There has been a phantom haunting this Matlock season. Her name is Debra Palmer, and at various times over the past three episodes, either Olympia or Matty (or both) has raised the hope that the mysterious Ms. Palmer could crack Jacobson-Moore’s Wellbrexa scandal wide open — and in the process maybe fix their fractured friendship.
Going into this week’s episode, all Olympia and Matty knew about Debra was that she was briefly Senior’s romantic companion 15 years ago during a company retreat in Australia, happening at the same time that Julian was being pressured to bury Wellbrexa’s internal study about the addicting properties of their opioids. The ladies hoped Debra, when found, could identify some of the retreat’s other attendees and maybe pin one or more of them to the decision to lean on Julian — and thereby keep the father of Olympia’s children out of jail.
Hope, though? That’s a hell of a drug. It’s maybe more dangerous than opium.
Debra Palmer does finally materialize this week, thank goodness, embodied by the ever-delightful Melanie Lynskey, who has always seemed like an inevitable Matlock guest star. Lynskey is a hoot as Debra, a freelance makeup artist who lives and works in Hell’s Kitchen, gussying up both the living and the dead. (She uses the same “magic foundation” for both! Eternal Glamour, it’s called. It’s medical grade.)
When Matty books an appointment, posing as Cindy Shapiro, she very quickly gets Debra talking about drinking watermelon martinis and singing karaoke at the Camelot Club in Sydney, way back when. But it’s also quickly clear that Debra’s a dead end. Every time the conversation turns to her sexy Sydney adventure, she shuts down. By the end of the episode, she’s blocking Matty’s texts.
That ain’t great. And here’s what’s worse: Spending time with Debra sends Matty down a dark memory-hole, because so much of what they do together reminds her of one of the last happy days she spent with a sober Ellie.
Now, to be fair, over the course of a season-plus of Matlock, it has never been that hard to send Matty reeling into melancholy flashbacks to her late daughter’s addiction. In fact, this episode pushes this conceit to an absurd degree. Matty’s grandson Alfie? He reminds her of Ellie when he talks about his addict father finally having a reason to get clean. Debra Palmer? Her invitation to “Cindy” to join her at karaoke reminds Matty of how Ellie held her baby shower at a karaoke bar. Heck, even Billy’s mention of his pregnant girlfriend Claudia’s upcoming ultrasound reminds Matty of going to one of Ellie’s ultrasounds and laughing with her about silly baby names.
Still, while the path to Matty’s Ellie-related self-reflection is overwrought, Kathy Bates does so well with these scenes that it’s hard to complain too much. As I’ve mentioned before, Bates is unafraid to play Matty as brittle and judgmental, making it all the more painful for us to watch this woman hound her poor daughter about her recovery. Matty spent Ellie’s ultrasound watching for markers that could indicate Ellie was using again. She spent the baby shower worrying about the presence of one of Ellie’s old drug buddies. And when mother and daughter took to the stage together to sing “Piece of My Heart” (also the title of this episode), Matty broke Ellie’s heart by conspicuously checking her pupils during the song. Not long after, Ellie fell off the wagon. Today, Matty wonders what might’ve happened if she had just been more present in the moment, and less concerned about a relapse.
This revelation is inspired in part by our case of the week. It’s a case that’s better than average for Matlock as a legal drama, even if — for a change — it’s only very tangentially tied to the episode’s larger themes. Olympia’s client is the widow of Frank Russo, a man who worked in shipping for decades and then died on the job, trapped by a flood. His employers are willing to stipulate to their liability, and will even admit that his widow is owed something for his lost income. But they argue that he was old and unproductive and didn’t have many working years (or even months) left. As for the emotional toll of his death? Not compensable. To that point, Olympia shouldn’t be allowed to play the jury the tear-jerking recording of Frank’s final phone call home as the water rose.
The courtroom tussling has some juice this week. Olympia argues that the employees’ required ear protection muffled the sound of the evacuation alarm. The defense counters that there was also a flashing light. Olympia proves that the required eye protection dimmed that light. Olympia notes that Frank’s supervisor left before the alarms started and didn’t dismiss him from work as he always did. The supervisor wrests the jury’s sympathy back by saying he had to rush home to protect his mobility-impaired daughter from the flood.
This is all highly dramatic, and it’s capped by a brilliant Olympia move. When the supervisor testifies that Frank was too old and weak to do some of the job’s required heavy lifting, Olympia has her opening to enter into evidence Frank’s dying words, in which he talks about moving around 50-pound sandbags. The widow lands a huge settlement. But more importantly to this episode’s dramatic arc, she also talks about how she and Frank “never wasted a single moment together.” Cue Matty thinking about Ellie again.
The real question now is: Can Matty apply this lesson about staying in the moment to her relationship with Olympia? Because they start out this week in a very bad place again, making a pact to surrender their phones to each other on request, to make sure that neither of them are going behind the other’s back. But a funny thing happens with this exercise. When Matty grabs Olympia’s phone, she finds a message from Julian sympathizing with her about the anniversary of her father’s death. When Olympia grabs Matty’s phone, she finds a text from Alfie apologizing for his attitude. As much as they may want to divorce all personal feelings and history from their current arrangement, they just can’t. They’re real people, not abstractions. Any emotional toll on them should be compensable.
As for the no-longer-a-phantom Debra Palmer, she may not hold the key to unlocking the Wellbrexa problem, but she does bring Olympia and Matty closer. The two former friends can’t help but laugh together at her description of Senior’s “performance Down Under,” or that she called him “Mr. Magic Pants.” Nor can Olympia just let Debra’s terrible makeup job on Matty go. (“We’re just going to act like … this … isn’t happening?”)
They also plan to use their suspicion that Debra clammed up due to a nondisclosure agreement as a way to put Julian to work, since he’s now on a Jacobson-Moore security-compliance subcommittee alongside someone from IT and can possibly use his new access to look for those old NDAs. But in our cliffhanger this week — arriving later than usual, with a lot less circling back to earlier moments — Olympia shows up at Matty’s house to say that rather than helping them, Julian now has Matty squarely in his sights. It seems he got a look at Mrs. Belvin’s company laptop and knows whom she was communicating with.
Another roadblock. And worse than a roadblock: a pushback. Can Olympia clean this up and get Julian and Matty to work together? Here’s hoping.
The Fine Print
• Melanie Lynskey, for those who don’t know, is married to Jason Ritter. They both also guest-starred on Poker Face this past season — though not in the same episode. They don’t share any screen time this week either, alas.
• Billy invites Sarah to come to Claudia’s sonogram as part of an overall plan to make sure she’s still included in his life. He almost forgets his lucky coin, but then she brings it to him at the doctor’s office and … yeah. In a different world, this barely relevant subplot might still be sweet. Alas, alas, alas.