High Potential Episode 2 Recap: “Dancers in the Dark”

By
Rebecca Murray
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High Potential Episode 2 Recap
Kaitlin Olson in ‘High Potential’ episode 2 (Disney/Mitch Hasseth)

ABC’s High Potential episode two begins with two talented tap dancers shooting a video on the roof of a building. The scene switches to ground level and shows one of the dancers falling from the roof and landing on a parked car. But how did he fall? Was he pushed? “Dancers in the Dark” is all about finding the answers.

Episode one introduced Kaitlin Olson as Morgan, a single mom of three who possesses a 160+ IQ, causing her to obsess over, well, everything. A quick montage of possible outfits for her first day is followed by breakfast served by her daughter, Ava, and son, Elliot. Since Mom’s got a decent job now, financially, things will be looking up. They can even get their car fixed and won’t have to rely on public transportation anymore.

Morgan’s ex, Ludo, shows up for paid manny duty, since Morgan negotiated childcare coverage as part of his salary.

Morgan meets Detective Adam Karadec (Daniel Sunjata) at the crime scene, and he still seems unable to wrap his head around the station’s cleaning lady being brought in as an LAPD consultant. The victim’s name is Damien Ross; he fell three stories and is currently in surgery. Karadec believes it might be a suicide attempt, but Morgan doesn’t want to jump to conclusions. They head to the roof and discover a tripod knocked over and a cell phone nearby. She determines the phone belongs to someone left-handed based on the swipe marks, and Karadec points out that the symbol on the back represents a Mexican baseball team.

They turn on the phone and Morgan rattles off facts about the image that pops up. It’s Michelangelo’s The Torment of St. Anthony. But right now, that doesn’t matter. What does is that Damien owned the car he fell onto, and he never would have destroyed it. He loved his ’81 Cutlass and wouldn’t have dented it. Thus, this case isn’t a suicide.

Morgan believes Damien was tapping his heart out when someone pushed him over the edge. Karadec confirms the phone isn’t Damien’s since his phone’s at the hospital. Plus, an imprint on the makeshift dancing platform has a perfect butt print, so whoever owns the phone will have an injured butt.

Meanwhile, Lt. Selena Soto (Judy Reyes) learns Detective Daphne Forrester (Javicia Leslie) is in contact with the hospital and Detective Lev ‘Oz’ Osman (Deniz Akdeniz) is getting CSI to fast-track any evidence from Damien’s car. Lt Melon (Garret Dillahunt) asks if she’s got anyone available to help him out in Robbery Homicide. A series of six jewelry stores have been hit, and he’s taking heat for not solving it yet.

He has a photo of the perpetrator and can really use an extra set of hands from Selena’s department. Selena agrees, and Oz volunteers.

Damien’s on life support so Selena wants the case treated as a murder.

Before Morgan heads to the hospital, she provides Selena with more details about her missing ex. He left to buy diapers for Ava and never returned. They weren’t fighting, and there’s no valid reason for him to have just disappeared.

High Potential Episode 2 Recap
Daniel Sunjata and Kaitlin Olson in ‘High Potential’ episode 2 (Disney/Nicole Weingart)

Morgan and Karadec speak with Damien’s mom, Winnie, and learn that if he survives, he may never walk again. Winnie says Damien doesn’t have any enemies and doesn’t know who could have pushed him. He works at Body Shop Brothers (BSB) and he is doing great, saving his money to buy a ticket to New York. He has dreams of dancing on Broadway. They’re interrupted by friends of Damien hugging Winnie, and Morgan quickly figures out the phone recovered on the rooftop belonged to one of them.

Roland, the man with an arm around Winnie has a tattoo over a scar on his left arm from Tommy John surgery. He was a pitcher for the Mexican baseball club. They bring Roland to the station and Karadec and Daphne interrogate him. He’s obviously physically uncomfortable and Morgan asks them to check his coccyx. Roland’s forced to come clean and admits he was on the roof. However, Damien helped him get his life together and never would have hurt him. Someone pushed Damien but Roland doesn’t know who.

While the team goes over all the evidence, Morgan suggests they check out Damien’s car again. Selena, Karadec, Daphne, and Morgan head to the police yard where Morgan points out Damien’s car has plasma chameleon paint. A fairly detailed explanation later, and they deduce someone from the body shop hid in Damien’s trunk, and that’s why whoever pushed Damien wasn’t captured entering the building on any security cameras.

Karadec and Morgan visit the body shop, and when they resent being questioned, Morgan suggests a trade. They provide their alibis in exchange for getting Damien’s car out of the police impound. If they make the deal, they can fix it quickly before Damien gets out of the hospital.

Back at the station, Morgan attempts to lay out all of the alibis, but Karadec cuts her off. At this rate, Morgan could be narrating their movements for the rest of the day. Daphne offers to put together a team to track and trace the body shop workers’ movements. The prime suspect has to be one of them.

Oh, and Roland was telling the truth, so he’s released from custody.

