ABC’s High Potential episode 13, the season one finale, opens with Ludo giving Ava a driving lesson. Morgan (Kaitlin Olson) is freaked out and asks the detectives to take note of her license plate and pull her daughter over whenever they see her. She’s certain Ava will take after her and definitely won’t be a safe driver.
Lt. Selena Soto (Judy Reyes) reminds everyone to RSVP for the Police Gala; no one’s allowed to miss it. She wants Major Crimes well represented at the party.
The LAPD tipline forwards an email to Adam (Daniel Sunjata) that’s super concerning. The attachment shows a man named Spencer Wallace tied up to a chair, holding a sign that reads: “Two hours to make your move.” The detectives assume it’s some sort of game but aren’t sure if this is a real threat.
Oz (Deniz Akdeniz) discovers Spencer is 37, unmarried, and runs a small firm. He and Daphne (Javicia Leslie) head to his apartment and discover a jigsaw puzzle box on his doormat. Back at the station, Morgan starts work on the puzzle that didn’t include a photo of what the completed puzzle should look like.
Morgan flies through constructing the puzzle, and it winds up being a map with a missing piece showing Spencer’s location. Oz and Daphne look into Spencer’s background while Adam and Morgan head to the location. They walk around the area and find Ochos Locos game cards hanging from a tree. One has a message telling them to pick a card and follow one of two marked paths to locate Spencer before he dies.
They play Ochos Locos to determine what path to take. Back at the station, Oz and Daphne learn Spencer’s diabetic and could go into diabetic ketoacidosis after two hours.
Adam and Morgan’s next challenge is figuring out two hopscotch games. They indicate addition and multiplication of the designated numbers will reveal the answer. Morgan figures out it’s azimuth and elevation, dials the numbers into coin-operated binoculars, and a storage facility comes into view. Spencer is likely being held in a storage unit.
Morgan and Adam are joined by cops pounding on doors looking for the right unit. Oz learns that Spencer rents unit L4. Spencer’s inside, and after being transported to the hospital, he recalls someone coming up behind him at his apartment. They put a bag over his head, took him to the storage unit, and tried to force him to play games. He was panicking too much to play.
They moved pieces around a game board while wearing a white anime mask. They got frustrated when he wouldn’t play and knocked him out.
Morgan wonders why his storage unit was empty, and Spencer says he rented it with James, his partner who died four years ago. They wanted to travel the world and rented it to store their stuff. He died before they filled it, and now Spencer can’t bear to let it go. Spencer has no idea who would do this to him.
Back at the station, Morgan and Adam figure out the person responsible is playing a game with LAPD, not Spencer. Adam believes the person has a grudge against cops, but Morgan thinks it’s just someone who wants to play. (All the games are kids’ games.)
Later, Morgan stops at a café to pick up her standing Thursday order and discovers it’s already paid for. Gio’s seated in a booth, and Morgan joins him. He reveals that Roman was scared for himself and his family before he disappeared. A woman he worked with apparently had something to do with his fear. Her name is Layla Flynn, and Morgan admits she’s never heard of her.
Morgan comes home with food, and Ava immediately pulls her into her room to show her a memory book she’s working on. It goes back to her childhood and continues through this morning’s driving lesson. She made it for her dad, just in case he’s found.
Ava volunteers to dress her mom for the upcoming gala, and Morgan agrees to let her.
Daphne arrives at work and Oz is already there working on the case. He seems really obsessed with it, but Daphne can’t question him because they’re called over to the hotel hosting the Police Gala. There’s a new lead in the case.
Tom (JD Pardo) calls Morgan, and the flirty talk reveals Tom’s happy with his new job but misses her. It turns out they’ll see each other at the gala.
Morgan joins Adam, Oz, and Daphne at the hotel where someone’s left a baby stroller with creepy dolls. Tiles from a Scrabble game spell out: “The fun has just begun.” No one knows who left the stroller, but Morgan’s certain whoever did it is watching them right now.
Returning to the station, the team pieces together clues and comes up with … nothing. There’s no DNA or prints. Morgan’s certain the dolls mean something, but she still doesn’t know what. Adam wonders if anyone besides Spencer knew about the storage unit, and suddenly Oz says, “I did.”
Oz confesses that he’s part of a private grief group for people who’ve lost someone. (He lost his dad last year.) He didn’t connect the dots at first, but now he remembers Spencer and that Spencer discussed the storage unit. The kidnapper/game player could be in the support group.
Oz and Daphne head out to talk to the group, and they all seem to have liked Spencer. They also remember a guy named David who mentioned loving to play games. After his sister died, he was upset that game nights were over.
Meanwhile, Morgan examines the dolls and comes up with zilch. She tells Adam and Selena about Gio and the Layla Flynn lead. Adam makes Morgan promise she won’t trust Gio.
Daphne and Oz wait for a sketch artist to help identify David the game player. The group’s leader is worried Sierra hasn’t shown up; she never misses a meeting. Sierra’s an ASL interpreter who lives on the West side.
The team goes over their clues now that they have a sketch and a possible suspect’s first name. He’s a white male, 5’ 10”-ish, with a beard. But they still can’t figure out why David is doing this now, and Oz thinks it’s because the group refused to join him for bar trivia two weeks ago.
It’s possible Sierra is the second victim, and Adam and Morgan head over to her place. She obviously put up a fight, and Morgan scans the apartment for clues. She believes a bookcase has been moved, and a message appears on the wall when they turn off the lights. “You can’t tell in the dark.”
