Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Matlock Episode 7.’Tis the season on Matlock as Matty (Kathy Bates) and the other lawyers at Jacobson Moore prepare for the annual holiday party. As of now, Matty has also left the YouThree pod to join the Wellbrexa team with Julian (Jason Ritter). This is the moment that she’s been waiting for, to get inside the room where it happens with the pharmaceutical company she blames for hiding how addictive opioids are and are ostensibly responsible for her daughter’s fatal overdose.

After having a severe panic attack in the last episode, Matty is desperate to prove to Edwin (Sam Anderson) that everything they’ve done up until this point is worth it, even while he’s on vacation in Florida with Alfie (Aaron Harris). It’s Matty who ends up questioning whether all the effort is worth it by the end of the episode after she spends a few days with the Wellbrexa in-house lawyers trying to ruin the life of a college-age girl who developed arthritis from one of their drug trials and it ruins her future career as a concert cellist. Matty must ask if the juice is worth the squeeze on this mission, and once again, there isn’t a definitive answer.

Matty’s crisis takes place during the office holiday party, which features the return of “the Meerkat,” Shae Banfield (Yael Groblas), though she’s underutilized compared to her scene-stealing last appearance on the show. It’s a make-or-break event for both Sarah (Leah Lewis) and Billy (David Del Rio), though, and it comes with an unexpected truth bomb for Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) that could shake things up for the rest of the season.

Wellbrexa Doesn’t Mean Well in ‘Matlock’ Episode 7
Image via CBS

Matty is first introduced to the Wellbrexa in-house counsel before her first deposition with Jessie (Dominique Gayle) and her lawyer/roommate Paige (Zamani Wilder). Julian warns her that they are prototype pharma bros, so she’s ready to quip back at them. (Was hearing Kathy Bates say “I hate that bitch” on anyone’s bingo card this year?) It seems important to make these guys caricature douchebags so we remember that Wellbrexa is an evil corporation.

There’s already a gray area when it comes to Julian and Olympia and their potential involvement in Matty’s private investigation, so the corporation must remain the ultimate bad guy. It’s understandable from a story perspective, but for realism, we are really trying to say that this guy named Trent (Josh Archer) is out here making misogynistic granny jokes openly in the office in the year of our lord 2024? I am not under any delusion that cancel culture has eradicated misogyny, but Trent sounds more like he’s auditioning for an HR training video about microaggressions than a real person. At the deposition, we learn the details about Jessie’s cello dreams and how her symptoms were ignored during the drug trial. Matty plays good cop opposite Julian’s bad cop, hoping that Jessie will agree to a $50 thousand offer, but Jessie flips the switch and reveals that she’s been live on TikTok for the entire meeting. Matty manages to cover her face to save herself from being doxxed, but Julian and the others are not so lucky.

With their faces now out to the public and their mentions being blown up, Matty is sent to talk with Jessie and Paige alone. She drops the good cop act and uses her Matty charm to get them to agree to a $250 thousand settlement. It seems like the case is all wrapped up until the girls post another TikTok video about Matty’s visit and how they aren’t going to back down. Julian believes that Matty was duped, but she thinks Jessie and Paige found another angle to increase their chances of winning. Even though the latest video causes Wellbrexa to pause the trial and lose a million dollars a day, she begs Julian to delay the next deposition, but he refuses because she’s only 98 percent sure about the girls. It turns out that Jessie and Paige found the lead doctor on the clinical trial’s girlfriend, and they’ve obtained text messages confirming that said girlfriend helped doctor his patient notes from the trial – minimizing Jessie’s symptoms – so that the clinical trial would not be canceled.

Related ‘Matlock’ Director Explains How CBS’ Smash Hit Subverts the Age Trope Kathy Bates is having a great time as Matty Matlock.

Matty Experiences a Major Setback in ‘Matlock’ Episode 7
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This is a massive setback for the case. It’s so big that Senior (Beau Bridges) comes into the office and personally fires Julian and Matty from working on it. It’s a depressing blow for both of them, especially since Matty was right about delaying the deposition. Matty does her best thinking when her back is against the wall, though, and remembers that the doctor and his girlfriend got together when they went to school together in Rhode Island, which recognizes common-law marriage. That loophole allows the girlfriend to get out of testifying and makes the text messages inadmissible, destroying Jessie’s case. The move officially earns Julian and Matty back on the Wellbrexa retainer. It also earns Matty points with the in-house counsel bros, including Trent. He even laughs when she suggests giving Jessie the original $50 thousand because it’s Christmas — because that’s so funny, you know? Matty doesn’t know. She’s so upset over Trent’s callousness that she breaks the friendship bracelet her daughter made for her, which she’s been wearing the entire episode to remind her why she’s doing all of this. It’s yet another reminder that the mission is costing Matty pieces of her soul that she may not be able to get back.

