In the Matlock two-part season finale, “Tricks of the Trade – Part One” and “Tricks of the Trade – Part Two,” after Olympia (Skye P Marshall) inspects Matlock’s (Kathy Bates) evidence, Matlock says that while Senior (Beau Bridges) gave the order to remove the Wellbrexa documents, he couldn’t have removed them himself because he was in Australia. Matlock insists Senior would only ask Julian (Jason Ritter). Olympia doesn’t believe Julian would have done it and says Matlock only has circumstantial evidence.
Matlock admits she needs hard evidence. Olympia warns Matlock that Jacobson Moore could easily bury this case. Matlock says if she can prove Julian got a payout and used it to buy their brownstone house, Julian is going to jail. If Olympia finds the money for the house came from his trust fund, Matlock has to give Olympia a month to prove that Senior acted without Julian. Olympia also wants Matlock to leave Jacobson Moore. But Matlock won’t give up her foothold. Olympia says she can’t work with Matlock any longer. Both admit they have incentives to wrap this up as quickly as possible. They no longer trust each other.
Will Olympia and Matlock be able to work together again? Did Julian really hide the Wellbrexa file? Here’s what happens in Matlock episodes 18 and 19.
Sarah’s single, Billy is very much not
Sarah (Leah Lewis) finally dumped Kira (Piper Cruda). But Billy (David Del Rio) hasn’t split up with Simone (Andrea Londo) yet. When he finally does so, Simone blames Sarah.
Billy tells Sarah he has also been hooking up with his ex-fiancée, Claudia, for weeks. He says he needs to spend the summer being single and not a people pleaser. Later, though, Claudia comes to the office. Billy starts to say they need space, but Claudia interrupts to reveal she’s pregnant.
Sarah’s friend is accused of murder
Sarah gets an urgent call from her friend Dino. A few minutes later, Sarah calls Billy, telling him to come meet them at Dino’s gym. When Billy arrives, he sees that Dino has been in a fight and his business partner, Rob, is dead on the floor. Sarah insists Dino didn’t do it.
Dino says Rob came to work this morning very upset, holding the cease and desist letter Sarah recently wrote for Dino. Rob punched Dino. Dino fought back. Then Dino left. When Dino returned, Rob was dead. Billy makes Sarah call the police.
As the police set the crime scene, Rob’s wife Tina arrives. After spotting Rob’s dead body she screams at Dino, “You finally did it! You finally killed Rob.” After discovering Sarah’s aggressive cease and desist letter, Dino is arrested.
When Olympia finds out, she’s livid and threatens to fire Sarah. Billy explains Sarah has spiraled since Matlock gave Billy a case over her weeks ago. Matlock blames herself for Sarah’s predicament.
Olympia tries to give Dino’s case to the public defender. But the judge insists that an unprepared Sarah has to be Dino’s lawyer.
The autopsy reveals that Rob died of a burst appendix. But Tina hid cameras around the gym. Footage shows Dino punched Rob in the appendix. The lawyer says Dino did it on purpose. Dino also gets the gym if Rob dies. Dino is charged with manslaughter.
Dino tells Sarah, Billy, Olympia and Matlock his relationship with Rob deteriorated because he was pushing his own supplements and overcharging the clients. Rob’s former client, Kevin, admits he had a big falling out with Rob. Kevin lent $100,000 to Rob, who then wasted it all. But Kevin won’t testify. Matlock tells Sarah to follow the money.
Sarah and Billy go through Rob’s documents in the gym, hoping to prove that his supplement business was failing.
After Matlock tells Olympia she set Sarah on the path to writing the overly-aggressive cease and desist letter, Olympia tells Sarah she has been overlooked all year and she won’t fire her. Olympia tells Sarah she’ll crush it, as do Billy and Matlock.
