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26 Episodes Later, ‘High Potential’ Takes a Completely New Direction With Its Biggest Mystery Ever
High Potential is officially back after a month-long hiatus, and already, the show is jumping back in with some major storylines. Like every episode of High Potential, Season 2, Episode 13, “The Driver’s Seat” sees the Major Crimes team investigating a complicated murder. Meanwhile, Morgan (Kaitlin Olson) struggles with the reminder that her kids are growing up, while Arthur (Mekhi Phifer) gets a major breakthrough in the investigation into Roman’s disappearance.
After High Potential‘s recent run of intense and fast-paced episodes, “The Driver’s Seat” feels like a little bit of a break in the momentum. It makes sense for the show to slow things down at this point, but the pacing is a little too slow, and there’s not much plot development in this episode. That said, “The Driver’s Seat” is still an entertaining entry with a major murder-mystery twist and some great moments between Morgan and her kids.
‘High Potential’ Season 2, Episode 13 Sees the Major Crimes Team Investigate a Murder That Doesn’t Quite Add Up
The case this week kicks off with an attempted carjacking from a dealership that sells technologically advanced cars. At the scene is the car, which crashed before it could be stolen, as well as the body of a man who was shot and killed. Morgan and Karadec (Daniel Sunjata) speak to Glen Gannick, the owner of the dealership, who shows them the security footage. The footage reveals that the victim was killed somewhere else, and then his body was brought to the dealership before the carjackers got there. Although the thieves aren’t connected to the murder, Morgan and Karadec look into them for clues, and they wind up with a drawing of the victim, whom one of them saw around the neighborhood before he was killed.
Karadec and Oz (Deniz Akdeniz) do some looking around, and they soon find the murder victim: a professor and climate activist named Joaquin Herrero. Sure enough, they discover that Joaquin was killed in his own home before his body was moved. Joaquin’s neighbor, Katie, tells Karadec and Oz that Joaquin had been consistently and loudly protesting against the toxic waste in their neighborhood caused by Gannick’s dealership. Morgan and Karadec determine that Gannick had the biggest motive to kill Joaquin, but they suspect that he’s being framed. For one, the body was left at his own dealership, and for another, Glen had already won Joaquin’s case against him in civil court.
Later, Morgan and Karadec question the judge who ruled over the case, and they suspect that Joaquin was blackmailing the judge about his secret regular meetings with sex workers. Katie is framed next, and she’s arrested after the gun that killed Joaquin is found in her house. Morgan and Karadec soon find a man named Darby Winters who is responsible for breaking into Katie’s house earlier that day and framing her. They don’t learn much from Darby, but Morgan puts everything together. She realizes that Darby and the Judge both drove cars from Glen’s dealership. Glen used this to gather information on them and blackmail them, which is why the Judge ruled in his favor. Joaquin found out and confronted him, so Glen killed him and then framed himself, and later Katie. Glen is caught red-handed, and Morgan and Karadec arrest him.
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‘High Potential’ Season 2, Episode 13 Sees Morgan Struggling To Adapt to Change
The main subplot of this episode focuses on Morgan’s kids. Ava (Amirah J) takes the time to do her homework before Morgan even asks, and she reveals that she signed up for a design class outside of school hours so that she can start pursuing what she wants to do with her future. Later, Ava texts Morgan and tells her to come home early because Elliot (Matthew Lamb) has been invited to attend a boarding school for young geniuses in Connecticut. Morgan later tells Selena (Judy Reyes) about the letter, and she admits that she’s afraid of the idea of Elliot leaving. Selena encourages Morgan to let Elliot make the decision, and she agrees. Morgan later gives Elliot the letter, and Elliot tells her that he already spoke with Ava, who helped him decide not to attend the school. It’s a sweet ending to the storyline, as Elliot chooses to stay home, and Morgan is grateful to Ava for her insight. This storyline is resolved a little too quickly, though, and it could have been interesting to see Elliot struggle with this decision more.
Outside of the two main storylines, this episode, “In the Driver’s Seat” moves two other major storylines forward. It’s revealed that the man (John Pyper-Ferguson) from the photos in Roman’s backpack is still following Morgan. Arthur then catches the man and takes him away to question him. Later, Arthur is arrested for beating the man while interrogating him, but he was able to get one major piece of information before being arrested: that man is the person who abducted Roman all those years ago. It’s not especially surprising, and it still feels like High Potential is dragging the Roman storyline out, but now we know for sure that Roman was abducted (which is a major change from the French version of the show).
This episode also continues with the complex love triangle between Karadec, Morgan, and Lucia (Susan Kelechi Watson). Morgan and Karadec are acting normal with each other this episode, but at the end, High Potential hints at trouble with his relationship with Lucia. Karadec comes home for a nice meal with Lucia, and they are both optimistic about their future together. She tells him that she’s planning to stay in the area and buy a place, and he encourages her to do so. When Lucia asks what changed Karadec so much from when they last dated, he credits Morgan for all of it, saying that Morgan helped him see himself differently and challenged him. The scene ends on a positive note for Karadec and Lucia, but Lucia naturally looks concerned after this, showing that she’s starting to catch onto Karadec’s feelings for Morgan – even if he’s still unaware of them.
New episodes of High Potential air Tuesdays at 9:00 P.M. EST on ABC.