Last week’s episode of High Potential revealed that Eric Hayworth (John Pyper-Ferguson), the man who abducted Roman Sinquerra 16 years earlier, was hired by a powerful and dangerous woman named Willa Quinn (Jennifer Jason Leigh). This week’s episode, “Pie in the Sky,” continues with the Roman mystery. Selena (Judy Reyes) takes an impromptu trip to New York City to meet Willa Quinn, while Morgan (Kaitlin Olson) works on a murder investigation back home.
Meanwhile, the Major Crimes team investigates the murder of a high-profile former astronaut named Teddy Barro (played by Olson’s former It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia co-star, Travis Schuldt). While getting ready to give a speech at a symposium, we see that Teddy has a tremor in his hand, and then he is killed when a seemingly poisonous pie is shoved into his face. Captain Wagner (Steve Howey) also returns for the first time in a while, in which he once again takes an unusual interest in Roman’s case.
In ‘High Potential’ Season 2, Episode 15, Major Crimes Investigates the Murder of an Astronaut
Morgan, Karadec (Daniel Sunjata), Daphne (Javicia Leslie), and Oz (Deniz Akdeniz) all kick off the investigation together at the hotel where Teddy was killed. They start with his fiancée, Heidi Choi (Catherine Haena Kim), who was with Teddy when he was killed. They get the footage while talking to Heidi, and they see the woman who pushed the pie into Teddy’s face. Morgan realizes that the woman, Arden Prescott (Lindsay Elston), is on the track team at the local St. Emily’s College. While everyone else goes to find Arden, Morgan goes home to check on Elliot (Matthew Lamb), who was a huge fan of Teddy. Elliot had even written to Teddy before, and Teddy had written him a letter back.
The pie was poisoned with a lethal nerve agent. Morgan and Karadec question Sister Lucy, Arden’s mentor, and she leads them to her. As it turns out, Arden didn’t actually know what was in the pie. She was a content creator who was messaged to do a prank video for a channel, and she had nothing to do with the murder. Later, Karadec learns that Teddy had been spending a lot of time in Russia before he died, and he wonders if Teddy could have been a spy. When they talk to Heidi later, though, she says that he told her he was just having dinner with his counterparts. Morgan then finds the speech Teddy had planned to give at the symposium, which endorses an aerospace contractor called Astro Molis to build the first space station.
Morgan and Karadec suspect that Teddy was killed so that he couldn’t give the speech backing Astro Molis. Daphne and Oz question Astro Molis’ main competitor, but he says that nobody knew what was in the speech. The whole Major Crimes team is confused, especially when Heidi plans to give the speech in Teddy’s place. Morgan and Karadec are worried about Heidi being harmed. They get a copy of her newest version of the speech, and she gives Morgan Teddy’s stuffed lion, ZGI (his zero-gravity indicator), to give to Elliot. Teddy brought the lion with him on all of his space missions, and Elliot is thrilled to have it.
After looking through photos of Teddy online and reading through Heidi’s edits to Teddy’s speech, Morgan realizes that Teddy had brain cancer. After receiving his diagnosis, Teddy was going to tell the world in his original speech that he got brain cancer from space radiation, and he wanted to encourage people to stop space exploration until it was safer. Heidi was scared that Teddy’s speech would destroy his legacy, so she killed him, taking the nerve agent from NASA’s testing facility and tricking Arden to do so.
‘High Potential’ Season 2, Episode 15 Brings Back Captain Wagner for the Roman Investigation
At the start of the episode, Selena is leaving to find Willa Quinn. Morgan wants to go with her, but Selena won’t let her. Wagner comes back this episode for the first time in a while, and he reveals that he somehow knows everything they’ve learned about the Roman investigation. Like before, Wagner is suspiciously interested in the investigation. He has a planned dinner with his dad that night, which feels notable, particularly because his dad is a powerful cop who got him this promotion. It feels a little too coincidental that Wagner is back at Major Crimes right as they’ve gotten a break in Roman’s case.
This episode reveals that Willa Quinn is a professional fixer like Scandal‘s Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington). Selena finds Willa while she’s out to lunch with a client, and although Willa isn’t ready to talk, she agrees to meet with Selena later. Selena is alarmed after learning that Willa knows everything about her, has been tracking her flight, and has been one step ahead this whole time. Selena tells Morgan everything over the phone, and then Wagner goes to Morgan to try to convince her to open up to him about the Roman investigation. Wagner then claims that he was only rude to everyone when he first got to Major Crimes to test people because he believes most cops are dishonest, like his family. At this point, Wagner still hasn’t proven himself to be trustworthy, though.
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Willa invites Selena to meet with her at a fancy ball, so Selena attends. When Selena brings up Roman to Willa, though, Willa tells her that she has nothing to share with her. Willa tells her about how the system failed her family, revealing that her dad, Ray, worked at the industrial laundry service for 30 years until they cut back his hours and he lost his insurance. He died at 51 of a heart attack while dealing with money troubles. Willa’s brother also got leukemia, and then her mother later died of cancer. Willa tells Selena this to make the point that only the wealthy have true power and decision-making abilities.
Later, Wagner talks to Karadec, hoping that he can get on Morgan’s good side through him. When Wagner asks how to get Morgan to let him in, Karadec says, “You don’t get Morgan Gillory to do anything. I’m surprised you didn’t know that by now.” Later, Selena meets with Willa, who basically offers her a job. Selena just tells Willa that she wants answers about Roman, though, and that she’ll get answers from the phone in Roman’s backpack if Willa doesn’t talk. Still, Willa gives her nothing. When Morgan leaves work that night, Wagner says that he’s submitting a warrant to have the DA look into Quinn International and find what they’re hiding. Morgan asks Wagner why he’s helping, and he says it’s just the right thing to do, but he’s obviously hiding something. Then, Selena lands in LA after her flight home, only to find Willa Quinn waiting for her at the airport.
High Potential airs Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m. ET on ABC.
