Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Matlock Episode 6.

Matlock is breaking form this week by starting with a flashback and confirming something I’ve long suspected about myself: I hate time shenanigans. There are some exceptions to this, but more often than not, the confusion the time flip-flopping causes the viewer rarely justifies the means. There’s usually a bad wig or some other sad attempt to make the actors look younger than they are. I’m sad to say that Matlock, as much as I love her, didn’t pass the test.

“Sixteen Steps” takes us back two years to Matty (Kathy Bates) first entering Jacobson Moore. She bumps into Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) while scoping out the lobby, causing the former to spill coffee over her white pantsuit. Olympia (who is stuck with the bad wig, which should actually be a crime) is uncharacteristically rude and tells a visibly rattled Matty to watch where she’s going. We learn soon afterward that this unfortunate encounter is what confirmed Matty’s desire to pursue the Wellbrexa investigation.

Alfie (Aaron Harris) is the first person Matty tells of her decision, and we get to see how the grandmother-grandson duo coin their encouraging acronym MWBSP (Mom Would Be So Proud). It’s cute, but Matty already explained where the acronym came from a few episodes prior. Seeing it actually play out doesn’t add any additional context or emotional weight to the phrase. It’s just as cute as when Matty first tells Edwin (Sam Anderson) about it in Episode 2.

Finally, we check in with Matty in the modern day. Alfie swears that he’s deleted her entire dating profile and the mysterious Stanley won’t be able to find her. She heads to work to find out they are retrying a case Olympia and Julian (Jason Ritter) lost two years earlier. Their clients are two mothers whose nine-month-old son died after ingesting tainted baby formula, and they are suing the manufacturer for the mistake. Olympia offers Matty the option of sitting the case out because it directly deals with the death of a child, but Matty can’t afford to pass up the face time with Julian and the chance to work with him on his next pharma case.

‘Matlock’ Episode 6 Is All About Re-trial and Error
Image via CBS

Matty can’t worry about her trauma when Stanley from the dating app has found her e-mail. Deleting her profile isn’t enough. He lives just a few blocks from the office, and he’d love to take her to lunch. She replies that the dating profile was a prank, courtesy of Alfie, and she’s still married. Thanks, but no thanks, Stanley. Read the room! Unfortunately, Olympia overhears Matty panicking at Edwin before she sends the e-mail and Matty is forced to tell another lie about creditors hounding her. Seriously, is she keeping a notebook of all the fibs she needs to uphold as she works at this firm? Olympia buys the ruse, and they go back inside to prep their clients for the upcoming trial.

We flip back to the original trial and learn that Olympia promised not to put either of the grieving mothers on trial to be cross-examined for their parenting choices. It convinced Vanessa (Ayesha Harris) and Anna (Veronica Diaz Carranza) to hire Olympia and Julian as their lawyers. Not having them share the impact of their son’s death is also what inevitably lost them the case the first time around. Olympia is determined not to make the same mistake in the present day. The issue is that the more affable Anna is pregnant again, and the stress of testifying is raising her blood pressure to dangerous levels for the baby. If one of the mothers is going to testify, it has to be Vanessa. It’ll be up to Olympia to get Vanessa to open up on the stand and convince the jury how devastating losing their son was. It’s gross but necessary if they want to maximize their pain and suffering payout.

Matty eventually gives Olympia a pep talk about how it’s worth putting Vanessa through that, so she and Anna “get one more chance to parent their child,” which is Matty’s reasoning for continuing her secret investigation at the firm. First, Matty has to deal with Stanley, who has gone from e-mail to showing up in the lobby. It turns out that Stanley’s son and Matty’s daughter were old friends, and now Stanley’s son has gone missing on a drug binge. He’s terrified that he’s never going to see his son again and has sought out Matty for support. He even brings an old picture of her daughter Ellie for them to bond over.

Stanley is about to officially ask for Matty’s help to find his son when Olympia walks out to the courtyard where Matty and Stanley are sitting. It’s not clear whether Olympia actually sees them before Matty abruptly tells Stanley that this is too hard, and she would like him to never contact her again. This is potentially a stress reaction to seeing Olympia, but it is so uncharacteristically harsh of Matty. Relating to Ellie has been her soft trigger for almost every case up until this point. Last week, she brought a drug-addicted client into the office and almost ruined the case because the client reminded her so much of her daughter. Now, she can’t even have a conversation with an old friend who is going through a similar situation? Tell him you’re busy at work, but he should come by the house later that week. It’s baffling to see Matty be so callous, especially with another grieving parent.

