The Matlock season 1 finale finally revealed the season-long mystery of who hid those documents — but then introduced a surprise pregnancy and a mysterious new character.
During the Thursday, April 17, finale of the hit CBS series, Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) realized that her ex-husband, Julian (Jason Ritter), was responsible for hiding the Wellbrexa documents. He begged Olympia not to expose him — not knowing she actually found the documents because of Matty’s (Kathy Bates) mission at Jacobson Moore.
Matty, meanwhile, was waiting for an update from Olympia when a stranger showed up at her door. All signs pointed to him being Alfie’s father, who Matty’s husband didn’t want them to reach out to after their daughter’s death.
Over at Jacobson Moore, Sarah (Leah Lewis) ran lead on her first case — and won! — but her nemesis Simone (Andrea Londo) appeared to be plotting a way to take her down. Then there is Billy (David Del Rio), who was preparing to enjoy single life until his almost-fiancée revealed to him that she’s expecting.
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Creator Jennie Snyder Urman exclusively told Us Weekly that this was just the beginning, teasing, “The season 1 finale sets up everything. In season 2, you’ll get the answers that we’ve been promising.”
Urman is aware that expectations are high after the first season was full of twists and turns.
“It was both difficult and interesting to be in this bubble where we were shooting episode 17 when the first episode aired. We were already down the road and now we are airing and so we are in conversation with the audience and I try to be aware but not be beholden so that we are still telling the story,” she explained. “But I always think if there’s a problem — and they’re finding a problem — I can fix that more and more. I want the story to be as good as possible and as airtight as possible.”
According to Urman, viewers shouldn’t get too “comfortable,” adding, “It allows for the formula to change and for that to be its own stock. We have a lot of fun structural stuff like that next year that I think is going to really surprise the audience in really fun ways because the finale leaves us in a really loaded position on a bunch of different story lines.”
Keep scrolling for answers to the biggest questions ahead of season 2:
Why There Weren’t Any Big Hints About Julian’s Betrayal?
“The winks were always things that Matty knew that she could let the audience in on. But Matty was not ahead of it in this,” Urman shared with Us. “Matty does not know that she has the document that she is really looking for. She thought it was Olympia up until a point and then she thought it was Julian. So because she wasn’t ahead of it — and we’re discovering it in real time with her — there isn’t foreshadowing in that way because we’re discovering with Matty.”
The writers’ room still wanted to make sure all the plot pieces fit together.
“We made sure it would line up. But the biggest storytelling challenge — and also fun challenge — is that we have a really, really smart character. All of them are, but Olympia and Matty in particular. So we have to work really hard to either have something pulled over on them or pull something over on someone else,” Urman noted. “It’s not like they will see all the subtle things, which I think makes it interesting. But there couldn’t be anything hanging out in plain daylight that indicated it would be Julian or Matty would’ve caught it.”
Was It Always the Plan to Have Olympia Find Out About Matty’s Real Identity?
“I always knew that I wanted Olympia to catch her but I wanted us to switch point of views to show Olympia’s perspective. I wanted Olympia to surprise the audience and Matty the same way that Matty surprised us in the first episode,” Urman said. “That was always the plan. We played around a lot about when Olympia was going to unmask Matty for a while. It was a little bit earlier around episode 13 or 14. Then we realized, ‘Oh, we could have her unmasked and have this interrogation episode and that would lead to the finale.’ All the ways that that would load up the finale made it feel like the right order for us.”
What Else Changed — Or Didn’t Make It Into the Final Version?
Matlock went through “a little bit of shifting” as the season developed.
“We stay pretty close to this document we generated at the beginning of the season, which is like 30 or 40 pages and really tells the story episode by episode. So we stick pretty close to the material, but we flip things,” Urman told Us. “Olympia was going to find out Matty’s secret earlier. CBS was really amazing. I said, ‘I have a little bit more story in the finale than one episode.’ And they let the creative dictate that. So we got to expand our episode order in order to tell the creative story that we wanted.”
