Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Matlock Episode 3.Matty (Kathy Bates) finally gets her day in court in Episode 3 of Matlock, “A Guy Named Greg,” but it was actually the thing she is avoiding. After scoring the passcode to Olympia’s (Skye P. Marshall) phone at the end of Episode 2, the next objective for Matty and Alfie (Aaron D. Harris) is to break into her laptop and find her connection to the case Matty believes could have saved her daughter’s life. Matty thinks she’ll have an easy time getting what Alfie needs during the team’s latest trial, representing a woman named Alex (Danielle Larracuente) who is suing her job for wrongful termination after her boss, Jeremy (Chad Coe), sexually assaulted her at a party.

During jury selection, Matty used her fumbling grandma routine to get the judge to ban cell phones in the courtroom after hers rang out loud, and she struggled to turn it off. She thought that being the one causing the commotion would score her a gig babysitting the team’s phones and personal belongings, giving her unsupervised access to Olympia’s phone and computer. It would have worked too, if Matty’s fumble hadn’t endeared her to a tough jury that Olympia needed to win over to win the case, and that was just the start of Matty’s bad luck in the episode.

The Meerkat Steals the Show in ‘Matlock’ Episode 3
Image via CBS

Jane the Virgin alum Yael Grobglas makes her first appearance in Episode 3 as Shae Banfield, a jury expert brought in to help Olympia tackle this tough case. Olympia calls her “The Meerkat” because Shae is a human lie detector with expertise in jury selection and manipulation. Having her around the office amps up Matty’s blood pressure because now there’s someone who can obviously sniff out her lies, especially when Matty is about to pull off the riskiest move of her plan yet.

As much as Matty wants to avoid Shae, it instantly becomes clear to The Meerkat that Matty has an in with the jury that Olympia never will. And Grobglas reminds everyone that she will absolutely steal a scene if you give her an inch of room. Her constant suspicion of Matty is pitch-perfect. Everyone has fallen for Matty’s antics so easily up until this point, and it was absolutely delightful to have someone in the office to make her sweat. Shae is onto Matty, but she also pushes Olympia to let Matty try the second half of the case because she’s the only one who can get through to the jury, which is quickly switching sides with the opposition.

So Matty gets her day in court. She manages to trick Jeremy into revealing that he was convicted of sexual assault before supervising Alex. She also gives a closing argument where she admits she also judged her client at first because she comes from a different generation where you just sucked it up. If Alex had dressed more conservatively and not gotten drunk at the office Christmas party, maybe Jeremy wouldn’t have done what he did. How very victim-blamey, Matty! Our girl realizes the error of her ways, though, and compares Alex’s situation to her own experience with sexual harassment — at the hands of the titular man named Greg — and Alex shouldn’t have her dreams deferred because her boss couldn’t keep his hands to himself.

The jury delivers a verdict in favor of Alex, proving that Shae was right to have Matty take over the trial. However, that doesn’t mean that Shae has completely dismissed her misgivings about our star lawyer. Matty knows she has a dangerous enemy circling her now, and we can only hope Shae will be back sooner rather than later to continue to test Matty.

Related Kathy Bates’ Reboot Legal Series Just Got Renewed for Season 2 The series also stars Jason Ritter.

‘Matlock’ Episode 3 Brings a Change in Olympia
Image via CBS

Olympia is obviously not stoked about Matty taking over the trial, especially when Matty has been going out of her way to look clumsy as a way to get out of being there in the first place. It gets worse when Matty blurts out — in front of Alex —that she thinks they shouldn’t have taken this case because their client is messy. (Reminder: Matty sees the light by the end of the episode! A progressive queen.) Rather than throwing her off the case, Olympia steps into boss mode and tells Matty to get her head on straight. She also asks whether this attitude has anything to do with Matty’s daughter, who Olympia has surmised there are issues with because Matty is raising her grandson.

Matty lies and says that Alfie’s parents died in a car accident, which may be important because Matty has already told clients about her daughter’s drug problem — so maybe she needs to keep track of the lies she is spinning, and to whom, especially with Shae around. I digress, because the important part of this meeting between Olympia and Matty is how Olympia encourages Matty to approach the final days of the case: “Don’t just give them hell. Give them the damn heavens, limbo, and everything in between.”

The moving speech gets Matty in the headspace she needs to deliver the winning argument. The jury comes back and asks if they can award Alex even more than the suggested amount, and the astounding total comes out to $9 million. That’s a huge payday for the firm, one that leads Olympia and Matty to have a celebratory dance outside the courtroom. While they’re doing their little jig, Matty slips in a hopeful, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say we’re becoming friends,” which Olympia immediately shuts down. The comment alludes to how fond Matty has grown of her boss, or at least how much she respects her. And even though Olympia shut down the idea of a friendship, the dance also shows how much she’s come to let Matty into her professional circle.

Both the pep talk and the dance exchange become very important when the twist at the end of the episode is revealed. Earlier in the episode, Matty spills coffee on Olympia’s laptop when she is finally alone with it, and we think that the laptop is fried forever. It turns out the fried laptop was a fake, and Matty has successfully absconded with Olympia’s real work computer. Matty tells Alfie that Olympia was stressed out about something on the laptop not being backed up on the company cloud, and the little computer genius immediately finds a voice file in a hidden folder. The duo excitedly open it, thinking it could be a real break in their investigation, but instead, it’s a message from Olympia’s recently deceased father telling her, “Don’t just give them hell. Give them the damn heavens, limbo, and everything in between.”

Matty’s resolve to keep the laptop immediately wanes, until she takes a look at their investigation corkboard, at the photos of Olympia, Julian (Jason Ritter), and Senior (Beau Bridges). She remembers why she’s doing all of this and says to Alfie, “We’re not friends.” So they’ll keep the laptop and continue looking, but this final moment shows a huge crack in Matty’s plan. It seems like things are going around smoothly, but she hasn’t accounted for becoming attached to the people at the firm. She may deny it in the moment, but she does care about Olympia and withholds this voicemail from her dad. She knows that she’s hurting someone she respects for her own cause. The corkboard may have been enough to remind Matty of her priorities this time, but it creates an interesting problem of what could happen if Matty gets herself even more ingratiated with Olympia or, God forbid, the other lawyers.

Matty is moving along with the plan, but the plan is getting messier. It is clear now that no one will be getting out of this investigation unscathed, no matter what it unearths in the process. Will Matty actually be able to stick to the promise she made her daughter or is this going to get too complicated for her actually to hold someone accountable?

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

Matty and Olympia get too close in a game-changing episode of Matlock.ProsYael Grobglas is an absolute scene-stealer as Shae Banfield.Matty’s mission is getting messy, and thus more interesting.It was great to see Matty actually in a courtroom lawyering instead of just investigating. ConsIt’s getting harder to tell when Matty is purposefully being clumsy and when she’s actually making a mistake.It’s time we got to know Matty’s daughter better.

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 Character(s) Madeline Matlock , Julián , Olympia , Billy , Sarah , Alfie Kingston , Elijah Walker , Senior Partner , Kathryn Lawrence-Markston , Courtney (Court) Lawrence-Markston Expand

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