S01.E11: A Traitor in Thine Own House

[chitowngirl]

Tensions rise as Shae works with Olympia's team on a case for a tech startup that's had trade secrets stolen.
 

Airdate February 13, 2025 on CBS.

[AnimeMania]

Yael Grobglas as Shae "Meerkat" Banfield

[ItCouldBeWorse]

I guess the grandson was left home by himself for awhile when grandpa was in Georgia.

[johntfs]

27 minutes ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

I guess the grandson was left home by himself for awhile when grandpa was in Georgia.

Or Grandad got a baby-sitter.  Or Alfie can be trusted to look after himself for a couple of days given that he's also a member of their conspiracy to avenge his mother.

Meanwhile Sarah being a psuedo-Shakespearean villain with her quotes will never not be adorable and funny.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

Foolish for Edwin to lie to Maddy about the email; why mention it at all?  She hadn't asked him.

Alfie's 12, right?  Hopefully at least one of them will still be in decent health for the next 6 years - it's not likes he's a toddler. And they do have relatives to act as guardians if neither of them survive that long.  It really doesn't make sense to stir things up now, on the chance that his father is a perfectly fine person. 

[andromeda331]

I don't like Sarah and Olympia finally summed up why. She is too busy being competitive and reacting badly when things don't go her way. She was surprised that Billy was mad at her. Of course he is. He got his big moment, his first case and won it and she keeps being mad that it was stolen for her. While she's right about Matty screwing her over.  One thing. She can't prove it. Olympia likes Matty and why would she think Sarah was right? Billy won the case. She makes catty comments all episodes and lines herself up with Shae who Olympia's clearly not happy with.  

I wish there was a better reason for Matty's deception. It was fun watching her set up Shae. But at the same time. Their both terrible people. I didn't trust Shae from the beginning but also she slept with Julian while she was some what friends with Olympia. That's terrible. I'm sure Shae's done more terrible things. But at the same time Matty's screwing over Olympia and Julian to blow up their divorce so she can get information for her vendetta. 

I kind of wish Olympia had been able to expose her client on the stand. But I know she couldn't. What a jerk.  

 

[Bastet]

Yay, no Alfie!

I continue to despise Shae as I have from her first episode - I've never figured out what respective percentages to assign to my dislike of jury consultants, my irrational hatred for the way the actor's mouth moves, and the writing, but it adds up to I hate her - so I absolutely delighted in Matty thwarting her.

Is this the first time we got the specific timeline of 14 years ago?

I suspected Todd immediately, so because they so clearly wanted me to, I also immediately suspected the client.

The way Olympia got out of her shoes to join the techbros on the floor was such a tiny thing, yet great physical acting. 

"Have you got a Cindy Shapiro story?" was fun, but Olympia's "I hate Arthur!" after hearing the dog story was even better.  I love her.

The "Retaliation?"/"Of course not, just a friendly check-in" scene was frighteningly accurate.

I also liked Olympia and Sarah at the end, the combination of Olympia being sympathetic and supportive while WTF did I just agree to? apprehensive.

Edited February 14 by Bastet

[Chicago Redshirt]

2 minutes ago, andromeda331 said:

I don't like Sarah and Olympia finally summed up why. She is too busy being competitive and reacting badly when things don't go her way. She was surprised that Billy was mad at her. Of course he is. He got his big moment, his first case and won it and she keeps being mad that it was stolen for her. While she's right about Matty screwing her over.  One thing. She can't prove it. Olympia likes Matty and why would she think Sarah was right? Billy won the case. She makes catty comments all episodes and lines herself up with Shae who Olympia's clearly not happy with.  

I wish there was a better reason for Matty's deception. It was fun watching her set up Shae. But at the same time. Their both terrible people. I didn't trust Shae from the beginning but also she slept with Julian while she was some what friends with Olympia. That's terrible. I'm sure Shae's done more terrible things. But at the same time Matty's screwing over Olympia and Julian to blow up their divorce so she can get information for her vendetta. 

I kind of wish Olympia had been able to expose her client on the stand. But I know she couldn't. What a jerk.  

 

I don't think Olympia ever liked Shae on any level. She nicknamed her "the Meerkat," which is doesn't sound friendly thing. I think she expressly disbelieves in her skills and she helped badmouth her so she wasn't hired back in the day.  It may also have been that on some level she suspected the affair, but that would be pretty good instincts since we're given to believe it was a one-time thing.

It looks like setting up Shae may not have been the best long-term move since it put her on Senior's radar. But I can't get over how to fall into this trap, Shae had to be willing even after an HR complaint to fly 2-3 hours to Georgia, get a hotel, agree to meet a stranger on her own dime (presumably) for the chance that this person would reveal something about Matty. We once again run into the issue that a thorough background check of "Madeline Matlock" would presumably have major gaps unless Matty did a lot more to cover her tracks than Alfie could manage on his own. 

