‘Matlock’ Episode 2: Matty Plays Dumb to Get Access to Firm’s Case Files [Sneak Peek]  

What is Matty Matlock up to? CBS’s reimagined version of the classic series Matlock returns to TV with its second episode on Oct. 17. 

In “Rome, In a Day,” Kathy Bates’ character is settling into her new role at Jacobson Moore. She’s convinced her bosses that she’s just a down-on-her-luck widowed grandma in need of a good-paying job. But viewers know that she has a secret agenda involving her late daughter, who died of an opioid overdose. Matty knows someone at Jacobson Moore hid documents that could have gotten the addictive drugs taken off the market years earlier. If those drugs had been recalled, it might have prevented the death of her daughter (and countless others). In a sneak peek at episode 2, Matty seems to be making efforts to figure out more about the firm’s dealings with pharmaceutical companies. 

Matty has some questions in the next episode of ‘Matlock’

In the clip (via YouTube), Matty quizzes a Jacobson Moore employee with some “tech-related” questions. 

“We didn’t have all these protocols back when I joined the workforce,” she says. “Just sent a carrier pigeon between offices.”

“I received an email addressed from Jacobson Moore,” Matty goes on to say. “ I assume that gives me no expectations of privacy?”

“Correct,” her unamused coworker replies. 

Matty then starts to ask how she would pull up an old case file. That raises a red flag for her coworker, who can’t understand why she’d need to look into the firm’s archives on her first day.

Matty plays on her coworker’s sympathies 

Sensing her colleague’s skepticism, Matty quickly launches into her story about being a desperate grandmother who’s just trying to make ends meet after decades out of the workforce. 

“Mrs. Belden, I woke up at 75 years old without a husband or money and a 12-year-old kid to raise,” she says. “I need this job more than you can possibly imagine. So I’m just trying to think ahead. Cause at my age, they’re not looking for reasons to hire you. They’re looking for reasons to fire you.”

Matty’s not wrong about the ageism she faces as an older woman returning to work. But we know she’s posing as someone far less savvy than she really is in order to get people to let their guard down so that she can infiltrate Jacobson Moore and discover the firm’s secrets. For now, everyone seems to be buying her lies. But how long will that last? And who will be the first person to discover that Matty isn’t really who she’s pretending to be?   

Matlock airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS. Episodes stream on Paramount+. 

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