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[Thisstorycontainsspoilersinbothparts[Thisstorycontainsspoilersfromthetwo-partMatlock Season 2 finaleWho are you?” and “Matty Matlock“]
As promised when Matlock The last time I spoke to creator/showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman Hollywood Reporter On how the second half of Season 2 will develop, the big opioid scandal of the pharmaceutical company Wellbrexa and Jacobson-Moore’s unscrupulous role in it has now been concluded. But that didn’t happen until the final minutes of the second episode of the two-part second season.
After all the hard work of blowing her life up – going from a wealthy lawyer and happy marriage to Madeleine Kingston to Matty Matlock, the popular septuagenarian left penniless by a bad husband and forced to keep working to care for her grandson Alfie (Aaron Harris), it looked like Matty would walk away from it all. But it was not because of defeat or bitterness. Instead, she reached the point of forgiving herself primarily regarding her daughter Ellie’s fatal drug overdose that she never expected. She also realized that she was not willing to give up her friendship and connection with Olympia.
Getting to this point bucked a lot of traditional television narrative. Olympia Skye P. Marshall finds out who Oscar and Emmy Award winner Matty Matlock is at the end of Season 1. Yesterday’s TV will probably continue to play for another season or two. But as Matty and Olympia begin to rebuild their friendship, they reveal to Jason Ritter’s Julian, the son of the big bad (a very clever performance by Beau Bridges), who Matty really is. Considering that Julian was sitting at his father’s hospital bedside after suffering a stroke, the move was even more serious. Julian, who has his hands dirty by his father’s orders and the removal of the damning study revealing Wilbrixa’s wrongdoing, unexpectedly joins the duo.
By the end of the show, Julian, especially when he discovers that his father has been faking early dementia and that the father-son closeness he craves is yet another manipulation, is committed to doing whatever it takes — even risking prison, by working with the Department of Justice, particularly with Leda Gutierrez, portrayed by Gina Rodriguez, the star of the series. Jane the Virginthe show that caught Orman’s attention. Julian’s attempt to one-up Senior is summed up in a dramatic moment in which his father discovers the wire and crushes him as usual. But all is not as it seems. As Matty and Olympia walk away from Jacobson Moore on their own terms seemingly without bringing down Senior and his valuable law firm, it is revealed that they have actually fallen into a trap, along with Eva Justina Machado, Senior’s disgruntled ex-wife and partner in the firm, and several others, including Julian.
A lot has happened in the second half of season two. Despite having been married for 50 years, Matty and his husband Edwin (Sam Anderson) are never on the same page, mainly because he wants to return to their old life in San Francisco. Then there’s the strained relationship with Alfie’s father Joey (Nico Nicotera) and the threat that Alfie will go through what they did to Ellie after Joey’s relapse. The case of the week in which you take on a company that creates AI-powered versions of your loved ones that you can chat with didn’t just raise serious ethical questions with them Jane the VirginYara Martinez as Vicki, who not only grapples with her sister’s death, but must also deal with the company’s claim as her last wish. This has also led to Matty finding addictive relief in chatting with the AI version of Ellie. That story introduced Marshall’s husband, Edwin Hodge, as Langston, a super-intelligent tech expert with multiple impressive degrees.
Orman spoke to THR Below about the conclusion of Season 2 and the start of this finale, and provided some insight into how smoothly the show has handled the exit of one of the show’s core characters with the dramatic departure of actor David Del Rio as Billy amid sordid accusations involving his co-star Leah Lewis, who plays attorney Sarah Franklin. It also talks about Julian’s dramatic and hilarious arc Jane the Virgin The reunion is finally happening — and Urman also leaves clues about what to expect in Season 3 when the show returns midseason in 2027.
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Why was this the correct ending to season 2?
The writers and I wanted to end Wellbrexa. We wanted to give some real answers and make the characters face real consequences as well. That was exciting for us. We don’t want to sit through the same things over and over again. We want to continue to push storytelling forward and find new and interesting things to explore about characters, their relationships, and their complexities.
It was like we went on this two-year journey with both Wilbrexa and Mattie, to kind of understand her grief and what losing her daughter did to her and how it changed her. But she also found a new life, new choices, and new paths that she never expected or expected. It felt like the culmination of all those stories. It was the right time for it.
