‘High Potential’ just reopened Morgan’s deepest trauma and there's only one character to blame for it
'High Potential' is rapidly moving towards its sophomore season finale. On last week's episode titled 'The One Who Got Away: Part Two', the ABC show delivered a fitting Winter premiere as Kaitlin Olson's Morgan Gillory was forced to confront certain chapters from her past that were best left untouched. As is already known, Morgan is a single mother who works as a consultant for the Los Angeles Police Department. Her meticulously by-the-book and cautious work partner, Detective Adam Karadec, played by Daniel Sunjata, is always by her side as Morgan navigates through the rough lanes of urban crime.
As described by a Collider report, the Winter premiere of the ABC police procedural progressed the narrative across several fronts. Following the show's weekly case format, the previous incident of the stolen Rembrandt was pushed to the sidelines after the final revelation. The mysterious disappearance of Roman was investigated by the other members of the unit, who initially found nothing suspicious at the site where his truck was located. On the other hand, the murder of an FBI Agent who was working undercover as a hitman leads to the character of Douglas Newmeyer, who is a faulty vacuum manufacturer and has recently been at the receiving end of threats.
TV Fanatic further mentions that Newmeyer's encounter with Morgan eventually leads the latter to spiral down her path of past trauma. 'High Potential', in accordance with its French source material, distinctly foreshadows the significance of Morgan's father in her life. Not only did he disapprove of Morgan's disposition, but actively sought to discourage her at every step of the way in life. This led Morgan to develop low self-esteem, which ultimately caused her to feel alienated from other children of her age throughout her coming of age years.
Todd Harthan echoed the same in his conversation with TVLine. He opened up about the impact of Newmeyer's judgmental mindset on Morgan's psyche when he said, "It goes back to childhood. As tough, smart, and resilient as Morgan is, the judgment or disappointment of a father is something that always lives very close to the surface. It does for her. We talked about it a lot, and it's not like, 'Oh, I wish my father were more proud of me or approved of me.' For Morgan, it's disappointment that her father didn't love her unconditionally. He didn't let her carve her own path without a heavy hand or some dictation on what she should do with her life and her brilliance."
Given that Morgan's father features prominently in the French original show, Harthan was next asked whether Morgan's father would be introduced in the ABC show anytime soon. To this, the showrunner replied, "Don't like to rush the introductions of like big characters, especially family members. Mothers, fathers, brothers, all that wonderful stuff, until we know exactly what the character is, it's in the incubator and we're still figuring it out, but I definitely wanted to tease it with that Newmeyer character." 'High Potential' airs new episodes on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
