Who Is Melanie Lynskey’s ‘Matlock’ Character?

[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Matlock Season 2 Episode 4, “Piece of My Heart.”]

Melanie Lynskey has joined the cast of Matlock in a surprise guest star role! Lynskey, whose husband, Jason Ritter, stars as Julian, made her debut in Matlock Season 2 Episode 4 on Thursday, October 30, and she shared all of her scenes with Kathy Bates. Her character is a name viewers have heard for the last few episodes, which sets the Yellowjackets star up for a potential recurring arc in Season 2.

In “Piece of My Heart,” Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) and the team took on a wrongful death case, and Matty reflected on her relationship with her daughter, Ellie (Marnee Carpenter), who returned in flashbacks to when she was pregnant with Alfie (Aaron D. Harris). Matty also met with a mysterious woman from Senior’s (Beau Bridges) past. That’s where Lynskey came in.

Is Melanie Lynskey in Matlock?

Sonja Flemming / CBS

Lynskey’s first lines were, “Don’t be nervous. Doctors have scalpels. And I have this magic foundation, which I chemically formulated myself, patent pending.” She plays Debra Palmer, one of Senior’s former lovers, the one whose name has popped up in Matty and Olympia’s investigation into Senior’s trip to Australia 15 years prior, during the heat of the Wellbrexa case. Matty and Olympia are hoping to convince Debra to testify against Senior about the Wellbrexa study he ordered his son, Julian, to bury.

Debra is a makeup artist, and Matty went undercover again to meet her. Disguised as a Texan woman named Cynthia, Matty had her makeup done by Debra, who moonlights “as a mortuary cosmetologist doing open-casket work,” she told Matty, really selling it. “All of the products in my line, Eternal Glamour, are medical-grade.” That explains why Matty’s face felt hard after that “magic foundation” was slathered on.

Thanks to Senior’s expense reports that Matty snagged in Episode 3, Matty and Olympia knew some details about Senior and Debra’s Australia trip. Matty used those details about a karaoke bar and watermelon martinis to make Debra think they had crossed paths in Sydney in that very bar 15 years before. Debra wouldn’t call Senior by name in this first interaction, but she remembered him fondly and called him, “Mr. Magic Pants” (oy…).

They went to karaoke later that night to get to know each other better. They sang a duet together that had special meaning to Matty and her daughter, but Debra became increasingly cagey throughout the night when asked about her former lover. After Olympia showed up at the bar, Debra blocked Matty’s phone number.

Will Melanie Lynskey be back in Matlock?

CBS did not immediately respond for comment on Lynskey’s Matlock role, but given that Debra is an integral piece of Matty and Olympia’s plan right now — and Lynskey’s personal connection to the show — it seems likely that she’ll be back this season.

Additionally, Ritter called Lynskey’s Matlock appearance “inevitable” in April of this year, telling Decider that he had “passed the word on” about Lynskey’s interest in guest-starring to production. “I would love to see that, and Melanie would love it. Everybody who works on Matlock would love that, too. So I think when all the pieces are aligned.”

At the time, Lynskey confirmed her husband’s comments and said she was merely waiting for them to pitch a script and for schedules to work out. Her one stipulation was that she got to have scenes with Bates, her favorite actor. When asked if she wanted to share scenes with her husband, Lynskey joked, “Sure, him too.”

Matlock, Thursdays, 9/8c, CBS

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