Season one of ABC’s High Potential ended with the Game Maker still on the loose and targeting Morgan’s family. It was also revealed that Roman is possibly still alive. Season two picks up just a week later, with Morgan and her family going a bit stir-crazy from being stuck at home.
(The following is a detailed recap of season two episode one, “Pawns,” and has spoilers.)
Music pounds as a woman leaves a club, answering a call from her babysitter confirming her kids are fine. She’s heading home after a fun night out partying. One second, she’s dancing her way to her car; the next, she’s vanished while walking next to a white van in a gated parking lot.
Meanwhile, Morgan (Kaitlin Olson) looks through the Game Maker’s files and momentarily freaks out when she hears screaming. Thankfully, it’s just Ludo (Taran Killam) and their son having a pillow fight. She joins in and Ava (Amirah J) takes over the adult role, warning them to be quiet because she’s trying to put the baby to sleep.
Lt. Selena Soto (Judy Reyes) interrupts the fight by paying a late-night visit. Morgan admits it’s been tough keeping the secret that a deranged psycho is after her from the kids. Selena tries to assure her they’ll catch him soon. She also confirms they’re still working on finding Roman. They think he’s staying in Henderson, Nevada, and the police there are helping with the search.
Detectives Adam Karadec (Daniel Sunjata), Oz Osman (Deniz Akdeniz), and Daphne Forrester (Javicia Leslie) have been burning the midnight oil, pulling late shifts to try and locate the killer. Adam sends them both home; he doesn’t want them to get burned out.
Morgan calls him at 2am and Adam’s still up at home, working. Morgan can’t believe they haven’t found the Game Maker since she worked with multiple artists to come up with a detailed sketch to release to the public. She hates feeling so on edge, and Adam admits he feels the same.
Morning arrives and Morgan delivers shortbread cookies to Officer Chester (Rolando Boyce), who’s outside protecting her family. She’s about to run errands when she notices the flag’s up on her mailbox. Inside is a postcard advertising a security company. It’s addressed to her neighbor and she’s instantly on edge. Chester offers to call for a police escort, but Morgan doesn’t think that’s necessary as she heads to the address on the postcard.
She’s freaked out when she finds a neighbor’s door open and “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” blaring. No one at the station picks up so she heads there and immediately launches into a rant about the rarity of the postal service delivering mail to the wrong address. She believes the Game Maker wanted her to walk past a specific house on the way to the address on the postcard.
She finally stops talking and Adam’s able to welcome her back. Morgan apologizes for coming in hot and asks the team to check the postcard for fingerprints. She’s certain the Game Maker touched it. The team disagrees, and Selena reminds her of a few recent incidents that she also thought involved the Game Maker. Morgan confesses she may have jumped the gun before, but the jungle animal game that he left her kids and “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” are a match. It’s got to be him.
Daphne confirms she’s tried to reach out to Maya Price, the woman who owns the house with the open front door. Suddenly, a woman speaks up and claims Maya is her sister and that she’s currently missing. Maya’s young son, Max, is also there and wonders where his mom is.
The sister, Sarah, explains she was babysitting Max and Maya never came to pick him up. When Sarah stopped by the house this morning, she found the door open. Sarah says Maya got free tickets to a show at a club and went with someone from work. She shows off photos her sister sent from the club, and it looks like she had fun. Maya doesn’t drink so it’s not an issue of her getting drunk and going somewhere to sleep it off.
Sarah describes Maya’s ex as a good guy with bad habits. Unfortunately, there were custody issues. Sarah doesn’t recognize the Game Maker when Morgan shows her the sketch.
Adam and Morgan learn Maya left the club alone at about 9:30pm. They walk to the pay lot nearby and her silver Honda isn’t there. However, Morgan spots busted streetlights that would have made the parking lot dark. She picks up a heel cap from Maya’s shoe and believes she was attacked right where they’re standing. As we see the abduction go down, Morgan says Maya fought back using her purse as a weapon. Multiple items flew out and are still on the pavement.
