Wellbrexa Case Ends, Season 3 Details Revealed

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Thursday’s “Matlock” Season 2 finale.

For all you “Matlock” fans hoping for a happy ending in the Wellbrexa storyline: You got your wish. 

Thursday’s two-part Season 2 finale of the CBS legal drama gave us plenty of closure, with Matty, Olympia, and Julian teaming up with a federal agent — hi, Gina Rodriguez! — to finally bring Senior to justice for covering up damning evidence in the Wellbrexa case. (Matty slipped a listening device into Senior’s suit jacket, and he confessed to the whole thing while berating Julian.) The feds swooped in at Senior’s retirement party, arresting Senior, Julian, and the rest of Jacobson Moore’s partners just as the merger was about to become official. Matty and Olympia plotted to open their own law firm — oh, and Sarah learned the truth about Matty’s secret identity.

It was a twist two seasons in the making, so TVLine had to reach out to “Matlock” showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman to get the scoop on how it came together. Read on to hear why the writers decided to wrap up the Wellbrexa storyline now, and what’s on tap for Season 3, which returns at midseason on CBS. (Hint: Get ready for a creative reboot… and a time jump.)

TVLINE | The Wellbrexa storyline has been the narrative backbone of the first two seasons. What made you decide to wrap it up here in the finale?
I felt like they, as smart people, would have reached the end of the investigation. There were not that many clues we could dig up. We were going to, otherwise, be sending them forward and taking four steps back all the time. It felt like we had all the pieces in place, and we knew we didn’t want it to be beyond two seasons for that particular storyline. That’s why I’m grateful for midseason, because we have to create a whole new spine, and that’s what we talked about with the network. We need time to make sure that it comes in organically and that it gives us everything Wellbrexa does, but it’s totally different. So I’m grateful that we’ve got that time to plan.

TVLINE | But that storyline isn’t exactly finished. Senior is arrested, Julian is arrested, all the other partners are arrested. What kind of fallout can we expect to see from that in Season 3?
It won’t be the source of the mystery, but you’ll see the emotional fallout. Senior still exists as their kids’ grandfather. Whether he serves time is going to be a question. A result of what Julian does is going to be a big spine for him, in terms of his relationships and who he is in the world and his job. So all of that continues and undergirds all of our storytelling. Just the emotional part of it is there, not the mystery anymore.

TVLINE | You mentioned you need some time to reimagine what the next spine of the story is. It looks like Olympia and Matty are striking out on their own. Are we going to see them at their own firm? Are we looking at a major creative reboot here?
I’d say it’s like a creative reboot, but like a creative continuation. To me, it’s the next iteration of storytelling. I don’t like to be in patterns. I like to always push storytelling forward. I think what you’ll know is that there’s always going to be a case of the week. Everything else is going to have new elements, with strings from our old elements. But I’m going to be creating with the writers a new mystery that comes in in an interesting way, but that makes sense organically, and you understand why they’re involved in it, and has its own stakes and forward momentum. And then with relationships, everyone’s going to be in different places. A handful of people know who Matty is, but she’s accepted that she’s going to be Matty Matlock in this world, too. So she is living in that in a different way. Her relationship with Edwin continues to change. There are just a lot of new dynamics that come in as a result of the events of the end of the season.

TVLINE | Can you say if Olympia and Matty are actually starting a new firm? Or are we still mostly at the firm formerly known as Jacobson Moore?
You’ll pick them up at the beginning in a new office.

TVLINE | So there is a time jump?
It’ll be a little time jump: six to nine months, something like that. Not like five years later and everything has changed. But we’re not a direct pickup, like we were this year.

TVLINE | So Sarah now knows the truth about Matty’s identity, along with Mrs. Belvin. Can we expect to see them maybe pitching in at this new office? Or will Sarah stay behind at the old firm?
How Sarah reacts to that news is significant, and what she does as a result, and if they’re together at the beginning or not, that’s part of it. But Sarah’s reaction, I think, is justified.

TVLINE | What about poor Hunter? The guy just finds out he’s safe from the merger, and now the whole firm is going down the tubes.
Yeah, he’s safe. The firm will be fighting to stay alive and stay open. You will definitely still see Hunter, just in different ways. People will be a little bit scattered at the beginning, and then they’ll find their way back.

TVLINE | Is Henry Haber a series regular next year?
Not a series regular. But I love Henry, and I will use him as much as I can.

TVLINE | Will we see Olympia and Matty defending Julian? Because they said that would be their first case at this new firm.
They will not be defending him. They will have been involved, but that’s not going to be the thrust of the season.

TVLINE | Earlier this season, we saw the departure of David Del Rio as Billy. I don’t want to ask about the actor or anything that happened there, but creatively, did you have plans for Billy that we didn’t get to see on screen?
Yeah, we always have plans for all the characters and their arcs. So there definitely were plans. But the same way that you’re watching a show and you suddenly think, “Oh, I have to do more of this”… The show itself is a constant living organism that changes. So when he left, we changed things up. But the heart of the show is always about Matty and Olympia, and their friendship and the central love story. So that was always our spine. And luckily, the changes weren’t huge.

TVLINE | Will we hear from Billy again, off-screen? Because we heard a couple times about what he’s doing. Will we get any more updates?
No, I don’t think so. I think it was important that the characters addressed where he was to them in their life as characters, and I feel like we did that storytelling, and then so much is going to be changed coming into the third season. So I don’t think so.

TVLINE | Anything else you can tease about what’s coming up in Season 3? Any new characters that we should look for, or new dynamics?
There are going to be new characters. I want to see Langston back. I love our guest stars. So to me, more of them.

TVLINE | Do we think there might be something real there between Olympia and Langston? She was drunk texting him.
I think so. If I have anything to say about it.

“Matlock” fans, it’s time to render your verdict: Give the Season 2 finale — and the season as a whole — a grade in our polls, and then hit the comments to give us your thoughts.