After a season spent drowning his sorrows in illicit drugs and copious amounts of alcohol, teacher of the year candidate Ryan Matthews is not. Luckily for him, a new school year brings with it a clean slate. Will Mr. Matthews make the most of it? We went directly to the source, his portrayer Ryan Eggold! Who in anticipation of tonight’s 90210 third season premiere was kind enough to take some time late last week to talk to theTVaddict.com about his character’s father-to-be status, what he may-or-may not have seen during last May’s shocking finale, and what he hopes the future holds for his character.
How much time has passed since May’s finale?
Ryan Eggold: We pick up with Ryan just passed out in an alley with his pants down and you’re just like, “What the hell happened!” No that’s not true, but that would be a great way to open the season, wouldn’t it? Ryan has kind of gone through a transformation during the summer of growing up. He’s having a kid with Jen and his days of indulging in his own sadness, drinking and being a bit of an adolescent himself are over. He’s ready to be a father, knows what he has to do, who he has to be and most definitely put the past behind him.
Too bad he’s stuck with Jen (Naomi’s gold-digging sister) as his baby-mama!
[Laughs] If I could talk to my character, I would tell him to run the other way you fool because she’s bad news. Be there for the kid, but forget Jen! They’re so different obviously and she’s not really the nicest or kindest person and I think he is a very king person, but it actually provides for a lot of comedy this season because they’re stuck together in this very intimate situation having a baby, yet they don’t understand each other and come from different world. They can’t even agree on the baby’s name, let alone what to have for breakfast.
Just how much does Ryan remember from the finale in terms of Naomi and Mr. Cannon?
Ryan remembers seeing Mr. Cannon and Naomi through the window at the end of last season and that comes into play, but it’s kind of a struggle for him because coming forward with what it saw could mean serious repercussions for Ryan.
Is Ryan ready to face those repercussions?
Ryan does end up making a decision about it very quickly and goes for it. That said, in dealing with the after-effect I’m not entirely sure because they have yet to write it. I’m curious to see what happens to him and what the repercussions are.
With Principal Wilson gone this season, what’s Ryan’s relationship like with the new principal?
I’ve had a few scenes with the new principal and they’ve been pretty neutral.
Assuming the power of the pen was in your hand, where would you like to see Ryan go this season?
Gosh I really don’t know. Something I’d like to see for RYan is moving him into a place with Jen, or maybe even Naomi or something (who is helping raise this kid). Or with someone, just seeing that home life of raising this baby, the joy of that, the difficulty. And I think they are doing a lot of that. And so far they are heading that route which I think will be really cool. 
You can catch brand new episodes of 90210 on Mondays at 8PM on the CW (Fridays on Global TV in Canada)