Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Matlock Episode 5.

We all know that dating apps are cesspools of hell designed to torture the currently single, but they also become Matty’s (Kathy Bates) nightmare in this week’s Matlock. Love is in the air as Billy (David Del Rio) and Matty try to help Sarah (Leah Lewis) with her office crush. As Matty says in the episode, “You can’t have a work-life balance if you don’t have a life outside of work.” However, as Sarah gets more comfortable talking to her crush, Billy focuses his attention on Matty; meanwhile, a fun dating profile experiment may have caused a significant wrinkle in Matty’s plans to take down Jacobson Moore.

The stressful wrinkle could not have come at a worse time. Matty and her husband Edwin (Sam Anderson) make major headway in the Wellbrexa case, which is easier said than done as Matty is stuck working on her most personal case yet. She spends most of the episode fighting off reminders of her daughter’s drug use as the associates try to get their star witness prepared for a class action lawsuit against the prison that abused their clients.

It’s a Bad Trip Down Memory Lane in ‘Matlock’ Episode 5
Image via CBS

Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) and Matty have gotten closer with every episode, despite both of them protesting that fact. They’ve even started completing each other’s sentences, which does not go over well with Billy and Sarah. Matty is determined to prove the trio are a united front as they prepare to take on a class-action lawsuit against a prison that abused its female prisoners. The case hinges on the testimony of a former inmate, Katya (Andrea Nechita). Matty pokes a hole in the entire trial strategy when she and Olympia meet up with Katya, revealing they can’t put Katya on the stand because she is high as a kite.

Olympia naturally has questions as to how Matty can tell, but we know it comes from years of watching her daughter’s drug addiction. When Olympia comes to the same conclusion as Matty, she anoints our girl to pick who will take Katya’s place at the trial’s center, which is difficult for Matty to explain to Billy and Sarah. She brushes it off as being in the right place at the right time and being the eldest of the three. Sarah continues to hold a grudge, but Billy is willing to give Matty the benefit of the doubt. We love Billy, that big softie.

The good vibes are temporary, though, as each of the Katya replacement suggestions fall through. No one wants to testify out of fear that they or their families will be targets of retribution, which clues Olympia and the associates into the idea that Katya hasn’t randomly relapsed on drugs – she’s been targeted. To figure out who’s gone after Katya, they have to track her down. Katya’s boss points Matty towards a drug den where Katya hangs out, and it triggers terrible memories for Matty. She’s supposed to call in Billy and Sarah to help her get Katya out of there, but Matty calls Edwin instead because he’s the only one who knows exactly how difficult this is.

To rescue Katya from the den, Matty brings her to the office, just in time for Katya to swear to Olympia she’ll get sober for the trial — right in front of the defense attorney Olympia is trying to settle the case with. After hearing that Katya is back on drugs, the defense attorney reneges on the deal Olympia has been negotiating, and Olympia goes postal on Matty for screwing up the deal. Raw from her afternoon, Matty snaps right back at Olympia for thinking of Katya as testimony rather than a person who needed help. It gets worse when Billy and Sarah confront Matty for not calling them for help earlier. A rough day on the job turns into Matty fighting with her boss and losing her two closest work allies.

That said, Matty is able to reclaim some ground the next day by spinning up another lie and figuring out that Katya’s final client on the day she relapsed is actually the prison worker who targeted her. Matty allows Billy and Sarah to present the idea to Olympia, who immediately clocks that the woman Katya fought with that day is the new prison warden. Olympia puts the warden on the stand and manipulates her into admitting that she purposefully triggered Katya and sent a drug dealer straight to her because she felt that the prison should keep the money for new programs and reforms rather than paying drug-addicted ex-inmates. Olympia counters with Matty’s line about Katya being a person who deserves respect, and the prison ends up settling at $2 million per abused inmate. It’s another win for the team!

Related Kathy Bates’ Matlock’ Is Already Better Than the Original in One Major Way Viewers can’t help but love Matty Matlock.

Matty and Edwin Go Hi-Tech in ‘Matlock’ Episode 5
Image via CBS

Matty and Edwin agree to limit Alfie’s (Aaron D. Harris) involvement in the investigation so that he can focus on school work, but that means two senior citizens are in charge of figuring out how to download an attachment from a forwarded e-mail. They figure out that Senior (Beau Bridges) had forwarded a potentially incriminating e-mail to Julian (Jason Ritter) and Olympia, but they can’t access the attachment in the e-mail to confirm. A tech guru at the computer store they send Edwin into reveals that the only way to get the e-mail without the person resending it would be to get to the server where the original e-mail was sent.

Matty takes over Phase 2 and calls in the firm’s IT gal, Kira (Piper Curda) to look at a fake problem on her laptop. While Kira works on Matty’s laptop – and Sarah goes tongue-tied over the visitor to their office – Matty asks how she might be able to get to old e-mails of the firm under the guise of wanting to track down a Costco coupon. Kira reveals that to access old e-mails, Matty will need Kira’s laptop or thumbprint to get into the server room. Both immediately seem like impossible options. Though Matty and Edwin both admit that having Alfie on the tech-related aspects of the case makes their lives much easier, those two problem-solvers shouldn’t be counted out. Matty sets up lunch with Kira and makes it seem like a setup for Sarah, which it is, but at the same time, it allows Matty to get Kira’s fingerprint so that she and Edwin can lift it later.

That would have also done well on the Wellbrexa front if Billy hadn’t decided to focus his matchmaking skills on Matty after Sarah and Kira hit it off. He takes the liberty of making Matty her own dating profile, which is really sweet until he pushes her into sending it live. Edwin reveals that he is not the jealous type and even asks to read Matty’s potential suitors’ replies when she tells him about the profile. They’re both shocked to discover that the first message is from someone who recognizes Matty as Madeline Kingston. Since Billy was the one to set up the profile, he also has access to the messages, which means he’s just a nosy click away from having a lot of questions about Matty and her new identity. We’ll have to wait until next week to find out who exactly messaged Matty and whether Billy and Sarah are on to her because of it.

Olympia and Julian are the Best Exes in ‘Matlock’ Episode 5
Image via CBS

The first couple of episodes of Matlock imply that Olympia and Julian are in the middle of a very contentious divorce. However, ever since she broke things off with Elijah (Eme Iwuakor), the exes have only gotten closer. They bonded over destroying Senior’s trophies last week, and this week, they debate what to do about an offer to buy their family townhouse. Olympia is against selling. At first, she claims she doesn’t have time to move in the time frame the buyer wants. Then Julian comes over for family dinner (a major moment for anyone making “Olympian” fan edits), and Olympia reveals that she is worried about their twins losing their sense of home. Julian reassures her that they’ll always be a family, even if they aren’t married.

Something is definitely cooking between these two. The opposite of love isn’t hate; it’s indifference. We still don’t know what exactly led to them starting divorce proceedings, but it feels very obvious that neither of them wants to sign the papers. The connection is still very strong between the two of them. If they continue to become a reunited front, that might spell out even more problems for Matty’s Wellbrexa investigation than whoever her mystery dating app suitor is. While I want Matty to get justice for her daughter, I also can’t help rooting for these two crazy kids to fall back in love.

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

Matty’s latest case hits too close to home on Matlock Episode 5.ProsWe get to see Matty and Edwin working as a team.Kathy Bates digs into her dramatic acting chops.We love seeing Sarah with a crush. ConsMatty needs a better tracker of her lies.The e-mail chain in the Wellbrexa case is very convoluted.

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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