Note: This story contains spoilers from “High Potential” Season 2, Episode 1.
The “High Potential” Season 2 premiere plunges viewers right back into Morgan’s worst nightmare as Season 1’s game maker continues to threaten her family, which is only heightened when Morgan (Kaitlin Olson) and the criminal come face-to-face.
After the Season 2 premiere introduced a new abduction tied to the game maker while the LAPD has around-the-clock protection for Morgan and her family, the game maker makes a move that even Morgan couldn’t see coming when he casually strolls into the police station, saying “Apparently you’re looking for me.”
“We thought it would be wildly entertaining to put the two of them into an intimate space,” showrunner Todd Harthan told TheWrap of the adversaries. “We just thought putting those two wonderful actors together in close quarters, considering how fired up Morgan is — which is always fun to write and fun to watch Kaitlin play — there was just way too much good drama that we’d be leaving on the table if he didn’t come into their space.”
Harthan added that the game maker has found his “muse” in Morgan, calling out their mental battle as “the sadistic genius versus an empathetic genius.” With the Season 1 premiere leaving off on that cliffhanger, Harthan teased what comes next is a “delicious cat and mouse game between our hero and this villain that finds this weird, bizarre inspiration from Morgan.”
Below, Harthan teases “huge developments” on the Roman front, previews character-specific episodes for Daphne (Javicia Leslie), Oz (Deniz Akdeniz) and Soto (Judy Reyes) and teases “juicy conflict and tension” as Steve Howey’s unpredictable captain joins the mix.
TheWrap: We also get a little deeper into the Roman mystery. Can we expect to get some answers about him this season?
Harthan: For sure. We, and the audience, have a big appetite to filling in some of the big blanks. Last year we were just dipping our toe in the water. It was only Season 1, and we were mapping out where we wanted to go in Season 2. There’s some huge developments that come this season, and hopefully some really exciting twists and turns. We want to keep the audience on their toes — it’s one of the main story arteries, if you will, of Season 2.
As you went into planning for this season, what were some central storylines or themes you wanted to tackle the most? What are you excited for viewers to see this season?
What was really nice about getting Season 2 was being able to deepen the existing relationships. It starts with Morgan and Karadec (Daniel Sunjata) — we’re peeling back some of the layers and complications of that partnership. There’s some things are happening at home with the kids, specifically Ava, and then we have a new character coming in our captain, played by Steve Howey. I’m all for disrupting the environment that our characters exist in, and that’s what’s going to give us conflict and tension and all the wonderful things.
What we planned with that character, as it relates to not just Morgan, but all the other characters in the show, is pretty exciting, too. Thematically … trust is a big part of Season 2. Morgan’s deepening trust for this group of detectives that bet on her, but then we’re going to test that in some pretty interesting episodes throughout the season.
Do we see any conflicts between Morgan and the rest of the detectives?
There’s flareups with with Soto, there’s plenty of flareups with Karadec and with the new captain. There’s all kinds of juicy conflict and tension that spreads to Morgan … Morgan, as it relates to her character in particular, there’s some big challenges this season … we have all kinds of things that obstacles and things that that challenge her relationships.
Morgan has been a pretty happy-go-lucky character until her family is in danger. What conversations did you have with Kaitlin about developing Morgan even further, especially those more emotional sides?
[We had] lots of conversation. She’s very hands on in every aspect of the show. The thing we try to keep a close eye on, and Kaitlin’s very good about keeping us honest, is not falling into tropes or playing it too safe, and also not making Morgan … perfect. Nobody is and so and as a mother, there are times when you have to raise your hand and be the one to apologize and writing to those real and raw moments where she’s human, so that she doesn’t ever feel like every decision she makes is the right one. That’s one of the things that we’ve done pretty well this season.
Like any freshman show, Season 1 had to get its main characters established before diving too deep into their stories. Were you able to give some more focus to Oz and Daphne this season and what can you tease about their storylines?
The two that we’re doing here soon is going to dig deeper into Daphne and Oz, their respective stories backgrounds because … we barely even scratched the surface last year. We’re trying to spread the wealth, because we have such an amazing and versatile cast. And then the one we’re getting ready to do is a big Soto episode. We are trying to balance out the season with digging deeper and peeling back some of the layers of these other wonderful characters that we have.
We’re also very excited to see Steve Howey joining the cast. What can you tell us about his character?
I’ve always been a fan of Steve. I’ve known him for years. It was, like the rest of our cast, adding somebody that can kind anything, comedy and drama and everything between. This show mixes tone … versatility is our friend, and his character is wildly complicated. He really is a bit of an enigma and very hard to figure out for everybody, including Morgan. What we’re playing with is this unpredictability of a captain coming in … it’s really hard to put your finger on what his agenda is, because we wanted to dodge the expected. He’s a little bit more … complicated … so it’s confusing for Morgan and the team about what is he trying to accomplish? What is his agenda? Is it good? Bad?
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
“High Potential” airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
