Summary
High Potential Episode 6 works well on its own terms, but it once again indulges in the only thing that really annoys me about this show.
Readers, I’ve been banging this drum for a while, but honestly – when is High Potential going to commit to Morgan being wrong? Episode 6, “Hangover”, follows an episode that I thought was pretty good, but takes a couple of steps back in multiple areas. It exclusively focuses on the case of the week at the detriment of other subplots and character arcs, and it once again challenges Morgan’s deeply-held assumptions of who’s innocent and guilty only to once again back out at the last minute. I’m tired.
Part of me wishes this show wasn’t as good as it is, because in that case, I wouldn’t care as much. But this is still a lively and often very smart procedural that just can’t seem to get out of its own way in this one specific area. Every episode is so in love with its protagonist that it’s bizarrely terrified of not giving her the last laugh at every turn.
The fact I’ve been going on about this since Episode 3 and High Potential is still pulling the same tricks in Episode 6 worries me. It can’t be running out of ideas already, can it? To be repeating the same arc – Morgan feels sorry for a suspect and becomes obsessively adamant they’re innocent, they look increasingly guilty, and then something exonerates them and Morgan is proved right – so early in the season is never a good sign.
The case of the week was fine, in and of itself, but there’s no utility in me recounting the details so I won’t bother. Here’s the cliff notes version instead: The CEO of a high-profile medical technology start-up is found dead on the floor of her office, impaled on one of her own awards, and the prime suspect is a woman who woke up on the office couch and can’t remember a thing. Morgan immediately takes a shine to the suspect, Sam (a guest-starring Alison Jaye), and spends the rest of “Hangover” trying to prove her innocence.
The case takes many twists and turns, as usual, but the key features are predictable – experimental technology, hush money, obsessive careerists, affairs, the whole nine. But the dramatic thrust revolves around Morgan’s determination to exonerate Sam. As other suspects are turned up and interrogated, their alibis keep repositioning Sam as the likeliest culprit, and Morgan becomes increasingly uncomfortable with the idea that her new friend – who she literally keeps texting on a personal level – is guilty.
And we almost get there! One of the late developments of High Potential Episode 6 proves that Sam did indeed kill the victim. Morgan even admits to Karadec that she was wrong. I was thrilled. And then I clocked a few extra minutes left on the runtime and I just knew the show was going to back out. Which it did.
Judy Reyes and Kaitlin Olson in High Potential | Image via ABC
A hidden camera in the victim’s office proves that Sam was acting entirely in self-defense. It’s open and shut. Karadec even makes a big song and dance about unlocking her cuffs and letting her go. I was furious. How many times are we going to do this?
Because “Hangover” focuses near-exclusively on this case, there’s nothing else to latch onto. Ludo has the kids, so we don’t even see them, and Morgan is free to devote all of her time to the investigation – she even goes out for drinks with the team after. This is a nice group moment and I’d like to see more scenes along these lines, especially the candid moment between Morgan and Selena, but the fact it comes right after Morgan once again being proved right gives it a smug celebratory quality that just annoyed me even more.
The one bright, promising spot of High Potential Episode 6 – which, to be clear, is perfectly fine on its own terms, but just highlighted the one key complaint I have with this show – was a potential romantic angle for Morgan that shows up out of nowhere. JD Pardo plays a janitor named Tom who engages in flirty banter with Morgan for leaving orange chip-dust smears all over the walls. He even helps her to crack the case. At the end of the episode, Morgan writes her number in grease on the office’s glass divider, so there’s clearly more of this to come. And you don’t just cast JD Pardo for one episode.
Now this I like. Pardo and Olson have legitimate chemistry and Tom seems like a character who has more to offer than just being a love interest. Like the group scenes that embed Morgan further into the police force, this stuff is good. But I really hope we’re going to move away from the “Morgan is always right” angle in subsequent episodes.
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