Matlock delivered a massive twist in the series premiere’s final moments that turned what viewers thought the reboot would be on its head. Now that Madeleine “Matty” Matlock’s (Kathy Bates) big secret has been revealed to the audience, viewers will be in on the secret in every episode as she goes undercover to find evidence of corruption at her new place of employment, the prestigious Jacobson Moore law firm.
Matlock‘s first episode will air again on Thursday, October 10 at 9/8c on CBS, and Episode 2 will premiere on Thursday, October 17 at 9/8c. When the show comes back we’ll learn more about Matty’s backstory and how her family’s elaborate scheme came to fruition.
One of the key reveals in Episode 1 was that Matty believes one of the firm’s head honchos — Julian Sr. (Beau Bridges), Julian Jr. (Jason Ritter), or Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) — hid documents that would have gotten opioids off the market 10 years earlier. Had this happened, Matty’s daughter (the mother of her grandson whom she now raises with her husband, Edwin) and so many others may still be alive.
Matty will spend the season trying to figure out who among her three suspects is guilty, but keeping her secret while investigating will be a constant obstacle, according to showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman, who confirms to TV Insider that Matty is not wrong to suspect those three lawyers.
The “how and when and with who and under what circumstance” may change over the course of the season, she says, “but the person who took the document that was missing, that person will be identified and is one of those three.”
Does Matty really have the full picture? “Maybe,” Urman says. “She is going off what the Redditor said, that you find out that where this came from. She’s starting on that axis and she will continue down it, is what I will say. It might expand in terms of who has helped and who is involved, but we are keeping those three suspects as one of them will be the guilty party.”
The showrunner also reveals that “eventually in the course of this year, you will see that Matty and Olympia and Julian have crossed paths before, and that it was this small moment that really impacted Matty’s decision to go forward with the plan.”
The plan will be fraught with danger that threatens to expose Matty frequently. “Doing a mission like this, you can’t be perfect,” Urman explains. “There are going to be mess ups, and those are exciting moments in the show where she has to scramble to cover and hide and evade suspicion. And there are some, I don’t want to give too many spoilers, but there are suspicions that get thrown her way eventually.”
— Additional reporting by Kate Hahn
Matlock, New Episodes Start Thursday, October 17, 9/8c, CBS