‘High Potential’ Season 2 Episode 4 review: “Behind the Music”

High Potential Season 2 Episode 4, titled “Behind the Music,” follows a pretty standard case, but mixes an old one with a new one. While the case itself becomes pretty obvious about half way through, the interpersonal character dynamics are incredibly strong this episode, and are a great reminder of the show’s strength.

A woman named Raina (Barbara Eve Harris) makes a 9-1-1 call to report a murder, but when Morgan and Keredec follow up with her, the woman claims she made no such call. To Morgan, something seems amiss, but by the time they’re able to act on those suspicions, Raina’s already dead. The investigation into Raina’s murder leads to a twisty confirmation — Raina did witness a murder, but it’s unclear how long ago she witnessed it. This means there are two cases to solve — Raina’s, and whoever she saw get murdered.

The interpersonal dynamics sell the whole episode.

The LAPD is walking on eggshells, waiting to see if Selena (Judy Reyes) made captain. Certainly deserving of the position, but it does make Morgan (Kaitlin Olsen) anxious about the change that would happen. Keredec (Daniel Sunjata) would move to Lt, replacing Selena, leaving Morgan to partner with some random background police officer, which she doesn’t want to do. This exchange is really lovely. In fact, High Potential Season 2 Episode 4 is full of wonderful Keredec and Morgan moments. They understand each other, and Keredec makes that really clear this episode.

Anyway, it’s a moot point because Selena doesn’t make captain. Back to business as usual, and to solving both murder cases. By examining the old bloody dress they found in Raina’s basement, Morgan’s able to deduce that the first murder happened sometime between 1998 and 2000. From there, process of elimination brings them to the cold case of Gloria, a singer from the late 90s who was making it big even without her former manager Epps. Just hours after playing a midnight show at a club called The Black Jewel, she was found shot in an alley.

A tale of revenge.

Raina was also a singer at The Black Jewel, and seemingly signed with Epps after Gloria cut him loose. There seems to have been some buying off of Raina. The house she’s lived in for 25 years originally had Epps as a co-signer. Meaning, whoever killed Raina probably did it for revenge. And who it was becomes fairly obvious after Morgan and Selena realize Gloria had a baby, and the baby’s father was Epps.

Gloria’s daughter Lily accidentally killed Raina after confronting her after learning Raina, who she had considered a second mother, helped cover up Gloria’s murder. It’s a tragic twist, all starting with Epps, who most likely threatened Raina all those years. For Lily, the grief of never knowing her mother and realizing someone close to you was involved, regardless of whether she remembered or was threatened, is a tough pill to swallow. A journey to find answers turning into your own arrest is a tragedy all around.

Here comes internal affairs (good!)

Keredec discharges his weapon this episode. He tells Morgan it’s only the third time he’s ever done so, but the first time he actually hit someone. This is probably the most serious we’ve ever seen Keredec. Considering it’s about police shooting people, it definitely warrants the seriousness. Police procedurals always at some point bring in internal affairs, who are often seen as the bad guys preventing the main cop characters from doing their job. But High Potential Season 2 Episode 4 handles their internal affairs character with more nuance.

Internal Affairs comes in as a matter of protocol when an officer discharges their weapon. While Keredec and Selena are a little annoyed, especially because it’s further delaying them in solving two cases, one of which is a 25 year old cold case of a murdered Black woman, they respect internal affairs’ presence. And the internal affairs guy isn’t played off maliciously or like a villain. He stands his ground for why he’s there, even if he does relent in making a phone call to expedite the investigation. It’s refreshing.

The new boss.

Meanwhile, Morgan is googling Arthur’s landscape business, though that appears to be as far as she’s gotten. Keredec later appears to look into it after finding the business page open on his computer. Morgan, suspicious of Selena’s nonchalance about not getting the captain position, confronts her in her office.

This is a really nice moment between them, one that allows Selena to express her anger and annoyance for not getting the position, likely because she’s a woman. Selena and Morgan’s friendship is one of the highlights of High Potential. Their dynamic as a police Lt and a consultant means that, like Morgan pointed out, they can be a little more real with each other. Selena can’t express her anger in front of her subordinates, but she can with Morgan.

The episode ends with Morgan leaving the precinct, entering the elevator with a man who seems charming at first. But once inside the elevator, he tells Morgan that he knows who she is. It’s very suspicious, until he reveals himself to be the new captain. Though he’s only in this brief moment, Steve Howey is already bringing such an intriguing mystery to this new captain. His approach to Morgan was mysterious, charming, and unsettling, but also promises a fun and probably frustrating back and forth between the new boss and Morgan’s penchant for rule breaking.

Stray Thoughts

• Daphne and Oz still haven’t got a lot of screen time, and it’s irking me a bit.
• Was this the first episode that doesn’t feature Morgan at her house? If it’s not the first, then it rarely it happens.
• I don’t always feel like it’s easy to track Morgan’s deductions and explanations. Sometimes it’s a “yeah, sure, why not,” responses, but the way she narrowed the timeline of Gloria’s murder was really impressive. Morgan’s thought processes should be a journey we can take with her, rather than having to guess what she’s thinking all the time.

High Potential Season 2 Episode 4 had a decent two cases in its run time, but the interpersonal dynamics this week really made the episode.

Katey Stoetzel

Katey is co-founder and tv editor for InBetweenDrafts. She hosts the “House of the Dragon After Show” and “Between TV” podcasts and can be read in various other places like Inverse and Screen Speck. She wishes desperately the binge model of tv watching would die, but still gets mad when she runs out of episodes of tv to watch.