Matlock Recap: Hope Sinks

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A mysterious woman named Deborah Palmer has been a recurring figure this season on Matlock. Over the last few episodes, either Olympia or Matty (or both) have hinted that she might be the key to uncovering the truth behind Jacobson-Moore’s Wellbrexa scandal, and potentially repair their strained friendship.

Before this week’s episode, Olympia and Matty only knew that Deborah had a brief romance with Senior 15 years ago during a work trip to Australia. This happened while Julian was being forced to hide a company study showing their opioid drugs were addictive. Olympia and Matty hoped Deborah could name other people who were at the retreat and potentially identify who pressured Julian – and ultimately, who was keeping the father of her children from going to jail.

Hope, though? That’s a hell of a drug. It’s maybe more dangerous than opium.

We finally meet Deborah Palmer this week, played wonderfully by Melanie Lynskey, who always felt destined to appear on a show like Matlock. Lynskey is fantastic as Deborah, a makeup artist in Hell’s Kitchen who works on both the living and the deceased. She even uses the same foundation—a high-quality, medical-grade product called Eternal Glamor—for everyone!

When Matty pretends to be Cindy Shapiro and contacts Deborah, Deborah immediately starts reminiscing about drinking watermelon martinis and doing karaoke at the Camelot Club in Sydney. However, it quickly becomes apparent that Deborah isn’t going to be helpful. Whenever Matty tries to discuss Deborah’s past experiences, she becomes evasive and ultimately blocks Matty’s number.

That’s not good, and it gets worse: being around Deborah triggers painful memories for Matty, as their time together often reminds her of a cherished, but ultimately bittersweet, day she shared with her friend Ellie when Ellie was sober.

Throughout the show Matlock, it hasn’t been difficult to trigger Matty’s sadness by reminding her of her late daughter’s struggles with addiction. This episode, however, really overdoes it. Her grandson Alfie’s story about his father getting sober sparks a memory, and Deborah Palmer inviting someone to karaoke brings back Ellie’s baby shower at a similar place. Even a simple mention of Billy’s girlfriend’s ultrasound appointment reminds Matty of attending one with Ellie and joking about baby names.

Although the way the show explores Matty’s feelings about Ellie is a bit dramatic, Kathy Bates delivers such a strong performance in these scenes that it’s hard to criticize. As I’ve said before, Bates isn’t afraid to portray Matty as harsh and critical, which makes it especially difficult to watch her constantly pressure Ellie about staying sober. Matty scrutinized Ellie during the ultrasound, looking for any sign of relapse, and worried endlessly at the baby shower when one of Ellie’s old friends showed up. The most painful moment came when they sang “Piece of My Heart” – Matty visibly checked Ellie’s pupils during the song, deeply hurting her daughter. Soon after, Ellie relapsed. Now, Matty is left wondering if things would have been different if she had simply focused on being present with Ellie, instead of constantly fearing another relapse.

This idea came about while working on a particularly good case for the show. Even though the details don’t directly connect to the main story, it’s a strong legal situation. Olympia’s client is the widow of Frank Russo, a long-time shipping worker who died in a flood at work. His employers admit they’re responsible and will pay some benefits, but they claim Frank was elderly, nearing retirement, and wouldn’t have worked much longer. They also argue that his widow shouldn’t be compensated for her emotional suffering. Because of this, they’re trying to prevent Olympia from playing a heartbreaking recording of Frank’s last phone call home before the floodwaters rose.

The trial is heating up this week. Olympia claims workers couldn’t hear the evacuation alarm because of the mandatory ear protection. The defense responded that a flashing light was also used to signal the evacuation. Olympia then showed that the required safety glasses made the flashing light difficult to see. She also pointed out that Frank’s supervisor left before the alarm went off and didn’t follow his usual procedure of officially releasing employees at the end of the day. The supervisor, in turn, explained his abrupt departure by stating he needed to get home quickly to help his daughter, who has limited mobility, during a flood.

The situation reaches a peak when Olympia skillfully uses Frank’s final words in court. Despite the supervisor claiming Frank wasn’t strong enough for the job, Olympia presents evidence of him discussing moving heavy sandbags shortly before his death, leading to a large settlement for his widow. More significantly for the story, the widow shares that she and Frank lived life to the fullest, prompting Matty to reflect on his relationship with Ellie.

The main issue now is whether Matty can use her newfound ability to focus on the present in her relationship with Olympia. They begin the week on shaky ground, agreeing to freely share access to each other’s phones to build trust. However, this plan leads to unexpected discoveries. Matty finds a supportive message from Julian regarding the anniversary of her father’s death on Olympia’s phone, and Olympia finds an apology from Alfie on Matty’s. Despite wanting to separate their emotions and past from their current situation, they realize it’s impossible. They are, after all, human, and any emotional impact they experience deserves to be acknowledged and addressed.

Deborah Palmer, now back in the picture, might not solve the mystery surrounding Wellbrexa, but she definitely brings Olympia and Matty together. They find themselves laughing over Deborah’s funny stories about their father’s antics in Australia – including her nickname for him, “Mr. Magic Pants.” Olympia also can’t help but tease Matty about Deborah’s awful attempt to do his makeup, jokingly pretending it didn’t happen. (“Let’s just ignore… that… okay?”)

The team believes Deborah stopped talking because she signed a non-disclosure agreement, and they’re hoping Julian can use his position on a security subcommittee – alongside someone in IT – to find those old agreements. However, in a surprising turn of events, Olympia arrives at Matty’s house with troubling news: Julian isn’t helping them at all – he’s now targeting Matty. It turns out Julian accessed Mrs. Belvin’s laptop and discovered her communications with someone.

This is a major setback, even more than just a simple obstacle. It seems like there’s active resistance to progress. Can Olympia resolve this conflict and get Julian and Matty collaborating again? We’re all hoping for a positive outcome.

The Fine Print

Many of you may know that Melanie Lynskey is married to Jason Ritter. Both actors appeared on the show Poker Face recently, although they weren’t in the same episode. Unfortunately, they don’t share any scenes together this week either.

Billy invited Sarah to the ultrasound, hoping to keep her involved in his life. He nearly forgot his lucky coin, but she remembered and brought it to him at the doctor’s office—a small gesture that, under different circumstances, might have been nice. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really matter much in the grand scheme of things.

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2025-10-31 16:55