A high-stakes game of chess transpired between friends-turned-unwilling foes Matty (Kathy Bates) and Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) in Matlock Season 2 Episode 2, and fans are concerned about where the season is headed because of it. Some are complaining that there were “immature” scenes in the episode, and others are wondering if there’s a bigger scheme at play here that would explain what they view as confusing choices for the characters of Matty and Olympia.
The episode, titled “Another Matlock,” showed Matty and Olympia constantly trying to one-up each other as they tried to get the Wellbrexa study into their possession, or in Olympia’s case, keep it hidden. Matty found the study in Olympia’s safe at her brownstone, took it, and replaced it with a document of equal size but blank pages. When Olympia discovered what Matty did, she told her that the study was a fake generated by AI. The real Wellbrexa study, according to Olympia, was in a safety deposit box in Connecticut, kept there so that Julian (Jason Ritter) wouldn’t be able to find it and destroy the evidence, should he give in to his fearful impulses and commit another criminal offense.
Olympia took a page from Matty’s book when she secretly recorded a tense conversation between them. Olympia triggered Matty’s anger when she threatened to get her and Edwin (Sam Anderson) imprisoned for bank fraud and other crimes, which would leave their grandson, Alfie (Aaron D. Harris), without guardians. Matty practically growled that she’s “untouchable,” and this audio is now Olympia’s leverage over the Kingston family in this Wellbrexa debacle.
Matty had offered to let Olympia attend her meeting with The New York Times in an act of goodwill to signal that she cared about her fate and the fate of her children, but Olympia doesn’t want her ex-husband implicated in this at all; she wants Julian’s father, Senior (Beau Bridges), to take the fall since it was him who ordered Julian to hide the study. As Matty pointed out, Julian didn’t have to follow that order, but he did.
The comments section of our Matlock Season 2 Episode 2 recap showed a dislike for the episode, particularly the Matty and Olympia feud and the scenes between Julian and Billy (David Del Rio), in which Julian snapped over the idea of sharing an apartment building with him.
“Did not like this episode and how it is leading the two main characters down a path of negativity towards one another,” one comment reads. “If this is just going to be a weekly jostle as to which woman gets the upper hand, then the show will become less watchable. Just like the Julien/Billy scenes. That storyline was bad. Too immature.”
One fan feels that Matty and Olympia’s plot in this episode didn’t make sense, arguing that Matty and Olympia love each other too much to be fighting like this, leading them to wonder if the women are laying out an elaborate scheme to take down Senior and Wellbrexa while protecting Olympia’s family.
Kathy Bates and Skye P. Marshall in ‘Matlock’ Season 2 Episode 2, ‘Another Matlock’
Sonja Flemming / CBS
“I want the Olympia/Matty friendship back. How is that going to happen now?” the comment says. “I just hope this is all some secret mastermind plan between Matty and Olympia set up so Olympia can take control of the narrative without being implicated or suspected by Senior. In the last episode, Olympia asked Matty if she liked theater. Granted, this was about the case of the week, but maybe there was a hint that a bigger performance was about to ensue. To take someone like Senior down, a man above the law, they need to be enemies.”
Olympia taking Edwin on a road trip to the Connecticut safety deposit box, only to leave him stranded in a move against her friend, stood out to another fan.
“I really love Bates and I think she [is] doing [a] terrific job as Matlock, love how she quotes ‘innocent old lady.’ But I can’t agree more how this episode was full of [shots] and upper [cuts], very unrealistic, taking Edwin on the trip to just dump him there, so she can record?” they said. “I’m not sure how Matty and Olympia have a chance to bring back friendship. Or maybe there is an act? But for whom?”
A similar discussion is happening over on Reddit.
“I’m not sure I enjoy the direction the show is taking,” a thread said. “Writing, acting, and direction are all great. Perhaps too good. The whole episode gave me anxiety.”
“I think for me it’s because up until this episode Matty always had the upper hand, and for now it seems the tables have turned,” one reply read. “That in [and] of itself created anxiety for me because I am rooting for her and Edwin. We tend to want the happily ever after, neat and tidy. Things just got real messy.”
One fan said in response, “It is, but I just don’t like the way Olympia is trying to cover for Julian. Yeah, Senior was the [kingpin] but doing what she is doing to protect somebody who did do wrong… I just don’t know. I don’t want to hate Olympia, but right now I do, and it hurts.”
The AI study development stood out to one viewer. They said, “Just a casual observation, as a guy who was working on his laptop while his wife watched this episode: it seemed like every single person on the show was hiding something from someone else, who was hiding something from someone else, who thought someone was on their side but who secretly isn’t because, you know, they’re hiding something…it never ended.”
“I’m really starting to dislike Matlock, the main character, as well as Olympia,” another comment said. “Matty’s become as ruthless as the ones she’s hunting, and given that Donna Adelson was just sentenced to life in prison, she’s not Teflon.”
“Even without the recording, her ‘burn it’ comments were cringe and kind of out of character,” a reply said, as another viewer said, “And I, like most of us, saw the recording coming around the corner as soon as she started going off.”
One comment sums up the concerns perfectly: “That whole spiel did feel out-of-character. I was prepared for it to either be an act as part of another one of Matty’s strategic schemes, or for Olympia to be recording it and hold it against Matty. I’ll have to see where this season goes, but my mom and I just finished s2e2 and are both feeling unsettled about the state of things.”
“We both liked it better when Matty and Olympia were friends,” it continued, “but I do also see where Olympia is coming from, and it’s become a story of two women being put at odds as they fight for their families. I didn’t want it to get truly dirty between them though, and with this latest episode, it looks like it has. I hope they can somehow come back from this. Or if not, that the journey the writers take us on is worth it.”
What do you think about where Matlock is headed? Is a grander scheme in the works?
Matlock, Thursdays, 9/8c, CBS
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