SPOILERS: This post contains details about the High Potential, Season 2 episode ‘The One That Got Away: Part Two’

Kaitlin Olson‘s clever consultant Morgan Gillory is back on the case as High Potential returns from its midseason hiatus.

Ahead of this week’s episode of the ABC procedural, showrunner Todd Harthan teased Deadline with what to expect in the back half of the show’s sophomore season as they had an “embarrassment of riches” with the guest stars and storylines to come.

“I think that as we tumble towards our Season 2 penultimate, finale, I think the audience can look forward to just as satisfying, if not even more exhilarating push-off into a potential Season 3,” said Harthan. “What we’re plotting and planning, it has a different flavor than what we did last year, but I think it’s gonna be even more personal, even more propulsive, even more surprising than what we did in Season 1, because we’ve learned some things and the characters have gotten richer.”

In ‘The One That Got Away: Part Two’, Morgan is suspicious of art consultant Rhys (Aiden Turner) after their steamy make-out session led to the discovery of a scar that matches their mysterious suspected art thief, Jean Baptiste. But as the two-part mystery concludes, his true motives come into focus.

“We hadn’t done anything even sort of like this as it relates to a meaningful guest star … and putting Morgan and the team in a position where they’re questioning whether or not this person that they’ve welcomed into their orbit is actually playing them. And then also, whether or not he’s a killer, a murderer,” he explained. “There were a lot of like things that played up the stakes, that just was not in the DNA of any other episode we’ve done before. So, as a mid-season finale, and ultimately a two-parter, it just had the kind of runway that we thought was worthy of a two-parter.”

Meanwhile, as Soto (Judy Reyes) helps Morgan delve further into the mystery of Roman’s whereabouts, she meets Arthur (Mekhi Phifer) to find out what he knows. But when Arthur goes missing as well, the real danger starts closing in on Morgan.

“Well, in the back half, yes, we owe it to the audience to start filling in some of the Roman blanks,” said Harthan. “But as you do that, our job is also to have danger and stakes swell, and Morgan was the one that kicked this hornet’s nest. Now, how close to her family is it really gonna get? And I think we’re hinting at that now. That’s a big part of the DNA of these 11 episodes in our sort of winter run of episodes.”

Read on about the conclusion of the High Potential‘s midseason two-part episode and what it means for the rest of Season 2, which airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on ABC.

DEADLINE: Tell me about how you decided to wrap up this conspiracy with the second part of the episode.

TODD HARTHAN: We love our twists and turns on this show, and there’s a delicious, twisty, turny fraudulent story … that kind of laid out in a way that just naturally felt very Thomas Crown Affair adjacent, and then also built to a morally ambiguous place with who our ultimate thief was. 

DEADLINE: And I did appreciate that Rhys was revealed to be Jean Baptiste, but not actually the thief of this painting, just more of a Robin Hood figure, I guess. Can you tell me a little bit about that? 

HARTHAN: Yeah, we hadn’t done anything even sort of like this as it relates to a meaningful guest star … and putting Morgan and the team in a position where they’re questioning whether or not this person that they’ve welcomed into their orbit is actually playing them. And then also, whether or not he’s a killer, a murderer. There were a lot of like things that played up the stakes, that just was not in the DNA of any other episode we’ve done before. So, as a mid-season finale, and ultimately a two-parter, it just had the kind of runway that we thought was worthy of a two-parter. 

DEADLINE: And I don’t know if this is just me reading into things, but am I crazy, or was there a spark of chemistry between Soto and Arthur? 

HARTHAN: God, that’s interesting. It’s so funny because it always takes me back to some of the conversations I have in the writer’s room, and that certainly has come up, because those two actors are so, so good, and they have a natural chemistry as actors, and then that brings a certain energy to the scene. There’s so much still to play with the Arthur character. He’s still very much in our orbit, in our back half. So I would just say, you never know. 

DEADLINE: Can you tell me about furthering that mystery as well because we see the mysterious guy from the back seat, and he’s now stalking Morgan. What’s going on there? 

HARTHAN: Well, in the back half, yes, we owe it to the audience to start filling in some of the Roman blanks. But as you do that, our job is also to have danger and stakes swell, and Morgan was the one that kicked this hornet’s nest. Now, how close to her family is it really gonna get? And I think we’re hinting at that now. That’s a big part of the DNA of these 11 episodes in our sort of winter run of episodes. 

DEADLINE: You touched on this earlier, but I do appreciate with these upcoming episodes, how there’s kind of the “eat the rich” mentality there.

HARTHAN: Yeah. I mean, Morgan’s never gonna come out and say, “I hate the rich.” She doesn’t, right? But what she doesn’t like, is people that have wealth and have power and then abuse it. Or use it to either line their pockets even more, or have little regard for the people they leave in their wake, when they are doing whatever nefarious thing they’re doing. That, I think is satisfying. We can’t do it every week, but there’s a lot of fraud and corruption amongst the rich and powerful, and it’s fun to take those kinds of villains down in a satisfying way, and to see the underdog, Morgan, do it in such a satisfying way. So, yeah, there’s some more of those coming. 

DEADLINE: And in that aspect, that actually makes the whole Jean Baptiste romance even more sweet. So, I like that. 

HARTHAN: Sure, yeah. 

DEADLINE: Is there anything else you can tell me about what’s to come this season? 

HARTHAN: There’s a couple of things that I think will be exciting, because the audience, I feel like has a big appetite for it. We have some meaningful stories coming for Daphne and Oz. We have some incredible stuff coming for Soto, especially as it relates to the Roman investigation and her sort of running with that. I think we have some of our biggest and most exciting guest stars coming in the back half, and we’ve already had some incredible ones and we’ve got more coming. It’s been sort of an embarrassment of riches as it relates to the talent that we’re getting to come in and play with us. And I think that as we tumble towards our Season 2 penultimate, finale, I think the audience can look forward to just as satisfying, if not even more exhilarating push-off into a potential Season 3. What we’re plotting and planning, it has a different flavor than what we did last year, but I think it’s gonna be even more personal, even more propulsive, even more surprising than what we did in Season 1, because we’ve learned some things and the characters have gotten richer. So, I’m just excited about all of it, man, and I just can’t wait to come back. I feel like we’ve been off the air forever, and I just want the audience to see what we’ve cooked up.