‘High Potential’s Showrunner Promises Answers to the Roman Mystery and Who Captain Wagner Really Is

[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for Season 2 of High Potential.]

The ABC series High Potential is back with “The One That Got Away: Part Two,” continuing the case of the missing Rembrandt artwork and increasing the suspicions Morgan Gillory (Kaitlin Olson) has when it comes to art recovery expert Rhys Eastman (Aiden Turner) and his possible art thief alter-ego. At the same time, Captain Nick Wagner (Steve Howey) seems to still be testing Morgan’s partnership with Karadec (Daniel Sunjata), which has only made them clearer about the importance of their bond, and Soto (Judy Reyes) tries to figure out why Roman’s backpack has put Arthur (Mekhi Phifer) in danger.

During this one-on-one interview with Collider, showrunner Todd Harthan discussed Karadec’s Morgan addiction and what makes her his unicorn, how intoxicating it is to watch the partners together, why Morgan was so drawn to Rhys, the movie that inspired the tone of the episode, the embarrassment of riches when it comes to having such a talented ensemble to work with, and providing answers when it comes to the mystery surrounding Roman and who Captain Wagner really is.

In Season 2 of ‘High Potential,’ Karadec Is Very Protective of His Partnership With Morgan

"He has a Morgan addiction."

Collider: I love that Morgan and Karadec know each other well enough now that when she shows up at a crime scene, gets weird, and immediately leaves, he knows to track her down and find out what’s going on with her because that’s not in her usual character. When he started out as the guy that was against her being around and having to work with her, do you feel like there was a specific moment that won him over, or did he just need a little bit of her energy in his life?

TODD HARTHAN: It’s been a slow build. It’s been a culmination. With each passing case, the way she works and the way she sees the world is so infectious and so inspiring, whether he wants to admit it out loud or not. I feel like he has a Morgan addiction now. It’s like when you see a movie and you go, “I can’t imagine anyone else playing that role.” I don’t think Karadec can ever imagine anybody else as his partner. He’s come such a long way, but now he’s also very protective of her and some of the things that she does that can be self-destructive. It’s interesting and complicated, and he’s evolved.

Sometimes it takes that feeling threatened a little bit, either by someone like Rhys or by the captain, to realize what you have and how important that is to you now.

HARTHAN: Yeah, you’re absolutely right. All that goes into the cocktail of how Karadec has gotten from the place he was in the pilot, which was, “Get this strange creature away from me,” to “Nobody comes near my unicorn.”

Morgan clearly doesn’t want to tell Karadec that she got quite familiar with Rhys, which is what allowed her to see some things that made her suspicious about him. It’s easy to see why Rhys would find Morgan appealing because she’s smart and she challenges anyone she’s in a room with. But why do you think she was drawn to Rhys in the way that she was? Why was he someone that threw her off her game enough that it took her longer than usual to realize who he really was?

HARTHAN: It’s a good question, and one that we dissected quite a bit in the writers’ room. It was a combination of a bunch of different things coming to a head at the same time, and then also coming to a head inside of her complicated brain. It was a case that was confusing and confounding. It was a captain who she thought she was in the good graces of, suddenly lashing out and putting her on her heels in a way that really surprised her. That then put her in this moment where she was standing across from this mysterious, dangerous guy that was in the right place at the right time. It was just a moment of impulse, really, and she’s an impulsive person. That’s how we built it and justified it. It wasn’t just any one thing. It was a bunch of different things that came into play.

Even though Morgan asked Karadec to vouch for her with the captain and get her back on the case, I actually thought it was really special to hear him say to the captain, “I work with Morgan on every case.” It’s nice to have anyone vouch for you like that. Do you think that he’s surprised by how much he puts himself on the line for her at work, or has she just earned that now?

HARTHAN: I don’t think he’s surprised by it anymore. He does it without pause. Now, he doesn’t second-guess her value or the strength of their partnership. He just worries about her methods and how those methods can, at some point, put her in the line of bureaucratic fire. So, no, I don’t think he’s surprised by it anymore. He’s bought in. He wasn’t hedging.

Morgan and Karadec Have a Magical Connection That’s a Slow Burn in ‘High Potential’ Season 2

"These are two gorgeous people who have those moments."

Did you always know that there could be something between Morgan and Karadec, or have you ever been surprised by how much fans have wanted that to happen?

HARTHAN: You never know, until you really get into the journey of a series, just what the fans’ appetites are going to be and also what the characters’ real chemistry is going to be on-screen. You just don’t know what you’re writing to, really. But now, we know that we have this wonderful, magical connection that’s working. On the partnership front, we’re leaning into that as much as possible, with these sneaky little things that we drip in there. These are two gorgeous people who have those moments where they’re looking at each other like, “Oh, maybe.” It’s been a slow burn, but it’s been fun to write to just because we have a lot of excitement around these two characters. They’re intoxicating.

How does Morgan justify letting Rhys get away with stealing the painting? He has the right reason for doing it, but he’s still committing a crime. Do you feel like Rhys was changed a bit by Morgan? Do you think he would have ever done that if he hadn’t met and gotten to know Morgan?

