Matlock – Episode 7 “Belly of The Beast” Recap & Review

Belly of The Beast 

Episode 7 of Matlock starts with Matlock calling Edwin and telling him about joining Pharma. She is excited to be in the belly of the best and close to finding out the truth. She gets ready for work, feeling good about the day.

At the office, she runs into Shae, who asks her to convince Sarah to sing at the Christmas party. Sarah is anxious to show Kira a new side of her. Matlock and Billy try to convince her to stop overthinking it. Sarah and Billy are also worried if they will impress Olympia with Matlock gone.

Olympia fetches Matlock and tries to give her tips on how to circumnavigate the case. The two are also excited to see how Matlock will do in Pharma. Matlock is quick to reassure them that they have nothing to worry about. She is up to date with the case, which involves a young woman suing a drug company.

The young woman, Jessie, alleges she got sick after signing up for a drug trial, but the doctors ignored her symptoms, leaving her with a chronic illness.  Julian wants Matlock to play a good cop while he and the other lawyers play bad cops. As they strategize, Matlock reveals she knows that Julian and Olympia are back together but agrees to keep their secret.

On the other hand, Julian is anxious since his dad cancelled his trip to supervise the case. He feels like Senior is undermining him since he didn’t tell him the CEO of the drug company is around. In the meantime, Matlock notes that Senior is highly dependent on his secretary, Stewart.

During the first meeting, Matlock manages to win over the other lawyers in the case. Jessie’s lawyer, Paige, starts by clarifying why they have a case, but Julian and the other lawyers go hard on her. They insist that Jessie never reported the symptoms to Dr Blackwell. In the end, Matlock comes in, acting like the good guy and offers $50,000. Jessie turns on her phone camera and streams the meeting to her followers. Matlock is quick to hide her face.

The lawyers take a break and call Dr Blackwell, who maintains his story. Matlock doesn’t believe him, but that is not her problem. The team of lawyers decide to offer more money to Jessie. Julian sends Matlock to make the offer. Matlock is hesitant since she doesn’t want to be on camera.  Julian threatens to take her out of the case, so she comes up with a different plan not to be ousted.

In the meantime, Sarah and Billy are struggling with their own case. However, they keep this from Matlock, and Billy reveals he is planning to propose to his girlfriend. Matlock and Sarah are excited and try to help him as he is anxious. He wants everything to be perfect, and his sisters’ words are getting to his head.

Later, Matlock visits Jessie and Paige and offers them more money. The two women promise to think about it, and Matlock is convinced she has them. Shortly after, she gets a call from Julian informing her that Paige and Jessie are bashing them online. They also amended their complaint and got an emergency preliminary injunction to stop the drug trials. This means the drug company will lose millions every day.

The lawyers meet again, and everyone blames Matlock. Senior barges into the meeting and orders the team to get a gag order. Julian is pissed since this was exactly what they had already agreed on when he talked to his dad prior to the meeting. He vents to Olympia and is hurt when she defends Senior.

Later that night, Matlock calls Alfie and Edwin and tells them about her day. She asks Alfie to check the video of Jessie and Paige and find out where they went after their meeting. She learns that Paige and Jessie met with Dr Blackwell’s ex-girlfriend, Katherine. Matlock asks Julian to delay the deposition, but the latter refuses.

At the deposition, Paige and Jessie reveal messages between Katherine and Blackwell that prove that Jessie reported her symptoms, and Blackwell hid them to get approval for the drug. After being side-tracked on the deposition, Juliana and Matlock argue over the what-ifs. Senior summons them to his office and takes them off the case.

Matlock heads to the Christmas party to drink her sorrows away. Shae threatens Sarah to sing, and Sarah convinces Billy to stop waiting for the perfect moment and propose. Olympia checks on Matlock and is shocked to hear that Julian was taken off the case. She confronts Senior, which moves Julian.

As Billy and Sarah comfort Matlock, she gets an idea and rushes to check it out. She later calls Edwin and gets his voicemail. Matlock is in a dilemma since she found a way to win the case, but it will ruin Jessie’s life. She was hoping Edwin would talk her out of doing the wrong thing.

In the end, Matlock tells Julian about her findings, and they leave the party. They head to the judge and call for an emergency meeting. Julian and Matlock show evidence that Blackwell and Katherine were technically married during the time of the messages.

In other words, Jessie and Paige can’t use the messages due to espousal communication protection. Without the messages, the two women can’t prove causation. The judge sides with Julian and Matlock, crushing Paige and Jessie’s dream. Matlock warns Jessie not to breach the gag order.

At the party, Kira is impressed by Sarah’s singing, and they finally kiss. Billy proposes to his girlfriend, and she turns him down. Julian is impressed by Matlock and credits her for solving the case. Senior is impressed by Matlock and gives her a wine bottle, promising to involve her in more of her cases.

The other lawyers also celebrate Matlock and joke about how they screwed over Jessie and Paige. Matlock acts like she is into their jokes, but she anxiously fiddles with her bracelet, causing it to break. She heads back home and loses it since she feels like she is becoming the very thing she hates. She uses the AI version of Senior’s voice to call Stewart and get Senior’s laptop password.

Elsewhere, Julian and Olympia head home after a quick run-in with Elijah. The episode ends with Julian confessing he had an affair while still married to Olympia. She slowly gets up and starts walking away as he profusely apologises.

The Episode Review

Friedrich Nietzsche said, “And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” Matlock should have known this before starting her revenge plan. It is not easy to screw other people’s lives, but that is the sacrifice she has to make to keep working in Pharma and get close to Senior.

After all, she wanted to be in the belly of the beast and thought she was ready. She might have miscalculated since it cost her more than she anticipated. Fortunately, it is not all lost since she managed to get one step closer to Senior. With his password, all she has to do is get his laptop and find more evidence of what she is looking for.

In the meantime, I didn’t see Julian’s shocking revelation coming. I thought he wanted to talk about Olympia and Elijah’s relationship. Does he know about these two? I also didn’t think Claudia would turn Billy down. How will he recover from this heartbreak?