third episode<\/a>, after Senior became aware of the New York Times Wellbrexa story and called an emergency partners\u2019 meeting. By the end of that episode, Eva had let a wary Olympia know she was game for a coup. In this week\u2019s \u201cHarm Reduction,\u201d she says she\u2019s ready to follow through. Eva knows that two Jacobson-Moore offices (Miami and Washington, D.C.) will back her, and two (Chicago and Dallas) are \u201csenior country.\u201d They\u2019ll need to sway the New York partners to, as Eva puts it, \u201cdeep-fry the devil.\u201d<\/p>\nThis isn\u2019t a no-brainer play. Their window is narrow. The vote will be in six weeks, and will require 21 of the 40 partners to back Eva. And the potential repercussions are terrible. If the coup works, Olympia and Matty will have freer access to the Jacobson-Moore files. If it fails, they\u2019re probably done with this mission, permanently.<\/p>\n
Matty and Olympia are facing a formidable opponent in Senior, who in this episode starts working behind their back, recruiting Sarah to spy on Julian. But it\u2019s also unclear if Eva\u2019s on their wavelength. Even though she\u2019s never met Matty, Eva is suspiciously well-informed about Olympia\u2019s star associate. (\u201cLoved your hardscrabble story,\u201d she says. \u201cSuper relatable. To juries, not to me. I come from money.\u201d) Eva unnerves these women. She doesn\u2019t share their rapport.<\/p>\n
As cover for being in New York and consulting with Olympia, Eva has brought the team a case. A local convent in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood has come under fire from their newer, richer neighbors \u2014 and from their own diocese \u2014 because the nuns provide a safe space for junkies, with clean needles and Narcan. They testify that they\u2019re following not just the biblical command for compassion, along with the most up-to-date medical advice about \u201charm reduction.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is a dramatically strong Matlock case, and not just because it feeds into the main storyline in a few ways. The history of American TV legal dramas \u2014 The Defenders, Owen Marshall, L.A. Law, Law & Order, The Practice, The Good Wife, etc. \u2014 is the history of U.S. social policy being debated on the small screen, with an implicit acknowledgment that no answers are ever easy. The nuns are clearly the heroes here, for taking care of the needy and saving lives. But there are children in this neighborhood too, and attracting addicts to the church makes the block more chaotic.<\/p>\n
The court seems inclined to side with the neighborhood\u2019s moneyed families and hip businesses, especially after the plaintiffs show a video of a woman ODing and screaming, right outside the church, in full public view. But then Matty has the bright idea to find this woman, Alyssa Lombardi (Whitney Bacon) so she can testify about how she grew up in this neighborhood, how the nuns saved her life, and how she\u2019s been in rehab. \u201cThis is someone\u2019s child too,\u201d Matty explains to Olympia. \u201cThe judge needs to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n
This whole case is a tough assignment for Matty, because nearly everything about it reminds her of her daughter Ellie \u2014 like so much does lately. She even imagines Ellie on the stand, during Alyssa\u2019s testimony, explaining how she hit rock bottom but got a second chance. When the hearing begins, Matty is at a medium-to-high boil, because she actually doesn\u2019t think a harm-reduction policy helps junkies get clean. But she keeps working for the clients anyway. Gradually, she begins to develop a more nuanced take on the subject.<\/p>\n
Olympia helps. Matty\u2019s trying really hard in this episode to patch things up with her boss, to the point where she actually decides she needs to step away from the office for a little while, because her over-eagerness to please is a kind of unhealthy, addict-like behavior. For her part, Olympia realizes that her anger at Matty\u2019s lies stems in part from how her rigidly moral father raised her, and that maybe she should also be more understanding.<\/p>\n
Like I said: None of this is easy. In this episode\u2019s other main storyline, as Matty tries to win votes for Eva\u2019s coup from the New York partners, her folksy charm and subtle subterfuge gets under Olympia\u2019s skin, reminding her yet again of the year her supposed friend spent lying to her. Sometimes the greater good is messy as hell.<\/p>\n
In the end, the ladies have mixed success with the nuns\u2019 case. The judge allows the convent to keep feeding the poor, but orders them to cut it out with the clean needles and Narcan. (In response, the nuns pledge to take their mission out into the streets.) But in looking for help wherever they can find it, Olympia calls on a Jacobson-Moore partner emeritus: Pat Cassidy (Phil Buckman), who left the law and became a priest. \u201cAfter 30 years of working for the devil I thought I\u2019d give God a try,\u201d he says \u2026 with Senior in the room. Father Pat can\u2019t persuade the diocese to back the nuns, but his return to the Jacobson-Moore offices gives Matty an idea. Pat is, technically, still a partner, which means he can vote on Eva\u2019s coup, delivering \u201ca good Old Testament smiting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eva may end up being trouble for our heroes eventually \u2014 and I kind of hope she is, because Machado can play those impish notes with an entertaining vigor. But Father Pat? What could possibly go wrong for Matty and Olympia now, with God on their side?<\/p>\n
\u2022 The structure of this episode is unusual for Matlock, in that at least two weeks pass during the running time. Usually this show\u2019s cases are introduced and dispatched in a day or two, but here time jumps ahead twice, to account for the time it takes for Matty to whip votes and for Olympia to give Matty another chance. I like this, because it feels more realistic all around \u2014 and also because it moves the larger story much more quickly toward the big partner vote, now only a few weeks away.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Billy subplot this week is \u2026 whatever. But the Sarah subplot? It\u2019s the best she\u2019s had this season. While shadowing Julian on Senior\u2019s orders, she finds that she has a lot in common with him, and also that he has no plans to poach any Jacobson-Moore clients. She assumes that Senior will be happy to hear that his son\u2019s a good guy, but instead he insists that she do what he originally asked and surreptitiously take pictures of Julian\u2019s datebook. She does \u2014 and she feels awful about it.<\/p>\n
\u2022 We also get a very slight Alfie subplot, when Edward and Matty discover that he\u2019s been faking some correspondence with his father, so that the grandparents won\u2019t think that Joey is failing at rehab. This ends up plugging into the main storyline too, as Matty realizes from the nun trial that she shouldn\u2019t put so much pressure on Joey and Alfie.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Matty, trying to make some awkwardly friendly conversation with Olympia at the start of the episode, asks if she\u2019s \u201can every Sunday Christian.\u201d I liked Olympia\u2019s response: \u201cI\u2019m a \u2018talk about work at work\u2019 Christian.\u201d<\/p>\n
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