{"id":571477,"date":"2026-04-08T09:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T09:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/571477\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T09:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T09:16:12","slug":"kaitlin-olson-on-high-potential-season-2-finale-is-wagner-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/571477\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaitlin Olson on ‘High Potential’ Season 2 Finale: Is Wagner Dead?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSPOILER ALERT: This interview contains major spoilers from \u201cFamily Tree,\u201d the Season 2 finale of ABC\u2019s \u201cHigh Potential<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKaitlin Olson<\/a> knows that many \u201cHigh Potential\u201d viewers are already clamoring for her savant consultant Morgan Gillory to get together with her LAPD detective partner Adam Karadec (Daniel Sunjata). But after just two seasons of her acclaimed ABC procedural dramedy, which has regularly topped the charts in multi-platform ratings<\/a>, Olson is more than happy to continue teasing out that potential slow-burn romance for years to come.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis season\u2019s personal arc \u201cwas inspired by everyone really jumping on this Morgan-Karadec bandwagon and being like, \u2018Will they or won\u2019t they?\u2019 I just thought that was so funny,\u201d Olson, who is also an executive producer, tells Variety. \u201cWe talked about it, and I was like, \u2018You can\u2019t just jump right into that, because where do you go from there? Who knows what\u2019s going to happen in the future?\u2019 So then we started throwing around the idea of, \u2018Well, what if they each had different romantic interests?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Karadec reconnected with his ex-fianc\u00e9e Lucia (Susan Kelechi Watson), Morgan found herself repelled by and then attracted to Nick Wagner (Steve Howey), the new captain of the LAPD\u2019s Major Crimes division. After getting off on the wrong foot, Morgan helped Wagner get some much-needed closure in the penultimate episode by catching the team of thieves responsible for murdering Wagner\u2019s fianc\u00e9e. (He also saved her from getting shot.) As they were leaving the precinct that evening, Wagner impulsively kissed Morgan in an elevator, seemingly opening the door for a workplace romance.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDaniel Sunjata, Kaitlin Olson<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Disney\/Christine Bartolucci<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe wanted to have a little bit of a mystery, and we also wanted to stump Morgan,\u201d Olson says about introducing Wagner this season. \u201cIt was very important to me that she\u2019s not always right about everything. I like that she\u2019s a very intelligent person, and she\u2019s also human and doesn\u2019t know whether to trust this man. Who is he? Does he need something from her? Is he actually interested in her? So that was fun to explore and play with. It\u2019s always more fun to have people actually fall for each other, and then it\u2019s heartbreaking to have it be ripped apart.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the heart-wrenching Season 2 finale, Morgan and Karadec\u2019s investigation into a poolside death at a Los Angeles hotel resulted in the arrest of Lucia, a guest relations manager who confesses to tipping off and then covering for the conman who murdered a home improvement reality show host. After lashing out at Morgan for suggesting that Lucia was a suspect, Karadec shows up at Morgan\u2019s front door to apologize, leading to a tearful heart-to-heart between the partners.<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, Wagner uses his corrupt politician father\u2019s connections to stage a meeting for him and Morgan with Willa Quinn (Jennifer Jason Leigh), the shady political fixer connected to the disappearance of Morgan\u2019s ex, Roman, 15 years ago. At the end of the finale, while attending her teenage daughter Ava\u2019s (Amirah J) art show, Morgan receives a call from Wagner, who reveals that he is going to meet with someone else connected to Roman in a public park. But by the time she arrives to confront this shadowy figure herself, Morgan finds only Wagner \u2014 who gave her the wrong meeting time on purpose \u2014 bleeding out with stab wounds all over his back.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the screen cuts to black, Morgan is left to grapple with the guilt that her search for Roman could very well have claimed the life of someone close to her. \u201cIt\u2019s no longer just about her wondering what happened for herself and her daughter, but it\u2019s also potentially going to be very dangerous for these people that she now cares very much about,\u201d Olson says.<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, Olson opens up about that devastating Wagner cliffhanger, the state of Morgan and Karadec\u2019s partnership (including the unscripted moment from their intimate final scene together) \u2014 and reprising her Emmy-nominated role in two episodes of the final season of \u201cHacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Disney<\/p>\n

