Matlock‘s Jason Ritter teased how the hit series will change after the season 2 finale ended on a surprising note, which included multiple arrests.
During the Thursday, April 23, episode of the hit CBS series, Matty (Kathy Bates) and Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) briefly thought all hope was lost when it came to their mission to take down Senior (Beau Bridges). The last part of the two-episode special turned things up a notch with Julian (Ritter) finding a way to get his father to admit to his wrongdoing, which led to the DOJ arriving at Jacobson Moore.
The government officials ultimately arrested Senior and the rest of the lawyers who contributed to the WellBrexa document being covered up. Julian ended up a casualty in the takedown and was handcuffed as well, while Matty and Olympia happily walked away from the building and made plans for their future of solving cases together.
“One of the things that has been driving Julian his whole life is this push and pull of wanting his father’s approval and thinking there’s some magic number of money he can have or some mount of power that will make his dad [like him],” Ritter, 46, exclusively told Us Weekly about Julian’s sacrifice. “That’s such a sad thing to be chasing.”
He continued: “On the other hand, he has a real loathing for some of the elements of his dad’s character. And from the beginning, we have known that Julian does not want to be the kind of dad to his kids that Senior was to him. One of the things he can’t stand about his father is that he gets away with everything. So is he just going to let him get away with everything just to avoid his consequences?”
Ritter was thrilled to see how far Julian had come as a person.
“Just the fact that he decides that accepting consequences is the right thing because he wants to teach his children to be able to take accountability and apologize,” he noted. “He makes a decision at the expense of his comfort for the next however long because it’s the right thing — and he wants to pass on those lessons to his kids.”
For the actor, it was exciting to be put “through the wringer” in the finale, adding, “Part 1 of the finale ends on with all being lost, But one of the things in the show that is so exciting to people and inspiring to people is Matty being underestimated but coming out on top and and winning against the big guy. I really was satisfied by the fact that Senior is actually getting arrested — and not only him — but all of the rot from the top is being removed. It’s super satisfying. I wish that would happen more in real life but now at least we can watch it happen on TV and be happy about it.”
Julian’s fate remained unclear after he was arrested, but the actor pointed out that the possibilities are endless.
“He has access to some wonderful lawyers but maybe some of [season 3] is in the law firm and the other half of the show is Julian and Senior on the prison block,” he quipped. “One of the things that I’ve learned in this period of time is that the writers on this show are so wonderful and will always find an exciting new way forward.”
When asked if Julian could make a pivot from law to being a private investigator, he joked, “I would just have my little office with my venetian blinds and my whiskey. … I don’t know if Julian’s going to be able to work as a lawyer anymore but maybe he can be the guy getting Hunter and Sarah their coffee and the roles have been reversed?”
Regardless, Ritter is on the edge of his seat for what comes next — especially now that the show will return midseason to have more time to introduce a new larger story line outside of the week-to-week cases.
“I know there will be another overarching mystery that they have to solve but [I am not sure] whether it’s tangentially connected,” he told Us. “I know the [WellBrexa] story line is basically complete.”
Matlock has been renewed for season 3 and is streaming on Paramount+.
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