TV Recap: "High Potential" Kicks Off Season 2 With a Chilling Game of "Pawns"

After last season’s pulse-pounding showdown with the mysterious “Game Maker," High Potential returns with an opener that wastes no time pulling Morgan Gillory back into danger. Season 2 begins with a fresh missing-person case that soon tangles with the riddle-obsessed predator still haunting Morgan’s thoughts. Between protecting her kids, navigating tensions inside the LAPD, and chasing clues that blur the line between investigation and personal vendetta, Morgan must stay two steps ahead if she hopes to keep everyone safe.

Season 2, Episode 1: “Pawns" - Written by Todd Harathan & Marc Halsey

A blonde woman, Maya Price (Kate Miner), leaves a nightclub still dancing, phone pressed to her ear as the babysitter reports that her son is asleep. She cuts through the parking lot past a guard in a shed, remote-unlocks her car from a distance, shimmies past a white van…and vanishes.

At home, Morgan Gillory (Kaitlin Olson) can’t sleep. She studies profile sketches of the Game Maker and replays the finale’s taunting “games," so vividly that she imagines him standing behind her in the bedroom. Yelling from the living room snaps her out of it. Elliot (Matthew Lamb) and Ludo (Taran Killam) are having a pillow fight. Morgan dives into the fray until Ava (Amirah J) steps out, trying to read the baby to sleep and grumbling that she’s been stuck inside for a week. Lieutenant Selena Soto (Judy Reyes) comes to the door, and Morgan asks the kids for privacy.

Morgan tells Soto that she hates lying to the kids about the stalker. They think Ludo’s home has a palm weevil infestation, and that’s why he’s been staying over all week. Soto brought an update on Morgan’s missing first husband, Roman Cinquera. An informant says he’s somewhere in Henderson, Nevada, and they’re working on getting an address. Before leaving, Soto tells Morgan that everyone misses her at work.

After hours at the precinct, Adam Karadec (Daniel Sunjata) is still buried in case files. Daphne (Javicia Leslie) calls it a night and reminds him they can’t do back-to-back all-nighters. He orders Oz (Dennis Akdeniz) home, too, who was insisting he won’t sleep until they catch the guy. He lies that he’ll be “right behind" them. They call the bluff; Oz gets up anyway.

At 2 a.m., Karadec’s phone rings: Morgan, toothbrush in mouth, says their sketch of the Game Maker is all over the news, and she’s shocked no one’s turned him in yet.

The next morning, Morgan drops Girl Scout cookies with Officer Chester (Rolando Boyce), posted outside her house, who said it was a quiet night. She notices her mailbox flag up. Inside,  a promotional mailer for a Tiger-themed lock company that was meant to be delivered to a house in a cul-de-sac around the corner. Morgan heads over to deliver it, but stops just short of her destination. A house door sits ajar. “The Lion Sleeps Tonight" blares from inside. Morgan flashes to the mystery card game slipped into her groceries — jungle animal theme.

She sprints to the LAPD. No one picked up her calls. “It’s him," she insists. Incorrect mail delivery is rare; the side street is a cul-de-sac — the Game Maker could force her to pass that open door. She hands Oz the Tiger Lock envelope sealed in a zip bag for prints and lays out the pattern: jungle animal match-game, “Lion Sleeps Tonight." The address on the lease belongs to a woman named Maya Price. A rattled woman is waiting to speak to a detective, whose ears pick up when she hears her sister’s name. Sarah (Jacqueline Emerson) was watching her sister’s son, Max (Jack Vaught), and she’s missing.

Sarah explains that this morning, she went to Maya’s house, found the front door open, the music blaring. Morgan asks Sarah to walk them through yesterday. Maya went to a free show at a nightclub with a friend from work, showing photos from the event. Maya doesn’t drink and is very responsible. She’s separated from Max’s dad, an out-of-work good guy with bad habits who was fighting for custody of Max. Morgan shows Sarah the profile sketch of the Game Maker. She doesn’t recognize him.