Was finishing Wellbrexa now in Season 2 was your original plan?
Our plan was to quit Wellbrexa [early]. The end of last season was the halfway point. The hardest thing to figure out was: Why would you stay organic at Matty Matlock? We knew we had to solve this. And we didn’t know what that answer was because it was obviously the name of the show Matlock. What we arrived at was something we could not have imagined at the beginning of the story, because it encompassed everything [the ways of] How she changed, Kathy Bates’ performance, and all the ways she realized how much she had gained and never expected to gain by doing this job. So it felt like the right climax.
When did you do it? Matlock Does it become a show about these two women – Mattie and Olympia, and not just about Mattie Matlock?
I always pictured it as a love story between Matty and Olympia. That was always the storytelling plan. I always knew we’d get “My Daughter Led Me Here to You” [realization]. I didn’t realize that it would come at the end of season two, and what it would allow us to do moving forward, which I’m excited about for season three. I thought that would be the realization of the endgame. And I realized: “No, we’re here now.” This is what you will do. She’s already dealt with her daughter’s death in deeper ways than she ever expected. It was many years ago [Ellie’s death]but it haunts her and she never expected to get more resolution than the resolution she got from finishing her mission and doing this last bit of motherhood for her daughter. That’s how it was in her head.
What she finally realized was that it was right for her to admit that she could, in fact, give up this mission if she had to, because she realized what it meant to her. She realized what she got from him: her connection to Olympia [and] Their relationship and where she is in her life. This was important for the character to say, “I can let it go if it means not ruining your lives, Olympia and Julian.” That felt like a really important arc for the character, one that we got after two years of storytelling.
How did you convert Billy so easily? [actorDavid Del Rio] outside?
All you have to do is look at the pieces in front of you, change some stories and move forward and keep pushing the story forward, taking seriously the fact that it’s gone for the characters and letting them process and letting them lead them to more change and growth and connection. This is what we did. When he was no longer there, we also checked in on what that felt like for Sarah and Matty, and how it might push them closer. People come in and out of our lives, and you have to deal with them. So we took it that way, in terms of within the show and telling the story.
Episodes involving AI Ellie was an unexpected movie, especially given the behind-the-scenes drama and controversy in the industry around it when it affects writers. Walk us through why you chose to include an AI story and what it accomplished in the story.
Some things. The first is that obviously AI is very prevalent right now, there’s a big afterlife industry, and we’ve read some interesting articles about it. The show revolves around Grief and addiction, and it seemed like the right way that those two things could specifically hit Mattie in new ways was that she could become addicted to the idea of being able to talk to her daughter again. But this isn’t really her daughter. How would that feel? The complications of this in her ordinary life seemed interesting.
And then, being able to finally shut down the computer and go back to her real life felt like the last ledge she had to stand on before arriving at that final revelation, “I believe my daughter led me here to you” and “I can lay down my sword if I need to so you don’t ruin our relationship.” This understanding and Ellie’s metamorphosis and being able to shut that computer down on her daughter was an important emotional step on the way to her larger emotional arc.
Since we’re talking about things in the past, let’s talk about the present Jane the Virgin Favorite, especially for the final.
I just love it all Jane the Virgin Actors. I had all these things on my mind [of] If I should save this person for this or that. Then at the end of Season 2, I said, “I have all these great actors that I would love to be on the show.” Once I made that decision, it was great. I was able to contact several people, and Yara Martinez came in at number 13 [playing Vicki the owner of the afterlife AI company in “The Future Is Nigh”] She gave us a wonderful episode. Bridget [Regan] And I was texting, and all of a sudden I was like, “Oh my God, she could be our district attorney, and oh my God, she’d be so great going against Olympia.” Justina [Machado] He’s been on our show since episode three [as Eva, Senior’s ex-wife and now one of the firm’s partners]And I love the scenes she has with Skye [P. Marshall who plays Olympia] in the end. I really love seeing these two women go toe-to-toe.
Then I knew I needed someone [with the DOJ] Which will come with a lot of meaning, which can do so much and make a character really fly off the page and make them important even though they’re not in a million scenes. It was 11 at night, and suddenly I was like, “Oh my God, this could be Gina Rodriguez!” I just texted her, and I think she texted me back within about three minutes [and said]”Yes, you don’t need to know what the part is. Yes!”
