[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Matlock Season 1 Episode 16, “The Johnson Case.”]
Not so fast, Matty Matlock, if that’s even your real name. Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) caught on to Matty’s (Kathy Bates) schemes in a bombshell ending of the Thursday, April 3, episode of Matlock, setting up high-stakes conflict heading into Season 1’s final stretch. While Matty got put in the hot seat, Edwin (Sam Anderson) made a key discovery that seemingly proved Olympia’s innocence in their Wellbrexa investigation. Now Matty’s the one being investigated heading into next week’s penultimate episode on April 10, followed by the two-part finale on April 17.
“The Johnson Case” proved that Olympia really is Matty’s blindspot, just not in the way she and Edwin feared. Matty was so preoccupied with blackmailing the Redditor — Jacobson Moore’s very own Mrs. Belvin (Patricia Belcher) — that she didn’t realize Olympia was secretly investigating her own suspicions about Matty. Olympia worked solo on what she called “the Johnson case,” refusing to let Sarah (Leah Lewis) and Billy (David Del Rio) assist in any way. They incorrectly associated Olympia helping out a former law school classmate/Manhattan District Attorney employee on a case that she was trying to get a new job. In reality, Olympia was seeking answers about her employee and friend.
The case of the week was all about righting a longterm wrong. Decades prior, a juror had been illegally pressured into convicting a man of murder — a man she believed to be innocent but the evidence didn’t fully support. The DA’s office asked Olympia to help with this case, as they lacked the resources to take it on. Olympia was her usual justice-driven self as she and the team fought to free an innocent man who had been wrongly imprisoned for decades. But Marshall’s performance hinted that there was something going on under the surface that she couldn’t reveal — not yet, at least.
Olympia made an impassioned plea to the DA, another former classmate of hers, to have a DNA sample tested for the trial. It was one of those moments where you “stick your neck out” for something just because it’s the right thing to do, she argued. After he regretfully turned her down, Olympia went to ex-husband Julian’s (Jason Ritter) office in need of a hug. She couldn’t say what was troubling her, but a microscopic flash of emotion in Marshall’s performance hinted that she was hiding something, and that something is what was actually getting her down. While this case was serious and high-stakes, it was taken on so recently that it wouldn’t reasonably have such a deep emotional impact on Olympia that we were seeing in the episode. Something was up, and that reveal would come in the episode’s final moment.
The DA did end up testing that DNA sample after all, and it exonerated the innocent man and resulted in a summary judgment in favor of the good-samaritan juror. Matty got the good news she was waiting for from Edwin in the moments after the victory in court. She and Edwin had been looking into the whereabouts of their Wellbrexa suspects during a fire drill in the Jacobson Moore office during the time of the Wellbrexa case 14 years prior. Their evidence suggested that whoever took the Wellbrexa study, did so during that fire drill. Court transcripts in the public record proved that Olympia was in court at the time of the fire drill.
“You were right,” Edwin happily said. “Olympia didn’t take the Wellbrexa study.”
Sonja Flemming / CBS
Matty cried tears of joy and relief. She’s been struggling with Olympia’s potential guilt for several episodes now, resulting in a short temper, increased agitation at work, and distancing herself from her friend. This very well may have been what caused Olympia’s suspicions. Olympia had a downtrodden look about her as she smiled through interactions with her team even after the courtroom victory. A triumphant and hopeful score played as Matty took the bus to her designated meetup spot with her driver in the very next scene. She was elated on the phone with Edwin, saying she was “so happy” that her gut was right about Olympia. Unfortunately for Matty, Olympia’s gut about Matty was right, too.
Olympia was waiting for Matty at the bus stop when she disembarked. “Heading home?” she pointedly asked. Matty, internally panicking, warily asked, “My goodness, you could give an old lady a heart attack! Did you need me to go back to work? Is it the Johnson case?” Olympia replied, “You are the Johnson case.”
The series then flipped the script on Matty, using the flashbacks typically deployed to show how she pulled off a sneaky move at work. Flashbacks showed how Olympia pieced together a case against Matty, the smoking gun being the pen recording device. Flashbacks showed Olympia asking Julian if he spied on her with the pen, suspicions raised by the contents of Alfie’s (Aaron D. Harris) wallet, Bitsy’s (Julie Hagerty) sudden appearance in court, and more. All of this led to Olympia tracing Matty’s car for weeks and finding her decoy bus stop.
“So, who the hell are you, Madeline Matlock?” Olympia asked, closing out the episode. We have a feeling she’s about to find out.
Matlock, Thursdays, 9/8c, CBS