“Matlock” Recap, Episode 14: “Game Day”

The first half extends week after week Matlock Season the “before MatlockAssembly that opened every episode was more or less the same – so much that it has become like one of these old TV tidal songs that explain the premise. Something like: “Sit down right away and you will hear a story/about how the law firm Jacobson-Moore/Hid documents that could have taken opioids from the market can hear.” And so forth.

But this week? The “before” runs longer and has more than just the story of Matty, who revenues her addictive daughter Ellie's death. We remember Billy's stealthy affair with Sarah's archenemy Simos, and we remind you of the Olympic career (she hopes) a class action against alcoholic energy drink slamm'd. We are reminded of a joke that Matty created in the premiere of the series after the purchase of butterscotch sweetness in big people after 60 years. Finally, we remind you that Matty's sister Bitsy appeared at the end of the episode of last week.

These last two elements prove to be connected. Because you know what? It turns out that the Madeline Matlock figure, which Madeline Kingston plays since the first episode, was inspired by Bitsy. The Butterscotch, the Cindy Shapiro anecdotes, even the unedented Philandering and the debt-related dead ex-husband … All of these are parts of Bity's business.

Matty's imitation is not a form of flattering. When Edwin tries to dispel his wife's irritation on Bitsy's visit by saying that it is good for “research”, Matty strikes back: “Matty Matlock has a substance underneath! My sister is an adult woman named Elizabeth, who likes to be called “Ittsy Bitsy”. Madeline is slightly annoyed by her sister's incessant problems, which bothers herself about irrelevant things such as gardening and baking, and she holds a persistent resentment against Bitsy because she once had Ellie hidden from rehabilitation after rehab.

One of the more intelligent movements that Matlock The creator Jennie Snyder has shown in the last episodes that Matty can be stubbornly misleaded with regard to her family. Perhaps she demanded too much Ellie. It may be too painful with Alfie. It is definitely excessively repellent from Edwin. Although she believes that Bitsy is dark and naive, her sister tells her things she never knew – namely that Bitsy skipped college because she was afraid that her mother falls back in alcoholism.

While Matty sees herself as an expert in addiction and Bitsy as a protected neophyte, it is Bitsy that her mother became a grocery addict when she gave up alcohol, and it is Bitsy who suggests that Matty himself is addictive. After discovering the Jacobson-Moore/Wellbrexa conspiracy in the Kingstons home office, Bitsy asks her sister whether she thinks about her mission every day and whether she lies and sacrifices relationships to follow her. If all these things are true – and they are – how can Matty say that she differs from Ellie?

I love Julie Hagerty, who always had the ability to play comic characters with strong notes of pathos underneath. The revelation, Bitsy is more revealing than Matty, brings some Zing to the domestic scenes of this episode. As an outsider, Bitsy can ask the obvious questions that Edwin may not (for fear of annoying his wife if nothing else). For example, as soon as Bitsy learns about Mattys Jacobson-Moore-Subterzege, she is surprised to find out that her sister is deeply invested in the actual cases where she works with the Olympics. When Bitsy thinks that Matty is working on the Slamm'd late, she asks: “She takes care of this case? Really? Not just another trick? “

To be honest, I had the same question for about the first half of this episode. As I mentioned last week, Matty's youngest funk has hindered her ability to participate in the courtyard drama of the show about memories of Ellie. This was good for Billy and Sarah, who are much of praised in the first half of this season. But it has removed a spark from the relationship between Olympia/Matty, which – at the end of this episode – to the heart or worse – is probably the heart of the show.

At first Matty seems to be just as passive and not helpful in the case of this week. But it gathers to the end, which turns out – from a legal drama position – one of Matlock'S stronger episodes.

We start with a partially paralyzed former college football star named Tucker Hoff (Leonard Harmon), who is the senior plaintiff in Olympia's Slamm'd suit. Tucker, blackout drunk on slamm'd, once jumped out of a moving car. While he's doing well now, Olympics need him to be sympathetic enough to win the sympathy of the jury, but not so cheerfully that they don't believe that he has suffered.

The test scenes are well written and staged, starting with the way the opening statements of the two sides are intertwined in order to make a really challenging debate. Is Slamm'd just a fun product that is properly marked with warnings of potential dangers? Or is this drink, which contains the five times the alcohol of similar cocktails in canned goods and an unspecified amount of caffeine that can tempt the body to miss the warning signs of poisoning – and aimed at impressive young people with underdeveloped arguments?

In order to support Tucker's testimony, Olympia Kennedy, the College child of the past week, who accidentally killed a sister of sisterhood. But Kennedy hesitates. The Ada plans to pursue it because her victim's mother, Lydia Reed (Marley Shelton), has to hold someone Responsible for the death of her daughter. Matty can of course refer to this feeling. For the first time in some time, she can fall back on her Bitsy inspired “Matlock” skills: homemade wisdom, empathy and persuasiveness. Matty speaks with Lydia – mourning mother to grieving mother – and asks her to concentrate her anger on slamm'd, not on Kennedy.

Kennedy needs the case because the teenager can provide a first -hand report on how marketing repetitions for Slamm secretly distribute the drink to high school parties before it was available in shops. Her certificate is mainly because Olympics have a jury problem. Olympia did not want to work with Shae and hired an external jury consultant: the Streit Alli Glenroy (Kara Luiz) and Hayden Glenroy (Gabriel Bonilla). SHAE conducts her usual evaluation and research anyway and discovered that Juror 32 (Jim Hanna) wrote pseudonym with several libertarian blog posts about how people have to take responsibility for their own actions. Shae believes that Olympia should build her case for the idea that children like Kennedy and Tucker were attempt Make good decisions, but were manipulated and misleading by the exploitative crawls.

Unfortunately, despite all the hardiness. When the defense team finds an old video of Tucker in the high school and agrees when a soccer team suggests that they all “so light -hearted that we cannot remember tomorrow”, the child decides to pay his case instead of continuing the process. Olympia is inconsolable. All of your Pro-Bono work for social justice should be paid for by this class action against Slamm'D. If the case is dead, your drive will also die to make a partner. Olympia talks to Matty about how to start in her own practice with Matty as the first attitude from the front.

And here we return to all earlier warnings from Edwin and Bitsy how Mattys obsessive nature can dazzle them for the larger picture. During this episode, Matty tries to follow Julian's movements on the day on the day when the potentially damn wellbrexa documents arrived in the Jacobson bogs offices. She has a whole scenario in her head where Shae Julian warns of the documents and then sneaks into the Shredding room. Except … Julian's key card was also registered as an entry into a women's toilet on the 25th floor and the old office of Olympics (2523). Slowly another scenario – with the Olympics as a villain – Dawns on Matty.

The revelation that Olympia may have hidden the documents Matlock Spectators who made aware of – and everyone who knows something about how melodrama works. Nevertheless, this is a huge narrative pivot point. Can Matty take a step back, consider everything you know about Olympics and rethink her entire mission? Or is she driven to end the job so that it will risk again to destroy a person's lives in which she is interested?

• Romantic status reports! Sarah decided to be in an open relationship with Kira, although Billy doubts that she can stand for long; And Billy is still sneaking around with Simone, even after saying Sarah that he would stop.

• The Simone/Billy and Kira/Sarah -side actions actually feed a little tension in this episode, since all of these characters occasionally exceed the paths in empty offices and delivery rooms, while pursuing the path of Julian's key card. I was sure that Matty would be caught by one of these people; And frankly, I would not be surprised if it happened in the season. When the “Before” Billy and Simone show a secret rendezvous next week, they buckle up.