Morgan and Karadec canvass the club and adjacent lot, retracing Maya’s steps. A silver Honda Accord — Maya’s — is missing. Strewn purse items dot the asphalt. The streetlights are busted, which would’ve created perfect darkness. Morgan reads the scuffle: Maya fought back with her bag; lip balm, candy, and glass shards (a perfume sampler) flew. The guard likely had headphones on in the booth. Two parallel heel marks become one — she lost a shoe mid-struggle. Morgan ducks under a nearby car and retrieves the missing heel, matching it to Sarah’s photos from the night out. Conclusion: Maya was dragged into the trunk of her own car.

A BOLO goes out on the Honda. Morgan wants the news brief to include the Game Maker sketch. Soto hesitates; Oz sides with Morgan. Meanwhile, patrol scoops up Derek Price (Shaun Sipos) on an unrelated warrant.

A search of Maya’s house turns up dissonance. “The Lion Sleeps Tonight" vinyl doesn’t fit the rest of her albums. There are brand-new door locks. Records indicate that Maya recently purchased a gun, but no firearm is found in the search. In the closet, Morgan finds empty high-end designer shopping bags well above Maya’s pay grade. Karadec posits theft. In the living room, Morgan clocks an electronic keyboard with a sticker residue in the shape of a dog bone — the calling card of Boneyard, Fritzy’s pawn shop. Maybe Maya sold items for cash. Karadec sends Oz and Daphne to canvas Maya’s work; Morgan heads to Fritzy.

At the Boneyard, Fritzy (Edward Fordham Jr.) knows Morgan well from her days before joining forces with the LAPD. She shows him Maya’s photo. Karadec is a little tough on the shop owner, who can’t afford to go unpaid for the goods, but Morgan promises they will be returned. Fritzy remembers Maya arguing with a man in the lot, and he’s got it on camera.

During his interrogation, Derek learns that Maya is missing, and he crumples, asking first if Max is okay. He was picked up in NoHo, drunk and depressed. Karadec shows the pawn-lot footage; Derek followed Maya because she’d been dodging his calls and suddenly had expensive gifts from “someone." Jealous? Yes. Violent? “I would never hurt her." Why did she buy a gun? He doesn’t know; she hates guns. Through the glass, Soto and Morgan watch — Morgan’s sure Derek didn’t do it. Karadec notes Derek’s wrapped hand. Derek claims a blackout. “Maya is my whole world. I miss my son." He begs them to find her.

Oz and Daphne bring in Harper (Reign Edwards), who went to the club with Maya. They had a lot of fun, and Maya needed it. Their boss, Jason Howard (Nick Weschler), gave them the tickets; he’s a nepo CEO who’s often on vacation and hard to pin down. Harper knew about the gifts, assumed Jason gave them to Maya, and admits she pressured her friend to take the club tickets. She adds that Maya “kind of looks like" Morgan — close enough to make you double-take.

Morgan steps away from the glass for air, then wheels the case boards into the bullpen and unloads a research blitz on Jason: he’s diabetic (like Spencer from the season finale), sits on a County General Research Initiative board, paints in a style that resembles the gallery from the finale’s Jacks puzzle, and is a certified scuba instructor. She doodles facial hair on his photo and—yikes—he resembles the Game Maker. “That’s the trap," she warns the team as she presents her findings. He wants them focused on Jason while he skitters elsewhere. Soto pushes Occam’s Razor: what about the card game in Morgan’s groceries? Sometimes the simplest answer is the right one. Even Oz struggles to stay in Morgan’s corner. Soto orders all paths kept open…and sends Morgan home to be with her kids.

Privately, Soto confides to Karadec that Morgan isn’t a cop and the stress is breaking her. Morgan turned down the badge; Soto feels she set her up for this spiral. Karadec counters that Morgan needs the chance — and they need her mind. He trusts her.

