BACKSTABBER EXPOSED: Matty’s Master Plan Hits Disaster After Shocking Firing
The halls of Jacobson Moore are about to run red with legal blood. The season fall finale of CBS’s hit drama Matlock just dropped a nuclear-level episode, ending with a shocking firing, a cardiac collapse, and the possible exposure of Matty Matlock’s entire revenge plot to take down the firm. Talk about a cliffhanger!
The episode centered on the ongoing, high-stakes scheme to destroy Senior (Beau Bridges) over the opioid epidemic tragedy that killed Matty’s daughter. The plan hit a massive, unexpected snag when the powerful villain suffered a heart attack. This medical emergency immediately fractured the conspirators: Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) suffered a crisis of conscience, but Matty (Kathy Bates) was all cold fury, determined to push forward and get Senior arrested—even if he was in a hospital bed.
But the true chaos unfolded when the secret plot finally claimed a casualty within the firm. Sarah (Leah Lewis) was forced to confess to Olympia that she had been secretly working for Senior, spying on her estranged husband, Julian (Jason Ritter). Olympia’s response was swift and ruthless: she instantly moved Sarah to a different legal team, effectively firing her from their close-knit unit and banishing her to the firm’s outer circle. This is a brutal reminder that in this game of corporate treason, trust is a fatal luxury.
Personal Day and Profound Tragedy: Billy’s Backstory Exposed
While the firm was imploding with accusations and firings, the tragedy continued to unfold in the personal lives of the staffers. Sarah, reeling from her exile, attempted to confide in Billy (David Del Rio), who had taken a personal day away from the office carnage.
But Billy had his own silent hell. He wasn’t taking a break; he was grieving. In a heartbreaking reveal, Billy confessed that his girlfriend had suffered a miscarriage. The juxtaposition of Sarah’s corporate self-destruction and Billy’s profound, personal loss was a raw gut-punch that reminds viewers of the devastating real-world consequences lurking beneath the legal drama.
The Final Betrayal: Julian Catches Olympia Giving Up the Goods
The entire season has been defined by the fragile trust between Matty (the fake poor widower, real rich lawyer Madeline Kingston) and Olympia, who has been agonizingly protecting Julian despite Matty’s deep suspicions. But in the final, jaw-dropping seconds of the finale, Olympia seemingly made her choice.
Showing Matty that she was finally prioritizing the revenge mission over her ex, Olympia handed over the copy of the crucial Wellbrexa study—the smoking gun evidence Matty needs to link the firm to the opioid deaths. This moment of pure trust, however, was immediately compromised.
The entire dramatic exchange was observed by Julian. Ritter had previously teased that Julian’s skeletons are out of the closet, forcing him to “grapple” with his past shame and leaving him “terrified.” Now, his terror is turning into cold suspicion. Julian started aggressively trailing Olympia to her house, and the closing shot strongly suggested he has “seemingly pieced together the situation.”
The Loaded Position: Creator Jennie Snyder Urman’s Warning
Show creator Jennie Snyder Urman wasn’t kidding when she warned viewers not to get “comfortable” and teased that the finale would leave the characters in a “really loaded position on a bunch of different story lines.” The payoff is immense: Matty’s identity, the core engine of the show, is now potentially known to the most volatile character on the series.
The overwhelming fan support for the show, Urman explained, has allowed them to take these massive, structural swings. “It allows for the formula to change and for that to be its own stock,” she teased. With Julian now a wild card, the formula has indeed changed. He is no longer just the divorce-scarred ex-husband; he is an unwitting new player in the deadliest game at the firm.
Julian’s Transformation: From Shame to Terrifying Vigilante?
Julian, according to actor Jason Ritter, is currently grappling with the ramifications of his affair and the end of his marriage, unable to simply compartmentalize his shameful secrets anymore. “There is no pretending with [his ex-wife] Olympia anymore,” Ritter previously teased. Julian has been forced to confront his failures, a situation that has left him both exposed and “terrified.”
Now, Julian is terrified for a new reason: he may be facing off against his former friends and the woman who is secretly destroying his father. Will Julian confront Matty? Will he turn against Olympia? Or, will he join the mission, using his inside knowledge of the firm to help take Senior down?
The final image of Julian stalking Olympia’s house ensures that when Matlock returns to CBS Thursday, February , at p.m. ET, the entire landscape of the show will have shifted. The spy has become the target, and the terrified ex-husband is now a potentially dangerous insider ready to expose everything.
