How Will ‘Matlock’ Write Out Billy? 4 Possible Exits for David Del Rio’s Character
What To Know
- David Del Rio was fired from Matlock following an alleged sexual assault, and his character, Billy, will be written out after the Season 2 midseason finale.
- Fans have speculated various exit strategies for Billy, including moving away for a new job and Julian (Jason Ritter) replacing him.
- Some viewers believe Billy’s storyline was already setting up his departure before the incident, making his exit easier to integrate into the show’s ongoing plot.
[Warning: The following contains discussion of sexual assault.]
Matlock actor David Del Rio was fired from the series after an alleged sexual assault against his costar, Leah Lewis (Sarah). Following his firing, CBS confirmed that Del Rio’s character would be written out of the series after a pre-planned filming break from October to November. That break was set for when the first half of Season 2 wrapped filming, so we know that Billy will be written out after the midseason finale. But how will Billy be written out of Matlock? Fans have been debating the idea on Reddit.
Fans previously debated whether Billy should be written out or recast on a Reddit Matlock discussion board. Some viewers preferred a recasting to preserve the show’s continuity. Others argued that Billy isn’t so necessary to the story that his absence would ruin it. They admitted that having him in the whole first half of Season 2 will make his exit clunky, no matter how the show handles it. The nature of Del Rio’s firing makes that an inevitability.
In the time since, a few fan theories about how Matlock will write out Billy have emerged, and there are layers to them. Here, we’ve compiled what fans are thinking.
1. Billy will move and get a new job in response to Claudia’s pregnancy.
This one seems the most plausible. Claudia’s pregnancy has been Billy’s primary storyline this season, and he has been going back and forth with his family about how he and Claudia plan to raise the baby. Fans think that Billy and Claudia will elope and move closer to their families before the baby is born, and that Billy will get a new job as a result. Fans believe the easiest way to explain this exit is having Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) briefly explain his departure to her staff.
“‘Has anyone seen Billy?’ ‘Yeah, he quit. He got offered a role with better hours to help with the baby,'” one viewer posed an easy explanation for the character’s absence.
Billy was already looking for a new apartment this season, a bigger one for his growing family. This is an easy setup for a move.
2. Billy will leave Jacobson Moore and be replaced by Julian.
“Billy and Sarah don’t feel as important or big in this season, but it seems it could be easy for him to ‘quit’ or ‘move’ for the baby and bring a new [junior] associate into the team,” one fan said on the Reddit thread. A reply takes it further and wonders if Julian (Jason Ritter) will be brought onto Olympia’s team as part of his demotion at Jacobson Moore.
“I think they might replace him with Julian,” the viewer said. “It’s a stretch, but given he’s been demoted, and Senior [Beau Bridges] wants to get back at him, what better way than making him his ex-wife’s subordinate? It also opens up a new facet of ganging up against Senior.”
In Matlock Season 2 Episode 5, Julian came close to catching Matty (Kathy Bates) in the act of several deceptions. He was right to suspect she was the employee who leaked the intel about Wellbrexa to the press, but Matty and Olympia spent the entire episode gaslighting him to get him off their trail. This has left Olympia feeling very guilty, which could lead to her eventually convincing Matty to read him into their plot to bring Senior down for the Wellbrexa scandal. Julian would be a key witness in that regard.
Bringing Julian onto Olympia’s team could be smart, whether he’s aware of the secret investigation or not. That way, he can be kept close while the plot thickens, but we hope that he’s read into the full plan, as it’s hard to watch Olympia gaslight the father of her children. If he’s not going to be legally held accountable for hiding the Wellbrexa study that could’ve saved countless lives, he needs to be directly involved in righting the copious wrongs by taking his father down.
3. Billy was already being written out.
The pregnancy storyline made some viewers wonder if Matlock was already planning to write Billy out before the incident with Del Rio. They said the pregnancy storyline was an inexplicably random subplot for Season 2’s narrative.
“It just seemed to have come out of nowhere, especially with all the other stuff going on at the firm,” a viewer said. “It stuck out like a sore thumb, IMO.”
“I mean, honestly, even before I saw the news, it seemed like they were heading in that direction with the baby arc,” one fan said.
Another comment said that there was a better piece of Billy’s story that Season 2 could’ve focused on: “I agree it’s so dumb. They should have leaned more into the storyline with his Mom and her NYPD connections, that’s so much more interesting.”
“So easy to have a wrinkle with Claudia lead them to move away from NYC with the baby,” another reply said.
“It’s entirely possible they recut episodes to remove some of his scenes. I don’t think they had any idea about his behavior before the incident occurred,” one comment said. “My theory on how he will be written off is that Claudia will want to live somewhere else, maybe closer to some of her family, and they will move away during the hiatus. She isn’t far enough along right now to have the baby over the break and have him decide not to return from paternity leave. She’s only having her first sonogram. That puts her at maybe 10 weeks. This is still a very new pregnancy.”
4. Billy goes on paternity leave and doesn’t come back.
Another theory popped up in the replies of the Reddit thread that wondered if Billy was always going to be written out in Season 2.
“I’m thinking that they probably weren’t going to, but his current story arc made the decision way easier to quickly make,” a comment said.
“At this point, maybe he goes on paternity leave and just doesn’t come back,” said a reply. One fan noted that that seems “more likely than a recasting,” but more than one fan pointed out that Claudia isn’t that far along in her pregnancy.
Get the Matlock Season 2 release schedule here.
Matlock, Thursdays, 9/8c, CBS
If you or someone you know is the victim of sexual assault, contact the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network‘s National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). If you or a loved one is in immediate danger, call 911.
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