The Truth Comes Out — and Olympia Is Stuck in the Middle -

Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for the Matlock Season 1 finale.Matlock delivers a doozy of a double-header episode for the Season 1 finale. It’s officially confirmed who stole the Wellbrexa documents, but even more questions are raised as Matty (Kathy Bates) and Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) have to figure out next steps. These two aren’t the only ones figuring out where they stand in the season-ender. Sarah (Leah Lewis) gets herself into hot water when the client she writes a strong cease-and-desist for ends up with a dead business partner. It’s all hands on deck to save the junior lawyer after she confirms to police that she’s Dino’s attorney. As a junior associate, she isn’t supposed to have any clients without Olympia’s sign-off, so Sarah has to face her first solo trial while also wondering if she’ll have a job to return to even if she wins.

Things at Jacobson Moore are hectic enough, but this is a season finale, so Matlock has to throw a massive wrench into Matty’s home life as well. Things will not be the same for Matty at home or work when the show returns for Season 2, and she has a lot of very big decisions to make about her next steps.

Sarah’s in Hot Water in the ‘Matlock’ Season 1 Finale

Leah Lewis in court in the Matlock Season 1 finale — Image via CBS

Sarah’s trouble starts when she volunteers to write a cease-and-desist letter for a friend-of-a-friend. She thinks it will be a harmless way to get some experience and help mitigate the inferiority complex she developed when Matty passed her over for the first associate solo trial. Per usual, Sarah’s problem is that she goes overboard, and the stringent letter she crafts leads to a physical altercation between Dino and his business partner. At the end of the altercation, Dino’s business partner is dead.

That means that Sarah’s first case, which she isn’t supposed to have, has escalated from a routine business dispute to defending a man for manslaughter. Once Dino is taken into custody, Sarah has no choice but to loop in Olympia and Matty to help dig her out of the mess. Olympia tries to get Dino’s counsel switched to a public defender before the rest of the firm finds out, but the judge denies the request because of Sarah’s strong performance when Dino is initially put into custody. That means it’s all hands on deck to get Sarah out of his massive mess.

There are some mishaps along the way – like Sarah losing a front tooth after accidentally being hit in the face with a stiff filing cabinet door – but ultimately, everyone steps up to the plate. Billy (David Del Rio) and Sarah tag-team research and discover that Dino’s business partner had been suffering from appendicitis thanks to the supplements he’d been taking. Matty helps by talking to witnesses, and Olympia gives Sarah the vote of confidence she needs to knock the case out of the park.

Sarah is able to pull it out and get Dino’s charges dismissed once she brings up the appendicitis in court. The problem is that Olympia has to step away to handle the final hurdle in Matty’s Wellbrexa investigation, forcing Matty to choose between hovering over Olympia’s shoulder and being there for Sarah. Since Matty knows Sarah would never have taken Dino on as a client if she hadn’t given the previous solo case to Billy, she decides to stay and help the young lawyer. That leaves Olympia alone at the bank to discover the truth about the day the Wellbrexa case files went missing.

‘Matlock’ Season 1 Clears the Last Hurdle in the Wellbrexa Case

The missing piece of the puzzle in the Wellbrexa case involves finding physical evidence linking Julian (Jason Ritter) to the missing documents. Olympia wants to help Matty find the truth as much as she wants to prove that the father of her children couldn’t have done this terrible thing. But even Olympia has to admit it looks bad when Julian’s mother can’t remember opening the trust that allowed them to purchase the family brownstone.

When Olympia loses access to Julian’s bank records, Matty helps her come up with a scheme that will allow them to look into Julian’s files at the bank. Matty’s con-artist tutelage only sets Olympia more on edge about everything Matty has done to get the investigation to this point, which frays the trust between them even further. They are supposed to go to the bank together for the ruse, but the financial advisor they pick to meet with has to change the appointment to the middle of Sarah’s trial.

They can either lose the appointment after so much scheming to get it, or Matty has to let Olympia go look at the files alone. Matty ultimately elects to stay with Sarah, as she chooses to believe that Olympia’s conscience wouldn’t let her cover up a crime if Julian is guilty. True to her word, Olympia goes to the appointment and looks through the financial records. She confirms that Julian’s mother did open the trust, which also confirms that Julian didn’t buy the brownstone with a Wellbrexa payout.

‘Matlock’s Best Performance Pulls You In and Keeps You Watching

Kathy Bates is always excellent, but don’t overlook this actress.

The duo are finally on the same page and set to do a deeper dive into Senior’s (Beau Bridges) involvement in the missing documents after work that day. Unfortunately, the financial advisor stops Olympia on her way out of the bank and asks if she wants to see the contents of Julian’s safety deposit box. She agrees, and that’s where she finds the missing documents. She’s still processing the devastating discovery when Julian arrives and realizes that Olympia has discovered the worst thing he’s ever done.

Ritter puts in one of the best performances of the season as Julian begs Olympia to understand the pressure he was under at the time and how the younger version of him was so desperate to please his father. He wants her to help him destroy the documents because he’s just submitted his resignation from the firm. If the truth comes out, it will obliterate his shot at a second chance. Olympia is stuck contemplating her loyalties as the clock winds down.

Matty Gets a Surprise Visitor in the ‘Matlock’ Finale

Aaron Harris in the Matlock Season 1 finale — Image via CBS

Matty would have been stuck trying to convince Edwin (Sam Anderson) that they could trust Olympia if Alfie (Aaron Harris) hadn’t dropped a massive truth bomb in the middle of their growing fight. Well, it would have been a truth bomb if the doorbell hadn’t rung. Matty goes to answer it and encounters a man who claims to be Alfie’s father. Alfie had reached out after Matty and Edwin mentioned giving Bitsy (Julie Haggerty) custody of the young teen if anything ever happened to them. His anxiety drove him to want to know about the other half of his DNA, but now he’s invited the stranger to the Kingston house without consulting Matty or Edwin.

The couple has been going back and forth all season about whether reaching out to Alfie’s biological father was the right thing to do. They ultimately decided that it was too much of an unknown to bring into their fragile arrangement, but Alfie reaching out on his own changes everything. Matty decides to let the man in, knowing it must have been important for Alfie to go all this way. They’ll have to figure out that dynamic, as well as what to do with Olympia and Julian, when Matlock returns for Season 2.

Matlock has already been renewed for a second season on CBS and will return in the 2025-26 TV season. Season 1 is now available to stream on Paramount+.