Warning: spoilers are ahead for Episode 2 of Matlock‘s second season, called “Another Matlock” and available streaming next day with a Paramount+ subscription.
Something had to give on Matlock after Season 1 ended with the confirmation that Julian had hidden the Wellbrexa document that Matty was after, and the plot only thickened in the fall 2025 TV schedule with Olympia‘s decision to help cover for the father of her children to focus the search for dirt on Senior. Season 2 is just two episodes in, and Matty and Olympia have already gone back and forth and then back again on whether they’re working together.
By the end of “Another Matlock,” Olympia made a move that may have broken their relationship forever, and both women were showing some ugly colors throughout the hour… but when Matty’s demeanor broke, Kathy Bates delivered one of her best performances. This was about the angriest we’ve seen Matty, and likely going to backfire on her pretty badly. It definitely makes for good TV, though!
Matty Vs. Olympia
At the end of the Season 2 premiere, it seemed like Matty was on the verge of winning after she stole the document that she and Edwin could take to the Times. Unfortunately for them, in “Another Matlock,” Olympia revealed that the document that Matty had stolen was a fake, while the real thing was stored in Connecticut. After Olympia arranged for Matty to be stuck in court all day, she set off on a road trip with Edwin to get the document. All’s well that would end well, right?
Not so much! With a flair for the dramatic, Olympia returned to Matty with a sheaf of blank pages, revealing that she’d left Edwin on the side of the road without his phone and nothing more than a handful of Twizzlers. Olympia had realized that she had leverage on Matty after all the legal lines Matty crossed in Season 1 in her pursuit of evidence, and both she and Edwin could end up in so much trouble with the law that Alfie would end up with his – to quote Olympia – “junkie father.”
And Matty did not like having her family threatened like that, resulting in a speech that would have sounded downright villainous if not for all of the context of the first season. She all but spat this speech at her former friend, saying:
You think a jury is going to convict me? I could burn this courthouse to the ground and they’d still be eating butterscotch out of my hand. I’ll just play the harmless old lady, the grieving mother. I’m untouchable, and if you don’t send me that document by the end of the night, it’ll be your kids who grow up without parents.
If I hadn’t already been convinced in Season 1 that Kathy Bates deserved to win her Critics Choice Award, this speech to Olympia would have done it! If anything, I feel like Bates’ performance proved that she may have deserved the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Emmy as much as winner Britt Lower (Severance) did back in September.
Bates had of course turned in emotional performances in Season 1, and some of the most fun of Matlock is seeing Matty shift into character from lawyer to kindly old lady who people love to confide in. I don’t think fans have seen Matty as venomous as she was to Olympia in this particular scene, and she seemed to lose all of her careful control for a few moments.
In fact, the combination of Matty’s loss of control, Olympia’s reaction, and the reminder of everything that Matty had done to gather evidence in Season 1 left me wondering if she’d come to regret making that speech. Olympia didn’t make me wait wrong to see just how true that would be.
Instead of sending Matty the Wellbrexa document at the end of the night, she sent Matty a recording of her claiming to be “untouchable” and (kinda) threatening Olympia’s kids, giving her some very strong leverage over the Kingstons. The ball is in their court now, but there may not be much they can do with it. A+ performance from Kathy Bates, but a hasty decision for Matty.
What’s Next For Matty And Olympia?
The twist was honestly some great writing; not only did Matty fall into one of her own traps from Season 1, but Olympia goaded her into breaking her composure just like what Matty herself had done to a man on the witness stand earlier that same day.
So, Matty and Olympia seem to be at an impasse again, but I’m not sure there’s any coming back to their friendship this time unless a twist happens that’s so world-shaking that they’re pushed back onto the same page. Sure, they both want to take down Senior, but they’ve both taken very personal jabs at the other. And dang it, between Kathy Bates and Skye P. Marshall, I’m more invested than ever.
Keep tuning in to CBS on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET for new episodes of Matlock Season 2, and/or stream via Paramount+. It’s tricky to try and predict what’s next for Matty and Olympia when they keep going back and forth on who has the most leverage, but there’s one thing I’ll say with absolute confidence: I want to see Edwin’s love of Twizzlers become a running joke into Season 2.
Olympia attempting to bribe him with a mug full of Twizzlers was my biggest laugh of the episode, followed by Edwin’s halfhearted attempt to convince his wife that he was not in fact snacking on the treat while on the phone. Amidst all the drama elsewhere in the episode, I got a kick out of a minor Twizzlers subplot.