The instantly addictive adaptation of the French TV hit Haut Potentiel Intellectuel starring the fabulous Kaitlin Olson as Morgan Gillory, a single mom of three with a genius IQ who joins LAPD’s Major Crimes Unit as a consultant, consistently brought in big numbers, both on broadcast and streaming. In fact, the season finale, which saw Morgan receiving an ominous threat after bumping into a stranger she believes to be the maniacal Game Maker (David Giuntoli) behind a series of kidnappings, scored series-best ratings with more than 13 million viewers.
And things are just getting started. “We’re doing a pretty exciting launch for our premiere,” says High Potential showrunner Todd Harthan, pointing out that in addition to the Game Maker twist, the first season delivered an emotional shock when Morgan’s partner, Det. Adam Karadec (Daniel Sunjata), called her with a lead on the whereabouts of her teen daughter Ava’s long-MIA father, Roman.
“We had a couple of major story threads that were building throughout the season,” continues Harthan. “The last thing I was going to do was give you a double cliffhanger and not deliver on the promise of [them]. So the episodes that are coming right out of the gate are going to hopefully take the audience on a really wild, emotional, and at times creepy ride that hopefully checks all the boxes.”
Picking up a few days after realizing that the Game Maker had targeted her and her kids — Ava (Amirah J.), son Elliot (Matthew Lamb) and baby Chloe — Harthan says that Morgan has “gone into mama-bear mode” to keep everyone safe, including Ludo (Taran Killam), her ex and the dad of her two youngest. “They’ve essentially told the children that they’re going to spend some family time and stay in…they’re kind of hiding the truth from them [they’re] confident we’re going to catch this guy.”
Daniel Sunjata as Karadec, Kaitlin Olson as Morgan — ‘High Potential’ Season 2 Premiere
Disney/Jessica Perez
Things start to look less certain after a woman who bears a striking resemblance to Morgan and lives close by suddenly goes missing. “There’s all kinds of other suspects it also could have been, so in this sort of wonderful, delicious way, we push and pull with the audience about whether or not Morgan is right or if her heightened sense of emotions about this person getting close to her children is impacting her ability to look at this case objectively,” Harthan explains. Mid-premiere, he confirms we’ll get a development that finds “Morgan really going head-to-head with one of the smarter, more clever criminals that we’ve seen her go up against.”
Meanwhile, as Morgan’s LAPD colleague and Game Maker survivor Oz Osman (Deniz Akdeniz) is working around the clock with Karadec and fellow detective Daphne Forrester (Javicia Leslie) to figure out if the man Morgan encountered last season is the same man using puzzles to lead them to his victims, the whole team will be dealing with the arrival of the new captain, Jesse Wagner (cast addition Steve Howey). But don’t worry. It sounds like the boss may be as off-beat as the colorful cleaning lady-turned-consultant. “He’s a weird enigmatic character with lots of sort of hidden demons of his own,” previews Harthan. “And his point-of-view on Morgan is unusual. He doesn’t come in and go, ‘What’s this strange creature that isn’t wearing a badge and carrying a gun?’ He’s intrigued by her more than he is judgmental of her.”
Still, Wagner is “going to complicate things in an interesting way,” Harthan teases, adding that Howey’s scenes with Judy Reyes‘ Lt. Selena Soto are “some of my favorite stuff of the season, the two of them, because that dynamic is really charged.”
And speaking of charged, there is also the matter of that will they-won’t they chemistry bubbling up between Morgan and Karadec. When asked if Wagner is being positioned as another possible suitor for our heroine, Harthan happily admits that a love triangle could be in the cards. “I never say no to any good soap these days,” he laughs. “When you’ve got Daniel Sunjata and Steve Howey standing in the same space, and then you drop Kaitlin Olson in-between them, chemistry starts to take off and you go, ‘Well, we’re probably going to write to that.’ I certainly am putting that firmly on the table.”
Better leave room for a fourth, because Truth Be Told‘s Mekhi Phifer has signed on for an arc in an undisclosed role connected to the Major Crime Unit. Could he also be tied to Morgan’s missing ex-boyfriend Roman? “We’re going to start asking big questions and giving you answers to those questions,” promises Harthan. “That is a huge main story that flows through the season and we’re going to take you on a wild ride.”
High Potential, Season 2 Premiere, Tuesday, September 16, 10/9c, ABC
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