[This story contains spoilers from the two-part Matlock season two finale, “Who Are You?” and “Matty Matlock.”]
As promised when Matlock creator/showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman last spoke to The Hollywood Reporter on how the second half of season two would unfold, the massive pharma Wellbrexa opioid scandal and Jacobson Moore’s unscrupulous role in it’s now wrapped up. But that didn’t occur until the very last minutes into the second episode of the two-part season two finale.
In spite of everything the labor of blowing up her life — transforming from wealthy lawyer and happily married Madeline Kingston into Matty Matlock, the folksy septuagenarian left bankrupt by a no-good husband and compelled to still work to handle her grandson Alfie (Aaron Harris), it looked like Matty was going to walk away from all of it. But it surely wasn’t from defeat or bitterness. As an alternative, she reached some extent of forgiveness primarily for herself regarding her daughter Ellie’s deathly drug overdose that she never anticipated. She also realized she wasn’t willing to walk away from her friendship and connection to Olympia.
Getting so far broke with lots of conventional TV storytelling. Skye P. Marshall’s Olympia came upon who Oscar and Emmy winner Kathy Bates’ Matty Matlock really was at the top of the primary season. Television of yesteryear would have likely had that play out for one more season or two. But after Matty and Olympia begin rebuilding their friendship, they revealed to Jason Ritter’s Julian, the son of chief villain Senior (a really savvy performance by Beau Bridges), who Matty really is. Considering that Julian has been sitting by his father’s hospital bed following a stroke, the move was even riskier. Julian, who has dirt on his hands from doing his father’s bidding and removing the damning study revealing Wellbrexa’s wrongdoing, surprisingly joins the duo.
By the show’s end, Julian, especially on discovering that his dad has been faking early dementia and that the father-son closeness he’s longed for is yet one more manipulation, is committed to doing whatever it takes — even risking prison time, by working with the DOJ, particularly with Lida Guitierrez portrayed by Gina Rodriguez, the star of Jane the Virgin, the show that got Urman noticed. Julian’s try and outsmart Senior boils all the way down to a dramatic moment of his father discovering the wire and crushing him per usual. But all the things isn’t what it seems. As Matty and Olympia walk away from Jacobson Moore on their very own terms seemingly without bringing down Senior and his precious law firm, it’s revealed they really did snare him, together with Justina Machado’s Eva, Senior’s disgruntled ex-wife and a partner within the firm and lots of others, including Julian.
A lot happened within the second half of season two. Despite being married 50 years, Matty and husband Edwin (Sam Anderson) weren’t on the identical page, mainly because he desires to return to their old life in San Francisco. After which there’s the uneasy relationship with Alfie’s father Joey (Niko Nicotera) and the specter of Alfie going through what they did with Ellie after Joey relapses. A case of the week coping with an organization that creates AI versions of your family members you possibly can chat with not only raised serious ethical questions with Jane the Virgin’s Yara Martinez as Vicki, who shouldn’t be just grappling together with her sister’s death but must also contend with a claim on the corporate as her last wishes. It also resulted in Matty finding addictive comfort in chatting with an AI version of Ellie. That storyline introduced Marshall’s husband Edwin Hodge as Langston, a brilliant smart tech expert with multiple impressive degrees.
Urman spoke to THR below about wrapping up season two and constructing to this ending, and he or she offered insight into how easily the show handled the exit of one among the show’s core characters with actor David Del Rio’s dramatic departure as Billy amid bombshell accusations involving his co-star Leah Lewis, who plays attorney Sarah Franklin. She also talks about Julian’s dramatic arc, the fun Jane the Virgin reunion within the finale — and Urman also leaves clues about what to anticipate in season three when the show returns midseason in 2027.
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Why was this the appropriate ending for season two?
Myself and the writers desired to wrap up Wellbrexa. We wanted to present some real answers and still have characters face real consequences. That was exciting for us. We just don’t want to sit down in the identical things time and again. We would like to maintain pushing storytelling forward and find recent and interesting things to dig up in regards to the characters, and their relationships and their complications.
It felt like we had gone on this two-year journey with each Wellbrexa and Matty, type of understanding her grief and what the lack of her daughter did to her and the way it modified her. But in addition finding recent life and recent selections and recent avenues she didn’t expect or see coming. It felt just like the culmination of all that storytelling. It was the appropriate time for it.
Was wrapping Wellbrexa up now in season two your plan originally?