\t\tThere is music playing over the end of the \u201cHigh Potential\u201d finale, because the creative team wanted to juxtapose Morgan holding Wagner\u2019s lifeless body up with Karadec hugging a newly indicted Lucia at the precinct. Do you remember what you were yelling on the day? What was going through your mind as Morgan?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI was screaming, \u201cHelp!\u201d and \u201cOver here!\u201d and \u201cOh my God, oh my God.\u201d I think her entire world is completely crashing down, and she\u2019s absolutely to blame, in her mind. After being selfless for the past 15 years and raising these children, [Morgan\u2019s ex-husband] Ludo is wonderful, but there\u2019s always this thing hanging over her head that her daughter doesn\u2019t have her father. She\u2019s tried to be both for her this entire time. And for once, she\u2019s going to ask for something selfishly and wants these answers \u2014 and that backfires. That\u2019s every mom\u2019s nightmare, like, \u201cHow dare I want to do something for me, and then have that be a thing that causes harm to everybody else?\u201d So what was definitely going through my head was, \u201cIf I had just kept my mouth shut and if I had just been like, \u2018Whatever,\u2019 then this wouldn\u2019t be happening to this man that I care very much about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tMorgan and Wagner\u2019s steamy elevator kiss has lit up social media. Many fans have very strong opinions about a Morgan-Wagner romance, which will not even be on the table if he does not survive. How has Morgan\u2019s opinion of Wagner evolved since they first met in Episode 4, and how does she feel about him now?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Episode 9 of this season, he basically uses her when she\u2019s in detective school; he almost gets her fired. I thought that was really important to not gloss over. They have an attraction from the beginning, and she also can tell from the beginning that this person is tricky and potentially hiding something. Then he uses her to get answers, even though she could be fired, so she really turns on him and isn\u2019t having it and completely shuts him out.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd then it starts to change when they\u2019re at the kitchen area of the precinct and he explains that he almost was married. Seeing his vulnerability in [Episode] 17 \u2014 and Steve Howey did such a wonderful job playing it too. Just watching his heartbreak with his fianc\u00e9e when she died in his arms, and then the retelling of the story, Morgan\u2019s really able to see, \u201cOK, that\u2019s why he\u2019s so complicated.\u201d Maybe they have more in common than she thought, and his willingness to open up and be vulnerable was very attractive to her.<\/p>\n

\t\tMorgan\u2019s biggest trigger will always be the threat of harm befalling her three children, and she goes into full mama bear mode to strong-arm Willa \u2014 who threatened to harm Morgan\u2019s kids \u2014 into revealing what happened to Roman. Morgan then learns that Roman was allegedly involved in the death of an undercover FBI agent, but she can no longer stop this investigation. What lingering questions will Morgan have about her ex going into next season?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThere are tons of questions. She\u2019s second-guessing herself. One thing that we set out to do this season was to make sure that Morgan is not infallible \u2014 that just because she\u2019s smart doesn\u2019t mean that she is always right or doesn\u2019t ever make mistakes. So she\u2019s really questioning her own judgment about who this person was. We really liked that that also paralleled what Karadec is going through and him questioning Lucia. He thought he knew her, and it turns out she was someone that maybe he was wrong about. It was really important to me to make sure that that came up when [Morgan] was comforting him, that he\u2019s not wrong about [Lucia]. Maybe he doesn\u2019t have all of the answers, but he was scared to open up his heart to her. [Morgan wants to reassure him] that even though it ended up hurting him in the end, it was still the right move. So that\u2019s a theme for both of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Disney\/Christine Bartolucci<\/p>\n