Morgan thinks Maya was able to run toward the guard in the parking lot booth. Unfortunately, she didn’t make it to him. There are scratch marks on the ground left by her heels as he dragged her to his—or her—vehicle.
At some point Maya must have lost a shoe and only left one drag mark. Morgan scans the lot and finds a shoe that matches Maya’s photos. The Game Maker must have knocked Maya out and put her in the trunk of her car.
Back at the station, the team gets to work on Maya’s case. They’ll hold a press conference later, but Selena doesn’t want to definitively tie the Game Maker to her abduction in the press. For now, they’ll say it’s a search for a missing woman.
Oz sides with Morgan but Adam confirms the only prints on the postcard are Morgan’s and the postman’s. Oz learns Maya recently bought a gun. Selena wants Maya’s ex, Derek, brought in for questioning.
Morgan, Adam, Oz, and Daphne search Maya’s place, and Adam notices “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” album doesn’t fit in with her other records. Oz notes the locks are new, and Daphne says she can’t find a gun.
Morgan looks through her closet and finds Gucci, Versace, and Prada bags that Maya can’t afford. (Sarah said Maya works two jobs to make ends meet.) There’s nothing in the packages and Adam thinks they might have been stolen. They continue to look for clues and Morgan finds a keyboard. She yells for Adam, certain the missing items were sold.
At Morgan’s urging, she and Adam head to Boneyard Pawn where Morgan happens to be a familiar face. She knows the guy working at the counter, Fritzy, and shows him Maya’s photo. He doesn’t admit to recognizing her, but then Morgan points out that a keyboard in Maya’s house had an imprint left behind by Boneyard’s dog biscuit-shaped stickers. She must have bought it there while pawning the expensive items. He confesses he bought items from Maya, but he can’t just hand over thousands of dollars of items to the cops.
Morgan talks him into letting the cops borrow the items. He mentions that Maya was arguing with a man in the parking lot and it should have been captured on his security camera.
Adam questions Derek, informing him Maya was abducted last night in Hollywood. Adam shows Derek footage of him and Maya arguing outside the Boneyard. Derek admits he followed her and that she’d been getting expensive gifts from someone. He was jealous but claims he wouldn’t hurt her. He’s shocked to learn Maya bought a weapon. She hated guns.
Derek calls Maya the love of his life and asks Adam to please find her.
Morgan joins Adam to question Maya’s friend who was with her at the club. She confirms Maya was stressed out over custody issues and needed a night out. She also confirms their boss, CEO Jason Howard, is a nepo baby who’s always hard to get ahold of. Maya never told her who sent the expensive gifts, but she believes Jason sent them. Jason was interested in Maya and gave her the tickets to the club the night she disappeared. But Maya would never have been involved with Jason romantically.
The friend mentions that Morgan looks like Maya.
Daphne discovers Jason settled half a dozen sexual harassment cases to keep women quiet. Morgan listens and then steps out, quickly creating her own board with Jason as a Game Maker suspect. She wheels it into the office and recites all the clues linking him to the Game Maker:
-Jason is a diabetic like his victim Spencer, so he would know how long Spencer could have survived without a shot.
-Jason’s also a painter whose work looks like the ones found hanging in the gallery where victim Sierra was locked in a safe.
-He’s a certified scuba instructor, which means he could have placed Oz in the pool.
-When you draw long hair and a beard on Jason, he looks just like one of the sketches of the suspect.
Selena thinks Jason is the Game Maker, but Morgan corrects her. Jason is just a distraction that the real Game Maker set up to look guilty. The pieces were too easy to put together. The Game Maker is actually framing Jason, and they shouldn’t fall for it. Selena remains unconvinced, suggesting the easiest answer might be the right answer this time.
The team sides with Selena. Why would the Game Maker frame Jason Howard? Morgan doesn’t know.
A short time later, Selena confesses to Adam that she believes Morgan’s under too much stress. Selena takes the blame since she pushed her into the job. But Adam’s convinced Selena did the right thing. They need Morgan as part of the team.
Ava’s growing restless and wants to go to a friend’s, but Morgan makes her stay home. She promises her daughter they’ll talk about it later.