She added: “There’s definitely been roads that we thought maybe we might go down that we didn’t go down. But we did stick pretty closely to what we mapped out.”
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Why Was Julian the Final Choice?
Throughout the season, all signs pointed to Olympia and Senior (Beau Bridges) before it turned out that Julian was the one at fault.
“He matters to the person who matters to Matty, which is Olympia. Olympia matters to Matty and Julian matters to her. It winds everybody up in the hardest dilemma. If it was Senior, it would be a little bit easier because everybody would be like, ‘OK, let’s turn him in and blow it up.’ He has definitely burned enough people and made enough enemies,” the screenwriter shared. “But Julian is not that character. He has done terrible things and has done wonderful things and has a life and a history and shared parenting. There’s just so much that makes him a complicated character. I just love Jason Ritter’s performance in that scene when he is begging Olympia. He explains that he made this one mistake and to please let him not be judged by the worst day of his life. Jason played it so real and so honest and heartbreaking.”
Urman didn’t want there to be a good option, saying, “There’s only bad options and everybody is compelling on every side. That’s what makes the dilemma really hard and the drama really rich and thick. It allows us to go into the next season with so many layers and different competing agendas and tensions. It just lays out a really packed emotional second season.”
Does This Mean Julian Will Be Explored More?
“He did this horrible thing and he’s holding secrets. He’s also trying to redeem himself and he’s fighting for a life for himself,” Urman shared. “It just allows him to play on so many different levels and allows the interactions with Matty to be loaded in different ways. It allows the Olympia interactions to be loaded in different ways. We have a lot more now that he’s integrated so specifically into that main plot. We get to see more of him, which I think makes everyone happy.”
Was the Man Who Showed Up at Matty’s House Alfie’s Father?
In short? Yes.
“Bringing Alfie’s dad back is going to change and destabilize the family life. This one place where everything was on firm ground — suddenly there’s this other element that is out of Matty’s control, which is not a place that she likes to be,” Urman noted. “She’s not comfortable when they’re out of her control. They have to do a DNA test and see if this guy is the father. Suddenly they have to incorporate him into things. When did he know Ellie? What’s his status with addiction? Do they want to get involved?”
She continued: “It brings all of that to the forefront. It definitely brings Ellie back into the story in a real way. You will definitely see more flashbacks that examine some of the joy of Ellie and her mother and their relationship — not only the pain.”
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Is Hot Billy Summer No Longer an Option?
Urman teased that Claudia’s pregnancy doesn’t mean Billy has to go back to pleasing other people over himself, telling Us, “You’re asking the questions that we ask in the writers’ room. But I can’t give it away because it’s all in the season 2 premiere.”
Where Does Sarah Go After That Career High?
“There might have been twists and turns along the way but she showed up in court and she did it. It was amazing. She feels celebrated and seen and it’s such a moment of triumph and we understand it emotionally,” Urman detailed. “Then of course we understand there’s going to be some drama that follows it. But I want to live in Sarah feeling like she’s in a good place and celebrate that before the rug gets pulled out from under her.”
Could Olympia and Matty Become Friends Again?
Urman called the central friendship “an epic love story,” adding, “We are shaping it as though it’s an epic love story over the course of seasons. Depending on what Olympia does with the document, it controls how their relationship will unfold. You’re really watching two people who love each other. It’s all really complicated right now and Matty loves Olympia. The question is, ‘Can Olympia forgive Matty?’ That’s where we lose them at the finale. Matty loves Olympia and if she could preserve the friendship and land the plane on her crime mission, that would be perfect.”
What Guest Stars Could Pop Up in Season 2?
“I’ve gotten a few people who have reached out to me and a few people have reached out. I don’t want to say who,” Urman teased. “But it has definitely been exciting that there are people that are reaching out and saying, ‘I want to be on Matlock.’ And I know why they want to be on Matlock. They want to act with Kathy Bates. She is a legend. So I am eager to say yes to all of those asks.”