It was great. And then I was able to really write that character because I knew what Jenna was doing. We have Yael [Grobglas]She was there [as Shae]. So, there are a lot of Jane The people on set, and getting a photo with Jenna and Cathy was really special to me and great!
Let’s talk about what Julian’s going through, especially in this second half and how emotionally torn he is because he’s being asked to send his paternal father, who is on the verge of death and who is believed to be suffering from dementia for a good portion of this second half, to prison. In the end, it’s an act of courage for him to go through with it in the end. Talk about what that means for his character.
He was always the character who thought he was a good person. But when things are tested, he chooses the easy way out. Ethics are great on paper, but when they really matter is when you face them and have to make tough choices. We’ve been really preparing for this moment for Julian, where he finally makes the ultimate sacrifice [and] He makes a move that is definitely not what his father would have done [which] It could have been all about self-preservation. Julian has really done something selfless and something good, and I think he has lived up to what he wants to be. It was important to him as a character.
We are bee n building towards this. [Julian] He understands what happened to Matty and what she lost, and how many people were lost as a result of his actions, which he kept in a small shoebox and did not think about who suffered emotionally and internally. I think he had a heroic moment at the end, and it will have consequences in season three. but [this season] He had his hero moment and became the person he wanted to be and who he believed he was deep down.
That scene when Julian is at Madeleine Kingston’s house, sitting on the stairs, breaking down in tears, is a very powerful moment.
exactly. We were in the writers room trying to carefully pivot his moment of angrily realizing he was destined for redemption, and also carefully calibrate the way Matty interacted with him on every level so that their relationship began to slowly build as well once the truth came out. [of who Matty really is] It was between them.
That moment when Olympia sits down with Eva for lunch and then realizes that Eva was involved in Wellprexa, is very tense. Talk about that gotcha moment.
We wanted that reaction. We have been working to achieve this since the beginning of the season [Olympia] She finally believes that Eva is her ally, then realizes that Eva is in on it too. So we were very excited about that [moment]. What was important about this interaction and confrontation was that Eva is not evil. You understand what happened to her, what her circumstances were, what she was kind of trapped in, and how much power she did or didn’t have. Also, what does it mean to be in those rooms where decisions are made and what is your responsibility once you are in those rooms.
We wanted everyone to be a part of that conversation with Olympia, and we wanted to make sure that on some level you could see Olympia saying, “Okay, what? Why do I keep digging into the past? Maybe we can take these bad guys out, move forward with intention and precision, and make this the place we want it to be.” Eva is part of her circumstances too, and she makes a different choice than Olympia’s, but it’s a choice we can understand. That was the most important thing to us in the writers room.
With Matty and Olympia setting out on their own to start their own company, what does Season 3 look like without Jacobson-Moore?
We have a lot of interesting stories [ahead]. There’s going to be a bit of Jacobson-Moore in it, but we’re leaving with a lot of forward momentum, and things are going to be very different in Season 3 in an exciting way. We have to change the way we tell stories and build a great new mystery that has a mystery that connects to the old mystery but isn’t part of it, and gives us a lot of new storytelling. Even though you’re repeating certain elements in the action, I don’t want the show to be repetitive at all. Cases of the Week are things that stay consistent, but I want us to always push our characters into new situations and new challenges, and make the storytelling as exciting as possible.
With Sarah and Emmaline or Belvin showing up at the Kingston house and being welcomed by Edwin, it looks like season 3 will be more female-focused..
It focuses on women, but Julian has a big role. I want to bring Langston back, and he and Olympia will be in a certain position when we get back.
We haven’t even talked about Langston’s portrayal of Skye P. Marshall’s real-life love interest.
I’ve been trying to get hold of Edwin [Hodge] Forever, and I’m so glad it worked [out]. There will be new dynamics [that are] It’s female-focused, it’s also male-focused, which are just new elements in the storytelling; We shake the pieces on the board. We’ll have a lot of the same pieces, but there’ll be some new pieces in there as well that I think will be fun.
Matlock Seasons 1 and 2 are now streaming on Paramount+.