\t\tWhen you think back to your first meeting with Drew Goddard \u2014 who developed this show \u2014 a few years ago, how did his original pitch about what happened to Roman compare to what is revealed about the character in this finale?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tDrew said in that initial meeting, \u201cWho knows what happened to Roman? We\u2019re going to have to figure it out. And how heartbreaking would it be if he actually did leave her?\u201d I thought that was really an interesting point. Truthfully, we still don\u2019t know what happened and why Roman left. Things are definitely pointing in a certain direction, but that doesn\u2019t mean that that\u2019s true. These people, whoever they are, are trying to get her to stop looking for him, so what they have uncovered from Willa may or may not be the truth. She\u2019s not trustworthy.<\/p>\n

\t\tThe difference between Morgan and Karadec\u2019s relationship in the pilot and their dynamic by the end of Season 2 is like day and night. How has the way you have chosen to play your half of that dynamic changed as Morgan and Karadec\u2019s partnership has evolved?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s such a good question. It can be very challenging to act in a scene with someone where we don\u2019t know which direction we plan to take them. You don\u2019t want it to be that predictable, so it\u2019s really fun to take lots of different twists and turns. I think it\u2019s really fun to play some episodes where she\u2019s irritated by him like he\u2019s a little brother. Just [her] changing his ringtone to \u201cBaby Got Back\u201d and having him be frustrated by that was so funny to me. I also think that just because she\u2019s busting his balls and poking at him, that\u2019s also still very flirty. Morgan\u2019s fun at the end of the day, and she\u2019s entertaining herself, so she could be flirting with him and making fun of him, and that could be the same thing.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut, ultimately, a really important thing for Morgan is that she doesn\u2019t like feeling vulnerable in front of people. It\u2019s very hard for her to let her guard down because she\u2019s very afraid of being hurt, so it was important to slowly build trust with him. The fact that she feels safe with Karadec is the most important thing. That definitely could lead to a romantic thing, but also can lead to really good friends. She doesn\u2019t have very many of those, because she doesn\u2019t let a lot of people in.<\/p>\n

\t\tThe moment that really solidified the partnership, for me, was Karadec taking it upon himself to hug Morgan as she had a panic attack in Episode 12. That was a side of Morgan that Karadec \u2014 and, by extension, the audience \u2014 had never seen before.\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s one of my favorite scenes of the entire series so far. To be a person who doesn\u2019t feel like she can depend on anyone in the world except for herself, to be forced into a situation where she is completely out of control, and to see her trying to fix it for herself and intellectualizing her way out of it \u2014 it\u2019s not working because it\u2019s an emotional breakdown. And to have him take control in that situation and force her to let him help her was so beautiful.<\/p>\n

\n\tI think their relationship forever changed from there, because she hated [the hug]. She would never choose to do it. She was forced into it. She was embarrassed by it. And then at the end of that episode, he helps her through that part as well. [He tells her] that it\u2019s OK to be human and it\u2019s OK to count on someone else, count on him as her partner. He knows that she would do the same for him if and when the day comes, and just because it hasn\u2019t happened yet doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not going to. I thought that was just such a perfect thing to say to someone. Ultimately, feeling safe with him was what I wanted for their relationship to be. Whether you know how it\u2019s going to end up \u2014 romantically or not \u2014 he should be her safest place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tMorgan is right there to support Karadec after he is injured in a building explosion in Episode 16, and then after he learns the truth about Lucia in the finale. In the latter scene, I noticed that it takes a couple of attempts for Morgan to get Karadec to open up about how he\u2019s been dealing with Lucia\u2019s arrest. Morgan is finally able to get through to him when she calls him \u201cAdam,\u201d which rarely happens.\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI love that you picked up on the fact that that\u2019s the first time she\u2019s called him \u201cAdam\u201d \u2014 or one of the first times. That was purposeful. There was a lot of improvising in there too, and I really wanted him to stay all business and have me force him to let Morgan in. And you\u2019re exactly right. It\u2019s the same as that panic attack scene. She wanted it to be OK that he was upset, and then she also wanted to make sure in the same breath that he didn\u2019t retreat back into that cemented, closed-down space [like he normally does]. This relationship might not have worked out, but I like that it was important to her that he doesn\u2019t let himself close back up and that he did the right thing by letting [Lucia] in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tIn that scene, was Karadec wiping Morgan\u2019s tears away scripted?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was not scripted. Both of us are very aware that everyone\u2019s wondering if these two characters are going to fall in love or not. I\u2019m never going to give you that answer, but I love confusing people. It\u2019s so funny to do a TV show in the time of social media too, because people just have very strong opinions about whether they should end up together or not. Especially after the Wagner kiss, people are all up in arms. Either way, how beautiful to have a friendship where you can fully be yourself with someone and you feel safe. Not everybody has that.<\/p>\n

