High Potential Season 2 Episode 15 Review: Wagner’s Return & Willa Quinn’s Arrival Spark More Intrigue

What does Willa Quinn know?

We had our first introduction to the enigmatic and powerful Willa Quinn and the return of Wagner on High Potential.

But we’re no closer to resolving a mystery. If anything, the hour raises more questions.

From a case perspective, this was delightfully bizarre and a bit heartbreaking, too.

Teddy genuinely seemed like a nice guy. We had this esteemed astronaut who loved space and always took the time to encourage young fans.

He earned my respect just by his willingness to be late for a meeting if it meant encouraging a young girl who admired him.

• Mel & Jack Can’t Catch a Break on Virgin River — And It’s Getting Ridiculous
  by Jasmine Blu
• Virgin River Season 7 Explains Charmaine’s Fate — And Exposes the Charmaine Problem
  by Jasmine Blu
• The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of the Merlin Left Merlin in a Battle of Wills
  by Laura Nowak

But then he died because of a pie to the face. It was such an unusual way to kill someone.

Once it was clear that there was a nerve agent in the pie, the hour opened up into potential spy conspiracies, which was interesting.

One of my favorite Morganisms was listening to her break down how the woman who pied Teddy was a sprinter.

It was such an unusual way to find the suspect, and the fact that it led them to a college and even a nun made me giggle a bit.

I felt bad for Arden.

The girl was so desperate for followers on social media and hoping to land some brand deals for running that she took on a task with someone she thought was a social media influencer, and inadvertently delivered the pie that killed a national treasure.

But that’s where Heidi was frustrating.

Her desire to protect Teddy’s legacy made sense, and the fact that his speech would’ve undermined decades of his work was worth considering.

Although it mostly just felt like she was considering her vested interest in the company, he wasn’t backing down by doing so.

But if she was genuinely wanting to put him out of his misery, in part because of his health issues, she should’ve done the deed herself.

There were so many other ways she could’ve taken him out without putting that weight and guilt on an innocent young woman who will be carrying that for the rest of her life.

And might I just add that the actress’s character, Reenie, on Tracker, would never do something so terrible to another person?

• High Potential Season 2 Episode 15 Review: Wagner’s Return & Willa Quinn’s Arrival Spark More Intrigue
  by Jasmine Blu
• NCIS: Origins Season 2 Episode 11 Delivers New Orleans Flavor with Dwayne Pride’s Debut
  by Jasmine Blu
• NCIS Season 23 Episode 10 Snuggled Big Reveals Into a Rather Trope-Filled Hour
  by Carissa Pavlica

Ironically, Heidi wanted to preserve Teddy’s history, knowing that he was a generous, kind, heroic man whom many idolized, and she couldn’t extend that same consideration when it came to tasking someone else with killing him.

It was a pretty solid case, and Elliot’s involvement was a nice bonus. High Potential does well with allowing Morgan’s children to have some connection to her job at times.

Elliot’s nerding out about his idol turned out to be an asset for Morgan when she figured out important factors in the case.

It was also sweet that he had an invaluable piece of the man he admired to keep with him.

The stuffed bear cataloguing all of his flight information from every time he went to space was something so precious for a kid like Elliot.

And maybe that was enough to hold him over so that he didn’t have to process how the man really died — learning that his wife was behind it had to be a doozy.

The case was definitely solid, and they also had fun mixing and matching with some of the partnering moments. Also, Oz’s stupid puns and jokes were cute and funny.

But the real interest was in how they dug into the Roman mystery plot again.

For one, Wagner returned. We never really got a clear idea of why he was absent for so long, but he didn’t hesitate to let them know how much he knew about them digging into Roman.

And he wants in. Things got a bit clunky with that aspect of the episode, though.

We hadn’t seen him in weeks, he rolls in out of the blue, and suddenly he’s bearing his soul to Morgan and receptive to all of the criticism that they’ve had about him since day one.

• The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Is Unraveling — and It’s Happening Fast
  by Paul Dailly
• The Rookie Handled Zombies on Par With The Walking Dead — But Why Didn’t the Officers Get Infected?
  by Sayantan Choudhary
• Scott Patterson’s Exit From Sullivan’s Crossing Is Messy — and It Could Derail a Great Show
  by Paul Dailly

And he cops to it all too, opening up about his family, how he was raised, and why he feels compelled to test people all of the time.

