Late into its second season, High Potential is finally digging deeper into the mystery of Roman Sinquerra's disappearance, and it is far more convoluted than season 1 ever suggested.
In back-to-back episodes, "Pie in the Sky" and "Turn Up the Heat," Lieutenant Selena Soto has made herself known to Willa Quinn, a woman with a lot of power who helps extremely wealthy people, who is also heavily implied to be involved in the question and conspiracy surrounding the truth about Roman. Yet, even though Roman's mystery has been pushed forward as finally being a main plot point throughout these two episodes, that does not make Morgan any closer to finding out what really happened.
Soto has taken point against Willa Quinn in the hunt to learn the truth. But she has only really learned two key details: that Willa Quinn is likely involved and that she is scared of whatever Soto, Morgan, and the rest of the team are close to uncovering.
Unfortunately, it has taken too long for this storyline to really take off, especially as two episodes in a row with the mystery of Roman as a main plot line have yet to reveal anything new. Instead, they only result in new ways to be elusive. Although Morgan's initial reason for joining Major Crimes relied on Soto agreeing to help solve this mystery, most of the series is very enjoyable, with Roman being such a background plot that High Potential worked perfectly well without it. But the setup also suggests that with being closer to uncovering the truth, it may also mean that Roman, if he is alive, is another step closer to reuniting with Morgan, which begs the question of what this would mean for the series moving forward.
High Potential has a strong core main ensemble between Morgan, Karadec, Daphne, Oz, and Soto. The show has already proved that introducing new characters into the established crew could prove difficult, as Captain Wagner has yet to find a proper groove with everyone else. Sometimes, he disappears for episodes at a time, and the storyline hardly finds itself missing him when there are so many other characters and storylines there to occupy the space. Could Roman's return impact how the show already behaves? The existing structure works for several reasons, as everything from Morgan's relationship with Karadec being the core of the series to the ins and outs of major crimes and Morgan's dynamic with her kids all already holds a strong and established foundation.
Roman is also a difficult character to get behind because of how disconnected this plot was from the show for so long. Although his disappearance was part of Morgan's original motivation to join Major Crimes, and she still clearly cares about Roman and what happened to him, she is the only character who can truly speak to his existence. None of the other main characters has an emotional attachment to Roman beyond Morgan and her daughter.
Additionally, Roman's storyline was mainly a throwaway line in most episodes of the show, rather than any real leads. "Pie in the Sky" and "Turn Up the Heat" do not necessarily fix that issue. Although in both of these circumstances, Soto is entirely focused on finding Roman, and it acts as a main plot point, neither of these episodes actually results in any answers beyond the sensation that maybe they are getting slightly closer to what could be an answer rather than concrete facts and information. It is still not clear if Roman is alive or dead and where he was really taken after his abduction.
Having Soto spearhead the search for Roman instead of Morgan does add layers to the search. This way, Morgan is not the only character committed to unraveling the truth, and it leaves room for Morgan to solve the murder of the week and be there for her kids without having most of her time be taken up by focusing on Roman. Yet, the final result of what really happened to Roman still needs to justify how Morgan, who solves every mystery every week, was unable to uncover the truth herself about what really happened to Roman or what he had actually been up to shortly before his kidnapping.
Trying to pull one over on the character who can solve everything is a tall order, but by the time High Potential reveals the truth, the explanation needs to sit right with all the waiting that High Potential has asked Morgan to sit through. Every once in a while, High Potential drops a big reveal about what was really going on with Roman, such as that he was secretly an FBI informant. By the conclusion of season 2, the series needs to give more significant answers about Roman.