As High Potential’s story to begin with.

The show may have a problem with side characters in general, with High Potential’s season 2 renewal now confirmed, the blueprint for involving Ava and Elliot in each episode’s story is due for a change.

High Potential Should Involve Ava And Elliot In Morgan’s Investigations

They Both Have More To Offer Than The Show Seems To Realize

It took ten episodes for the writers to expand on Elliot’s role in High Potential, and it still feels like the character is used for little more than the occasional B plot. The same is largely true of Ava, despite the fact that the disappearance of Ava’s father is meant to be one of the show’s most central storylines. Considering Ava’s importance to the story and Elliot’s similarities to his mother, both characters should be worthy of meatier roles. The best way to deliver that is to start involving them in Morgan’s murder investigations.

While bringing a couple of children into a homicide investigation might sound like semi-reckless parenting, each of Morgan’s kids (besides Chloe, for obvious reasons) has a unique insight to offer. Elliot possesses Morgan’s eidetic memory but gears it toward a different array of interests, while Ava can provide insights on youth and social media trends that Morgan and Karadec might not know about. Furthermore, there’s precedent for using Morgan’s kids in this fashion: HPI, the French series High Potential is adapted from, did this exact thing.

HPI Had Morgane’s Kids Participate In Investigations On Multiple Occasions

Elliot And Thea Are Frighteningly Comfortable Around A Crime Scene

In a very similar vein to High Potential, French-Belgian series HPI follows Morgane Alvaro as she consults with police in return for them looking into the disappearance of her daughter Thea’s father, Romain. Also like High Potential, Morgane’s son Elliot is established as sharing her unique intellectual gifts. The main difference between the two shows is that Morgane frequently keeps her children informed about her cases and accepts their . She even brings them to the occasional crime scene, albeit usually when High Potential’s unsung hero Ludo simply isn’t around to babysit.

The kids’ observations about strangers’ seemingly odd behaviors say a lot about how the children look at the world, but Morgane’s explanations for those same weird behaviors also help the viewer better understand her mindset as an investigator.

Involving Morgane’s children reveals more about each character’s thought process without having to slow the forward momentum of the plot. This is especially evident in season 2, episode 2, in which Morgane takes Elliot and Thea on a stakeout to play a game called “Weird/Not Weird.” The kids’ observations about strangers’ seemingly odd behaviors say a lot about how the children look at the world, but Morgane’s explanations for those same weird behaviors also help the viewer better understand her mindset as an investigator. It would be great to see this same dynamic in High Potential.

How High Potential Could Justify Morgan’s Kids Getting More Involved

Captain Pacheco Already Paved The Way For The Perfect Season 2 Storyline

Although High Potential could easily follow in HPI’s footsteps by bringing Morgan’s kids more effectively into the story, it does have one or two extra roadblocks ahead of it. HPI always characterized Morgane as the type to bring her kids to a crime scene, but Morgan is a slightly more responsible parent than her French counterpart. Fortunately, season 2 of HPI provides a roap for including Elliot and Ava in Morgan's investigations that High Potential may have already set up perfectly.

In HPI, Alvaro brings her kids along for a stakeout because she’s under investigation and not allowed to work her cases officially. She, therefore, has to go rogue and bring her kids along as she investigates from home.

Note: This is exactly what leads to Morgane playing “Weird/Not Weird” with her children, as she has no excuse to drop them off with Ludo when she’s not technically working.

After LAPD Captain Pacheco’s introduction in High Potential episode 11, it’s clear the LAPD is not yet fully convinced of Morgan’s value as a consultant. This provides the perfect excuse for setting up the same storyline as HPI. It’s not only an opportunity to bring Ava and Elliot onto the scene without feeling overly forced, but this storyline would also move Morgan’s arc ahead in a meaningful way that could impact her future as a consultant. This would further elevate Ava and Elliot’s importance by involving them in a story arc with potential consequences for the overall premise of the show.

Why High Potential Needs More Ava And Elliot Moving Forward

Morgan’s Kids Are The Only Reason She Took This Job In The First Place

It merits repeating that Morgan only took this job for her kids. Not only did she want to provide better for them financially, but what happened to Roman in High Potential is established as a mystery Morgan takes on primarily because she’s worried about Ava’s resentment toward the man who disappeared on them. The show can’t land its Roman plotline effectively without establishing a stronger emotional foundation for Ava, so finding any way possible to give her more screentime would be ideal. This will especially be the case if High Potential follows HPI by resolving this plotline in season 2.

On top of that, High Potential simply feels a bit fractured at the moment. For instance, episode 12 explores how Morgan’s hectic work schedule affects Ludo, yet Ava and Elliot feel almost like afterthoughts in that storyline despite the fact that it clearly affects them directly. By involving them in the central mystery of each episode, the series can explore their reactions to Morgan’s new profession without cutting away from the core mystery entirely. It’s the perfect method for addressing some of the series’ largely ignored emotional arcs in a much more sensible and streamlined way.

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