Major spoilers below for High Potential fans who haven’t watched Season 2’s finale airing on ABC or streaming via Hulu subscription or Disney+ subscription, so be warned!
Welp, High Potential went and ended another season with Morgan on a narrative roller coaster, only this time holding a bleeding body in her arms as the credits started to roll. Learning about Roman’s long-hidden secret, combined with Wagner getting shot, made for quite a hectic and surprising finale, especialy after that big kiss. But the episode’s biggest emotional gamble didn’t really involve Kaitlin Olson’s character at all, and was rather centered on Daniel Sanjuta’s Karadec and Susan Kelechi Watson’s Lucia.
As it turns out, though the characters' rekindling may have looked like a match made in heaven, it was doomed before it even started, as Lucia got in over her head tipping off criminals about VIP hotel guests to steal from. Karadec tried his d--nedest to ignore the truth looking him in the face, even as Morgan made it very clear what the deal was, and it was that strong wall of disbelief that got in the way.
Ahead of the finale, I asked Season 2 showrunner Todd Harthan about ending what seemed like a perfect relationship. Specifically, I asked if there was a world where Karadec could have convinced himself not to turn Lucia in, in order to keep their relationship going. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he quickly ruled out that hypothetical outcome, saying:
Karadec is a cop through and through, which is part of why things didn't work out with Lucia the first time around. So no, I don’t think he could’ve lived with not turning Lucia in. He's far less comfortable in the moral grey area than, say, Morgan was.
Yep, that checks out completely. It's difficult for couples to remain together when one or both of their jobs requires as much attention and time as being a detective does. And though Karadec likely has felt guilty feelings about it before, this instance did at least justify his inability to turn his cop instincts off.
But even if he kept his moral compass as wavering as Morgan's is, that doesn't mean Karadec would be so welcoming of everything Lucia has done. Because it's not just about the acts she committed, but that she kept all that from him. As Harthan put it:
Also, trust is very big for him — so her crimes aside, the fact that she lied to him, that he thought he knew her so completely only to discover she was keeping so many secrets, that would be a lot for a guy like him to get past.
Karadec is the kind of guy who always plays himself up as the smartest and most collected person in the room, save for any where Morgan is also around. So Lucia may have unwittingly caused unhealable wounds for Karadec's ego and confience going forward, though I'm sure he'll be back to basics and stealing flirty glances with Morgan before long.
At least, assuming Lucia is actually out of his life for the long haul now. I'm not so sure that'll be the case, though, as Harthan pointed out how core she is to Karadec's heart, and teased a possible return in the future.
But who knows. Our characters are always growing and changing, so this may not be the last we’ve seen of Lucia. She clearly won his heart in a way few women have in his life. I think the question for us moving forward is, who is Karadec now? How does he pick up the pieces of his life and what does that even look like?
By all means, Susan Kelechi Watson stole my own danged heart during her relatively light stint as Lucia, and I'd like to believe that her unlawful actions were done out of necessity and not out of pure malice. So I don't expect her to get out of jail soon or anything, but I'd be quite enthused about seeing her again in the future, even if it means more emotional trauma for Karadec. (Sorry, Adam!)
I found the final minutes of the episode to be quite emotionally poignant, especially in the way that Morgan and Karadec's experiences somewhat mirrored each other in debilitating ways. In the jail, Lucia closes in for a final embrace as Karadece can't even bring his arms up from his sides, while in the park, Morgan is desperately clutching onto Wagner, who can't raise his own arms up (though for a completely different reason).
I expressed my admiration for the sequence, which the outgoing showrunner attributed to a variety of different creative minds behind the scenes, saying:
Well that ending was a real collaboration between not just me, Marc and Kaitlin, but also Drew, Sarah and Andrea – and we were thrilled with how it turned out. Being on set when Lucia leans into Karadec for what might be the last time, with her hands cuffed behind her back while he manages to put his arms around her, that was really powerful on the day.
Harthan also addressed a key detail that I hadn't realized: that the finale's director Althea Jones was also behind the camera on High Potential's pilot episode that first got fans hooked.
And of course, having Alethea who did such a brilliant job on the pilot, back to direct for us — once we landed on how we would end the season, we couldn’t wait to see what it looked like in her hands. It's the kind of emotionally complex moments we're excited to keep finding in series.
Whether or not sparks fly between Karadec and anyone else when High Potential Season 3 lands on ABC later in the 2026 TV schedule, you can bet we'll still be planted in front of our televisions to see if
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