Note: This story contains spoilers from “High Potential” Season 1, Episode 13.
The “High Potential” Season 1 finale left viewers with more questions than answers, but showrunner Todd Harthan promised to address those cliffhangers at the start of Season 2.
“We have a pretty healthy plan for how we’re going to kick off the season,” Harthan told TheWrap. “I think one of the big mistakes that shows make is [saying] ‘Oh, let’s put a pin in both those cliffhangers, and we’ll get to them later,’ … you should probably satisfy one or the other so the audience doesn’t get pissed.”
After Morgan (Kaitlin Olson), Karadec (Daniel Sujata) and the rest of the LAPD spent the Season 1 finale investigating a game-obsessed criminal, the mysterious suspect showed off his game to Morgan, coming face-to-face with her before warning they’ll play again soon. After introducing this new serial killer villain to “High Potential,” Harthan said his plan was to kick off the season and “address it a little bit, find a healthy way to pivot to other things and then come back to it when it makes sense.”
The Season 1 finale also leaves off with Karadec telling Morgan that her ex Roman is alive and that Karadec knows where he is, though viewers might not get to meet him as quickly as they would hope, with Harthan admitting its a “tricky” storyline to “get right.”
“[If] you bring that too heavy into the fabric of the show, too soon, it overtakes the show and becomes something else,” Harthan said, “The promise in Season 2 is to answer some other big questions, but also deepen the mystery before we really unpack too much or introduce somebody too soon.”
Below, Harthan and Olson break down the high-stakes Season 1 finale of “High Potential” and tease what’s next in Season 2.
TheWrap: The Season 1 finale really ups the ante. How did you start crafting it?
Harthan: Even before I officially came on board, I started thinking about cases and area codes I thought might be fun to explore, and one of the things was a serialized villain. What’s going to be interesting about that villain in this show, and why will it be challenging for Morgan and the team and make it feel different than the way that other procedurals have done it? I didn’t want t tread in too closely what I’d seen a lot of other procedurals do. And then the other challenge was not making it too dark and too dour that it would suddenly feel like we were slipping into a tone that I think Kaitlin and I don’t have any interest in. I don’t think we ever want to get too broad and silly, and we don’t want to ever get “Criminal Minds” dark or slip into, now we’re doing an episode that is reminiscent of “Se7en.” It’s walking that fine line, and I thought this one checked all the necessary boxes.
Olson: We had the same sensibility which is, we want to make something that’s unique and different, and so in doing that, it can be tricky to find that tone and get everybody on the same page. It’s really fun to do an hour long procedural where there’s still a lot of levity and light heartedness, and this character is like a real person. Finding that balance together was great, and I think it all culminated nicely in the finale.
Were those cliffhangers already locked into the Season 1 finale before news of the Season 2 renewal?
Harthan: Yeah, we felt relatively confident that people would show up to this one. I’m a pessimist by nature — I don’t like to get overconfident — but I did think that this show had a certain infectious quality that I thought was going to find enough of an audience that we would get to run it back. I didn’t think it would be this big, to be honest.
Olson: I did! I’m the optimist and he’s the pessimist, and we meet in a beautiful middle.
It felt reminiscent to the Yin Yang Killer episodes on “Psych.” Did you draw any inspiration from there?
Harthan: I didn’t really think about it. James Roday Rodriguez, who was in “Psych” and is my best friend, came in and directed this episode and one other. He brought it up, and I was like, “Oh, I guess so, there is some overlap.” I think where we plan to take this so different than that — I actually use “Psych” as my example of something in the room that I go, “Guys, this feels a little too ‘Psych’ or too much overlap. Let’s go the other way.”
We’ve been seeing hints here and there about Karadec’s feelings towards Morgan. How did you want to progress that storyline?
Harthan: I love the partnership of Karadec and Morgan. I love the purity of them having each other’s backs and being supportive and more trusting as we get deeper into series. I also love that if they do have a relationship with somebody else that they want each other to be happy. There’s no jealousy or nonsense or all that “will they, won’t they” bulls–t that I find really cringe-worthy. I think there’s a freshness to this relationship that we’re going to write to that is not going to fall into some of the similar traps or tropes of other shows.
Olson: I never want to do something I’ve seen done a million times before, that being said, the audience has seen it a million times because it works and they like it and they’re craving it. I’m already seeing it all over my social media. People are so excited for when Morgan and Karadec get together. That’s what makes a good show, is trying to find that place where we give you something that’s unexpected, but we also satisfy what it is that you’re looking for and you don’t feel like you’re watching like a very predictable story that you already know.
Kaitlin, how does Karadec dropping a few more hints impact how you’re playing their relationship?
Olson: I’m excited to get into that writers room and have these conversations, because it does affect how both Daniel and I are performing. In a natural relationship, you don’t really know what’s going on either and I think that how we’ve built it is really nice. I think there’s sort of a brother-sister relationship there. There’s a friendship there. Maybe someone’s being a little flirty, but it didn’t work. But then they back up like that’s just kind of life, too. Whatever we do, I just want to find it organically.
Harthan: There’s something really exciting about, especially in success, of one or both of these people at some point, acknowledging, whether it’s to each other or somebody else, that they’ve, in some respects, fallen in love with the other. But what do you love more? Do you love the idea of crossing that line, or do you love the partnership more than the risk that that, that that comes with that? We always want to play with all those emotions and never take anything off the table. I might be infamous for slow playing these things, just because I don’t want to leave anything interesting on the table by jumping the gun too fast.
These last two episodes also welcomed Jocko Sims. Will we get to see him more next season as well?
Harthan: I love Jocko. He was a fun little pop at the end. In a Season 2, now that we have our sea legs a little bit … you can start really bringing in some wonderful guest stars and serialized guest stars. We’re a wonderful L.A. show. There’s a lot of talented people out there. We’ll have to plot and plan the season, who knows, but he’s wonderful. This season, there will be all kinds of opportunities for great guest stars.
What feedback comes to mind as you plot out Season 2?
Olson: I’m excited to play around with the Morgan vision. I don’t even know if it was purposeful, but every episode the Morgan visions are a little different, or wildly different, and people are really responding to that.
Harthan: I’m excited about all of it. I’m just excited about being able to slow down and have conversations with everybody … We didn’t have time to really nurture all the gold, and that was right in front of us … and now I think everything has an opportunity to be upgraded this season, just based on time, communication and just some of the tough lessons we learned.
Olson: Definitely exploring the relationships between characters more as well — I want to know what goes on with Soto’s life. A first season, you really have to give the main character most of the heavy lifting, because that’s the person that you’re interested in. I know that people are excited to dig into all of our other wonderful actors and their characters’ background, so I think that that’ll be really fun to do. I’m really grateful that we have so many talented people coming together and figuring out what kind of show we want to make and really protecting that unique tone, because there’s just something special about it.
Are you aiming for 13 or maybe 18/21 episodes for Season 2?
Harthan: Once you said 21, I’m not kidding, I got instantly nauseous. It’s a great sign of success, but I’ve done those and they’re daunting. We don’t know yet — we just know that we are coming back. I always assume it’s going to be at that 13 sweet spot, and then who knows after that? We barely scratched the surface with this cast last year — we didn’t go home with hardly anybody — family, friends, past traumas — there’s so much to do that however many episodes we have, each one of them will give us an opportunity to dig into the other characters in a meaningful way.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
“High Potential” Season 1 is now streaming on Hulu.