\t\tMorgan and Karadec tend to tilt their heads whenever there is an awkward, extended silence between them. Are their head tilts just subconscious at this point? Have you discussed that at all with Daniel?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tWe\u2019ve never talked about it, so I guess it\u2019s just maybe us trying to figure each other out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tDaniel has admitted in a previous interview that he thinks Karadec has developed feelings for Morgan, but he chose to put those feelings on the back burner once other love interests threw a wrench in their dynamic for the time being. Do you think Morgan has developed any feelings for Karadec? If so, is she aware of those feelings?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI think that as soon as Lucia comes back into the picture, she is surprised by how she feels about that, because she really has love for him, she wants him to be happy and she wants what\u2019s best for him. And then seeing it for herself makes her feel strange like, \u201cOh\u2026\u201d Maybe there\u2019s a twinge of jealousy there. But that could also be that his attention is being taken away from her, and she just enjoys being his partner. I think she\u2019s so closed down \u2014 I don\u2019t think that she allows that to come to the surface, but it\u2019s definitely in there, for sure. He is her safe place, and to spend the last decade or so feeling like she can\u2019t count on anybody is a very lonely feeling. So I think that it will take a long time for her to admit that she has feelings for him, to herself.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJudy Reyes, Javicia Leslie, Kaitlin Olson <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Disney\/Raymond Liu<\/p>\n

\t\tWe have spoken a lot about the men in Morgan\u2019s life, but the show has also deepened her relationships with Soto (Judy Reyes) and Daphne (Javicia Leslie).\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI never want to lose sight of the fact that it was Soto that Morgan went to in the first place to get help finding Roman, and that it was very, very difficult for Morgan to ask a member of the police department for help. So developing that relationship and making sure that Soto is the one who\u2019s leading the charge on finding him and not breaking her word to Morgan that she\u2019s going to, even after Morgan asks her to stop \u2014 that was really important. I\u2019d never want [the show] to be all about the romance, like, \u201cHow does Morgan feel about the men?\u201d That\u2019s fun, but having solid female relationships where that lieutenant has her back no matter what is really important.<\/p>\n

\n\tMorgan definitely wants to take Daphne under her wing, even though Daphne has more detective experience. She loves her and sees from the pilot that Daphne lights up watching Morgan do her thing. I will say that there was an iteration [of the show] very early on where it seemed like Daphne was jealous of Morgan. I was like, \u201cWe can\u2019t do that. Daphne can admire Karadec\u2019s skills but not be jealous that Morgan gets to be his partner, because that gets weird.\u201d It was just Javicia\u2019s instinct to have her face light up when I was doing some Morgan stuff in the pilot, and I loved it, and I was like, \u201cThat\u2019s what we have to lean into. She has to look up to her and find her fascinating.\u201d Daphne has an episode where she really takes the lead this season, and she said she\u2019s channeling her inner Morgan. I like that these women are leaning on each other and rooting for each other.<\/p>\n

