‘Matlock’ Star Jason Ritter Says Julian’s Unsavory Side Comes Out in Episode 9

Note: This story contains spoilers from “Matlock” Season 2, Episode 9.

After the “Matlock” fall finale left off with Jason Ritter’s Julian finding out about the secret partnership between Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) and Matty (Kathy Bates), the midseason premiere introduced a new version of Julian that sees his “unsavory elements” slipping out — especially during those tense confrontations with Olympia and Matty, which even caught Marshall by surprise.

“Skye was definitely surprised … I’ve never told Skye to shush before — nor would I, but it was really fun get to see some of these more unsavory elements of Julian’s character, and they all make sense to me,” Ritter told TheWrap. “He’s completely freaked out. He’s been lied to for who knows how long. Someone that he trusted has broken his trust.”

It’s a role reversal for the divorced couple, with Julian having previously broken Olympia’s trust with his affair and the Wellbrexa study. Though Ritter noted it’s a “different feeling when the shoe is on the other foot and … someone that you can’t even imagine betraying you on this level.” “The one thing that he’s holding on to in this moment is he knows how much she loves the kids, and I think she knows that Julian, for all of his personal foibles, is a good dad and they love him,” Ritter said.

Julian similarly has his game face on when he confronts Matty, who tries her best to hold on to the lie until she turns the tables on him at the end of the episode, leaving Julian dumbfounded.

Below, Ritter broke it all down and teased what comes next. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

TheWrap: Last season left off with Julian finding out that Olympia and Matty had been working together. How does the realization impact him?

Ritter: When I first got this script, I didn’t know if he was going to hold on to this information for a while or confront them right away. So it was really exciting to see that we’re just moving straight ahead and he’s just being straightforward and going, “What is going on?” I don’t think he would have had the space in his panicked brain to sit on it and go, “Let me watch these two and figure out what’s going on” — He just has to sort of confronts it head on. He’s cornered, he’s panicked, and he sees that these two people that he’s been working alongside with, and one of whom he’s very close to, and they’ve had ups and downs, but he trusts her, and wouldn’t think she was capable of betraying his greatest secret to this random lady whose works with her.

It’s been really fun to see some of the more panicked side of Julian coming out. I think he’s been comfortable for a long time, and now it’s time to see someone scared that his skeletons in the closet are dancing on out.

This discovery happens as Senior is in the hospital and Julian shares this emotional moment with his dad where he tells him he loves him. How does this moment impact him in the midst of his battle with Olympia and Matty?

Before senior had a stroke, he and Olympia seemed aligned on … how to do something to him, but now, all of a sudden, Julian’s seeing his dad in this vulnerable position, and all of these old feelings are coming up. It’s a vulnerability, and someone could just turn to blood is thicker than water and just say at the end of the day, “It’s my dad — I can’t go against him.”

I love that they’ve set up all of these very complicated things for my character to deal with. And it’s also just fun to be in on everything that’s going on — I’ve been clueless for so long.

These might be some of the longest scenes you’ve had with Kathy. What was it like working opposite her in such an oppositional role?

A lot of the scenes I had was coming into a room and ignoring her while I talked to Skye … I was one of the people who took her for granted and underestimated her and all of these things.

It was really fun to have this more direct relationship with her and a slightly antagonistic one as well — not even slightly antagonistic. I mean, they’re really going at each other.

She’s just a dream scene partner. She’s the kind of actor that is so present and so real that it it helps you lose some of your artifice — you trust that you can just be in the moment, and you’re not going, “Alright well, you’re going to give me nothing or do the same thing, so I got to make something up,” or you can start to spiral and get way outside the bag. It’s been such a dream to get to work with Kathy in this way and have our characters edge towards honesty with each other.

Matty says justice is important, and that lawyers are meant to uphold the law. How do you imagine that made him feel?

That hits him really hard. He has, like a lot of people do, compartmentalized this terrible thing that he did, and he knows it’s bad but he’s sort of put it aside. It’s also been dormant for how 15 years and I think he’s tried to be a good lawyer and tried to uphold the law, but at the same time, Olympia has really gotten into law for justice. I feel like it is a little bit more about the game for him, but no one wants to feel like they’re the bad guy. When someone lays something out so clearly and morally black and white like that, it’s a hard pill for Julian to swallow at the end of the day, he did go against everything that lawyers are supposed to do. Not that he’s the first lawyer to do that, and he probably won’t be the last.

What’s his ideal goal at this point? Squash any evidence of the study?

He’s in a dark cave, and he’s just looking for an escape. If that’s throwing his dad under the bus, then maybe that’s an option. If it’s figuring out a way where we can bury it, then that’s an option. I don’t think he’s he’s thinking of morally, what’s the right thing to do — he’s just in pure survival mode, and if he can continue just getting away with it, that would be great. If he can’t, and someone has to be held accountable, then he really doesn’t want it to be him.

Amid everything, Julian shows some good will to Sarah by signing her onto his team. Why was he moved to do this?

That was such a interesting and wonderful moment in the script. Right before he gives her that second chance, she confesses to him that she lied to him and betrayed him at his father’s behest, which is also another betrayal from his father — so a lot of complicated feelings dad-wise for Julian, but I think he understands what it’s like to have the mixture of wanting this powerful person’s approval and being scared of this person and not knowing what happens if I say no — I am I out of the out of my dream? In that moment, he’s also so desperate for his own second chance that I that he thinks is impossible at this point, that he at least can give someone else that feeling of being forgiven in a moment or giving someone one more chance.

Matty sheds her false identity when Julian comes to her home and he sees all the evidence pointing to him. What does he make of all of this?

First of all, I had never been to that set. I had no reason to ever be there, so it felt as alien to me, Jason, as it would to Julian. No matter who you are, even if it’s all fake, it’s unnerving to see one of those conspiracy boards with all the lines pointing to your face, but I think it’s such a wonderful moment for Matty, not so much for Julian. It’s the moment that Julian realizes, Oh, this is not just the Wellbrexa study — this is a months long, years long quest that this woman has been on to take me down. Julian doesn’t know that she started with Olympia Senior and Julian, it just looks like they’ve been coming after me this whole time. It’s another moment where Julian’s world is turned wildly upside down.

What can you tease about what happens next?

It’s a real roller coaster. Alliances are tested. We have Senior and his health issues in the mix where one potential option they’re thinking … is somehow how to get to the guy who gave the order, but now that he’s sick, is that a is that a vulnerable point for Julian or for Olympia, even, as the grandfather of her kids?

“Matlock” airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and streams the next day on Paramount+.

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