How can people be so heartless? Of course, I’m referring to ruthless billionaires desperate to stay alive.
However, much of High Potential Season 2 Episode 3 was about people having their hearts in the right place or with semi-decent intentions, yet still hurting others.
Such is life and the human experience, am I right?
So, That Really Is It for the Game Maker, Huh?
I cannot be the only one who thought we’d get a bit more follow-up on the Game Maker, or maybe it’s simply that I enjoyed the compelling nature of this character and his and Morgan’s whole Sherlock/Moriarty thing, to give up on it so early into the season.
Hell, maybe I just wanted to see more of David Giuntoli again. I used to get a weekly fix of the man for five seasons of A Million Little Things, and I guess I miss it, even though Eddie sucked.
Regardless, the hour was interesting in that there was minimal follow-up on the Game Game Maker, and his effect on Morgan and the kids. That felt odd to me.
The impact he had on her can still linger even if he isn’t physically onscreen, in that same way that some of The Rookie‘s best villains will have a way of sticking to the back of our minds weekly even when they’re not physically in our faces.
I struggle when a series hasn’t taken full advantage of or squandered a decent villain with staying power, so maybe that’s why I can’t give up on this just yet.
However, the series has, for now. And therefore, it leaves us to focus on the primary mystery, truly the impetus for Morgan working with the team in the first place — Roman.
The Roman Arc Lags A Bit
However, even the Roman arc lags a bit during this hour. No one makes any real headway on his whereabouts, nor do we know much else about Arthur.
Given that High Potential still has a shorter season compared to many other series, I’m curious to see how they’ll stretch this storyline across the whole season while balancing the momentum it needs versus the suspense it has to build.
In this instance, the arc centered more on Ava asking Morgan for an update, and Morgan’s conflict in providing enough information while hoping she could handle it well.
Spoiler Alert: Our lovely Ava didn’t handle it well. And my heart genuinely goes out to this young woman, who has probably spent most of her life feeling like she doesn’t belong in her own family.
She thinks differently from her mother and brother. Ava doesn’t have the same neurodivergency as they do, and that often makes her feel left out on good days and a bit inadequate on others.
And Ludo is a fantastic man, and their family is this really beautiful, healthy unit that is one of the highlights of the series. However, she knows virtually nothing about her own father and is craving this connection.
From her perspective, it’s tough to process that the man whom her mother reassures her loved her, who seemingly abandoned them when she was a baby, has been living in the next state and hasn’t so much as made an appearance.
There’s no getting around that type of hurt, not until she has a conversation directly with this man.
Ava Proves She Is Her Mother’s Daughter, Too
It was a case of “be careful what you wish for” as Ava wanted to know updates, but she had a tough time when Morgan gave them to her. The moment of acting out and destroying her father’s mural revealed that she still has a lot to process and needs a better way to do so.
But it was hilarious to see mother and daughter side by side in jail until Karadec bailed them out.
I love that Karadec is no longer fazed by Morgan or her children and their antics. He’s assumed this level of responsibility over them because they’ve become his family, too. It’s precious!
But most importantly, we have these special moments and glimpses into how much Ava is, indeed, her mother’s daughter. She’s fiery, passionate, and impulsive, just like her.
They have a similar temperament, and later, the hour doubles down on this in a nice way by having Ava instrumental in helping Morgan crack the case — because Ava is smart, as well as highly observant.
And I love how this series neither glamorizes Morgan’s genius nor diminishes other characters like Ava because they don’t possess that particular brand of it.
Morgan also had some great moments on this case because she could pull from it regarding her own life. For her, there was a genuine sense of hope for Ava’s future when their victim, Nathan, reunited with his estranged daughter, Jessica, and they were on great terms.
Organ Donor Hellscape
The case itself was a tangled web of threads involving Nathan, a gambler, who struck a deal with his bookie to use his life insurance to pay off his debt.
Essentially, it was an act of love to protect Jessica from facing any fallout from his debts, but everything turned on its head when he found out he would be a grandfather.
The complicated nature of a bookie getting his insurance policy after his death and a billionaire getting his heart after he promised it to that of his paramedic’s mom took us on quite a convoluted ride.
Series exploring the complexities of organ donation seems to be a prevalent and hot subject, as it was also at the center of the Doc Season 2 premiere, resulting in a hostage situation.
And the whole angle of a billionaire stealing a heart by exploiting and throwing money around until they can get what they want, reminded me of Chicago Med Season 10 Episode 22, when a father stole a pair of lungs for his child.
In this instance, EMT Christopher resorted to murdering one of his favorite frequent flyers because he couldn’t stand the thought of his dying mother missing out on the chance of getting a heart.
You essentially had a multitude of flawed humans with complicated motivations orchestrating this elaborate scheme on multiple levels to survive or protect their loved ones.
This type of plos feels so dystopian, like The Hunger Games, a reflection of how capitalism can corrupt the most just systems, and when it comes to life and death, make monsters out of desperate people.
High Potential Continues to Strike the Right Balance with Morgan and the Team
It’s no wonder the case got under Morgan’s skin, but Karadec’s gesture of showing her who got the heart totally unprompted is the type of thing that gives you all the feels!
I’m loving this season, how they approach Morgan as a consultant. Instead of treating her differently because she’s an imposition, they fully embrace her as a member of their team but remain mindful of the fact that she’s a civilian.
It’s refreshing because there are many series with this format, featuring a civilian consultant working with the police, but few strike the right balance in properly depicting what that looks like for all parties.
And because the others consider Morgan more, it helps ground them on the job as well. She helps them never lose sight of the human element of what they’re doing — she draws out their compassion and empathy, and that makes them much better at solving cases.
How about those family feels?
Over to you, High Potential Fanatics.
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