Matlock Season 2 Episode 5 Recap: Matty, Olympia, and Julian Face New Challenges

Once again, the creatives behind Matlock continue to raise the bar every single week! Episode 5 was absolute perfection and just amped me up even more than I already was for the rest of this season. We are still continuing the major arc of Matty and Olympia’s relationship and the tests it continues to be put through. We also got the addition of Julian into the mix, after his somewhat of a departure from Jacobson Moore, he is trying to find his footing and build up skills to show to potential new employers. If you have been keeping up with my reviews so far this season, you know that I have been BEGGING to get some backstory behind Sarah’s character, and we finally got a taste of that this episode. 

We pick up this week immediately after the ending of last week’s episode; we see Olympia fell asleep at Matty’s as they were trying to brainstorm what to do in regards to Julian suspecting Matty to be the leak in the company. We had some great comedic moments from Edwin during this as he was giving Olympia the cold shoulder after she abandoned him on the side of the road earlier this season. Matty and Olympia come up with the perfect plan to throw Julian off and they seem very giddy and close, almost like they did before the fallout at the end of Season 1.

Obviously, as a viewer, we can sense that there are still feelings of care and warmth between Matty and Olympia throughout all of the angst and lack of trust. Once again, this is Skye and Kathy’s time to shine, they play the subtle emotions and the back and forth of the relationship so well. The addition of Julian into the mix was a perfect decision by the writers, in my opinion. It gives Olympia even more of an internal struggle to face; does she want to lie to the father of her children even though he is absolutely right? And at the end of the day, the whole reason that this happened is because Olympia wanted to protect him from jail time. 

Sarah’s storyline this episode was another major highlight for me. We are finally introduced to her mother and her mom’s boyfriend; and immediately when we see these two upbeat, giddy, excited people, the first thought I had was: how did Sarah end up so cynical and uptight? During the episode, we find out that her mom’s partner is planning to propose to her and wants Sarah’s blessing. Of course, Sarah has her reservations about this and isn’t sure if she should be honest about how she feels or fake a smile and let them go through with it.

My favorite scene throughout this was Sarah’s heart-to-heart with her mom. She finally talks to her about all of the reasons she doesn’t want them to be together, and ultimately, it’s not because he’s a bad guy, it’s because Sarah felt like her mom disappeared from her life emotionally. This added a lot of nuance and depth to the reason Sarah was not for the proposal and why she seems a little cold throughout most of the show. Although I feel like we are only scratching the surface with these scenes, I do think this is a step in the right direction for her character. It only seems fitting that we learn more about her, where she came from, and what else she has going on for her outside of working for Jacobson Moore. Selfishly, I hope that we get to see her outside of the office a little more and I would love to see a new love interest for her character. 

Towards the end of the episode, we finally get Olympia telling Matty how she feels as she comes back to her senses about the predicament they have found themselves in. She pleads with Matty that she hates lying to Julian and it makes her feel terrible; Matty pushes back with the argument that she only has to keep it up just long enough for them to take Senior down for the Wellbrexa cover up.

They have some good dialogue with each other about honesty and about how they want to be friends, but Olympia does not know if this is possible when she feels that everything has been built off a foundation of lies; Matty says that they are not that different and they are doing this for the right reasons. Olympia hits her with such a simple, but heartbreaking statement, “I lied, but you’re a liar.” And that leaves us where we are now, once again, in an awkward predicament between Matty and Olympia. I have no doubt that they will be able to figure this out, but with Julian added into the equation, I wonder how it will all go down and what they will do to take Senior down and protect him. 

Overall, a really strong episode yet again that gives us some more depth and backstory into Sarah’s character, adding on and building the angst between Olympia and Matty by adding Julian into the forefront, and continuing to inch towards their ultimate final goal to take Senior down. I would give this episode a solid 5/5 stars.

What did you think?

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