Image via ABC
Published Apr 9, 2026, 2:09 PM EDT
Christine is a freelance writer for Collider with two decades of experience covering all types of TV shows and movies spanning every genre. With a particular affinity for dramas, true crime, sitcoms, and thrillers, if it's a top TV show, Christine has likely watched it and is eager to share her thoughts. When she's not furiously writing away, you can find her enjoying the next binge obsession with a glass of wine in front of the TV.
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Spoiler Alert: This list contains spoilers for the High Potential Season 2 finale.High Potential ended its second season on a high in terms of entertainment value, but a low in regard to a devastating final scene. It sets the story up perfectly for Season 3, which has already been confirmed. The next season can hopefully be expected as early as the end of this year if the show follows its typical new season timeline of September releases.
The big overarching mystery throughout the first two seasons centers around Morgan's (Kaitlin Olson) ex-husband Roman, who has been missing for 16 years. She finally learns, as she suspected, that he didn't intentionally abandon his family. He is also, surprisingly, actually still alive. But this mystery continues, and added to it are several others that will need answers in the new season.
Nick Wagner's Fate and Who Shot Him
Image via ABCNick Wagner (Steve Howey) was never one of the best characters in High Potential, but the Season 2 newcomer had one of the best character arcs of the season that puts him in the running. He came in hot as the new captain, getting under the skins of everyone, most notably lieutenant Selena Soto (Judy Reyes). But he also seemed to take a particular interest in Morgan, as though he was both enamored by her and unsure about her position with the force. By the end, he not only confirmed his romantic interest, he also showed that he really was on her side, and everyone else. He just wanted to be respected and fit in but went about it the wrong way.
Sadly, his potential last valiant effort was to follow a lead on the Roman case to help Morgan. But when Morgan arrived on the scene 20 minutes earlier than he told her to, she found him on a bench bleeding out. She frantically called 9-1-1 and can be seen mouthing the words "officer down." First responders arrive quickly, but it's unclear if he survived or not. While fans might have been initially fine if Nick came and went, the character's arc has become too compelling to let him go now. Either way, how his presence or death impacts Morgan will be a key for Season 3, as will be figuring out who shot him.
Roman Is Revealed To Be a Bad Guy
Image via ABCMorgan, an amateur detective almost as smart as Sherlock Holmes (if not smarter), inched closer and closer to the truth about Roman through the season. She finally learned that he might have been working with an undercover FBI agent. He was taken by a man named Eric Hayworth (John Pyper-Ferguson) but was murdered (faked as a suicide) in custody, preventing him from revealing any more details. That further amplifies the fact that someone in power does not want anyone to find out what happened. After pressing Willa (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a fixer for the wealthy and powerful who was involved in his disappearance, Morgan learns that the situation is more dangerous than she ever imagined.
Willa sends information to Morgan, despite frequent warnings that it could put her and her family in further danger. According to the files, the agent who Roman was apparently working with was corrupt, which suggests Roman might have been, too. Further, there are images outside of her house on the night she was killed, and a man in dark clothing and a hat is seen there beside Roman's car, suggesting he killed her to prevent her from exposing them. It's a gut-punch. Morgan's words to Detective Adam Karadec (Daniel Sunjata) about how sometimes you choose not to see parts of people you love could reference that deep down, she knew Roman was up to nefarious things all along but kept subconsciously fooling herself. It's a twist we didn't see coming and could change the course of the story from here.
Lucia's Dark Turn
Image via ABCLucia (Susan Kelechi Watson) allowed us to see a softer side of Karadec, though some fans weren't entirely on board with the story since they continued to "ship" Karadec and Morgan. However, it was an opportunity to see him genuinely happy for the first time. However, her return was seemingly only meant to help him finally put a lid on the relationship he felt got away. In a completely unexpected twist, Lucia is revealed to have been dating a conman. Though she broke things off before returning to Los Angeles and restarting her romance with Karadec, he stayed from time to time at the hotel where she works in customer relations.
When a murder takes place on the property and Morgan begins to suspect that Lucia knows more than she's letting on, it results in a tense and deeply emotional scene between her and Karadec. As it turns out, Lucia continued to help her ex hit two more marks before insisting that he leave her life for good. Because he ended up killing someone who caught him in the act. However, Lucia is being tried as an accessory to murder, or at least an accessory to his con crimes. She is last seen being fingerprinted and booked for jail. It's unclear what happens to her from here and if Karadec keeps in touch. But it's almost a certainty that even if she manages to beat the charges, their relationship is over. The biggest mystery relating to this is how the revelation will impact Karadec's attitude towards work, life, and the prospects of love and trust.
Is Willa Telling the Truth?
Image via ABCWilla seems genuine in wanting to keep Morgan and her children safe. The files she provided to Nick also appear to be authentic. But she doesn't seem like the type of person who would be above faking files to get Morgan off the scent and scare away the police department in the process. The fact that Nick was shot could suggest that she's telling the truth, or that she ordered him killed or harmed to make her plan more convincing.
The big mystery beyond the fact that Willa was hired to sweep the issue under the rug to avoid the FBI scandal becoming public is what else she knows. Willa clearly didn't have Roman killed, but she likely knows what he did, how he went into hiding, and where he is now. She'll likely play a pivotal role in Season 3 as the only person Morgan can get to who knows the entire truth and might be willing to tell it to save her own face. So, the mystery is not only if Willa was telling the truth, but what else she knows and what Roman was actually doing alongside this corrupt agent that she helped hide.
Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz
Which Taylor Sheridan
Show Do You Belong In?
Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn't write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
FIND YOUR WORLD →
01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan's world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
ALand, legacy, and a name that's been feared and respected for generations. BKnowing the deal better than anyone else in the room — and being willing to walk away first. CReputation. I've earned it the hard way, and everyone in the room knows it. DBeing the only person both sides will talk to. That makes me indispensable — and dangerous.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan's universe is always absolute — and always costly.
AFamily — blood or chosen. The ranch, the name, the people who carry it with me. BThe company — or whoever's signing the cheques. Loyalty follows the contract. CMy crew. The men who stood with me when it counted — I don't abandon them for anything. DMy community — even when my community is a powder keg and I'm the only thing stopping it from blowing.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it's crossed.
AQuietly, decisively, and in a way that sends a message to everyone watching. BI outmanoeuvre them legally, financially, and politically before they even know I've moved. CDirectly. Old school. You cross me, you hear about it to your face — and then you deal with the consequences. DI absorb it, calculate the fallout, and find the move that keeps the whole system from collapsing.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan's worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
AWide open land — mountains, sky, silence. Somewhere you can see trouble coming from a mile away. BThe oil fields of West Texas — brutal, lucrative, and indifferent to whoever happens to be standing on top of them. CA mid-size city where the rules haven't quite caught up yet — fertile ground for someone with vision and nerve. DA rust-belt town built around a prison — where everyone's life is shaped by what's inside those walls.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
AI do what has to be done to protect what's mine. I'll answer for it eventually — but not today. BGrey is just business. The line moves depending on what's at stake, and I move with it. CI have a code — it's not the law's code, but it's mine, and I don't break it. DI've made peace with it. Keeping the peace requires compromises most people don't have the stomach for.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they're defending.
AA way of life that the modern world is doing everything it can to erase. BMy position — and the leverage that comes with being the person everyone needs to close a deal. CRelevance. I've been away, I've been written off — and I'm proving that was a mistake. DWhatever fragile order I've managed to build — because without it, everything burns.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan's world is never given — it's established, maintained, and constantly tested.
ABy example and force of will. People follow me because they believe in what I'm protecting — and because they know what happens if they don't. BThrough negotiation and leverage. I don't need people to like me — I need them to need me. CBy being the smartest, most experienced person in the room and making sure everyone quietly knows it. DBy being the calm centre of a situation that would spiral without me — and accepting that nobody thanks you for it.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
AThey'll learn. Or they won't. Either way, the land was here before them and it'll be here after. BI figure out what they want, what they're worth, and whether they're an asset or a problem — fast. CI was the outsider once. I give them a chance — one — to show they understand respect. DNew players destabilise everything I've built. I assess the threat and manage it before it manages me.
NEXT QUESTION →
09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
AMy family's peace — maybe their innocence. The ranch demands everything, and I've let it take too much. BRelationships, time, any version of a normal life. The job eats everything that isn't nailed down. CYears. Decades in some cases. Time I can't get back — but I'm not done yet. DMy conscience, mostly. And the ability to ever fully trust anyone on either side of the wall.
NEXT QUESTION →
10
When it's over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan's characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
AThat I held the line. That the land is still ours and everything I did was worth it. BThat I was the best at what I did and that no deal ever got closed without me at the table. CThat I built something real, somewhere nobody expected it, and I did it on my own terms. DThat I kept the peace when nobody else could — and that the town is still standing because of it.
REVEAL MY SHOW →
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you're complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
🤠 Yellowstone
🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world's indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you're willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family's weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what's yours, you don't escalate — you finish it. You're not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone's world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn't make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You're a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they'll do to get it. You're not naive enough to think this world is fair. You're smart enough to be the one deciding who it's fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you're not above reminding people that the two aren't mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they'd be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they're more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don't need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you're the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky's world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You've made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
Roman Is Lurking Around Ava
Image via ABCAt the end of the episode of one of the best ABC shows of the last five years, before finding Nick, Morgan is proudly attending her daughter's art exhibit where Ava (Amirah J) has made a creation using cut and ripped pieces of her father's old artwork. After Morgan leaves, a dark shadow can be seen at the doorway looking directly at Ava. It's implied that this is Roman, especially since the build, dress, and hat match the supposed image of him outside the agent's home in the aforementioned photo from years prior. If this is the case, it means Roman has likely been watching Ava from afar, either since recently or maybe for her entire life.
This also raises questions about timing. If he arrived shortly after Morgan left, is he the one who shot Nick to stop him from digging deeper? It certainly seems as though the show is trying to make viewers think this is the case. What's clear is that Roman is closer than ever and might have been watching Morgan this whole time. It starts to make sense as to why he left and never came back. If Roman really was involved in bad things, maybe still is, he would not want his family to know, nor be in their lives and bring danger to their doorstep. He also might do whatever it takes to prevent them from ever finding out.
Will Morgan and Karadec Give Into Their Intense Chemistry?
The intense chemistry between Morgan and Karadec, two of the best TV detectives of the last five years, has existed for seasons. The pair have always kept it professional, often behaving more like siblings or best friends. But there are moments when something deeper, potentially romantic, peeks out, like when they slow-danced at the police ball or share tender moments of thoughtfulness like a new couple. The most intense moment, however, came in the final episode when Morgan is consoling Karadec over the news about Lucia. He goes to her house to apologize in person for having blinders on, not believing her, and yelling at her because of it.
After a long embrace, they look at one another with such mutual affection. After he lovingly wipes a tear from her cheek, it seems like he's so close to leaning in for a kiss, and she wants one, but he stops himself. It's as though he isn't refraining because he doesn't want to, but because he knows this isn't the right time. The moment makes it even more likely that these two will eventually give in to their feelings for one another. Fans are on the fence about whether they should or not. For now, they remain this generation's Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni), and the mystery of how they truly feel about one another continues.
High Potential
Release Date September 17, 2024
Showrunner Todd Harthan
English (US) ·