down. When they mention the gifts, Jason suggests that Maya bought them with his card and he looked the other way because he has a soft spot for single moms. As they’re talking, Morgan notices a sword missing from a display in the room, but Jason tells them he had an alibi as he sends them away.
While poking around Jason’s home, Morgan sees the Game Maker in a mirror and chases off to try to find him, but he is able to slip away into the crowd wearing a mask. Karadec, meanwhile, finds a bracelet of Maya’s in the pool leading to Jason’s arrest.
Jason lawyers up, but Morgan is convinced that Jason isn’t behind Maya’s disappearance. As the team questions Morgan and whether she’s making this too personal, she reminds them this is personal and emotionally points out she’s never going to forget Game Maker’s face.
The team follows a lead to a salvage yard where they find Maya’s car and a bloody jacket in the trunk. That’s when things begin to click for Morgan. When they got to the precinct with Jason, Derek was already there but the police wouldn’t have called him so how did he know there had been an arrest? Morgan deduces that it was the Game Maker who called Derek because he wanted him to see Jason brought in.
Morgan pieces together that this was all part of the Game Maker’s game. He framed Jason and his end game seems to be pushing Derek to do his bidding and kill Jason. The Game Maker only wanted them to believe Maya had bought a gun so that he could place one in the house for Derek to find and use to kill Jason.
When Karadec searches Maya’s house they indeed find an empty gun case and he hears tires screeching off, hinting he’s too late. It seems they have two mysteries to solve now: Where is Maya and why does the Game Maker want Jason dead?
Well, they might just get those answers as the episode ends with the Game Maker waltzing into the precinct and telling Morgan and Selena, he heard they’d been looking for him.
Was that really Roman at the end of the High Potential season 2 premiere?
The other big mystery we were left with as the season 2 premiere of High Potential came to a close was whether the show truly introduced us to Morgan's missing ex, Roman.
Before the Game Maker arrived to come face to face with Morgan, we watched as Oz and Daphne arrived at the last known address belonging to Roman. In the room was a mystery man played by Mekhi Phifer, leaving many to wonder did we really just meet Roman or is this a decoy.
Casting an actor of Phifer's level definitely makes a strong argument for him turning out to be Roman, but would the show really throw away that reveal so casually after building the mystery of who Roman is and where he disappeared to? We have a feeling this might be a misdirect, but fans will have to keep tuning into ABC's hit drama to find out for certain if Roman's identity has truly been revealed!