The ‘High Potential’ Season One Finale Rushed the Ending and Left Us Hanging

High Potential wrapped up its first season this week with a rushed cliffhanger episode, promising a resolution to the mystery behind Morgan’s husband’s disappearance and revealing that Morgan is the target of a psychotic serial killer.

The series began with Morgan agreeing to assist the Major Crimes squad with their toughest cases in exchange for Lieutenant Soto (Judy Reyes) helping her figure out what happened to her husband, Roman, who vanished 15 years ago. Soto spent the season quietly tracking leads and eventually connected with Gio Conforth (Domenick Lombardozzi), the last person to see Roman alive. Despite Karadec (Daniel Sunjata) not trusting him, Gio gives them the name of an FBI agent who was using Roman as a confidential informant when he disappeared.

All of that will have to wait until season two, but we now know that Roman is alive—somewhere.

Lombardozzi is a great addition to the cast, and I hope they bring him back next season. His character and storyline added a necessary speed bump to an episode that was tripping over itself to reach the ending as quickly as possible.

The A-plot focused on a serial killer obsessed with children’s games, targeting members of a grief counseling group that includes Detective Oz (Deniz Akdeniz). Meanwhile, Soto insists everyone from Major Crimes attend the annual Police Gala. They fail to catch the killer before the event, and he ruins their night by trying to kill Oz.

Honestly, that gala looked super boring anyway. There were hardly any people there, and it looked like someone threw some café tables into the corner of a conference room. If it was supposed to represent a fancy event for the entire LAPD, they missed the mark. When the Major Crimes team rushed out to rescue Oz, they were probably relieved to have an excuse to leave. That said, there was one touching moment between Morgan and Karadec on the “dance floor” that hinted at a possible romance.

Even though Karadec happily backed off when Morgan’s long-distance boyfriend showed up, we all saw how he looked at her when she walked in and while they were dancing. It’s the same way Booth and Brennan used to look at each other on Bones. And Morgan having a long-distance boyfriend makes about as much sense as Robin’s relationship on The Equalizer. The show doesn’t need that kind of complication. If we’re going to explore Morgan’s love life, let her have an actual boyfriend—Karadec or otherwise.

Everything in this episode moved far too quickly for a two-parter. The serial killer storyline didn’t feel significant, even though he issued a direct threat against Morgan at the end. If you’re going to jump from cases about exotic animal veterinarians, murdered nannies, and tech moguls to high-concept serial killers, you need to lean into the Criminal Minds vibe and let the viewer sit with the psychopath for a while. Otherwise, the stakes don’t feel real.

The credits should have rolled with me worried for Morgan’s safety, but instead, I felt unfulfilled. Even the usual Morgan Gillory Information Download felt rushed. A lot of the episode—like the gala—felt cheaply thrown together. And I’m not sure if it was a continuity error or if time passes differently in L.A., but the gala started in daylight, and when the team rushed out to save Oz an hour later, it was suddenly dark. Then, very quickly, it was daytime again while Oz was still sitting in the back of an ambulance. What time was it? How many days did they spend on this case? Who knows.

I hope they flesh out the serial killer storyline in season two to give us a satisfying conclusion. They also need to decide whether they’re doing a will-they/won’t-they with Morgan and Karadec. And now there’s Morgan’s father to deal with—someone she just mentioned for the first time in the finale. That means we’re going to meet him. It’s like Chekhov’s gun.

High Potential has already been renewed for season two, which will air this fall. So we have plenty of time to speculate about who her dad might be, where Roman has been, and what kind of games this serial killer has planned for Morgan Gillory.

All season one episodes of High Potential are now streaming on Hulu/Disney+.