Our plan was to wrap up Wellbrexa [early]. The ending of last season was the midway point. The toughest thing to determine was: Why would she organically stay Matty Matlock? We knew we had to resolve that. And we didn’t know what that answer was because, obviously, the show is named Matlock. And what we got here to was something we couldn’t have imagined originally of the storytelling, since it took in all [the ways of] how she had modified, Kathy Bates’s performance, and all the ways she realized how much she had gained that she didn’t expect to realize by doing this mission. So it felt like the appropriate culmination.
When did Matlock develop into a show about these two women — Matty and Olympia, and never nearly Matty Matlock?
I all the time pitched it as a love story between Matty and Olympia. That was all the time the storytelling plan. I all the time knew we’d have the “my daughter led me here to you” [realization]. I didn’t know it could come at the top of season two, and what it could allow us to do moving forward, which I’m enthusiastic about for season three. I assumed that may be more of an endgame realization. And I noticed, “No, we’re here now.” That is what she’s going to do. She really has processed her daughter’s death in deeper ways than she could have anticipated. She’s so a few years past [Ellie’s death], however it’s haunted her and he or she didn’t expect to get more resolution beyond the resolution she gets from ending her mission and doing this last little bit of mothering for her daughter. That’s the way it was in her head.
What she realized at the top was that it felt so right for her to acknowledge that she could, in truth, quit this mission if she needed to, because she realized what it was about for her. She realized what she got from it — her connection to Olympia [and] their relationship and where she is in her life. That felt significant for the character to say: “I could give it up if that may mean not ruining your lives, Olympia and Julian.” That felt like a extremely significant arc for the character, and one we had earned after two years of storytelling.
Kathy Bates as Matty with Skye P. Marshall as Olympia within the season two finale.
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How did you so easily transition Billy [actor David Del Rio] out?
You simply take a look at the pieces in front of you, change some storytelling and move forward and keep pushing the story forward, and take seriously the undeniable fact that he was gone for the characters and allow them to process and have that make them more change and growth and connection. That’s what we did. When he was now not there, we also investigated how that felt for Sarah and for Matty, and the way it could push them closer. People move out and in of our lives, and you may have to take care of it. So we took it as that, by way of contained in the show and with the storytelling.
The episodes involving AI Ellie was unexpected, especially considering behind the scenes drama and controversy within the industry over it when it because it impacts writers. Take us through the technique of why you elected to incorporate the AI storyline and what it completed for the story.
Just a few things. One is that AI is clearly so prevalent immediately, and there’s this big afterlife industry, and we’d read some interesting articles about it. The show is about grief and addiction, and it felt like the appropriate way those two things could specifically hit Matty in recent ways was that she could get hooked on this concept of with the ability to check with her daughter over again. But that’s probably not her daughter. What would that feel like? The complications of that in her regular life felt interesting.
After which with the ability to close the pc at the top and step back into her real life felt just like the last ledge she needed to stand on before attending to that finale revelation of, “I feel my daughter led me here to you” and “I could lay down my sword if I would like to so as not to explode our relationship.” This understanding and metabolizing of Ellie and with the ability to close that computer on her daughter was a crucial emotional step on the strategy to her larger emotional arc.
Since we’re talking about things previously, let’s discuss bringing in Jane the Virgin faves, especially for the finale.
I just love all of the Jane the Virgin actors. I had all this stuff in my mind [of] if I should save this person for this or that. After which towards the top of the second season, I used to be like, “I’ve got all these great actors that I might love to simply be within the show.” Once I made that call, it was great. I used to be in a position to call so many individuals, and Yara Martinez got here in in 13 [playing Vicki the owner of the afterlife AI company in “The Future Is Nigh”] and did an amazing episode for us. Bridget [Regan] and I had been texting, and suddenly I used to be like, “Oh my god, she might be our district attorney and, holy shit, she’ll be so great going toe to toe with Olympia.” Justina [Machado] has been in our show since episode three [as Eva, Senior’s ex-wife and now one of the firm’s partners], and I just love the scenes she has with Skye [P. Marshall who plays Olympia] within the finale. I actually love seeing those two women go toe to toe.
Then I knew I needed someone [with the DOJ] who would include lots of meaning, who could do loads and make a personality really fly off the page and make her significant although she’s not in 1,000,000 scenes. It was 11 o’clock at night, and suddenly I used to be like, “Oh my God, that might be Gina Rodriguez!” I just texted her, and I feel she texted me back inside like three minutes [and said], “Yes, I don’t have to know what the part is. Yes!”
