SPOILER ALERT: The following will reveal major plot points from the Season 2 finale of CBS‘ Matlock.
After two seasons, the Wellbrexa case at the center of the hit CBS series Matlock has been wrapped up—at least for now. There may still be some fallout from the events of tonight’s double episode finale yet to come, teased showrunner and executive producer Jennie Snyder Urman, who spoke to Deadline earlier this week.
“It’s a finale that hopes to deliver on all of the emotional and logistical architecture that we’ve been putting up for two years,” Snyder Urman shared.
The finale sets up all sorts of possibilities for Season 3, when it returns to CBS in the midseason. Could Matty (Kathy Bates) and Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) open up their own firm? Will Julian (Jason Ritter) be punished for his role in the Wellbrexa scandal? Will Senior (Beau Bridges) and his co-conspirators do any jail time for their crimes?
Syder Urman has answers to all this and more in our Q&A below.
Kathy Bates as Madeline Matlock
Michael Yarish/CBS
DEADLINE: Oof, the way that ending plays out, this show could go anywhere next season. Was that the plan?
JENNIE SNYDER URMAN: It could go anywhere. We knew we were going to end Wellbrexa this year, and we knew how our next mystery was coming in and all of that. But we didn’t want to be living in the same space. We want to always push storytelling forward. Secrets are always there, and they’re interesting, but they’re more interesting when they come out, and we see how people react. So we’re really putting them in a place where it feels like anything can happen, and then there are a lot of ramifications from the end of this season.
DEADLINE: Taking the show in a whole new direction for Season 3 is pretty ballsy. Pardon my French.
SNYDER URMAN: Yes, it is. I always thought that at the series finale we’d get to do, “After all, I came here for my daughter, but my daughter led me here to you.” Then, as we were doing the storytelling here, and realizing we had to come to this point where [Matty] is ready to lay down the sword, because she realizes that a lot of healing has been done, and that other people in her life have meant so much to her. So, right when we realized that had to be a moment for Matty, that part came out, like it’s all been about this relationship [with Olympia]. “I thought I was coming here to avenge my daughter’s death, but if I look at it the other way, look at what I’ve gotten.” Olympia is not her daughter, but this mother-daughter-sister-friend relationship has been so meaningful. Now, her life at 77 is suddenly opening instead of closing. She’ll never be healed from her daughter’s death, but she’s processed it in a different way than she ever had before.
DEADLINE: Senior was arrested along with some others. Does this mean Beau Bridges will leave the show since we assume he’s going to jail?
SNYDER URMAN: You’ll see Beau. Does he end up in jail? I mean, he’s certainly arrested. The actual [Season 3] mystery is fresh because I want a start, middle, and end, and I really want a tight twisty something to find. But will there be a string that connects back [to Senior], or something that he knows, maybe. He’s still a grandfather. Julian and Olympia’s relationship is in a great place. Matty and Julian’s relationship is in a great place. Julian became the person he always wanted to be. He’s always saying, “I’m a good person. I did one bad thing,” and he is a good person. But whenever his morals came into conflict with what he wanted, he chose the easy way, not the right way. Now, he finally takes this right step, and that’s going to come with consequences, too. I think it will be fun for the audience to watch it play out.
DEADLINE: Will there be any major casting changes?
SNYDER URMAN: There will be additions. All of our regulars are still our regulars; there will just be different iterations. Like, where will Sarah [Leah Lewis] be working?
(L-R): Leah Lewis as Sarah Franklin and Skye P. Marshall as Olympia Lawrence.
Michael Yarish/CBS
DEADLINE: Will you explore her adoption storyline further?
SNYDER URMAN: It will expand on the adoption. You might pick her up in a very different place, with regard to the rest of the characters, which I think is interesting because she feels betrayed. She finally gets the truth, but she’s been on the outside. I think Sarah does want to be on the inside. That’s part of who she is; at her core, she wants to be accepted. When we come back in, everybody will be in slightly different places.
DEADLINE: Will there be a time jump?
SNYDER URMAN: We’re not going to pick up directly [after the Season 2 finale]. It’ll be six months to a year, I would say.
DEADLINE: The people want more Edwin Hodge.
SNYDER URMAN: I want to bring back Langston and pick him up with Olympia. That’ll all pick up in a different place, because we’ll have had some time and they’ve seen each other. That’s a spoiler, but I think they will have definitely seen each other.