Matlock Season 1 Episode 8 Review: No, No Monsters

Despite last week’s episode feeling like it was moving at a rapid pace, Matlock Season 1 Episode 8, “No, No Monsters,” slows things down. This allows the story to develop further at a more reasonable pace.

The best part about the episode isn’t even the usual Matty shenanigans or the case itself. No, this week shines because of the character development happening for Olympia.

For so long, this woman has been a hard shell of indifference toward those around her unless they directly benefited her career. So much so that from the start, I wasn’t a big fan of Olympia.

Olympia Facing the School Moms 

One of the great things we’ve gotten to see slowly develop over the course of these first eight episodes is Olympia as a woman outside her job. We get snippets of her as a romantic partner to Julian and a mother to her two children more and more. 

Matlock Season 1 Episode 8, “No, No Monsters,” is a perfect example of her professional life coming into direct contact with her personal life. By taking on a wrongful termination case for one of the nannies at her school, Olympia is blurring the lines more than she ever has before.

While the school moms might see that as a threat to their supreme power over the mom groups at the school, it gives Olympia a more maternal side. It’s a level of compassion that she hasn’t really shown us yet and helps us further believe her intentions are true with wanting to focus on pro-bono/low-income cases.

This revelation makes it even harder for us to believe that she could ever be someone who would bury those Wellbrexa documents or forge Senior’s signature to frame him for it. In fact, her softer side coming through more forces Julian’s not-so-nice qualities to peak their head around the corner, but more on that later.

Olympia has silently disliked the majority of the moms at her kids’ school for some time now, and this has been hinted at regularly this season. It’s clear that after learning of Julian’s infidelity, she has put more of her walls down and doesn’t care what those moms think of her any longer.

Instead, she’d rather be sure this nanny, who she believes has been set up, gets her record cleared so that she can find a new job. This is the strongest indicator that underneath all her bluster and professional coldness, Olympia is actually a compassionately kind human being.

Olympia and Matty Burying the Hatchet

Even more surprising than Olympia’s gung-ho crusade for justice is her 180 regarding Matty. Sure, we’ve been seeing the wall between them slowly break down over time.

However, “No, No Monsters” does a great job of establishing that Olympia now respects, trusts, and relies upon Matty to do her job to the fullest. In fact, she relies on Matty pretty heavily in this episode to keep her emotions in check regarding the other moms she hates and Julian.

Getting to see Matty inch that much closer to Olympia feels like validation for all the trouble Olympia threw at Matty in the beginning. Sure, she still refers to Matty as part of YouThree, but we see that facade fall quite a bit as she confides in Matty about her marital troubles.

One of the most heartwarming moments comes when Matty gives Olympia advice about how to muddle through. These two women, or so Olympia thinks, have seen the other side of a cheating spouse.

Matty Matlock: There are no good answers when there are no good options.

We’ve been waiting for Matty’s charm to eventually break through Olympia’s hard shell. So, to see that come to fruition, all while Matty is lying to Olympia and trying to get a file from her bag, is heartwarming and keeps us interested in the double-life aspect of the show.

After all, Matty’s double life is starting to get tedious and repetitive, with no resolution in sight. However, Matlock proves that we can’t count anything out just yet.

Yes, it seems that Olympia and Matty are on good terms, but will that change if Olympia finds out Matty is lying?

What Is Julian’s Deal?

More than anything, Matlock Season 1 Episode 8, “No, No Monsters,” gives us what we’ve been begging for for weeks, a shift in Julian’s nice boy persona. It seems that Olympia learning of his infidelity has caused some cracks in the persona we’ve been seeing all along.

Perhaps Julian isn’t as sweet and nice as he’s been showing us. Perhaps the words of his father during Matlock Season 1 Episode 7, “Belly of the Beast,” actually hold some weight.

As we see in this episode, Julian definitely has a more manipulative side. It’s so slimy that he pulls Matty into his disagreement with his ex-wife just because he wants a spy.

Even Matty looks at him a little differently when he makes his request. That nice guy persona is slipping ever so slightly in order for him to get what he wants.

As we look ahead, it’ll be interesting to see how he slips up more and more. We wonder if Matty will be able to get as close to him as she currently thinks she can.

 

What did you think of this episode of Matlock? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Matlock returns Thursday, January 30th at 9/8c on CBS.

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