Spoilers below for the latest episode of High Potential, so be warned if you haven’t yet watched on ABC or via Hulu subscription.
As a longtime fan of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s core female star Kaitlin Olson, I’ve adored watching her spread her creative wings as one of the brainiest characters on the 2025 TV schedule, High Potential’s Morgan Guillory. Unsurprisingly, I’m also quite fond of the various ways the actress has already brought those two worlds together, from maintaining the same trailer backstage to Morgan’s fingernail easter eggs to Olson showing up as Morgan on the FXX comedy’s set. But the latest episode took the cake.
Okay, so I can’t actually say with 100% certainty that High Potential’s sixth Season 2 installment, titled “Chasing Ghosts,” featured a direct reference to Sweet Dee Reynolds, but I would have legitimate trouble trying to believe that it’s all just a coincidence, because that’s just a bunch of bird-brained nonsense.
How High Potential Seemingly Referenced It’s Always Sunny
Near the end of the episode, after Morgan and Karadec successfully identified and captured the tricky killer (possibly by using not-entirely-legal means), Morgan notes the absense of an animal that was previously present in the room, which leads to the following exchange:
- MORGAN: Karadec, where’s the bird?
- KARADEC: Bird?
- MORGAN: Yeah, that giant, awesome, black raven that was perched on the clock, casting a super creepy shadow when we got here. Do you remember?
- KARADEC: I guess I was just focused on that body. I don’t know what to tell you.
First thing’s first: KARADEC CALLED MORGAN A BIRD! Technically, he “asked” her a bird, but this still makes for a classic moment for Always Sunny fans nonetheless.
Earlier in the episode, when Olson’s character clocked the raven on top of the clock, I’d thought the bird was just a decoration, but I still made a joke to myself about it being like Morgan was looking in a mirror, never expecting the show itself to come back around to that. But of course it did.
For any High Potential fans reading this in utter confusion, Kaitlin Olson’s Sweet Dee long ago unintentionally sparked a comparison between herself and birds (one big bird in particular), and it’s a running gag that hilariously continues to this day, to the point where more fans yell “Shut up, Bird!” at her than anything else. Even if I hadn’t clocked that she was talking about the previously shown raven, I still would have instantly honed in on Karadec’s “Bird?” comment without question.
The episode also addressed other interesting topics, of course, such as revealing what was in Roman’s backpack (which debunked my theories), and giving some temporary closure to Morgan and Ava’s latest tiff. Not to mention providing some backstory behind the new captain’s seemingly leery nature, which in turn reminded me of those “love triangle” comments the showrunner made.
Speaking of…, let’s take a second to amusingly address the specific way Karadec shared his cluelessness about the bird, saying “I guess I was just focused on that body.” Hot damn! He didn’t say, “I was paying too much attention to the corpse,” or “attention to the case,” or anything so readily innocent. Instead, he made a comment that a foolhardy fan could instantly take as being flirtatious. But that’s a topic for another day.
Assuming all things go according to plan, fans hopefully won’t be waiting too long for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 18, but before that sordidness resumes, High Potential Season 2 airs Tuesday nights on ABC at 10:00 p.m. ET, though Episode 8 serves as the midseason finale ahead of a longer-than-desired winter hiatus.