It was awesome. After which I used to be able to essentially write that character because I knew what Gina does. We’ve Yael [Grobglas], she’s been there [as Shae]. So, there’s lots of Jane people on the set, and having an image with Gina and Kathy was really special to me and just awesome!
Let’s discuss what Julian goes through, especially on this second half and the way emotionally torn he’s because he’s being asked to send his own father Senior, who almost dies and who he believes has dementia for lots of this second half, to prison. Within the finale, him going through with it in the long run is an act of bravery. Speak about what which means for his character.
He’s all the time been the character who believes he’s a very good person. But then when things are tested, he chooses the straightforward way out. Morals are great on paper, but after they actually matter is if you’re up against it, and you may have to make selections which are difficult. We actually have been constructing towards this moment for Julian, where he finally makes the final word sacrifice [and] makes a move that’s so definitively not what his father would have done [which] would have been just all about self-preservation. Julian really did something selfless and something good, and he lived as much as, I feel, who he desires to be. It was essential for him as a personality.
And we’ve been constructing towards this. [Julian] understands what happened to Matty and what she’s lost, and the way many individuals have lost consequently of his motion, which he kept in a bit of shoebox and didn’t take into consideration who suffered emotionally and internally. I feel he had a hero moment at the top, and it’s going to return with consequences within the third season. But [this season] he had his hero moment and have become the person he desired to be and who he believed he was deep inside.
Beau Bridges as Howard “Senior” Markston with Kathy Bates as Matty within the season two finale.
That scene when Julian is in Madeline Kingston’s home, sitting on the staircase, and he just breaks down in tears is a really powerful moment.
Exactly. We’d been within the writers room attempting to fastidiously arc his moment from realizing from fury that he was set as much as redemption, and in addition really fastidiously calibrating the way in which during which Matty interacted with him at every level in order that their relationship began to slowly construct too once the reality [of who Matty really is] was between them.
That moment when Olympia is sitting with Eva for lunch after which realizes that Eva was involved in Wellbrexa may be very tense. Speak about that gotcha moment.
We wanted that response. We’ve been constructing towards that for the reason that starting of the season, where [Olympia] finally thinks Eva’s her ally, after which realizes Eva’s in on it, too. So we’ve been very excited for that [moment]. What was essential inside that interaction and confrontation is that Eva’s not an arch villain. You understand what happened to her, what her circumstances were, what she was type of trapped into, and the way much power she did or didn’t have. Also, what it means to be in those rooms where decisions are made and what your responsibility is when you’re in those rooms.
We wanted that every one to be a part of that conversation with Olympia, and we desired to be certain you possibly can see on some level Olympia saying, “Okay, what? Why am I continuing to excavate the past? Perhaps we could get these bad guys out, move forward with intention and precision and make this the place that we would like it to be.” Eva’s a component of her circumstances as well, and he or she makes a unique selection than Olympia, but a selection we will understand. That was crucial thing to us within the writers room.
With Matty and Olympia going off on their very own to determine their very own firm, what does season three appear to be with no Jacobson Moore?
We’ve lots of exciting storytelling [ahead]. There shall be a component of Jacobson Moore in it, but we’re leaving with lots of forward momentum, and things shall be very different within the third season in an exciting way. We get to shake up our storytelling and really construct an amazing recent, contained mystery that pertains to but shouldn’t be a component of the old mystery, and it gives us lots of fresh storytelling. Despite the fact that you repeat certain elements in a procedural, I don’t want the show to ever be repetitive. The cases of the week are the things that stay consistent, but I would like us to all the time be pushing our characters into recent situations, recent challenges, and really make the storytelling as exciting as it may be.
With Sarah and Emmalyn or Belvin showing up on the Kingston home and Edwin welcoming them in, season three looks like it can be much more female-focused.
It’s got a female focus, but Julian’s part is big. I would like to bring back Langston, and he and Olympia are going to be in a certain situation after we come back.
We didn’t even discuss Langston being portrayed by Skye P. Marshall’s real love in real life.
I actually have been attempting to get Edwin [Hodge] on without end, and I’m so glad that that worked [out]. There are going to be recent dynamics [that are] female-focused, and in addition male-focused, and just recent elements within the storytelling; we’re shaking up the pieces on the board. We’re going to have lots of the identical pieces, but there’s going to be a couple of recent ones in there too that I feel shall be fun.
Matlock seasons one and two at the moment are streaming on Paramount+.