HARTHAN: It’s a good question. If we had to answer it within the body of the show and definitively tell the audience one way or the other, I would say yes. I don’t think anyone crosses paths with Morgan and isn’t influenced by her, and I think that he absolutely was. Maybe his constitution has shifted a bit because of her and maybe he’s going to do things a little bit differently. Maybe letting him go, this is a guy who’s going to go out and, who knows, might do something else to change the world in a better way. But she didn’t let a hardened, dangerous criminal that’s going to go out there and put people in danger. If that was the case, not in a million years. Her moral compass is stronger than that. We just thought it was an interesting, messy way to end that episode, and it also differentiates her from the cops that she works with.

It’s funny how often life seems to imitate art. I always find it interesting when you watch shows where more than one show has a case about the same subject at the same time. When you did this two-part episode with this case of missing artwork, were you surprised at the timing of the whole real-life art heist that happened at the Louvre and how relevant it all suddenly became?

HARTHAN: Yeah, we just got lucky with that. I don’t want to encourage people to go out and commit crimes. I don’t think anybody got hurt at the Louvre. It was just bizarre. When it popped up in the news, I was like, “Oh, that’s super weird and timely.” At any given time, someone’s out there plotting and planning some heist. We just wanted to do our version of it on this show. I love The Thomas Crown Affair, so it was really inspired by the vibe and tone of that particular movie. It was meant to be.

I’m surprised by how much I really enjoy Soto and Arthur sharing the same space. What made you decide to bring those characters together, and did you immediately want to come up with ways to give them a spin-off? Because I would watch that.

HARTHAN: Listen, I’m always down for a good spin-off. Sometimes our wonderful writing staff goes, “Hold on a second, we have all these wonderful actors on the board, where are the interesting crosses that are going to spark amazing scenes?” It would have been a huge mistake to not get Judy Reyes and Mekhi Phifer in some scenes together. It just had to be earned and make sense in the body of the show. They’re both incredibly versatile actors. Now, we’re writing to that duo. What does that look like? It’s different than Morgan and Arthur. It’s different than Arthur and Ava. It’s an embarrassment of riches. I wish we had more than 43 minutes and 20 seconds an episode because they could all be an hour and a half long, but they can’t. They’re wonderful, and there’s more to come.

The Roman Mystery Will Continue to Unravel in ‘High Potential’ Season 2

"You'll get a lot more information about what happened."

It feels like we’re only just lifting up the first layer of the mystery of Roman. And now, Arthur is missing. We also see this guy who’s seemingly watching Morgan at the bar at the end of the episode. What can you say about the mystery and what’s going on? When will we learn more? When are we going to get more of those layers of what’s really happening?

HARTHAN: You’re going to get a ton of those layers and fill in a lot of those blanks between now and the end of the season. We’re trying to do it at a pace that fills in some of the blanks but doesn’t overtake the show. At the end of the day, if too much happens too soon, the wonderful cases we do week to week would take a back burner to our serialized thread. It’s been this strange thing that we’ve tried to balance so that we could really keep the audience on the edge of their seats by giving them enough of the backstory and moving the story forward, and really having danger swell and get closer and closer to Morgan, before it really blooms and pays off towards the end of the season. That’s the arc of it. We had to figure out a way to see where it goes dormant and where the Roman story blooms. In the back half, you’ll get a lot more information about what happened, why it happened, and all the wonderful things that hopefully people are waiting for.

Does it ever feel like you’re just building up too much pressure for yourself to finally cast this character and give us this character that you’ve been building up for so long?

HARTHAN: Oh, my gosh, yeah. I’ll say it to anybody who will listen, but this has been one of the hardest storylines to manage and execute in my career. just because I think there’s a big appetite for it and we want to land the plane in the most satisfying way. We give it a lot of thought and put everything under a microscope, and hopefully we don’t screw it up.

This show has really become two shows in one. You have Morgan’s work life and the different cases in this cop drama. And then, you have her home life with her kids and her ex, and that could be its own family sitcom. Is it ever hard to balance those two things when they could each be their own show?

HARTHAN: Every episode is a challenge of how to divide up the dramatic real estate. If one of the episodes feels a little bit lighter on the family story, and we know the audience has a big appetite for that, we are sure to make sure that we pay very close attention to it in the next episode. It’s a tough thing to balance because all the different pieces of the show are working, but none of them can have can eat up too much of the real estate. It’s really, really tricky. We’ve started to figure it out a little bit better. With each passing episode, we learn a little bit more. But it’s hard. It’s tricky.

‘High Potential’ Showrunner Todd Harthan Promises More Details About Captain Wagner Are Still to Come

"All that stuff really gets filled in."

In the first couple of episodes back, it feels like we are finally really getting to know Captain Nick Wagner a bit better. We’re learning some things about his background and who he’s been in his past. What can you say to tease what we’ll still learn about him? Why does it always feel like he’s testing this team to see just how they’ll react? He seems like he’s having a little too much fun with that, at this point.

HARTHAN: Truly, that’s by design. I didn’t want people to be able to put their finger on the pulse of who this guy is because the back half of the season really does unpack everything about who he is, where he came from, family ties, motivations, and why he operated the way he operated in the first half of the season. All that stuff really gets filled in as we arc him out in the back half. I think it’s going to be a really interesting journey for the audience to go on with him because I think he’s going to surprise everyone in a really interesting way. He comes into clearer focused in the back half, for sure.

High Potential airs on ABC and is available to stream on Hulu. Check out the Season 2 trailer: