About Last Night…GHOSTS, MATLOCK, THE PITT, and More

Let’s talk about Thursday night’s TV!

LAW & ORDER: I think the general idea was a good one, but the pacing was wildly off for me. I get that Shaw couldn’t put his finger on why Riley’s interpretation of their suspect apprehension didn’t feel right—at least until the suspect said he threw a hard drive, not a gun—but at that point they had gone so far down the road of the trial there were only a few moves the lawyers could make. Had the writers made it so Shaw and Riley disagreed sooner, we could have seen more of their investigation into what actually happened and explored the conflict within their partnership (and seen how the ADAs handled it) versus just hearing about the searches in the aftermath and the lawyers scrambling to figure out how to handle their case.

And I get why Riley told Price about what Shaw said about not wanting their suspect to be guilty (it was absolutely relevant), but…yeah, that needs to come back up again between the partners at some point.  Because what happens the next time Shaw wants to share his genuine feelings? (Again, something that would have been interesting to see: Price questioning Riley about what Shaw said/did and how much Riley did—or didn’t!—try to protect his partner.)

NEXT LEVEL CHEF: Oh, I like this tournament. I know it was akin to the audition rounds, but at this point the contestants had a feel for what the show was, how this worked, etc. And, hey, it was smart of Beatrice and Austin to work together—they both managed to make the best dishes and stay on the top floor.

GHOSTS: Oh my gosh, that was so, so cute. The rom-com tropes were delightful, Sass and Joan are so freakin’ sweet, and I hope they can get a little bit of happiness together before it inevitably falls apart. (I mean, look, it’s a television show. I’m just trying to be realistic.)

Flower blackmailing Trevor for more money was very funny, too. She’s not always entirely on top of things, but when she is…look out.

MATLOCK: “You saw me.”

What an absolute acting, writing, and directing masterpiece. For months, I’ve been dreading the inevitable confrontation between Matlock and Olympia; watching them build up one of the best, layered, complex, mutually supportive friendships on television (a depressing rarity, even in 2025), knowing it was built on a foundation of sand. There was no best-case scenario here, really: Matty was lying, no matter what, even with a justified reason. Even if she was able to prove concretely that Olympia wasn’t the person she blamed for her daughter’s death, it didn’t take away the fact that Matty had spent months being dishonest and withholding crucial information from Olympia. Everything felt doomed.

And of course things blew up. It remains gratifying the show allowed Olympia to piece some of it together on her own—she is a damn smart woman—but there was enough that Matty had cleverly hidden where she needed a confession. Kathy Bates and Skye P. Marshall were absolutely electrifying and heartbreaking as Matty and Olympia navigated their hurt, betrayal, and truths, talking about what had really been happening in the months since Matty joined the firm. How gutting that Matty spent so much time being invisible, so much time losing herself, only to find someone who finally saw her…only to have to hide her real self?

For Olympia, on the other hand, this is awful on every conceivable level. She’s already fighting to prove herself in the firm, already having to battle against prejudices and microaggressions against Black women, and she has now lost one of her trusted friends, a valued ally. And, on top of that, her ex-husband—the father of her children—may be involved in something horrific; something that could change and shape their entire legacy. Saying Marshall did an incredible job feels like it’s wildly understating the journey she took us on in this episode, but my goodness.

Things can never be exactly the same for Olympia and Matty. I’ll mourn what they were, even if they do eventually manage to reconcile after this break. But I can’t wait to see what’s next.

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS: It was nice to see Bruno and Fin working together; I’m also delighted they revisited the unlikely, but interesting, pairing of Velasco and Curry. Kevin Kane was heartbreaking when Bruno tried to get their young survivor to open up to him.

However, the episode itself felt inexcusably paced. It’s very easy to say the show has done an installment like this before, and way better. (Season 12’s “Branded”; when a show has nearly 570 episodes that have aired, it happens. I get that.) But seeing how the show handled a similar investigation while having storytelling depth compared to what we got last night is just depressing.

In “Branded,” once they found their suspect, they had time to dig into the people she attacked, and find out what the trio of men had done to their suspect to cause her to lash out. It was a character study. Yes, there were twists, but you had lived with those characters for a bit of time and it was compelling.

