Matlock Season 2 Episode 8 Review: Call it a Christmas Gift

Matlock Season 2 Episode 8, “Call it a Christmas Gift,” sends audiences into the holidays with a few exciting parting gifts. First and foremost we get a way forward for Wellbrexa. 

But that’s not even the most interesting gift of the episode. No, the best gift comes in the form of the Julian reveal. Just when we think we know something, Matlock throws a wrench in the narrative to switch things up.

For a midseason finale, this episode does a fantastic job of giving us just enough to keep us excited during the hiatus. There are some reveals that close some doors, but mostly it’s just a continuation of the drama that will carry us through the season.

Senior’s Medical Emergency

While the focus of the episode isn’t on Senior, he still haunts the narrative much like he has since the show started. Here is a man who caused the opioid epidemic and then covered it up only to now be fighting for his life.

If I’m supposed to care he had a stroke and might die, I don’t. At first, I felt a little bit of sympathy for Julian because in recent episodes we’ve been shown a softer side to him.

However, after the big reveal at the end of the episode I am left with zero care for Senior’s condition except to hope that Matty gets her day in court. 

His medical emergency is conveniently very timely. If he weren’t literally fighting for his life I would argue he created the problem on purpose to keep winning.

It is definitely distracting the partners away from ever wanting to speak out against him. And it even caused Olympia to waver just slightly out of concern for Julian. 

At the end of the day, the Matlock writers knew what they were doing by introducing Senior having a stroke just as Matty and Olympia had the Wellbrexa answers in their grasp. It makes for some intense drama that’ll keep the narrative moving for the rest of the season.

Olympia’s Double Standard

From an Olympia defender perspective I can understand why her reaction to Sarah’s confession would send her to the extreme. However, if you look at things from the meaning of her words, she’s created a double standard.

She looks Sarah in the eye, who is freaking out because she knew she did wrong, and tells her that trust means everything so she’s removing her from the team. However, if it’s about trust and broken trust, by that standard shouldn’t she have let Matty go too?

Sure, I know she is reacting from an emotional point of view because Sarah’s actions directly derailed her plans for a coup. However, it can be frustrating to see her be so extreme with Sarah and not Matty.

She did give Matty a hard time at the end of last season, but it is nothing compared to the punishment she hands Sarah. Sarah giving Senior pictures is definitely multiple ethics violations, but its nothing compared to falsifying records in order to take on a new identity and gather information illegally. 

It’s my hope that by the time we come back, Olympia will rethink her decision to push Sarah off her team. I feel she’ll take a breather over the holidays with her family and realize that she perhaps overreacted.

Julian’s Desires

One of the things we must praise about not only the Matlock writers but also Jason Ritter is Julian’s likability this season. We didn’t get much depth from him last season except to feel like an extension of Senior’s agenda.

Then, he lost the partnership race to Olympia and his career sat in limbo. Senior was treating him poorly and Julian started interacting with Olympia and her team in a more sympathetic manner.

The way that Ritter played up these moments allowed us viewers to have a bit of hesitant sympathy for Julian. Then, on Matlock Season 2 Episode 7, “Prior Bad Acts,” Julian helped Olympia get what she needed from Senior’s home office.

However, now his father is ill and could possibly die so Julian has flipped back. The moment he tells his comatose father that he doesn’t want to hold any resentments or grudges, is the moment he stopped being an asset to Olympia and Matty.

We could see it in his face that he would no longer be willing to help take his father down for what he’d done. Nope, now Julian is backing Senior against Olympia and Matty.

Seeing him spy on them at the brownstone is diabolical. We can already tell he’s going to become their biggest adversary as Senior recovers or worse, dies. 

The Wellbrexa fight has just gotten its second wind and we couldn’t be more excited that it’s Julian.

Stray Thoughts

• Billy’s girlfriend losing the baby was not on my bingo card. But, I have a feeling this is the end of the character for the show, considering what we know about David del Rio.
• Olympia gifting the Wellbrexa document to Matty for Christmas is so sweet. I truly love their friendship.
• It will be curious to see if they keep Senior alive and functional or kill him off.
• The case this week, while it helped Olympia and Sarah approach their dilemmas it did little to serve the episode at large.

 

 

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Matlock airs Thursdays at 9/8c on CBS.

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