Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for High Potential Season 2 Episode 1.Every good drama needs a Big Bad Villain that the protagonist can battle. Whether it’s Moriarty in Elementary, the Triple Killer in Castle, Rosalind Dyer in The Rookie, or The Reaper in Criminal Minds, these criminals are super-sized bad guys. Big Bads are often much more clever than your average villain, and it takes a long time to catch them. They typically represent the pure evil that our heroes are fighting against. The best part of these types of villains is that they carry over into multiple episodes, creating intriguing and suspenseful storylines that help the audience want to stay tuned in. So far in ABC’s High Potential, Morgan (Kaitlin Olson) has easily been able to catch all the bad guys she comes across. However, there’s a new criminal on the scene, and High Potential would be well-served to keep him on permanently as a Big Bad for the series.
Who Is the Game Maker in ‘High Potential’?
Morgan has always been able to use her High Intellectual Potential (HIP) diagnosis to root out whatever criminal she’s searching for. Her impressive attention to detail, steel-trap memory, and keen problem-solving skills have always been useful tools for the Major Crimes Unit at the Los Angeles Police Department. But then, toward the end of Season 1, Morgan and the team come up against a criminal who plans much more elaborate crimes. He kidnaps his victims and then forces Morgan and the police to play twisted games in order to rescue the innocent person. Earning the nickname the Game Maker because of his well-thought-out puzzles, this criminal is much more savvy than the other murderers Morgan has investigated. The Game Maker even manages to kidnap and nearly drown Lev ‘Oz’ Osman (Deniz Akdeniz) in Episode 13, proving that he’s incredibly dangerous.
Even though the team is able to rescue Oz, the Game Maker stays completely undetected. That is, until the Season 1 finale, when Morgan is shopping with her children. A kind stranger (David Giuntoli) helps with her groceries, and when Morgan returns home, she finds a deck of cards in her bag with the note, “YOU’RE THE ONE, MORGAN. WE SHALL PLAY AGAIN. ME AND YOU.” This interaction means that Morgan can now put a face to the Game Maker, but it also means that he was able to get close to her and her family without her realizing it. Luckily for fans who are interested in seeing a Big Bad being developed in this series, the Game Maker is now a presence in Season 2.
‘High Potential’s Game Maker Is Continuing To Taunt Morgan
Season 2 opens with Morgan keeping her family isolated at home. She doesn’t tell her children at first why they’re hiding out, but it’s clear that Morgan is terrified of what the Game Maker is capable of. A new crime unfolds with a woman being kidnapped (who frighteningly has a lot of similarities to Morgan). There are plenty of red herrings left of who could have taken the woman, but Morgan knows that the Game Maker is somehow pulling the strings. However, because Morgan is acting so obsessed with catching the Game Maker, the rest of the team is starting to lose a bit of confidence in her. It seems like Morgan is finding connections to the Game Maker everywhere she looks, and to the team, it sort of seems like maybe Morgan is going off the deep end. By the premiere episode’s end, the kidnapped woman is still missing. In a shocking cliffhanger, the Game Maker himself shows up at the precinct, and tells Morgan, “I heard you were looking for me.” The Game Maker has been playing a twisted game of cat-and-mouse with Morgan, and it seems like that will continue, even with them possibly discovering his identity.
‘High Potential’ Should Keep the Game Maker Around Permanently
The Game Maker has all of the qualities of a perfect Big Bad . He’s incredibly smart and manipulative (which makes him hard to catch), bold in his actions, and inventive in his crimes. This makes him both fascinating to watch and also super creepy. Showrunner Todd Harthan noted in a recent Collider interview that he didn’t want the Game Maker to be “a traditional sadistic serial killer. We needed someone smart and sadistic without being too over the top or too dark…when you want to create one of those big villains, you have to decide how you’re going to give them their own identity.” With the Game Maker, the crimes he commits are much more about the thrill of the chase and about matching wits with someone as intelligent as Morgan. He’s finally found someone who can present a challenge to him, and even though Morgan feels so much fear towards him, all he feels is a rush. This means that the Game Maker won’t likely stop taunting Morgan.
The Game Maker should definitely be a character that High Potential includes in future episodes. Even if he’s somehow caught by the police, perhaps he could be released and resurface later on. He’s the first villain that Morgan can’t use her skills to catch right off the bat, so him lurking in the background would be the best way to create more suspense in the series. He’s also definitely under Morgan’s skin already because he was able to get so close to her kids. There’s no way now that Morgan would be able to completely separate how she feels about the Game Maker in order to objectively solve any cases connecting to him. Morgan does love a puzzle, though, and this guy has gotten so embedded in her brain that this could be the ultimate game that she keeps working on, even while trying to solve other cases in the meantime. Plus, Giuntoli is such a fantastic actor (he has starred in beloved shows such as Grimm and A Million Little Things) that his presence in an ensemble show like High Potential is always appreciated.
The Game Maker keeps raising the stakes for Morgan and the crew in each episode, and it would be fascinating to see him continue to create creepy puzzles for them to solve going forward. His chaotic and dangerous energy is just what the series needs to steer clear of the boring procedural format. There will be plenty of drama in Morgan’s life (such as possibly reuniting with the missing Roman), but there would be nothing more exciting than to keep a villain like the Game Maker at play in the future.
New episodes of High Potential air on Tuesday nights on ABC, with episodes available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.
