MATLOCK Post-Mortem: Jennie Snyder Urman Breaks Down Matty’s Emotional Closing Argument

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Thursday, October 24 episode of MATLOCK.]

Matty (Kathy Bates) ended up having to partially try a case on the Thursday, October 24 episode of MATLOCK…and even she was surprised by the journey she went on.

With Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) taking the lead on a sexual harassment/wrongful termination suit, Matty intentionally made herself known in the courthouse, having her phone go off in front of the judge…prompting him to ban cell phones from the premises. While Matty had planned on utilizing that as a way to get herself off the case and have access to Olympia’s phone, Olympia wanted Matty there anyway.

But it was also clear—for Olympia and jury consultant Shae (Yael Grobglas)—that they had lost the jury during the early parts of the trial: Alex was suing her boss, but his team proved she had previously (briefly) dated another colleague and there was a sex tape showing that she had roleplayed with her ex playing boss/subordinate.

Shae, who was also considered a human lie detector, sensed Matty was hiding something. Finally, Matty admitted she didn’t think they should have taken the case.  “We put up with comments all the time, and if it got bad, we avoided the guy,” she told Shae. “We didn’t get drunk at a holiday party and end up alone with him.” Unfortunately, Alex—who had previously found comfort in Matty—heard that.

Matty did ultimately try the case, and was able to get Alex’s boss, Jeremy, to implicate himself and his history of crimes. But she really brought it home with her closing argument, as she acknowledged how the times have changed since she first started out.

“I’m just gonna start off by saying if I seem a little nervous, I am. Because I know what many of you are thinking: This girl, my client, Alex, is sloppy. Careless. Maybe even a little to blame. And I know you’re thinking this because I started out thinking the same thing. Frankly, I didn’t get it. Back in my day, if somebody tried to kiss you in a closet, it sounded like a Tuesday. In fact, we had a code name for bosses that liked to cop a feel: Pants. As in wear them. I guess we were just a little tougher back then. No trigger warnings. We just played cards with the hand we were dealt. No big deal. At least that’s what I thought. And then I remember Greg. At least that’s what I’ll call him here. Greg was a big-shot lawyer when I was just starting out. He’d make these silly comments: ‘Maybe Matty should sleep with opposing counsel to win.’ Stuff like that. And then, one night, I was working late and I went to the breakroom to get a coffee. And, uh, well, without getting into too much detail, he crossed a line. So I went home and I told my husband what happened. Sort of. What I said was, ‘Greg got fresh with me.’ Man, those five words did a lot of work. But I was fine. And we even laughed about what a buffoon he was. And then we decided that I’d just stay out of his way. And that’s what I did. Easy peasy. And then I made decisions like ‘Don’t focus on litigation’ because that’s what Greg specialized in. So I hid. I decided that drafting contracts made me happy. You know, it’s funny, it seemed like a small thing back then. Completely subverted my dreams. Which isn’t small at all, is it? Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my initial judgment of Alex came from my bias, because I’m from a different generation. I assumed things about her. Things that were not true. You know what is true? Alejandra Ramos is incredibly hardworking. She loved her job. She was good at it. And she should have been able to continue doing it. And the reason she couldn’t was Jeremy Brooks. And I want to leave you with one last thing. I know one of our big questions is why Alex waited so long to report what Jeremy Brooks did. But I don’t think that’s the real question at all. Because that question answers itself, doesn’t it? We all know what happens to whistleblowers and it ain’t pretty. I mean, sometimes they even have intimate tapes shown in public courtrooms. The real question is how bad must it have been for Alex to risk everything and finally report it?”

The moment was stunning, with Bates delivering her best scene of the series thus far. But it was also a tricky line to walk for everyone given Matty has spent much of the series deceiving her colleagues.

“That’s like the biggest challenge of the show,” MATLOCK showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman tells Give Me My Remote. “That scene is one of my favorites and her performance…yeah, I agree [it was incredible]. So what I really love about that is that she is being honest about that experience with Greg and that it did subvert her dreams. So it’s this character who is constantly, who’s going in, thinking, ‘I’m going to move these pieces here,’ and then all of a sudden is like, ‘Oh, whoa. I was looking at it a different way.’ And then it forces her to go back, and [see] she can be wrong, too. It forced her to go back into her history and suddenly say, ‘Oh my gosh, my life could have taken a different [turn].’”

“She really looked at what her feminism looked like—and what feminism looks like now,” she continues. “And that change is incredibly important. I like that the character goes through a change. So Kathy and I talk all the time about the complexity of sometimes little pieces of truth come in for Matty and keeping track of those.”

Urman was near the end of season 1’s production when she spoke with GMMR about the scene, but it was clear it still stood out to her months after they filmed the moment. “I think the reason that that scene is so resonant is because it is so brutally honest about her,” she notes. “And yet she is exposing part of herself, but not all of herself. But the emotional core is the true core. So it’s very complicated work.”

“Kathy just layers it and layers it and layers it so that you understand it on all the levels that it is,” she continues. “But it’s a constant balancing act. And I think that’s what is exciting about undercover shows and spy shows, is that you do start to merge [those lives]…it’s not you’re coming in, and parts of you are there. And so these relationships are deep and these relationships are meaningful and that is real. And at the same time, she’s still lying to everyone, so it’s complicated.”

MATLOCK, Thursdays, 9/8c, CBS

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