High Potential episode 2 opens with two young men getting out of a custom-painted car in a dark alley. They use a ladder to climb up to the roof, where Damian Ross (Alaman Diadhiou) and his friend Roland (C.J. Salvador) set up a camera to record themselves doing a complicated tap dance. The camera pans down to the car, where Damian soon crashes on after falling. Or was he pushed from the roof?
- Also read: High Potential episode 1 recap
That's what Morgan (Kaitlin Olson) must figure out in her first official case on High Potential.
Trust the process
Morgan meets Karadec (Daniel Sunjata) in the alley to start investigating what Karadec believes is a suicide attempt (Damian is still alive, but in critical condition at the hospital). They go up to the roof, where Morgan zeroes in on the tripod. Following the trajectory of the knocked over tripod she finds a phone that slid into a crack. There's a video of Roland and Damian dancing on the platform near the edge of the roof.
Morgan tells Karadec it's clear from the custom paint job on Damian's car he really loves his car. If he was going to attempt suicide, he wouldn't do it that way and damage the car, so he must have been pushed off the roof.
While she's talking, Karadec checks with CSI and finds out Damian has his phone with him at the hospital. The phone they found belongs to the other person that was on the roof. But the only clues to the identity is a baseball mascot sticker and Morgan able to deduce the owner is left handed.
At the LAPD, Selena (Judy Reyes) gets a visit from Lt. Melon (Garret Dillahunt), who needs help from her detectives solving a robbery. No one wants to work with Melon, but Osman (Deniz Akdeniz) takes one for the team and joins Melon.
Selena tells Karadec and Morgan to go to the hospital and talk to Damian's family. But before they leave Morgan goes to Selena's office to ask about her missing ex, Roman Sinquerra. Roman went out for diapers when Ava (Amirah J) was a baby and never came back, but Morgan is sure he didn't just leave them. Selena promises to investigate.
The BSB boys
At the hospital, Morgan and Karadec talk to Winnie Ross (Shelley Roberston), Damian's mother. She has no idea who would want to hurt Damian. She mentions he works at BSB, Body Shop Brothers, a custom body shop that works with troubled kids and ex-cons.
Some of Damian's BSB friends arrive at the hospital to check on Damian. Morgan notices one of them, Roland (C.J.Salvador) has a scar that indicates he was a baseball pitcher and he's left handed. Bringing him to the LAPD for questioning, Roland admits its his phone, but says another man pushed Damian off the roof after. Roland ran after Damian fell.
Morgan figures out the third guy could have hidden in the trunk of Damian's car. Even though the model of Damian's car was too old to have a trunk safety release as standard equipment, Morgan gets in the trunk to prove she can get out after it's closed because someone put in a trunk release.
At BSB, Karadec talks to Knox (Rafael Castillo), Griff (Carlin James) and Dane (Brennen Keel Cook) about Damian. They don't want to talk to Karadec, but talk to Morgan.
Roman's influence
At home that night, Morgan sees an art project Ava did, which shows some real artistic talent. Morgan takes Ava to the garage and digs out a box of photos of stunning murals. Morgan tells Ava her father, Roman, painted those murals. But in addition to trying to inspire her daughter, Morgan gets an idea from the photos.
She has Karadec meet her on the roof where Damian was pushed. She tells him the night of the incident the bright moon was behind the boys as they were dancing, making it impossible to see their faces. Whoever pushed Damian pushed the wrong person. They were trying to kill Roland.
Morgan and Karadec race to track down Roland. He's at a rave in a warehouse with some BSB friends. They're too late; when they find Roland he's dead, shot.
Back at the LAPD, the detectives go over video footage from the rave. Morgan identifies a unique spark pattern emitted by the gun. She sees the same flash in a photo on Lt. Melon's robbery crime board, realizing the cases are connected.
From robbery to murder
Lt. Melon thinks it's ridiculous and doesn't want to work with Morgan, but Selena tells him to let Morgan do her thing. Morgan looks at a map of the robberies and photos of the getaway cars from the first three robberies, which are all different. Morgan figures out the getaway cars stopped after the first three robberies, and the two robberies after that were at jewelry stores close to public transit stops.
Morgan theorizes the getaway driver was someone from BSB, because the driver had access to different cars. The driver must have stopped agreeing to help the robber, which is why the robber started hitting jewelry stores close to public transit stops. She thinks Griff is the killer, and Roland was the getaway driver. Roland stopped after Damian started teaching him to dance. Griff pushed Damian off the room thinking he was Roland, then killed Roland at the rave. They set up a sting and catch Griff in the act of trying to rob a jewelry store. Griff confesses.
At the hospital Damian is relieved the killer has been caught, and it looks like he will make a full recovery.
After Morgan solved her first case, Selena has been doing her own investigating. She stops at Morgan's house to tell her Roman's car was found three days after he went missing. There were diapers inside, which means Morgan was right and Roman didn’t just leave them.
New episodes of High Potential air Tuesdays on ABC, then are available to stream on-demand on Hulu the next day.