\t\tAt this point, what do you know about the third season? Will the premiere pick up immediately after the events of this finale, or will there be a time jump?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s all in discussion as we speak, so I can\u2019t say anything, but there is a lot on the table. There are so many places that we can go \u2014 not only with the Morgan-Karadec of it all, but is Wagner dead? He sure got stabbed a lot in the back! And what\u2019s going on with Roman? I think that\u2019ll be addressed sooner rather than later, just because, as an audience member, who wants to drag that on for another season? So we\u2019re going to have to have some answers there pretty quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tDoes this mean that you guys will finally be casting the role of Roman next season?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tListen, I can\u2019t give you any guarantees, but I think it\u2019d be a pretty smart idea.<\/p>\n

\t\t\u201cHigh Potential\u201d will be returning next season without showrunner Todd Harthan<\/a>, who is departing to oversee a new \u201cEragon\u201d adaptation for Disney+<\/a>. Have you and the other producers found his successor yet?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s definitely being discussed. Listen, this is a really big job. This is a show with multiple tones, and that\u2019s not easy to do. I\u2019m so particular about every single aspect of these scripts and these storylines.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tJennifer Jason Leigh <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Disney\/Raymond Liu<\/p>\n

\t\tWhat kinds of conversations are you looking to have with that new showrunner to ensure the core tenets of the show that Drew and Todd have established remain the same?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI think it\u2019s really important to protect all of the tones. One of the biggest compliments I get is what you said to me in the beginning, which is that you can watch it with your little brother. This show appeals to all audiences, and that\u2019s really important to me. I like that my kids\u2019 friends are watching it. I like that my parents and their friends are watching it. The murders need to feel real and grounded. I want people to be emotionally invested in these characters and know who they are inside and out. I also don\u2019t ever want to lose the fact that Morgan is a free-spirited, fun, well-rounded person, not just a smart person. So there is comedy in that, but the world is not funny \u2014 the world is serious, and the crimes are serious. So protecting all of those things is the most important to me.<\/p>\n

\t\tDespite your day job on \u201cHigh Potential,\u201d you made time to return for the final season of \u201cHacks\u201d as DJ, the daughter of Jean Smart\u2019s Deborah Vance. In Episode 5, DJ convinces her mother to join her on a beloved reality show.\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m so honored to be a part of this show. I love it so much. Even just as an audience member, it\u2019s so special. Jen [Statsky], Paul [W. Downs] and Lucia [Aniello] did such an incredible job creating these characters and making them so layered.<\/p>\n

\n\tI read the script, and was dying laughing. I was so excited about it, but it was really also important for Jean and I to wrap up this relationship because these people have been on a real journey. But I also love that DJ will perpetually always be a grown, angsty teenager. They get to do something really special and really wild together, and it\u2019s very bonding and so much fun and right up my alley.<\/p>\n

\t\tHow do you think DJ\u2019s relationship with Deborah has evolved over the course of the show, and what have you enjoyed most about playing out that mother-daughter relationship with Jean?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tJean\u2019s just a dream. Every scene with her is just a gift. She\u2019s so fantastic and so talented. But DJ started out as a person who, even as a grown woman, is desperate for her mom\u2019s approval and attention. I think throughout this series, in the roast episode [of Season 3], she discovers that it\u2019s not her fault. Her mom has an addiction as well. She\u2019s addicted to laughter, and that\u2019s something that DJ can identify with because she\u2019s an addict. It just takes the load off of DJ a little bit. She lets herself off the hook for feeling like this is all her fault, like she\u2019s a failure of a daughter, because she could never get her mom\u2019s attention. It wasn\u2019t really about that. But I also like that it doesn\u2019t completely go away. She still wants her mom\u2019s attention all the time.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd then having a child, becoming a mother herself, and deciding which parenting styles she wants to pick and choose from, and what things she absolutely does not want to do to her kid \u2014 becoming a mom does that too. Suddenly, you realize that nobody has it figured out. We\u2019re all winging it, and now it\u2019s her job to wing it.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis interview has been edited and condensed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains major spoilers from \u201cFamily Tree,\u201d the Season 2 finale of ABC\u2019s \u201cHigh Potential.\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,5920,38400,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-571477","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-high-potential","10":"tag-kaitlin-olson","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}