High Potential Season 1 Episode 11 Review: The Sauna at the End of the Stairs

The classic murder mystery theme creates a delightfully fun hour. High Potential Season 1 Episode 11, “The Sauna at the End of the Stairs,” marries murder mystery and true crime. These genres stitch together the best episode yet.

Morgan enjoys solving this case so we enjoy watching her do it.

It’s the classic setup of a wealthy family with a mysterious death. However, this ABC hit series doesn’t quite play into convention. Usually, we’d expect a family of terrible people with major secrets.

The patriarch would be the worst of them all. However, he seems like the kindest one.

“The Sauna at the End of the Stairs” reveals a family with many secrets, but not exactly an evil group. In actuality, most suspicious characters have married into this family. The family itself seems loving and caring.

We feel bad that they have been exiled from their wealthy life of privilege. High Potential cleverly makes us feel sorry for the one percent. Nevertheless, it isn’t trying to Reverse Uno card us and stop the idea of bringing down the wealthy.

Instead, it shows that money and the finer things don’t make problems disappear. Rich families can also have devastating skeletons, like domestic abuse and childhood trauma.

This episode also goes against some of the usual and popular techniques of the series. We spend a lot more time than normal with the culprit. It’s also obvious who commits the crime from the start.
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Usually, the criminal randomly pops up in an episode, and then we don’t learn much about them until the end. It’s one of High Potential’s weaker aspects.

Therefore, it’s exciting that it consistently works to change this problem from earlier episodes.

The predictability of the murderer doesn’t deter the excitement of “The Sauna at the End of the Stairs.” It works so well because of these little changes. These things almost make you want this as the blueprint for future storylines, not the exception.

A lot more experimentation happens within this hour, and it all works. For example, the random Best Buy-style employee at the end is a funny addition that shows the cleverness of this script.

This is the best usage High Potential has had with these unexpected and unpredictable moments.

Putting Morgan inside the crime scene as she explains what happened is another very effective and entertaining story technique. She makes this gruesome scene hilarious. Additionally, it helps bring the viewers into the scene and force our attention and focus.

Thus far, “The Sauna at the End of the Stairs” is High Potential’s best weekly case storyline. It blends the morbid fascination of true crime with the entertaining eloquence of a good old-fashioned murder mystery. It makes you want more episodes in this style.

Stray Thoughts

• Daphne has so many hilarious facial expressions in this episode.
• This feels like the best use of Daphne and Oz that we have seen thus far.
• High Potential does a really good job in “The Sauna at the End of the World” not showing Morgan’s children but making her home life feel still there. This is what I wanted from previous episodes without her children.
• I immediately recognized some Veronica Mars alumni in this. Keep them coming. Love the continuous and unexpected Easter Eggs for Veronica Mars fans.
• Melon and the Captain seem incompetent but everyone else seems capable, that feels right.
• We now need a separate spin-off book series of just Morgan solving murder mysteries, Agatha Christie style. Someone tell the marketing team to make that happen.

 

What did you think of this episode of High Potential? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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High Potential airs Tuesdays at 9/8 c on ABC.

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