At home, Morgan scrubs dishes. Ludo takes over and gently asks how she’s really doing. She admits they’re getting close on Roman, and she’s scared for what that will do to Ava. Ava asks to go to Keisha’s; Morgan says no—“family night" again. Ava finally snaps: What is going on? Morgan begs for patience until she can talk privately. A knock. Karadec. Jason is in town, hosting an album release party at his mansion.

Everyone at the party is given a specific style of mask, themed to the artist. Morgan and Karadec spot Jason holding court amid very young partygoers and request a private word. He confirms Maya’s been on his team for a year. He tells them the club tickets were a comp he passed on. He claims Maya had access to his credit card and bought the designer bags; he denies purchasing them. Morgan’s eye catches a wall display of samurai daggers, and notes the set is incomplete. One dagger is missing. His alibi for last night is that he was at home, and his private chef can corroborate. He excuses himself.

Karadec leaves Morgan alone so she can snoop without a warrant, and he can have plausible deniability. When she looks down at the party surrounding the backyard pool, she notices one unmasked face looking up at her - the Game Maker (David Giuntoli)! She heads out to track him down.

Karadec notices something irregular on the floor of the swimming pool. He has it fished out and recovers a bracelet just like Maya was wearing in photos from the club.

“He’s here!" Morgan shouts to Karadec after spotting the Game Maker, who slipped his mask on and started heading towards the exit. They follow him, or whoever they think is him. But the man they catch up with Jason. They place him under arrest.

When they bring Jason into the LAPD, they find Derek waiting for them. He attempts to attack Jason and has to be held back by two officers. Jason refuses to talk. Morgan argues Jason might not know where Maya is because he’s a target, not the architect. Soto asks how dark that pool deck really was. Morgan bristles: the Game Maker wanted her to see him. She insists his face is burned into her brain. He haunts her.

A Sun Valley salvage yard found Maya’s car. Morgan and Karadec pry open the trunk. Inside, they find Maya’s white jacket, blood consistent with stab wounds…and the missing Takeda blade from Jason’s wall. Karadec thinks they’ll pull Jason’s prints and crack him. Soto arrives with another call — Officer Sigmund in Nevada found an address on Roman. Karadec offers to drive Soto himself, but Morgan won’t abandon this case. Oz and Daphne volunteer to run Nevada; Soto admits she briefed them last week and greenlights it.

Morgan gets a revelation: Who tipped Derek that Jason was being brought in? Someone wanted Derek to think Jason murdered Maya. The Game Maker likely called, orchestrating it all. The misdelivered Tiger Lock mailer? A locksmith pretext to copy Maya’s key. Jason’s credit card? Stolen to buy those gifts and fuel Derek’s jealousy. The bracelet at the pool? Snatched during the abduction and planted to steer them to Jason. The missing dagger? Lifted off Jason’s wall on the way out. The gun? Purchased in Maya’s name, removed before the first search, then replanted to escalate. “He built a distraction," Morgan says. “He created a murderer," she adds, realizing Derek is being nudged to kill Jason. “And we put the weapon right in his hand," Soto realizes.

Karadec races to Maya’s house. The gun is gone. He spots Derek peeling away in a car.

In Nevada, Oz and Daphne reach a motel. Inside, we see a man (Mekhi Phifer) pull an envelope from under a mattress. Their knock spooks him. “Roman Cinquera?" they ask.

Back in L.A., the Game Maker strolls into the LAPD’s lobby. “Apparently, you’re looking for me," he taunts. Morgan turns and finally stands face-to-face with her tormentor.

Next Episode: “Checkmate" - Airing Tuesday, September 23rd, at 10/9c on ABC

As the Major Crimes team desperately seek answers amidst a string of unresolved crimes, Morgan suspects the Game Maker is responsible. Meanwhile, Daphne and Oz set out to find Roman, and Elliot prepares a surprise act for his school’s talent show.

Songs Featured in This Episode: