Warning: This post contains spoilers for Thursday’s “Matlock” winter premiere.
Julian Markston, meet Madeline Kingston.
“Matlock” returned from its winter hiatus on Thursday with a midseason premiere that wasted no time in delivering the fireworks. Exhibit A: Julian already knew that Matty and Olympia were conspiring about the Wellbrexa study behind his back, and Matty tried to throw him off the scent by welcoming him to the humble fake apartment she supposedly called home. (He also felt a new sympathy for Senior after the old man warmed up to him following his stroke.) Julian kept digging and discovered that Olympia lied to him about where she dropped off Matty.
He followed her car’s GPS directions and ended up at Matty’s doorstep in Westchester, where Matty decided to come clean, admitting that she’s actually Madeline Kingston and showing him her piles of evidence in the Wellbrexa cover-up: “I am the reason for everything. Because the study you hid could’ve saved my daughter’s life.”
To help us process all of this, TVLine reached out to Jason Ritter, who plays Julian on the CBS drama, and he broke down how Julian will react to Matty’s big reveal, where his loyalty lies between Olympia and Senior — and whether we might see his real-life wife Melanie Lynskey return for another guest spot.
How worried is Julian about Matty’s reveal?
TVLINE | This episode ends with Matty coming clean to Julian about her true identity and showing him all this evidence that she’s collected. So is Julian’s mind just completely blown by this reveal, or is he kind of vindicated because he knew Matty was lying to him?
I think his mind is blown. I mean, he knew Matty was lying. He knew that Olympia had lied, and that they were in on it together, but the idea that this woman would have created an entire other personality and faked her place of living… I mean, in this episode, I go to Matty’s apartment! I think that this is her life. So to all of a sudden have to think about: “Wait a second, I thought your husband died and was a horrible person, but here’s this guy, and now you have a completely different name”… This is obviously bigger than Olympia just handing you the file. This is a meticulously researched and documented case that they’ve been building, seemingly against me. So yeah, his world is upside down. I think he thought he caught them, and he had no idea how deep the rabbit hole goes.
TVLINE | Like you said, Julian is right smack dab in the middle of that board that Matty has. He’s pretty heavily implicated in this. So how does he approach this? Does he get on board with Maddie and Olympia and hope they don’t sell him out? Or does he do everything he can to stop them?
Well, yeah, that’s the complicated thing. He and Olympia felt like a little bit of an alliance when she found out about the Wellbrexa study, and they’re trying to figure out what to do and how to navigate it. This is an entirely different thing. And, you know, Olympia knows Julian. Olympia understands and may even have some empathy for the fact that his father is a very powerful and kind of scary guy. She understands everything that led up to — every game of catch that didn’t happen — that led to Julian doing this horrible thing for his father. But Matty doesn’t have any of that history. Matty doesn’t know Julian in that way, and so it seems at the end of that episode that she’s just looking at him going, “Here’s all my evidence, and you are a bad person, and you are responsible for it, for my daughter’s death.” And that’s the other thing. I think Julian has been able to sort of place the ramifications of his actions in a kind of amorphous [box]: “That sounds like a lot of people who have passed away, but I didn’t really do that much,” and making all these sort of excuses for himself. And it’s different when someone says, “That face right there, that person, my daughter.” Julian, as a father of kids of his own… I think it’s really confronting for him.
Is Julian’s trust in Olympia gone forever?
TVLINE | Julian knows Olympia has been lying to him repeatedly about this, and he confirmed it again when he saw her car went to Westchester and not Queens. I know they were married and they have kids together, but is there a point where Julian just can’t trust Olympia anymore?
