Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Matlock Episode 2.

Matty (Kathy Bates) is officially an associate at the law firm Jacobson Moore when the second episode of Matlock kicks off, but it turns out that getting the job is a lot easier than keeping the job. It’s been less than a week, and Matty is already having stressful dreams about work and the fact that she got the air dates of the original Matlock series wrong in the series premiere by only mentioning the years the show was on CBS and excluding the extra three seasons that ran on ABC. (Fun fact: The air date flub was originally a writing error by executive producer Jennie Snyder Urman, who then decided to use it as a plot point in Episode 2). Our heroine takes a few deep breaths and is then ready to get back on the professional horse. That’s great news, because the team has a new case, and it means defending a mute young man from a murder charge or losing the firm’s biggest class action lawsuit.

AI Strikes Again in ‘Matlock’ Episode 2
Image via CBS

Michael Casey (Brandon Marcel) is the 18-year-old nephew of one of Jacobson Moore’s most lucrative clients. He works at a local bodega and is accused of killing a former classmate outside the shop after an eyewitness saw the young man standing over the girl’s body and covered in her blood. The news doesn’t get better when Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) is only able to get a two-day continuance after taking the case, giving the associates 48 hours to create their defense.

They start with the eyewitness, a charming elderly man who loves watching 60 Minutes on Sundays. It turns out he has 20/20 vision and definitely saw Michael standing over the victim’s body on the night of the murder. Still, his 60 Minutes and chicken pot pie routine helps Matty figure out that the victim screamed 22 minutes before the bodega owner or the eyewitness called 9-1-1. Things start looking more suspicious for the bodega owner, Jimmy (Victor Cruz), when the associates track a group of girls from the victim’s high school. They discover that the girls, including the victim, all refer to Jimmy as CJ, or Creepy Jimmy. The team uses that to compel the judge to order a subpoena that will allow them to see the security footage from the bodega on the night of the murder.

The case takes a turn when the bodega hands over security footage that shows Michael stealing the box of condoms found near the girl’s body. However, it’s Matty that once again comes to the rescue. She makes a pilgrimage to the bodega herself and tries to buy the same condoms, but it’s quickly made obvious that she’s too short to reach. The team uses the video and the fact that Matty and Michael are the same height to pressure Jimmy’s son Charlie (Alejandro Akara) into confessing that he was the one who stole the condoms so he and the victim could hook up. She decided she didn’t want to hook up and tried to run away, and when he grabbed her, she slipped and hit her head. His dad helped him cover it up and Charlie doctored the video to make it look like Michael stole the condoms so Charlie wouldn’t lose his scholarship to MIT. An innocent young man is set free, Jacobson Moore keeps their big client, and the team gets another win – and so did Matty in her own investigation.

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Nobody’s Perfect in ‘Matlock’ Episode 2
Image via CBS

The premiere was all about showing how adept Madeline Kingston is at fooling the lawyers at this firm. Episode 2 shows how much of a toll lying to everyone around you can take. The stressful dreams have Matty on edge, and it becomes apparent as they are working on the case. When the associates need to take a train to Queens to follow up on a lead, they ask Matty what the best route is.

This is a woman with a chauffeur and a mansion. She has very little idea how the MTA works, so Matty has to bluff and say she never takes the train. It would be a major plot hole if Billy (David Del Rio) and Sarah (Leah Lewis) just took that at face value, but Sarah says it is impossible to live in New York City and never take the train. The idea that Matty is a manipulative genius falls apart if we also have to accept that the people she’s lying to are dumb, so it’s great to see Sarah push back on Matty’s story. Our girl remembers her breathing techniques though, and quickly spins a yarn about how she was mugged on the subway when she first moved to the city, so now she avoids it. She puts just enough of a weepy tone in her voice that Sarah is shamed into apologizing and drops the harassment.

While things between the associates get better, there is still tension between Matty and Olympia for reasons that are a mystery to Matty and the audience. Olympia refuses to let Matty accompany the team during any interviews with the Lopez family at the bodega, and Matty assumes it was because Olympia is still icing her out. This goes on until Matty figures out that the security footage is doctored and volunteers to go to the bodega to sus it out. Olympia reveals that she had been keeping Matty away from the bodega not as a punishment but because she assumed they might need her for something like this during the trial.

As we know, the case gets dismissed, and Olympia gives Matty a lot of credit for the win. Matty doesn’t let Olympia slide with how she was treated, though, and her boss gets a lot of flack for manipulating Matty (as if that isn’t the pot calling out the kettle…) instead of just letting her in on the game plan. This feels like such a risky move when Matty has been trying so hard to get into Olympia’s good graces so that she can get access to the opioid case she’s actually investigating, but it turns out that even this confrontation was part of the grand plan.

Like Sarah earlier in the episode, Olympia is properly shamed for how she treated Matty and encouraged to apologize. She’s tasked with taking the fettuccine Alfredo Matty “accidentally” left at the office to her apartment in Queens and making a formal apology. For a moment, the audience thinks that Matty will be found out because her car is on the way to her giant house, but the car just has a pizza for her husband. Matty and her tech-genius grandson Alfie (Aaron D. Harris) are at the Queens apartment with a perfectly placed overhead camera that can capture Olympia’s passcode when she checks her messages right before knocking on Matty’s door.

Once again, it feels like Matty is two steps ahead of everyone at the firm, which is fun to watch, but this episode also humanizes her further. We learned more about her daughter’s history with drugs and how much her death still weighs on Matty. At one point during the case, Matty tries to prepare Michael’s mother for the possibility that he might be guilty, and the mother snaps that just because Matty wasn’t paying attention to her addict daughter doesn’t mean she will ever believe Michael committed murder. It’s a metaphorical slap in the face for Matty and makes her wobble in her confidence to pull off what she’s trying to pull off with this ruse. It’s a hard day, but Alfie is there to remind Matty that her daughter would be so proud and so Matty continues to persevere.

We also learned that she’s not just winging this entire investigation. It is taking effort and a physical toll on her. It’s good to see that she’s struggling with aspects of what she’s doing and that not everything is a preconceived booby trap for the people she’s trying to investigate. By showing that Matty is capable of making mistakes and making her recover from them, it makes it more believable when she manipulates the partners into doing exactly what she needs them to do.

While Matty is sniffing out whether Olympia, Julian (Jason Ritter), or Senior (Beau Bridges) was the one to hide the files in the opioid case, she’s not the only one suspicious. An interaction between Senior and Matty in the elevator where he calls her out on getting the Matlock dates wrong in the first episode helps Matty confront her stress dreams head-on, but it also shows that Senior isn’t necessarily buying everything she said in that initial partner meeting either. Matty is getting more ingratiated at the firm, and the stakes are increasing. It already feels like a matter of time before someone stumbles upon her secret. Who will be clever enough to finally catch her in a lie?

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

Matlock Episode 2 sees Matty sinking even further into her lies as the team takes on a murder case.ProsMatty isn’t superhuman.The associates at Jacobson Moore aren’t stupid.There’s definitely still romantic tension between Olympia and Julian. ConsHow did Alfie become a straight-up hacker at 12-years old?There is no way two fettuccine Alfredos from Eatly in NYC cost only $40.

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 Seasons 1 Writers Jennie Snyder Urman Network CBS Expand

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