Summary
High Potential Season 2 returns with an effective conclusion to the midseason finale, tying its overarching subplots together well.
High Potential is pretty good at these two-parters, isn’t it? In case you needed a refresher, Season 2’s midseason finale left Morgan with a bit of egg on her face, since it turned out she was frolicking with the prime suspect in the case of a stolen Rembrandt and the murder of a museum curator. To make matters worse, her job was on the line thanks to Captain Wagner’s intense mistrust of her, and her private search for Roman was getting a lot more sinister, with Arthur, the only person who seemed to have any meaningful leads on the subject, being targeted. Episode 8, “The One That Got Away: Part Two”, picks up on all these threads and does a really good job following them to their knotty conclusions.
The murder of the curator, Cyrus Carrow, was a good way of upping the stakes of a case that felt a little bit tame by this show’s usual standards. I also like that we don’t have to deal with a whole episode of Morgan keeping her tryst with Rhys a secret while she sneaks around on her own investigation. The fact that she tells Karadec the truth immediately really speaks to their relationship development, and there are a couple of times throughout the rest of the episode where he returns the favour by showing real loyalty to Morgan. Maybe a bit too much loyalty, by the end? We’ll discuss that when we come to it.
In the meantime, the investigation continues. It seems pretty unlikely that Rhys murdered Cyrus, since Morgan gives him an alibi – which she can’t share, for obvious reasons – but somebody did, and when Wagner finally relents on allowing Morgan to work the case, she and Karadec visit the late curator’s partner, Emilio. There’s a good use of Morgan’s deductive talents here, as she puts together a few clues in his office that imply he’s guilty, and he certainly runs like a dude with something to hide. But this is, characteristically, a red herring.
It probably won’t come as much of a surprise that Linda and Greg Foster, the insufferable wealthy couple, faked the theft of their own painting to cash in on the insurance money. They paid Cyrus to steal it, but he got too greedy, so they had to kill him. They’re eventually caught on their yacht, the brilliantly named Easy Monet, by Karadec and Wagner, but the original Rembrandt once again goes missing, stolen by a mysterious man in a wetsuit. None of this is all that interesting on its own terms, but it’s nice to see Morgan putting things together, Karadec and Wagner working together without the latter’s ego getting in the way, and the eventual payoff with Morgan and Rhys.
Rhys is the art thief, of course, though crucially not a murderer. And even his penchant for expensive paintings is a bit of a cop-out, since he’s really a bit of a Robin Hood type who uses his real job as a contractor for insurance companies to occasionally spirit away particularly valuable pieces to be delivered to their rightful owners. At the end of High Potential Season 2, Episode 8, Rhys anonymously returns the painting to Miriam, paying off Morgan’s trust in him, even though their relationship is a non-starter.
On the subject of Morgan’s relationships, her chemistry with Wagner remains undeniable, especially since he has softened a bit and realised her value to the team. But why is Karadec watching them flirt so intently? Is it jealousy? Or is he worried that Wagner might have ulterior motives? We’ll have to wait and see.
Elsewhere in “The One That Got Away: Part Two”, we check in with Arthur. Things are getting pretty serious for him now, since he was just jumped by a bearded man, seemingly in an effort to retrieve whatever was in Roman’s backpack. Arthur feels imperilled enough to call Morgan and warn her, and even agrees to let Selena meet him at the gym where he’s hiding out. The perpetrator seems to be the same guy in a picture that was in Roman’s backpack. We even see the same guy watching Morgan during her celebratory after-work drinks.
But what did that guy do to Arthur in the meantime? That’s the big question. Arthur was definitely being followed by him, and took the pursuit seriously enough to call Selena. But when she calls his phone later, it’s on the ground next to his empty truck, from which he has presumably been snatched. The interweaving of the two core storylines like this is effective after so long keeping them separate, and while I imagine it’ll still take a few episodes of relative normality before the next big development, it’s definitely something to look forward to.