I think we start this second half of the season at basically zero trust of anybody, and they don’t trust him, and he doesn’t trust them. He can’t even get a foothold, because anything that she says could be another lie. The only thing that I think Julian knows is true is that Olympia loves our children and will do anything for their kids. That’s the one thing that I think Julian can hold on to: “I’m related to those guys that you love so much, whatever you think about me, and I’m their dad.” Julian, for all of his personal foibles and demons, I think he’s really tried to be the kind of dad for his kids that his dad wasn’t for him. So I think he’s hoping that some of the goodwill that he’s created over the years counts for something. But when someone betrays your trust, it takes a long time to get back to that level of trust, and Julian’s always been on the side of the person who’s broken the trust. It’s a difficult thing when you realize how hard it is to trust someone again who has lied to your face for who knows how long.
TVLINE | Can he even trust that they’re telling the truth now? I mean, Matty’s coming out with the truth, but can Julian even trust that?
Right, exactly. So I think there’s a lot in these first couple episodes where he’s basically asking for something to hold on to, some kind of proof that now this is the truth. That’s the problem with liars. You go, “OK, OK, I lied about all of that. Now I’m telling the truth.” How do you know? How can you verify? I think his lawyer side is coming out and saying, “I need evidence. I need to know for sure.”
Will Julian’s loyalty to his father win out?
TVLINE | We know Julian always is seeking approval from his father, and we saw him have some tender moments this week with Senior in the hospital. Does he have a loyalty to his father that might supersede anything he feels for Olympia and Matty, especially when his father is ailing like that?
I think that’s one of the big questions. It threw such a huge wrench into the first half of the season where it’s easy to see Senior as this powerful villain and this person who’s caused all of this pain to Julian and throwing him under the bus a million times. But when you see someone so vulnerable lying in a hospital bed and they’re reaching out to you, do those emotions and those feelings of approval just come swimming back, knowing that maybe these are the last moments that I could potentially get this thing that I’ve been seeking since I was a child? But yeah, that definitely is a vulnerability, and whether or not it’ll be a liability for Julian remains to be seen. But I love that they added that in, because it makes it so complicated. Also, now that [Senior] is in this vulnerable state, the idea of him being in prison is a whole other ball of wax.
TVLINE | So how does this play out for the rest of the season? Is Julian in self-preservation mode? Does he go on the attack? What kind of Julian do we see for the rest of Season 2?
Well, I think we definitely see a more honest Julian. In the first season, everything’s kind of fine. He doesn’t realize that he’s being tracked and hunted, and he’s just kind of going about his life. And this season, we’ve seen a Julian who knows that his worst secret is coming out, and he’s panicked, and he’s in self-preservation mode.
I think he’s also sort of grappling with this thing that he’s been grappling with for a while, which is: One of the things that drives him crazy about his dad is that his dad has never had to face any kind of consequence. Any time it seems like his dad’s back is up against the wall, his dad has figured out a way to get around it, or throw someone else under the bus. So in the first season, when [Julian] comes clean about his affair, it’s because he wants to be different. He wants to be honest, he wants to be accountable. He doesn’t want to just skate through life. So he has these conflicting feelings of, “Yes, being accountable is important, but I also am a father. I don’t want to be in prison, with my kids growing up in these formative years.” So he’s in a bad spot, to put it lightly, and I think he’s trying to figure a way out. But he knows by the end of this first episode back that he’s not holding the cards that he thought he was holding.
Could Ritter’s wife Melanie Lynskey return as Debra Palmer?
TVLINE | Finally, I have to ask: Your wife Melanie Lynskey popped up earlier this season in a surprise guest role as Debra Palmer, and she’s a key witness in the Wellbrexa cover-up. I don’t think we saw Debra share a scene with Julian, but could we see them cross paths later this season?
I would love that. I would absolutely love that. It definitely felt like the Debra Palmer storyline has not been completed. It felt like there were some secrets or something going on. She was being a little cagey. So yeah, I would love for Debra Palmer and Julian to meet. We’ll see.
Alright, “Matlock” fans, it’s time for you to render your verdict. Give the winter premiere a grade in our poll, and hit the comments to share your thoughts and predictions for the rest of Season 2.