After months of patiently waiting, Matlock is finally back with new episodes! The hit CBS legal drama last aired a new episode ahead of the holidays, leaving us with one more jaw-dropping twist before the new year, but we're catching back up with Matty and Olympia once again in defense mode.
In the midseason finale, it was revealed that although they were under the impression they had outsmarted Julian, he was onto them the whole time. Thanks to a rogue AirPod in a purse, he caught Matty and Olympia having a secret meeting and talking about holding someone responsible with the Wellbrexa document. It's pretty clear that there's no easy fix this particular mess.
With Matty's secret seemingly out in the open in full with Julian, and Olympia caught redhanded as her partner in crime behind the scenes, Matlock season 2 episode 9, which is aptly titled "Collateral," Matty and Olympia work to regain Julian's trust by putting together their own collateral for him. Will he make it easy to forgive and forget? Will he end up on their side? Will he double cross them?
There's no telling what could happen, but we're excited to find out! Let's dive into Matlock's midseason return with a live recap of season 2 episode 9. Beware of spoilers!
Julian confronts Matty and Olympia about their secrets
The episode kicks off with Matty making breakfast with the family and Joey, preparing for a job interview at a diner. They're planning for a birthday dinner for him later that evening, and he invites his sister and detective brother-in-law to join them. Matty and Edwin are clearly spooked, but she's even more spooked when she gets a text from Olympia altering her that Senior has woken up.
Before heading to the office, Matty and Olympia catch up, giving her the opportunity to press Olympia about Sarah's job. But Olympia isn't budging. Julian interrupts their conversation, and Matty heads out. He pleads with Olympia to not put his dad in jail, clearly softening after he said "I love you." Here's the kicker: Julian reveals he knows about Matty. She promises him she's been protecting him.
Sarah's stressed about her job since Gwen Easton a.k.a. "Layoff Barbie" (Sarah Wright Olsen) is in the office poking around for "redundancies." She jokes about firing Billy, and even though Gwen laughs, Sarah's still unsettled. Matty meets with the team's client, Jack Alvarez (Mark Espinoza) and puts a plan in motion. But it's nothing compared to the stress of being ambushed by Julian.
Matty meets with Julian and Olympia, and he presses Matty for her explanation of the situation. He's not messing around. Matty and Olympia's stories don't match up, sending Julian storming out. Matty wants to turn Julian in, but Olympia insists that's not a choice. She presents a plan B: Tell Julian the full truth about Matty. But she thinks that's too big of a risk. They need new collateral.
Olympia gains Julian's trust, but he refuses to trust Matty
When Matty and Olympia meets with Jack in the courtroom with his family, he's swept away and detained by ICE agents. Back at the office, they meet with his wife. She reveals that he was undocumented, which he didn't learn until adulthood. They pursued options but feared the risks. Sarah attempts to avoid being laid off by offering her assistance on the case with the Alvarez kids.
Matty's staying put in her city apartment to avoid being caught by Julian, but it's off to the races on Jack's immigration hearing. Olympia puts up evidence to prevent him being deported, while the department of justice presents an unsealed document of Jack's past arrest. The judge grants Olympia 24 hours to continue working on her case, but they aren't getting access to Jack.
Sarah helped do some digging into Jack's past and found a witness. That's a positive step forward in proving to Olympia that she's a good fit for the team. Once again, Sarah finds herself being visited by Gwen. To prove she's actually still working on Olympia's team, Sarah needs Olympia to sign a document. After gaining information from the witness, Olympia presents Julian with collateral.
What is the collateral? Security footage from the bank. It's enough to build a case against her. While worrying about her family's dinner, Matty gets a knock on her apartment door. It's Julian revealing he has collateral from Olympia to trust her, but his problem is that he doesn't trust Matty. She starts by giving him collateral and calling Alfie to connect with the hacker (caught by the detective, oops!).
But their conversation ends tensely and inconclusively. Julian's not buying what she's selling. He then visits his dad in the hospital, high on getting his job back. Before he can spill the beans about Olympia and Matty, Olympia interrupts him with her own visit with the kids. He doesn't understand why she trusts Matty, but they could be cleared up if he knew the whole truth about Matty.
Matty suprises Julian with shocking collateral
Alfie's excited about his visit with Joey's family and his cousin and hopes to take up their invite for a summer trip to their cabin. Matty's clearly feeling some pangs of doubt and/or jealousy, which she explains to Olympia when she drops by with food. Olympia's gained Julian's trust, but she has one day to get the "truth" about Matty. She still wants to avoid revealing her true identity.
Matty and Olympia come to a revelation about Jack's case, which Olympia presents in court. The defense offers Jack a deal to stay in the country, but there's no path to citizenship and he won't be able to work in his career field. Oh, and restitution of up to $6 million. They can wait for the judge's ruling, but if they lose, he will be deported. Jack decides to take the deal, but it doesn't feel like a win.
Sarah then pleads her case to Olympia, who doesn't immediately sign the paper and tells her she'll think about it. Matty offers a signed affidavit that implicates her in hiring a hacker, but it's not real. As she sees it, she can pretend to lose custody of Alfie or risk losing everything. Sarah confesses what she did to Julian, but he doesn't fault her. Instead, he signs her paper and adds her to his team.
Olympia sends Julian the collateral on Matty, but he's unsure at first. He sneaks into Olympia's car and finds an address to Matty's Westchester house on her GPS. As expected, Julian turns up at Matty's house. As it turns out, this was part of their plan all along. Olympia visits Senior to admit she lied and confesses to wrangling the votes to unseat him. Meanwhile, Julian learns the whole truth.
Matlock airs Thursdays at 9/8c on CBS, also streaming on Paramount+.