Adam drops by with news they’re going to a party hosted by Jason. Jason promised he’d give them a few minutes to talk there.
They arrive and everyone’s wearing masks, just like the Game Maker’s. Jason claims Maya is really important to his company. He admits he gave her the comp tickets to the nightclub and then reluctantly admits he knows about the expensive items. However, he reveals Maya bought them for herself with his credit card. He found out last week but didn’t fire her because he has a soft spot for single moms. Also, it’s just money.
Morgan points out his collection of expensive samurai weapons is missing a dagger. Adam asks for his alibi for last night and he says he was home. He then asks them to see themselves out. Adam realizes Morgan’s lagging behind to look around without a warrant. He doesn’t make her leave.
As she’s going through Jason’s drawers, she thinks she sees the Game Maker. She goes after him as Adam looks around. Adam spots Maya’s bracelet in the pool just as Morgan yells for him, certain she’s just seen the Game Maker.
The Game Maker puts on a mask and calmly walks through the party guests as Morgan follows behind. Adam gets in front of the masked man and holds him at gunpoint, demanding he remove his mask. He does, and it’s Jason.
Adam reads Jason his rights, informing him he’s under arrest for the kidnapping of Maya. Morgan’s certain the Gamemaster is somewhere on the property, and Adam gets her to take a deep breath and think about where Maya might be held.
Back at the station, Derek is barely held back when he goes after Jason as he’s led in by cops. Morgan calls Ludo to see if everything’s okay and if he’s got the place on lockdown. He told the kids what’s happening, and they’re scared for their mom.
Jason’s questioned and doesn’t provide any info on Maya. Morgan believes that’s because Jason’s not involved in the kidnapping. She still thinks he’s being set up. The team wonders how close she was to the Gamemaster at the party; they wish someone else had seen him too.
Morgan’s shocked that they’re suggesting she can’t remember his face. She becomes emotional, admitting his face will always be cemented in her brain because he’s a danger to her kids.
Daphne discovers a salvage yard found Maya’s car, and the team checks it out. It showed up last night but the man at the yard doesn’t know who brought it in. The trunk contains Maya’s bloody jacket and Jason’s missing dagger.
Selena arrives at the yard with news that the police in Nevada have an address for Roman. Adam volunteers to drive Morgan there now, but she doesn’t want to leave her kids. Daphne and Oz volunteer to go instead; Selena told them what’s going on last week, so now they’re in the loop too.
Suddenly, Morgan realizes someone must have called Derek to tell him about Jason’s arrest. Adam confirms it wouldn’t have been Major Crimes, so Morgan deduces it must have been the Game Maker. What she can’t figure out is why.
Adam and Morgan return to the station to look through the evidence again. Morgan thinks it’s possible Maya also received the security company post card in the mail and had the company install her new locks. And it was the Game Maker who changed them! While he was there, he stole Jason’s credit card. He charged all the gifts to it, causing Maya to believe Jason bought them, while Jason thought Maya used his card to buy them for herself. The Game Maker then abducted her, stole her bracelet, and put it in Jason’s pool. He grabbed the dagger at the same time. Morgan thinks the Game Maker bought a gun on Jason’s card and wanted Derek to think that Maya had purchased one.
It’s possible Maya’s still alive since the Game Maker’s other victims weren’t murdered. Morgan thinks the Game Maker is setting up Derek to use Maya’s gun, which he planted in her house, to kill Jason.
The scene shifts to Derek retrieving the gun from a drawer at Maya’s house. (Morgan’s theory is the Game Maker planted it there after the detectives search her place.) “The Game Maker created a murderer,” says Morgan.
“And we put the weapon right in his hands,” replies Selena.
Adam goes to Maya’s place and finds an empty gun case. He sees Derek speeding away and drives off after him.
Oz and Daphne arrive at the address in Nevada and knock on a motel room door. A man (Mekhi Phifer) inside the room pulls an envelope from under the mattress and reads an address.
The episode ends with the Game Maker (Grimm‘s David Giuntoli) showing up at the station, smiling as he tells Selena and Morgan that he knows they’re looking for him.
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