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A Win’s a Win Until It Isn’t on ‘Matlock’ Episode 6
Image via CBS

When Matty heads back upstairs, she and Olympia have what is becoming a routine heart-to-heart. Olympia asks about Ellie, and it immediately makes Matty emotional, but not in the erratic way Stanley did. She’s delighted to talk about who her daughter was as a person, and not the circumstances that led to her death. This is when Matty pushes Olympia to not hold back when it comes to putting Vanessa on the stand. It’ll be hard, but it’ll be worth it in the end.

Vanessa’s testimony is not the only new weapon in the tool kit. Matty is also able to figure out that material from the formula factory’s floor safety officer Teddy’s (Jernard Burks) cast is what poisoned the formula fed to Vanessa and Anna’s baby. Olympia presents the timeline of Teddy’s cast being exposed to the formula pipes and then puts Vanessa on the stand. At first, the steely woman isn’t giving Olympia the emotion she needs, but a nod from Matty pushes Olympia to ask about her deceased son and what he was like. Vanessa breaks down on the stand and the jury is thoroughly convinced. Anna and Vanessa are awarded millions of dollars in punitive damages for their pain and suffering. It’s a huge win… right?

It is a win for Olympia, who hasn’t been able to let go of the case for two years. Another flashback reveals this was the case that convinced her to start seeking out more rewarding social justice cases rather than defending big pharma. It’s also the case that broke her marriage with Julian. It turns out they had just lost the case, and she’d asked for a divorce when she bumped into Matty and spilled the coffee. Her rude outburst was a product of Olympia having one of the worst days of her life, and it set this entire show in motion.

Getting the money for Anna and Vanessa is less of a clear-cut win for Matty. She goes into the trial so sure that putting Vanessa on the stand is the right thing to do, but she second-guesses the decision after she sees what testifying does to Vanessa emotionally. Matty isn’t sure the juice is worth the squeeze. The guilt of emotionally torturing this grieving mother to manipulate the jury and rebuffing Stanley hits Matty like a freight train, and she has a full-fledged panic attack on the way home. Edwin calls the doctors, who tell Matty she needs to rest. Her health scare is the final straw for Edwin. He wants Matty to quit working at the firm and focus on raising Alfie with him. That’s how they should honor their daughter rather than continually stressing themselves out with this high-stakes investigation. It’d be different if she was already working on a Wellbrexa case, but there’s no end in sight to this investigation, and he’s worried about the toll it is taking.

Matty doesn’t want to break her husband’s heart and goes into Jacobson Moore the next day fully prepared to quit. Olympia and Julian – who secretly reunited the night before – meet her at the elevator with some good news. They have noticed all the hard work she’s been putting in and, as a token of their gratitude, Julian is bringing her on to his new Wellbrexa case. This puts Matty exactly where she needs to be and throws everything Edwin said to her the night before out the window.

Matty sees getting this assignment as a sign from the universe that she’s exactly where she’s supposed to be. However, as predicted, Julian and Olympia are an even more united front now that they’ve rekindled their romance. It would be easier for Matty to play them against each other for more info when they are warring exes in the middle of a divorce. Matty’s purpose is reaffirmed in this episode, but she’s been off her game because of the last few emotional setbacks. Is she really ready to take on Julian and Olympia when they’re working well as a team? Let’s just hope we don’t need any more flashback episodes to figure that out.

Unnecessary time hijinks renew Matty’s purpose at the firm in Matlock Episode 6.ProsEdwin may be our new favorite character.Julian and Olympia finally reunite!Matty will finally get to work on Wellbrexa directly. ConsThe flashbacks weren’t necessary to get Matty where she needed to be at the end of the episode.Olympia’s wig. That’s it, that’s the crime.Poor Stanley deserves so much more than he got here.

Release Date September 22, 2024 Cast Kathy Bates , Jason Ritter , Skye P. Marshall , David Del Rio , Leah Lewis , Aaron Harris , Eme Ikwuakor , Beau Bridges , Sam Anderson , Jordyn Weitz , Henry Allen , Colleen Camp Main Genre Drama Seasons 1 Writers Jennie Snyder Urman Network CBS Expand

Matlock continues Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS. Episodes are available to stream the next day on Paramount+.

Watch on Paramount+