He kept emphasizing that his family and past have taught him not to trust many people, especially other cops.

And he was willing to acknowledge that he treated everyone there horribly, in the sense that he’s often put them under scrutiny and required them to prove themselves in one capacity or another.

It felt like a bunch of information dumping to shift Wagner into the category of “ally” who will help the others.

But truthfully, it really just feels like they wanted to go out of their way to warn us about him and tell us he’s not a terrible man, and he’s actually a friend to them before he ends up dying for the cause.

Is it just me, or does he feel like a lamb fattened up for slaughter?

I get the sense that he’ll be helping them look into things further, pulling his own little strings with the reach and clout he has from his family’s name, and for the sake of selling just how high-stakes this whole thing is, he’ll be the one to die because of this case.

Wagner was just so desperate for Morgan to believe in and trust him. He wanted Karadec to somehow teach him how to earn her trust and get in her good graces, which was such an odd thing because it takes time and work.

Wagner hasn’t put in much of either. So it’s just screaming that he’ll do some last-ditch extreme act that will have him sacrificing himself, whether willingly, or he’ll just be a casualty.

I just don’t have the best feeling about Wagner. He doesn’t feel like he’s long for this world, and the most surprising thing is that I’ll be upset if something terrible happens to him.

His fascination with Morgan is still confusing.

• Characters of the Week: SVU, RJ Decker, High Potential & More Unleash All the Feels!
  by TV Fanatic Staff
• Characters of the Week: 9-1-1: Nashville, Boston Blue & More Explore Darkness and Depth
  by TV Fanatic Staff
• If NBC Wants to Push Scripted Again, Here Are 7 Shows That Shouldn’t Have Been Canceled
  by Alexandria Ingham

There are moments when it feels like a genuine attraction, but then other times when it’s something else entirely — something that’s indefinable. Maybe he sees in her qualities because of his family.

It’s hard to say.

The good thing about him being in all of this is that he has connections, and he’ll likely be able to piece more together about Willa Quinn.

Although credit where it’s due, Soto held her own against the woman. And Willa genuinely seemed to like Soto and felt she was a worthy adversary.

It wasn’t surprising that she wanted Soto to work for her.

Willa Quinn is a woman surrounded by wealth and entrenched in the world of the elite.

For her, knowledge and information are power, and she has so much of it to wield because she knows all the right people and can get them out of trouble.

Clearly, she’s a fixer, and she’s a great one. But that also makes her terrifying.

In all that time Soto spent with her, you could tell Willa was always in control. She’s a survivor, too.

When she opened up about her background, you could tell how it hardened her and led her down this path where she would never be screwed over by any system ever again.

In her mind, her parents did everything right, bought into the American dream, and God, and any number of ideals, and it was all for nothing.

• Italia Ricci Teases Going Dark, Getting Bloody, and a Dream Collaboration in The Boy with My Son’s Face
  by Jasmine Blu
• Boston Blue’s Mika Amonsen Talks Sean’s Arc, And What It Was Like To Take Over The Role
  by Jack Ori
• Matthew Fox and Beau Garrett on Finding Humanity in Taylor Sheridan’s The Madison
  by Carissa Pavlica

She’s not a woman who’ll be easy to take down, but I’m more curious about what specifically she knows. Her interactions with Soto were like a cat-and-mouse game.

She wouldn’t give her anything about Hayworth or Roman, let alone who could be after him, and I do think it’s someone else interested in Roman, and she’s a key player in this equation, but not necessarily the main one.

What are the chances that Willa “Fixed” a situation for another high-profile client, resulting in the dead FBI agent and framing Roman, and he was just collateral damage, but he knew too much and was willing to expose things?

Willa has been a step ahead of them for a minute, and the way she tracked Soto speaks volumes.

She has a genuine interest in keeping something significant buried, and keeping Roman silent was essential, but now that they’ve been digging into his disappearance, it’s like a house of cards ready to collapse.

Admittedly, Soto and her weird dance with Willa was the most intriguing part of this hour, and I’m dying to know more about how this mystery unfolds.

Over to you, High Potential Fanatics. What are your Willa Quinn theories?

TV Fanatic is searching for passionate contributors to share their voices across various article types. Think you have what it takes to be a TV Fanatic? Click here for more information and next steps.

The post High Potential Season 2 Episode 15 Review: Wagner’s Return & Willa Quinn’s Arrival Spark More Intrigue appeared first on TV Fanatic.