Over dinner, Ava shows off her art project that just got an A. In response, Morgan pulls down a box in the garage that has photos of LA murals. Ava’s dad painted them. By her reaction, she had no idea. Morgan thinks she should be happy she inherited her dad’s talent, but all Ava can do is be angry that he deserted them. However, Morgan is 100% certain he didn’t leave voluntarily. LAPD is even working on the case now.

That night, Karadec meets with Morgan on the rooftop. Morgan walks Karadec through what likely went down, pointing out where the killer would have hidden before launching his attack. Once Damien and Roland danced toward the edge of the roof, the killer charged and knocked over the tripod. This was all already known, except for one key point: the opposition effect. The moon was at a 90-degree angle to the sun, which meant that the killer couldn’t really make out either Damien or Roland’s face while he was charging them. The killer pushed the wrong guy. Roland was the target.

Karadec and Morgan realize Roland’s been released and the killer is still after him. Roland’s at a club and can’t hear Karadec when he calls to warn him that he’s in danger. Morgan quickly figures out that the music in the background is from a ‘90s remix party, which means he’s at Gateway Towers.

They arrive and it’s packed, but they spot the guys from the body shop. Morgan begs for their help finding Roland, and they split up to look for him. By the time they find him, he’s already been shot in the stomach and is dead.

Morgan’s upset they’re too late, and Karadec admits this is the worst part of the job. But next time, with her help, they’ll get there fast enough to save lives. He compliments Morgan’s skills and the two have their first real honest exchange.

Daphne locates cell phone footage that includes Roland and his assailant in the background. The killer hid his face from any cell phones, but it’s obvious Roland recognized him.

High Potential Episode 2 Recap
Judy Reyes, Javicia Leslie, and Daniel Sunjata in ‘High Potential’ episode 2 (Disney/Carlos Lopez-Calleja)

Morgan needs time to think and takes a walk through the station. She spots Lt. Melon and Oz, and the board with photos from the robberies. One catches her eye, and she asks to see the surveillance footage. The sparks from the robber’s gun indicate that the weapon is really old. That same flash was in the video that captured Roland’s murder. The same gun was used to kill Roland and rob jewelry stores.

Detective Karadec does the smart thing and suggests Lt. Melon give Morgan some time with the jewelry store robberies’ board. He reluctantly agrees, and Daphne and Oz wheel it through the hallways to Major Crimes. Morgan looks at both Damien’s and the robberies’ boards and points out the central question right now: why would the robber want to kill Roland?

Morgan rearranges Lt. Melon’s board and then points out that eyewitnesses said the robber got into a different car to get away for the first three heists. The last two robberies indicate that the robber lost his driver. Melon is getting increasingly irritated with Morgan’s use of his boards, but Selena is committed to letting Morgan work her way through the puzzle pieces.

The final two stores were within one block of the Red Line bus route. The robber was on foot and used public transportation after losing his driver. And the driver had to have had access to multiple cars. Two plus two equals the driver was Roland. Roland stopped being the driver at the same time that Damien started helping him escape a life of crime by turning to tap dancing.

The robber needed to kill Roland to keep his identity secret. Unfortunately, he mistook Damien for Roland. Morgan doesn’t know who the killer is but has an idea of how to find him.

A police call goes out requesting all units to respond to a 187. The robber makes his move immediately after the call goes out, but instead of jewelry store employees, he comes face-to-face with the police. Karadec orders him to put his weapon down and he complies, realizing the jig is up.

The robber is Griff, a body shop employee. Morgan fills him in on how they set up the trap, explaining they figured out he’d rob jewelry stores right after a code 3 went out on the scanner. So, they tricked him by issuing a fake code 3 alert.

Later, Karadec can’t help but confess he’s impressed with Morgan’s skills. He hands her her first official LAPD consultant paycheck, and now it’s Morgan’s turn to be impressed.

Word arrives that Damien’s awake so Morgan and Karadec pay him a visit at the hospital. Winnie introduces Damien to Morgan and Karadec and then reveals that the doctors believe he’ll be able to dance again. Damien promises that sometime in the future, he’ll get Morgan and Karadec tickets to a tap show.

Karadec and Morgan are really bonding, and he jokes that maybe she’s ready to wrap up work as a consultant now that she’s solved her first official case. Morgan teases that he’d miss her too much if she left. She knows he’s having way too much fun working with her.

Morgan stops by the shop and retrieves her car. Ava and Elliot are ecstatic to have it back.

Episode two ends with Selena showing up after dinner with important news. Roman’s car was taken into police impound three days after the disappeared. It was picked up after being abandoned in the Costco parking lot close to where he and Morgan lived. A box of diapers was found in the car. “Which, of course, begs the question: if Roman would have really wanted to abandon your family, why would he stop and buy diapers first?”

Morgan, teary-eyed, is happy that Selena believes her. Roman didn’t just run away. Selena promises they’ll find out what happened to him. Ava’s on the couch and hears everything. A tear rolls down her face.




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