Morgan latches on to the word “tell” and thinks he took Sierra because she’s an ASL interpreter and you can’t read sign language in the dark. People who are deaf can’t talk in the dark. Morgan believes the dolls’ hands are saying something in sign language.
The hands form COX1PI. Morgan flips that around and gets PICOX1, which means Pico Blvd and 1st. An art gallery there closed a while ago, and Morgan and the team discover Sierra crying inside a safe. A timer shows she’s been in there 36 minutes.
SWAT and a safe cracker can’t get there for 45 minutes, but that’s okay because Morgan determines the art on the wall is actually the next game – jacks. The paintings trace the evolution of the game in different countries. Morgan tallies it up and comes up with 1-10- 5-7. And, of course, that’s the combination!
The team’s sure David won’t stop until he gets a win, and each grief group member is assigned a cop to keep them safe. Daphne’s got Oz’s back like she always does. Adam suggests they should cancel the gala, but Selena refuses to consider it.
Morgan gets home and is met with gorgeous outfits selected by Ava, with help from Ludo. Ava picked out the perfect selection of dresses, but Morgan’s mind is on the case.
Gio texts and wants to meet tomorrow at 9am.
Adam secretly asked Ronnie (Jocko Sims) for help looking into Layla Flynn, and Ronnie’s learned she was a field agent for the FBI. She handled classified cases and was murdered 15 years ago, execution-style, in her own backyard. One of her last cases involved Roman, and he dropped off the grid right after her murder. Ronnie hands over a file with the little he learned about Roman and orders Adam to burn it after he reads it.
Oz is David’s next victim. He’s knocked out by his airbag when he tries to start his car.
The gala gets underway, and Adam, Selena, and Daphne look amazing. Oz and Morgan aren’t there yet, so Daphne checks in on Oz. Adam informs Selena that Ronnie dug up information indicating Roman was an FBI informant. Selena gives him permission to keep digging.
Morgan arrives and Adam tells her she looks stunning. (She does!) Night falls, and Oz still isn’t answering his phone. Daphne leaves to check on him. Adam and Morgan dance as Adam admits they’ve come a long way. He’s certain they’ll solve many more cases, including Roman’s. Adam insists she let him deal with Gio, but Morgan remains convinced she needs to do it herself.
Adam promises to get what they need from Gio. Morgan doesn’t want him worrying about her, and Adam finally wins by calling her “partner” and reminding her she needs to trust him. Morgan confirms Gio wants to meet tomorrow.
Adam points out that Tom’s just arrived and steps aside so that Morgan can dance with him.
Daphne finds Oz’s car with blood on the deflated airbag. Inside is an hourglass with “Marco!” written on a piece of Oz’s silk tie attached to it. The detectives return to the station to piece together the clues, and Daphne points out that all of the clues from the various games are written in different fonts. Morgan asks for the names of the fonts in the order received. They are Romana, Haptic Script, Olicana, Kiln Sans, and Avant Garde. The first letters spell Rhoka, and Morgan remembers there’s an architect named J. R. Rhoka. Only one house Rhoka designed has a pool, so they race over and find Oz chained up on the bottom. There’s an air tank and scuba gear, but no bubbles are coming up.
Adam gets him to the surface and Daphne performs CPR. Finally, after a few heart-stopping moments, Oz comes around. Oz will be fine and Selena warns him to never scare them like that again.
CSI will go over the house for clues.
Adam meets with Gio, and initially, Gio resists talking to him since he told Morgan no cops. He has a target on his back as it is and doesn’t need his family put in danger. However, after Adam apologizes, Gio tells him what he was going to tell Morgan.
Back at the station, it’s revealed the house belongs to the Pecks. They have a 38-year-old son named David, who lost his twin sister when they were 10. The Pecks are estranged from their son and have been at their vacation home, so they don’t know what’s going on in the house.
Elsewhere, Morgan and the kids put their groceries in the car and are discussing potential family vacation locations when a helpful stranger rescues a fallen item. They make it home and Morgan’s still thinking about where they can go on their first family vacation when Elliot notices a Jungle Animal Match card game among the groceries he’s putting away. Morgan looks at it, stunned, realizing the man at the store must be David! The back of the game has a sticker with XX eyes and the warning: “You’re the one, Morgan. We shall play again. Me and you.”
Over at the station, the team finally finds a photo of David with long hair and no beard. However, Daphne reveals she just got off the phone with a rehab facility. David’s been in lockdown for four months, so he can’t possibly be the game player.
The episode and the season end with a cliffhanger. Morgan realizes her family is being targeted. Adam calls with news that Roman is alive, and he knows where he is!
- High Potential Season 1 Episode 1 Recap
- High Potential Season 1 Episode 2 “Dancers in the Dark” Recap
- High Potential Season 1 Episode 3 “Dirty Rotten Scoundrel” Recap
- High Potential Season 1 Episode 4 “Survival Mode” Recap
- High Potential Season 1 Episode 5 “Croaked” Recap
- High Potential Season 1 Episode 6 “Hangover” Recap
- High Potential Season 1 Episode 7 “One of Us” Recap
- High Potential Season 1 Episode 8 “Obsessed” Recap
- High Potential Season 1 Episode 9 “The RAMS” Recap
- High Potential Season 1 Episode 10 “Chutes and Murders” Recap
- High Potential Season 1 Episode 11 “The Sauna at the End of the Stairs” Recap
- High Potential Season 1 Episode 12 “Partners” Recap
- High Potential Season 2 Episode 1 “Pawns” Recap
