"I barely read her scenes," says the Matlock star on learning who hid the Wellbrexa documents

Matlock Season 1 finale left the audience surprised when the person behind the stolen Wellbrexa documents was unveiled.

Through the season, Madeline Matlock (played by Kathy Bates) had been doubtful of everyone at the Jacobson Moore law firm for colluding in a pharmaceutical case that led to her daughter’s death.

Skye P. Marshall, who portrays the role of Olympia in the hit CBS legal drama shared that the cast were unaware of the reveal in the finale until a few days before the production when they received the script.

While speaking to Collider, Marshall recalled,

"None of us wanted to know. It’s never fun to see an actor twist their mustache behind their dialogue. We didn’t want to anticipate anything. We didn’t even want our subconscious mind to try to act out any kind of villain demeanor or be the good girl or the good guy. We just wanted to do our jobs and fight for our clients, while at the same time trying to process all of these personal ups and downs that we are experiencing outside of the Jacobson Moore walls.”

When Marshall received the script, she was overwhelmed to learn the truth. She said,

“When we’re filming, we’re not in Madeline Kingston’s house, figuring out and trying to solve this problem. I glaze over it. I barely read her scenes. And so, I forgot, after a while, what her mission was. For me, I was doing my job with my clients, trying to process a very complex divorce, while figuring out my friendship with Matlock and being a mentor to Sarah and Billy. When I read that script and she stopped off that bus, I was like, 'Oh, my gosh!'"

Who hid the Wellbrexa Documents in Matlock?

Madeline and Olympia have been trying to find the culprit behind the stolen Wellbrexa files. Though their suspicions were on Senior, Madeline points out that he was in Australia and chances are that Senior would have taken Julian’s help to hide the files.

Olympia did not want to believe that the father of her children was behind it. But she decides to investigate his finances anyway. Olympia ends up finding Julian’s safety deposit box, which had the missing documents. This leaves her devastated.

Later, Julian tells her that he hid the documents for his father and begs Olympia to let him burn the documents so he can start fresh. The decision to reveal the truth for justice or hide it for the sake of her family and career weighs heavily on Olympia. The repercussions of Olympia's decision may take the lead in season 2 of Matlock.

Marshall revealed that after learning about the finale, she felt the pressure of the decision her character Olympia must take. She said,

"By the time I got to that safety deposit box, something that we had been waiting for, for so long, every take that they shot, I either was crying or held back tears because it was a scene where I never knew what the stakes would be. I wasn’t prepared for 13 million plus people to throw tomatoes at me in the street.”

She added that she was emotionally invested in her character during the final episodes of the season 1. She said,

“…With the stakes of it all, I had been so submerged in the filming and the character that I deeply felt everything. And I could tell so did Jason [Ritter] and so did Kathy. It’s right when those worlds get blurred. You’re literally at work, and then you go home and go to sleep. For me, it becomes my whole world and I feel exactly what my character is feeling. It takes a few weeks to shake that off when you’re done with production. By the end of filming those last three episodes, I was not acting anymore. All I had to do was make sure I memorized my lines and that I was prepared. I had all the feelings on the surface, and I was ready to just rip."

Watch Matlock on CBS and streaming platform Paramount+.

ALSO READ: "Watch her help": Abbott Elementary co-creator describes how star Sheryl Lee Ralph guides kid actors on set

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