The only silver lining in all of this for Matty is that being on the case gave her access to Senior’s e-mail. She uses Alfie and some AI software to fake Senior’s voice and gets the password from his overworked assistant. Now Matty and Alfie can search through Senior’s e-mails and find the missing files they need, and hopefully, there will be enough evidence to put whoever is responsible for hiding the Wellbrexa files in the case years ago in jail. Right now, Senior is in the crosshairs, but we still think this will be more complicated than Matty expects. Matty has been dealing with the same crisis of conscience since she started warming up to Olympia. Now she’s breaking into Senior’s e-mail, but is she really ready to handle the consequences of going after a lead lawyer at the firm? If she doesn’t find the evidence she needs in Senior’s e-mail, she’s going to have to keep putting herself in morally compromising positions, and the scales are starting to tip on whether all of this is worth what she will get in the end. It’s also tiresome to see her spinning wheels. Something needs to move the needle, or I might have to go over to Team Edwin and tell Matty to quit while she’s ahead.

‘Matlock’ Episode 7 Drops Two Heartbreaks and a Stairwell Kiss
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While Matty is hanging out with the fat cats in Big Pharma, Sarah and Billy focus on their personal lives. Sarah is trying to avoid performing with the office a cappella group, which is a major problem for Shana. She needs Sarah’s alto to round out her soprano, but Sarah doesn’t want to be embarrassed in front of her crush, Kira (Piper Curda). While Billy encourages Sarah to share her whole self with Kira, Sarah pushes him to man up and propose to his longtime girlfriend Claudia (Bella Ortiz). Meanwhile, Billy is worried that he won’t be able to find the perfect moment to pop the question. He already has the ring, but how do you craft the perfect moment? When Sarah tells him that there is no perfect moment, just him, and asking will make the moment perfect, Billy realizes there’s no better time than the present. He and Sarah steal some decorations and turn the crying patio into a winter wonderland. He and Sarah both perform with the a capella group (which sounds so good that I think we need a Matlock soundtrack, or at least a Matlock Spotify playlist), and then embark on their separate romantic adventures.

Billy gets down on one knee and asks Claudia to marry him. He’s known they belonged together since they were lab partners in 11th-grade chemistry. It’s a truly sweet proposal, but while he’s been wracking his brain to find the perfect moment to propose, Claudia has been trying to figure out when to dump him. She doesn’t think they are in love but rather just comfortable with each other. The crying patio takes on a whole new level of sadness when she leaves Billy there stunned. It’s awkward timing for Sarah to arrive and brag that she just got seriously smooched in the Jacobson Moore stairwell (I high-fived my screen for her) after Kira heard her sing. However, Sarah immediately recognizes that something is wrong and wraps Billy in a hug. Sarah’s interpersonal skills really have gone a long way, and while it totally sucks to see Billy get his heart ripped out, it is also really nice to see how deep the bond between Billy and Sarah has grown. It’s important that the underlings have each other’s backs, and it’s so heartwarming to see Billy and Sarah forge a ride-or-die bond.

Billy isn’t the only one who gets his heart broken in the episode. When Senior officially rehires Julian back onto the Wellbrexa bench, he says that his son is just like him. Julian refutes that, because who wants to be mean and callous like Senior? Senior responds that he and Julian both know that they have more in common than Julian wants to admit. At first, it feels like an implication that Julian is actually the one who buried the Wellbrexa files Matty is trying to find, but we aren’t left to wonder for very long. Julian takes Olympia home from the office party and reveals that when their marriage was on the rocks, and they were on the edge of divorce, he had an affair. Honestly, I wish he had copped to burying the Wellbrexa papers. It would hurt less if he thought about his own future instead of stopping an addiction epidemic or whatever Matty thinks he could have prevented. But cheating? Julian, that is so gross. It’s a real Trent move, my guy, and now I feel like Tyra Banks yelling “I WAS ROOTING FOR YOU!” at my TV. Olympia walks away from Julian, because what else can you do when you get that kind of news?

This revelation brings up a lot of questions about the impending atmosphere of the office. Julian and Olympia were finally on the same page and working so well together. Will they go back to frosting each other out across the office? What does that mean for Matty and her future cases? To be honest, we miss the power of YouThree, even if it has only been one episode. This was a really crap thing to find under the Christmas tree, Julian — and there’s only one more episode before the winter hiatus for him to fix it.

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

Your changes have been saved Matlock The office holiday party isn’t a good time for anyone on Matlock Episode 7.ProsSarah and Billy are the true power duo of this show.A cappella is only cool when it sounds this good.David Del Rio hands in his best performance of the season. ConsThis episode didn’t make the most of having Yael Groblas back.Matty is spinning her wheels and needs to get out of this rut.Trent isn’t just a jerk; he’s a caricature of the office bad guy.

Your changes have been saved 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

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