A doctor on the stand says Dino’s punch could have killed Rob. But Sarah has discovered Rob’s supplements were making clients ill. After Tina says Rob vomited on the day of his death, and had repeatedly done so, Sarah lays out that he had chronic appendicitis, brought on by the supplements and the failure of the business. The District Attorney dismisses the charges against Dino. Dino tells Tina she can own half of the gym, and they’ll work together to bring down Rob’s debt.
Sarah is still in trouble
An irate Simone starts looking into Sarah being Dino’s lawyer. She knows Dino wasn’t a client at Jacobson Moore. At the celebration for Sarah’s victory, Simone quizzes Dino on how he knows Sarah, as she looks to get Sarah fired.
Olympia won the partner race
Senior surprises Olympia with the news she’s become a partner. Senior says Olympia was picked because she wasn’t afraid to swim upstream and break the rules, and they didn’t want to lose Olympia to another firm. Senior reminds Olympia she now has a stake in everything that happens at Jacobson Moore. When Julian finds out, he begrudgingly congratulates Olympia.
Later, Julian confronts Senior, saying this is the end of their relationship, and he can’t wait to get away from Senior. Senior says Junior has a victim mentality, and Julian will be back soon, asking for money.
Edwin wants to go back to their old life
Now that the end of their work is getting closer, Edwin (Sam Anderson) tells Matlock they have to get ready to sell the Westchester house and get back to their old life in San Francisco. But Matlock isn’t ready to stop being a lawyer. She wants to keep helping people. She only retired because of Ellie’s death. Edwin doesn’t want Matlock to go back to work.
Olympia tries to get into Julian’s bank. Did Julian hide the files?
Olympia no longer has access to Julian’s banking. Matlock gives Olympia advice on how to disarm Julian into giving the information. Matlock is confident that once Olympia sees that the money leads to Julian, she’ll do the right thing.
When Olympia next asks Julian for access, she begins by calling him a great father and saying Senior is terrible. This causes Julian to cry and admit that Olympia and their children are his family. But Olympia doesn’t get Julian’s password.
Matlock tells Olympia to go through Julian’s mother Lyla. When Lyla visits Olympia, Olympia subtly quizzes Lyla about the trust fund. Lyla reveals she can’t remember if she gave Julian the money for the house.
Olympia also discovers the answer to the one security question she didn’t know the answer to. When Olympia goes to the bank, Edwin pretends to be Julian over the phone, answers the questions and gets access to the account.
Olympia discovers that there was no payout. The money for the house came from the trust and was authorized by Julian’s mother. Olympia still wants to build a case against Senior and figure out who helped him, though. Matlock says she’ll help. Olympia says they’ll do so on her rules, though.
Then the bank teller accidentally reveals that Julian had a safety deposit box that Olympia didn’t know about. When Olympia opens the security box, she discovers the missing Wellbrexa study about opioids.
Julian then walks in. He says it happened when he was 26 years old, and he did it to try and win his dad’s respect. Julian recalls the night it occurred. Shae accidentally revealed to him that Wellbrexa was furious about a file in discovery. Shae didn’t know what it was, but was being threatened repeatedly. Julian mentioned it to Senior, who immediately flew to Australia to meet with the “head honchos.” Then Senior called Julian from Australia and told him to get rid of the study before anyone saw it. Senior orchestrated the fire drill to give time for Julian to steal it. Julian wonders how Olympia knows all this.
Julian tells Olympia to give him the files so they can shred them. But Olympia says their children need to be protected from him. Julian says he’s a different man now, and he is willing to do anything to stop this from coming out and ruining his life. He says this will also ruin their children’s lives, too. Olympia wonders what to do.
One more twist
As Matlock waits for Olympia to arrive with the evidence, there’s a knock on the door. Matlock thinks it’s Olympia. But it’s a man that Matlock doesn’t recognize. The man says Alfie contacted him. He thinks he’s Alfie’s father. He wants to be part of Alfie’s life. Matlock invites him inside.
Episodes of Matlock are available to stream on Paramount Plus.