For High Potential, that’s the ongoing mystery of Roman’s disappearance. Morgan’s former partner and Ava’s father disappeared almost two decades ago, leaving freshly-bought diapers in his car, never to be seen again. Part of her deal with the LAPD involves them helping her get to the bottom of the case, which develops gradually every week. As more details about Roman’s situation are revealed, however, it’s clear that ABC is moving away from the way that HPI executed the storyline.
High Potential Is Breaking Away From HPI’s Established Roman Story
After Soto started to dig deeper into the case, it has already been established that Roman didn’t intentionally leave Morgan and Ava. Instead, he was abducted, although the specific details with regard to that remain murky. The running theory is that it has something to do with his secret role as an FBI informant, leading to the introduction of Jennifer Jason Leigh as Willa Quinn.
A political fixer who has been implicated in Roman’s disappearance, High Potential season 2, episode 15, “Pie in the Sky,” ends with her coming face to face with Morgan and the rest of the Major Crimes team in Los Angeles after she followed Soto back from New York. The outing ends there, but even without knowing what’s next, it’s clear that High Potential is doing something different about Roman’s story.
In HPI, Roman intentionally left Morgan and Ava to keep them safe after he was caught scamming a casino that put his life in danger. For a while, he was believed to be dead, but eventually, the French show revealed that he actually moved away and even started a new family with a wife and kids. Considering how complicated Roman’s situation already is in High Potential, it’s safe to assume that the truth about his predicament will be nothing like the original series.
Why High Potential’s Roman’s Story Is Better & Worse For Morgan & The Show
Given the sheer number of shows adapted from a different source material, High Potential deviating from HPI isn’t a rare occurrence. That said, changing this particular plot point in the ABC series has its pros and cons. For starters, High Potential putting their own creative spin on its central mystery will keep people on their toes with regard to how they are going to resolve this matter.
Those who have seen HPI will feel a new sense of curiosity for the story, since they don’t know where Kaitlin Olson’s procedural is going with regard to this storyline. Doing so will enrich the overall franchise, as viewers can have various versions of the Roman plot.
High Potential Changes Format At The Perfect Time
In the middle of its sophomore year, ABC shakes things up for High Potential with a format change, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
On the flip side, however, establishing Roman’s disappearance as an actual tragedy will make its ultimate resolution more difficult to accept. It would be easier to move on if Morgan and Ava found out that Roman was simply at fault in this situation than be confronted by the idea that he was taken away from them because he was trying to do good.
If he ends up being alive and wants to reunite with his family, it will also result in a complicated storyline. Regardless of how much he loves his family, they’ve lost a lot of time together, which means that getting re-acquainted will take some time. Beyond that, it could bring more problems if High Potential moves forward with Morgan and Karadec’s slow-burn romance.
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