Wow. That episode was insane!
In many ways, they’re still dragging this Roman arc far longer than they need to be, and we have some new bombshells to chew on regarding that, and what’s in store.
But for an hour that focuses so heavily on Wagner, it produced so many great moments, an exciting case from beginning to end, well-rounded team moments, lots of action, and some steam, too.
When it comes to High Potential Season 2, Wagner has been the enigmatic character of the season.
We’ve spent much of the sophomore season not knowing where he stands, how much he knows, or if he’s actively inserted himself into the Roman mystery for other reasons.
But to me, as time has gone on, it’s been evident that Wagner is a man who has been trying to escape the overreach of his father and his disturbing reputation, too.
It’s clear that Wagner Sr. is as corrupt as they come, and he’s in some shady dealings.
We could piece together enough of that just by hearing what Wagner would say about him and reading between the lines of how he regards his own family.
But then High Potential Season 2 Episode 16 confirmed that Wagner Sr. was working with Willa Quinn and that they not only have a past but have also been in some truly shady dealings.
Part of Wagner Sr.’s wanting to get his hands on Morgan for his Corruption unit is so he can put a stop to her digging.
Maybe he even wants to put a stop to her.
I don’t think our Wagner knows everything about his father’s dealings. He just knows that his father is always up to bad things.
It feels like Wagner just wanted a bit of a fresh start, and he’s often struggling under the weight of his desire to be free from his father’s reach, leveraging it however he can to get what he wants or to solve a case.
I’m not entirely sure our Wagner knows everything about the Roman case.
But now, they’ve built it up well enough where if our Wagner does know infinitely more than he’s been letting on or has even a small role in this cover-up and the burying of Roman, then it’ll be such a crushing blow.
Because, dammit, somewhere along the way, I don’t even know when it happened, I warmed up to Wagner. Perhaps, I can blame most of it on Steve Howey‘s natural charisma.
But it’s also been interesting to see Wagner letting down his walls over time. He’s mostly done it with Morgan, and this hour truly reveals just how much that has happened, and they’ve built up to this point nicely, even with everything else going on.
But Wagner has also warmed to the others, there, too. I do think he’s felt comfortable with this team to the point of genuinely liking them and not wanting to be so adversarial with them for quite some time now.
The true test of that was his ability to trust the team to solve a case so personal to him, even though Morgan was the only one who really knew why.
He wanted the best, and yes, that includes Morgan, for so many obvious reasons, but that also extends to a team that he has seen gets results, takes care of their own, and embodies so much of what he may have lacked elsewhere.
Wagner has connections by name, but he doesn’t have connections, which is why Morgan and the others sneaked up on him.
Again, it’s an hour that centers Wagner so much that on paper, it shouldn’t have worked, but it truly does.
From the moment he got that text message, it was clear that this case was personal for him. There was no other reason for him to show up at the crime scene of a case that he had barely been officially alerted about.
And everything about the case was genuinely exciting, which hasn’t always been the case for some of this season. It was a bit convoluted, but it ultimately boiled down to a team of thieves orchestrating a pretty genius and elaborate plan to steal money on one of the busiest days of the year: Mother’s Day.
Morgan was right in that it was pretty damn stupid to have a storage facility with such high-value content, truly the storage facility for the one percenters, and only have a single guard there to protect it all.
I don’t care that he was a Navy SEAL; that was just a disaster waiting to happen, in principle. And for a bit, I thought old Dean there was in on the whole thing, too.
He was useful in giving them some background details, including the peppermint detail that triggered the heck out of Wagner, and we went down a trail filled with suspects, side quests, and fakeouts.
The underground map of the city angle was so cool, and I can see how that’s an ineffective avenue for plotting a great heist. We really do have a horrible habit of paving right over history and secrets here in the States, and it always catches up with us in one way or another.
Finding Mitchell dead led us to Colton, and through him, we actually got the robbers’ tracking info.
But this hour was explosive, with so many stressful close calls. My heart nearly stopped when that explosion happened in the warehouse. No one could see it coming, and it could’ve taken a horrible turn.
Goodness, has Karadec even properly recovered from his last explosion and concussion?
And Morgan, staring down the barrel of a gun, hit like a sledgehammer. High Potential continues to excel at actually giving Morgan realistic reactions and stakes in all of this.
