Eight episodes deep into the inaugural season of "Matlock," amidst an impending long holiday hiatus until the next thrilling installment, the show has etched one notion into our minds with unwavering clarity: Lying is anything but a walk in the park. Matty Matlock must keep a mental ledger of every facet of her fictional past, ready to recall them with seamless fluidity whenever the conversation steers towards them – as exemplified in this week's episode, where Olympia seeks counsel on Julian's infidelities, prompting Matty to recall her fictitious deceased husband's reputation as a cheater, etched in family lore. These fabrications are anything but benign; they are, at their core, a betrayal of trust.
It's hardly a stretch to see why this pre-break chapter revolves around a lie spiraling into chaos. While dropping off her twins at school, Olympia discovers that Nadira (Ashley Romans), a beloved nanny of their family, has been shunned by her fellow elite mothers. It transpires that a website named Eyes From Afar has posted deceptive, context-stripped images of Nadira seemingly roughhousing with a child at a playground. Olympia yearns to either scrub the images off the web or initiate a defamation lawsuit against the perpetrator (or both), while steering clear of the spotlight to avoid being labeled as "defending a perpetrator" by the school's most venomous moms.
Now, other legal dramas might have milked this premise for a broader exploration of social media, misinformation, and cancel culture, and "Matlock" does delve into these realms – albeit fleetingly. A lawyer championing Eyes From Afar argues persuasively for free speech and crowdsourced justice, convincing a judge. However, the judge also sides against Jacobson-Moore, driven partly by her irritation with Matlock being Matlock.
Instead of diving deep into legal intricacies or cultural commentary, this episode heavily leans on Matty's empathy and prowess with fibs to unravel the mystery underlying this saga. Initially, using a hint from Olympia, she attempts – and, as predicted, fails – to sway the judge by reminding her of her own nephew, branded a lifelong criminal due to a single legal scrape. (The judge's curt response: "My nephew's a dumbass. Tell Olympia hi for me.") Subsequently, Matty employs the "frail, helpless old lady" persona at Olympia's kids' school, coaxing the receptionist to step away from her post momentarily, allowing Matty to sneakily pilfer pages from a visitors' log.
The latter prank ultimately blossoms into fruition, as Matty and Olympia, cleverly assisted by a nanny cam, succeed in eliciting a confession from Olympia's friend, Lacy (Cathryn Mudon). Lacy admits to framing Nadira in a desperate bid to conceal her illicit affair with one of the other mothers' husbands. Ironically, Nadira was oblivious to the entire saga, rendering Lacy's online fabrications about her utterly baseless. A timeless lesson, kids: honesty is always the best policy.
Throughout this unfolding drama, Matty continues her clandestine prowls around Jacobson-Moore, relentlessly searching for the smoking gun that will expose Senior's clandestine machinations against Wellbrexa. Armed with the password she cunningly coerced from Stuart the previous week, she prints out documents that she hopes will be damning evidence. However, her heart sinks as the papers emerge from the office printer, destined for Olympia's hands, who swiftly conceals them in her bag. While Engaging in lighthearted banter with her supervisor, Matty anxiously looks for a chance to be alone with Olympia's luggage.
Ultimately, Matty secures the document but her triumph is short-lived; it merely reveals that Senior was out of the office in Sydney (accompanied by a mysterious woman!) when the incriminating Wellbrexa files arrived. This revelation is disastrous, as it implies that either Julian or Olympia could have forged his signature. Matters worsen when both Olympia and Julian sense Matty's unease. Desperate to maintain Julian's favor for potential pharmaceutical cases, Matty overcompensates in reassuring him, straining her bond with Olympia, who is infuriated to learn from Julian that he tasked Matty with keeping her "in line" during the investigation. Matty extends her apologies and vows to be the steadfast confidant of whichever partner she collaborates with on any case. (Subsequently, she surreptitiously plants a surveillance pen on Julian's desk.)
As is often the case with Matty, she cleverly anchors her deceit in a kernel of truth, leveraging it to regain Olympia's trust. She attributes her erratic behavior during the case to a broken promise to Alfie—to attend his mock trial at school—a commitment she had to sacrifice for work. In a heartfelt conversation, Matty and Olympia delve into how their personal lives and identities have shaped their professional journeys. Olympia expresses curiosity about why Matty listed her Alfie appointment in the office calendar as a doctor's visit, and Matty responds that, during her initial tenure as a lawyer, women habitually disguised child-related matters as health issues to circumvent male bosses who might otherwise use family commitments as a pretext to deny promotions or raises.
While I generally found this "fall finale" of Matlock to be one of its weaker installments—with barely any advancement in the Wellbrexa investigation and a rather uninspiring case of the week—I must承认，it harbors one of the series' most enlightening moments subsequent to Matty's inability to attend Alfie's event. Edwin, attempting to cheer her up, chuckles as he mentions covering for her "just like the old days with Ellie." She counters with a fiery indignation, reminding him that she had to cover for him as well, and that he never seemed too concerned about missing those school events. In stark contrast, Matty felt accountable for every parenting blunder and worked tirelessly to rectify them.
Occasionally, I fear that Matty's relentless pursuit to avenge Ellie's demise has led her to deceive herself about her true capabilities and the significance of her endeavors. However, if nothing else, returning to the workforce in her 70s has bestowed upon her a fresh perspective on her past as both a lawyer and a mother. She is inching closer to some truth, albeit not the one she initially sought.