Here, we had a young victim who was a red herring. (Which is fine, it’s dramatic for TV; I get that, too.) But, more insanely, he was basically forced into confessing what happened to him to his parents with (seemingly) no warning. The case was tough for Bruno—who just confessed his own history of being sexually assaulted as a teen to Olivia a few weeks back—but rather than have him open up to someone else here (and I get why he wouldn’t!) or even Olivia checking in with him at the end of the hour, we ended with a bizarre, generic, won’t-stop-trying end tag with Olivia and Carisi. And to be clear: It is honorable and noble to continue to try and stop the cycle of abuse. Of course it is. But that was a scene that added absolutely nothing the show has not told us literally hundreds of times at this point, delivered not one iota of personal insight—even a nod as to why it would be so freaking important for someone like Olivia to do everything within her power to fight against cycles of violence given her own history and who her son’s biological father was—and could have been said by any characters with nothing changed. And the woman who was the victim/perp was wildly underwritten and explored. There was more to tell in this story they just ignored for the sake of a scene that could be slipped into the majority of the episodes.

Basically, it felt like an episode where they didn’t quite know what they wanted to do beyond the shock of the date marked on the man and the end summary of, “We can’t stop the cycle of abuse, but we’ll keep trying!”

(People also kept treating Olivia like this should trigger her, and I’m not clear if that’s because of episodes airing out of order and them realizing a child victim might be especially complicated for her when this could have aired or…it was just bad writing.)

ELSBETH: I don’t tend to like funeral home-adjacent procedural episodes and this was no different. It’s disappointing this is the second episode in a row where it actually felt like Elsbeth wasn’t respectful to the grieving. This wasn’t a thing, really, in the past.

I’m happy for Kaya that she’s had career success, but, man, I miss the Elsbeth and Kaya partnership so much.

FOUND: I understand Margaret’s turmoil and grief and rage, but oh my God, given this person was unwell enough to kidnap Jamie and stay in her life…it was such a (bad, did not work out) gamble. I’m so, so glad Jamie chose his mother, though, because it might have absolutely broken Margaret if he abandoned her for the woman who kidnapped him.

Speaking of absolutely deranged dynamics, an absolute nightmare situation for Gabi to be stuck with Sir (and arguably even more dangerous to her well-being) in the prison during the power outage. As harmful as Sir is—and he is—he would kill to keep her safe.

Which, uh, relatedly…I just do not think things will go well between Sir and Lena. His love and devotion to Gabi will override basically everything at this point, again, as twisted and unwelcome as that may be, and Lena could very easily end up a casualty of that.

THE PITT: Who do I have to beg to get this show back instantly? (I know that’s not how the industry works, let me be dramatic for a minute.) I miss them all already, desperately.

Honestly, everyone needs a vacation. I get why Dana wants to quit, and I have hope she won’t stay gone, but…man. What a horrifying shift. (And how funny at the spontaneous, exhausted laughter from Robby and co. when they realized this was actually a first shift for the kids.)

The interesting thing about this shift being a full season is that the Langdon of it all inevitably had to remain messy. It may have been weeks ago in our world, but in the show timeline, he only got caught a few hours ago. He still seems to be in denial about his addiction—or at least the consequences of stealing drugs—and he wasn’t going to magically snap into the “perfect” person in recovery by the finale. It was going to be messy. He was going to be panicked trying to get out of the corner he was backed into. And since we won’t see the characters for a few months, there’s a real question of what we’ll see of him then. How he’s handling recovery (assuming he’s sober, hopefully), how the hospital reacts, etc.

I thought the show handled Robby’s secondary breakdown really well. He gave a great speech to the team and then went to the roof to lament the ways he failed—He didn’t. And I’m so glad Abbot was there to point out it was a small moment in a day from hell—and boy was Noah Wyle incredible. One of the things that fascinated me about the season was how and when Robby broke down, and I think how they played it was smart: You could easily see how he could/would have broken down at the very end of the day, running on adrenaline. But that’s not always realistic or human. Having a big break, and then having a secondary one/kicking yourself for showing emotion at the worst possible time was so refreshing human. God, I love this show. (I’m also so, so glad Robby is considering therapy, too.)

A few other thoughts:

• My new mantra is my day may be bad, but at least I don’t have a fork jammed in my nose.
• Thank goodness they didn’t arrest McKay. (And her pointing out how terrifying it is to be a woman was gutting and accurate.)
• Oh, that measles family was a mess. I’m glad the dad stood up to the mom to protect their son, but good luck to them.
• Okay, but can we get the Whitaker/Santos roommate digital series to tide us over until 2026? Because…oh my God, I cannot imagine those two living together now.
• While I wish Jake had magically forgiven Robby, I go back to it being a few hours after arguably the biggest trauma of his life. Hopefully they’ll be in a better place in season 2.
• No, seriously, can we have them back now, please?
• (But, to really be serious, one of the best first seasons in the past decade, easily.)

[For more on the finale, here’s what creator R. Scott Gemmill shared.]

Which shows did you watch last night?

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