She’s NOT a cop. Morgan doesn’t have an officer’s training, and she never wanted to be one. It’s not ingrained in her to put her life on the line for anyone beyond her kids. Morgan very much wants to make it home every night.
It’s not in her nature to stare down the face of a gun and just be okay about it, brush it off like something traumatic didn’t just happen to her. Guns are terrifying, especially when someone pulls one on you as a layperson, and the other person would shoot you dead.
That near-death experience rattled Morgan, and I expect it to be something that lingers for her.
She also spent most of the hour being such an intuitive empath.
I’ll admit that the sophomore season has sold me on the Morgan/Karadec slow burn. And I rolled my eyes at the hints of flirtation between Morgan and Wagner earlier in the season.
But I loved this episode for them and how it dug into their dynamic. Morgan has a way of wearing people down and sneaking past all their defenses, and she’s been the only person who has succeeded in doing that with Wagner since early on.
Now, it’s at a point where he doesn’t even fight it.
Maybe months ago, he would’ve had something to say about her snooping in his office, but now, he answers her questions, lays his vulnerability at her pointed-toe boots, and gives her the half smile of a man that’s a little bit gone for her.
Morgan tracking him down at the crime scene made for a great scene. It was also nice to hear someone voice some of the criticism the show gets about Morgan and her magical abilities.
His drunken rambling about her finding the perfect clue that only she can find, and basically why we need the amazing, great Morgan on everything, as he goads her to solve the case, was amusing and felt realistic.
Even though he respects the hell out of her and what she offers (we saw that when he demanded that she come into that office to see all the things on that classified hard drive, it is annoying that they have to operate as if they can’t do anything without Morgan.
And it was a great note that Wagner was resistant to her coming in when she took him home. It’s clear that he knows he has feelings for her, and he didn’t want to act on them in such a vulnerable, drunken state.
But even then, he couldn’t resist, even though Morgan put a stop to it.
Wagner’s connection with Morgan makes sense when you consider that she’s probably the first woman who has made him feel much of anything since McCauley murdered his fiancée.
I don’t think it’s so much of him chasing Morgan, but the feelings she gives him. It’s part of that irresistible charm and warmth she possesses that has most people orbiting around her.
Morgan makes Wagner feel seen, and there is an underlying empathy and mutual understanding in their shared loss of people they love so much.
I appreciated that while she stated it wasn’t a competition, she still bared her own soul a bit in pointing out that she wished Roman were dead — if he were dead, that would mean closure.
She doesn’t have closure, and she never had the chance to properly grieve or process anything because she had a baby to take care of the whole time.
Wagner and Morgan, connected by mutual understanding, longing, and grief, make for an interesting dynamic.
Like, the sexual chemistry between them already has a baked-in understanding that it’s not a happy romance — it’s just a connection with someone in a way they don’t have access to with anyone else.
Morgan ended the day rattled from that near-shooting, cognizant that Wagner had spent much of the case unwittingly using her as a surrogate, and then was put back in her place a bit when Lucia returned.
The Morgan/Karadec scene was so sweet. He knows her well, how terrified she was, even if he didn’t mention it as much.
That comforting physical touch was delicious, and the season has built up their dynamic so well that it’s almost hard to remember when they both started using physical touch as a love language (however you interpret it) between them—casually.
It’s not lost on me at all that after such a traumatic day and seeing Karadec go home with Lucia, Morgan finds some comfort in Wagner in that elevator. She doesn’t push him away or stop the kiss; she gives in to it.
And it was hot. Smoking hot. Swoon-worthy territory, and the music didn’t hurt. In fact, the music throughout the whole episode was fantastic.
Putting Morgan and Wager in one another’s orbit in such a layered way couldn’t have happened at a better time, because now Soto and Karadec know about the Wagner/Willa connection, and it’s clear they both had Hayworth killed in prison.
We all know it wasn’t a suicide!
Just as Morgan let her guard down with Wagner, the series casts him in murky territory again by association, and he may have to prove himself.
Over to you, High Potential Fanatics.
Hayworth is dead. Morgan and Wagner kissed. Karadec and Soto are piecing together. Let’s discuss it all!
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