Matlock Season 2 Episode 6 Finally Got On Track With A Story That Sounded Far Sillier Than It Was

Critic’s Rating: 4.7 / 5.0

4.7

The TV gods heard my complaints about Matlock.

Matlock Season 2 Episode 6 had everything the previous episode lacked.

It focused on a case while forcing Maddy to grow, so I’ll take that even though some subplots were still ridiculous.

The Nuns Were Comic Relief Until They Weren’t

At first, I thought this was going to be a ridiculous story.

Maddy noticed the nuns hanging around, and the case Olympia got involved in seemed like fluff, designed to let her and Maddy whisper about their plan to unseat Senior.

Fortunately, I was wrong about that.

Once it became clear that the nuns were involved in offering harm reduction to heroin users, the case became the most compelling part of the hour.

I’m Glad Matlock Season 2 Episode 7 Addressed Harm Reduction

Like Matty, I had someone I loved die of drug addiction, but I’m a huge supporter of harm reduction and have been since I studied it in my drug counseling classes in 2018.

Matlock mostly got it right. Harm reduction is the idea of doing things to make drug use less harmful for the user instead of trying to force abstinence on them. It works because not everyone is ready for full abstinence, and having safer ways to use helps keep people alive until, if and when, they are ready to commit fully to sobriety.

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That was the point that Matty missed when she railed against the practice.

She saw it as enabling drug use and believed the only goal that anyone who worked with addicts should have was ensuring complete abstinence.

Her feelings were understandable.

All this time, she’s been thinking that if only Ellie hadn’t used that last, fatal time, she’d still be here.

Plus, if she ever went to a 12-step meeting with Ellie to support her, she heard some variation of abstinence being the only thing that works to combat the disease of drug addiction.

She was right in one sense: If Ellie (or anyone addicted to drugs) wants to use, they’re going to, regardless of what type of program they’re in to protect their sobriety.

But harm reduction isn’t about enabling drug use — it’s acknowledging that there are times when people are going to engage in this behavior and providing ways to lower the risk of death when they do.

The Scene On The Drug-Infested Area Of The Street Was Scary

I’m glad that it finally clicked for Matty when she realized that telling their witness not to use in the car would only put her at more risk.

There was a guy following her, and she was going to stand outside and risk being kidnapped or assaulted so she could use, and the safest thing for her was for Maddy to allow her to use in the car.

Did Matty make the right decision when she let the woman use in the backseat?
Let’s discuss. Hit the comments with your thoughts, and don’t forget to share this post with your friends so they can join in.

It took guts for Matty to make that decision.

She didn’t want the same thing that happened to Ellie to happen to this stranger, but protecting her by letting her use instead of protecting her from drug use must have felt alien and slightly icky to Matty.

As important a gesture as that was, I’m glad that woman didn’t overdose in the car.

Matty and Olympia were trying to ignore her drug use while Olympia talked about her own trust issues, but they went too far in the opposite direction.

The woman was passed out in the back seat, and they didn’t even check whether she was still breathing.

That seemed out of character for Maddy, but I was glad there was a time jump of a week, so nobody had to deal with a dead body in the back seat.

Matty and Olympia’s Friendship Is Finally Getting Back on Track

I still think it’s ridiculous that they’ve been angry at each other for this long, but better to fix it late than never.

Hopefully, we’ll never have to put up with Olympia whining about Matty lying again. As we’ve discussed ad nauseam on these pages, Olympia is being incredibly hypocritical with this supposedly moral stance.

It would really help Olympia to think of Matty as an undercover agent. That’s what those kinds of agents do — they lie to blend in so they can get to the truth.

But they finally talked things through, and weirdly enough, Julian was the one who convinced Olympia to give Matty another chance.

We’re not quite there yet, but all the talking they did this time was a great start.

The coup stuff was tolerable, but the Julian/Sarah nonsense was not.

I especially could have done without Julian falling down the stairs and Sarah feeling guilty about it.

Those kinds of accidents can be serious, but this one was played for laughs.

Plus, it felt like Sarah was pretending to care that Julian got hurt to get access to his date book, and that wasn’t cool.

At least she felt guilty once she finally did Senior’s bidding. That should be more interesting than the mission he sent her on.

So what do you think?

If you liked that Julian subplot better than I did, go ahead and say so in the comments. I won’t be mad!

Whatever you think, I hope you’ll contribute some thoughts in the comments section and share this article with your friends.

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If you enjoyed this article, check out our coverage of Elsbeth and Watson — CBS’ other two big mystery shows this season.

Matlock airs on CBS on Thursdays at 9/8c and streams on Paramount+ on Fridays.

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