‘Matlock’ Team Promises Major Answer & New Twists in Season 1 Finale

Forget about finding out the identity of the person at Jacobson Moore who hid the Wellbrexa documents, which indirectly led to the death of Matty’s (Kathy Bates) daughter — the real crime is that Matlock‘s not returning till Thursday, April 3!

Fortunately, TV Insider chatted up folks from the show’s creative team on the red carpet at PaleyFest 2025 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood earlier this week to get the scoop on what promises to be both a satisfying and enticing season finale on April 17.

Matty may have come into the firm thinking one way about the people who worked there, but after months of getting to know them both personally and professionally, she’s developing mixed feelings about her mission.

“The central tension of the series is that she went in with one mission and then, all of a sudden, she started to like all these people and it became much more difficult,” creator and executive producer Jennie Snyder Urman told us. “She imagined pulling this off [more easily], but now she’s started to form these relationships. It’s become way more difficult.”

Snyder Urman’s plan is to reveal the identity of the person Matty’s searching for, but then, she’s mapped out some twists that will bring viewers back for the show’s sophomore season. “You get the answer to that central question, and then, we push forward into the next season,” she said.

Sonja Flemming / CBS

Kat Coiro, the show’s director and executive producer, revealed to TV Insider that eagle-eyed viewers might spy the former actress in an upcoming episode. “There’s a little Hitchcock cameo [that I make] in the finale,” she said. “It’s my secret weapon as a director because I have so much empathy for actors. My first job was playing a maid on Guiding Light.”

Coiro said she still wonders the career trajectory she might have had if she had landed a contract role on All My Children. “I did a screen-test [for a contract role] with Josh Duhamel [ex-Leo],” she recalled. “I didn’t get it, but I think about it often, how different my life would have been.”

The actors on Matlock are just as curious as viewers are as to what the show’s next twist will be. “There’s an element of surprise that Jennie loves to keep,” shared Leah Lewis (who plays Sarah Franklin). “I’m really invested in the story. I foreshadow what I think will happen with Matty, and then something completely different does.”

Related

Why 'Matlock' Won’t Be Back Until April After Major Cliffhanger

Lewis teased that there’s something coming up in the finale that she knows about for certain — because she’s the one who pitched it. “It’s something really crazy,” she previewed. “I can’t tell you what it is but it was suggested from me to our showrunners. To have that kind of collaboration is really cool. Jennie is incredible.”

“While we are shooting the show, we have our guesses as to what’s happening next,” David Del Rio (who plays Billy Martinez) said. “We’re fans of the show. We’d be reveling and also foaming at the mouth every time we’d get a new script.”

The actor added he doesn’t want to know too much for fear of being taken out of the current moment. “I’d ask question to Jennie about where something’s going,” Del Rio explained. “They’re all really good about telling me all they can without telling me too much.”

There’s online speculation that Jason Ritter‘s Julian Markston might be the culprit that Matty’s after. Why? The actor is sporting a mustache for a new role he’s taking on, fueling speculation that the other series will prevent him from returning for Season 2. “It’s for another show that I’m working on called Lanterns,” Ritter said, chuckling. “Mustaches can be shaved off. As soon as I’m done [with Lanterns], I’m back to Matlock.”

Matlock, Thursdays, 9/8c, CBS