Matlock Just Bet The Future Of The Show On One Word, And I’m Still In Shock

Warning: spoilers for Matlock's Episode 12 of Season 1, “This is That Moment,” are in session. If you’re not current, you’ve been warned.

I swear if Matlock is about to break my heart, I don’t know if I’ll be able to think about much else on the 2025 TV schedule. That’s saying a lot considering how emotional we’ve seen CBS’ award-winning legal drama get for Kathy Bates’ titular double agent. And yet after the latest episode, “This is That Moment,” ended with a single question that strikes a nerve running to the heart of this series’ concept, I’m honestly worried about what comes next.

Edwin ‘Sometimes’ Blames Madeline For Their Daughter Ellie’s Death

We saw quite a few flashbacks this week, fleshing out the collective backstory of Madeline (Kathy Bates) and her husband Edwin (Sam Anderson). After seeing Matty relive the custody battle they waged against their late daughter Ellie (Marnee Carpenter), which included the last time she ever saw her daughter before her death, things were already on an emotional precipice.

The last scene of this week’s Matlock sent things over the edge, as when Ms. Kingston asked her husband if he blamed her for their daughter’s death, the word “Sometimes!” opened the floodgates. After posing the question of whether or not Ellie would still be alive had they not fought her for custody of Alfie, Edwin’s initial betrayal of hiding an email linked to his potential father paled in comparison.

Matlock’s Welbrexa Mystery Is Now Even More Personal

While I’m not totally sure that Madeline Kingston and her husband would ever break up, Matlock does seem to be including that possibility as a good source of drama. Reaching back into the past of our main family unit was a spectacular idea, especially when mirrored against Matty’s duties in a particularly nasty custody battle between a couple in the midst of a divorce.

Recognizing her own mistakes in how the Ellie situation was handled, Ms. Matlock talked distraught mother Paloma Deleon (Greta Quispe) out of holing up in Jacobson Moore’s file room with the son she’s afraid to lose. In this particular case, Matlock’s heroine won the day, but the result only further highlights her own failure in the past.

When this series began last fall, the stakes were already pretty high when it came to the Kingston family trying to expose Jacobson Moore’s potential big bad for malfeasance. Now that we’ve seen Ellie in the flesh via flashback, and with Madeline and Edwin's relationship heading towards potentially rocky shores, the motivations have become even more personal.

However, as we’ve seen through Matlock’s tonal acrobatics, there’s plenty of room for emotional Kathy Bates performances and the ever-manic adventures of Leah Lewis’ Sarah climbing the ladder. We’ll see what happens next Thursday at 9 p.m. ET, as Madeline Kingston and company return in “Pregame,” which obviously doesn’t fit the pattern of vaguely ominous titles at all. Until then, court’s adjourned, and hopefully next week gives us some comic relief through the power of “Shae Watch.” No, I’m not letting that go.