Just off her application alone, she'd have to say where and when she graduated college and law school, and where she passed the bar. Alfie can put up all the fake profiles and articles he wants. But if she said she joined the Florida Bar in 1990, there are both hard copy and electronic records I don't think she would be able to mess with. Shae or Sarah could just hop onto https://www.gabar.org/ and find there's nobody matching her name. (There are, however, three real-life attorneys who had been registered with the state of Georgia with the last name "Matlock" and 26 with the first name "Madeline." It would be pretty easy to call up her purported alma mater and confirm that no one with that name had graduated from that institution in the late 80s (or whenever she claims to have graduated). Again, if we are going to have Shae being willing to spend the time and cash to check into her background, looking at old legal newspapers or cases she supposedly worked on would raise more red flags. And I question whether/how Edwin would go from being superbad at lying that he couldn't even carry on a superficially fake conversation with an electronics employee a few episodes back got good enough that he could fool Shae. Putting aside the body language and all that jazz, I just don't think he could talk about Matty's supposed legal work with enough detail to fool anyone even if they had no training in deception. I just think it implausible to come up with a script to answer questions that Shae might ask about Matty's work. 

32 minutes ago, andromeda331 said:

I don't like Sarah and Olympia finally summed up why. She is too busy being competitive and reacting badly when things don't go her way. She was surprised that Billy was mad at her. Of course he is. He got his big moment, his first case and won it and she keeps being mad that it was stolen for her. While she's right about Matty screwing her over.  One thing. She can't prove it. Olympia likes Matty and why would she think Sarah was right? Billy won the case. She makes catty comments all episodes and lines herself up with Shae who Olympia's clearly not happy with.  

I wish there was a better reason for Matty's deception. It was fun watching her set up Shae. But at the same time. Their both terrible people. I didn't trust Shae from the beginning but also she slept with Julian while she was some what friends with Olympia. That's terrible. I'm sure Shae's done more terrible things. But at the same time Matty's screwing over Olympia and Julian to blow up their divorce so she can get information for her vendetta. 

I kind of wish Olympia had been able to expose her client on the stand. But I know she couldn't. What a jerk.  

 

I am disappointed that Sarah went from Elizabethan (not Victorian, I believe) Supervillain back to Golden Retriever puppy desperate for approval already. I was hoping that she would pose a real obstacle for Matty. Alas, she's already back on leash and asking for belly scritches. Her staring her down at the bus stop will have to do.

She could have also been better at supervillainy. The way you prove yourself is not by just making backbiting comments and being late for work appointments with Billy. You prove yourself by showing you deserve it more. I think I would have liked her as the Cutthroat Bitch (tm House) of the office if she were actually good at her job. But it seems like she's pulling all the shit she does out of a profound sense of insecurity. Which is really quite sad. 

The COTW made even less sense to me than normal:

1. They are 11 months into a trade secret litigation and they have no clue as to what the purported similarities might be between their company's tech and the competition's? Or theories on how the other company might have procured that tech?

2. The figure about parts of silver dioxide per whatever does not in and of itself say anything about how Company A achieved that goal and therefore nothing about whether it stole technology from Company B. Company A could have improved on Company B's process, or deliberately watered it down. Hell, even if Company A and Company B had the same levels and the same method to get that level, they could have come by the method organically.

3. What kind of crazy company would have people wearing GPS-data wristbands essentially 24-7?

4. Surely there are easier ways to try to figure out who might have leaked the company secrets than what Our Heroes did.

5. What sort of sense does it make for Todd and Mentee to have leaked the trade secret? Why wouldn't it have been smarter to just keep the secret for themselves and capitalize on it?

6. Why wouldn't the CEO just admit at some point before his hand was forced "Actually, we know that they stole our design because Mentee fed it to them at our direction."? Yes, clients (and everybody lies) but what did Todd expect was going to happen when serious litigation happened? Wouldn't an obvious step one be to investigate the ex-employee of Company A who went over to Company B to see if he somehow smuggled the secret? What were they going to do when Our Heroes deposed the ex-employee about his contacts with his old firm? Especially if he ended up telling the truth?

7. I don't know the nitty-gritty about how the cloud seeding was supposed to work, but it seems to me unlikely that one had to steal massive amounts of data to steal a trade secret. It depends on what aspect of the thing they were claiming was stolen. 

[possibilities]

I am starting to worry about where things are headed. 

But then... maybe Olympia is right not to trust Julian. It never occurred to me that she would genuinely be clueless about their finances, and that maybe she was being too trusting in the divorce. He did have the affair. But then he did confess it to her when they were reconciling, which doesn't seem like something he would do if he was trying to hide anything.

It is terible that Maddy is manipulating them. But what if she's right and it's actually true that Olympia shouldn't trust him? I don't know. I mean, I thought it was right for hiim to telll her abou the affair, but then he flipped really fast to attacking her for being upset about it, which is not how it works when you confess a transgression. You are supposed to expect the person to be upset and to have some consequences.

Senior was scary as hell when he "came down to check on" Maddy.

Her husband lying about looking for Alfie's birthfather is weird. Why would he do that?

I was glad that Billy got fed up with Sarah. She was right about Maddy having terrible motives in removing her from the case, but she was still a crappy friend and colleage to Billy and handled herself very badly. 

Not so long ago, she was helping him be more professional and not let his break up sabotage his career. It's kind of upsetting that she can't get a grip on her own behavior, though. 

 

[Bastet]

21 hours ago, possibilities said:

But then... maybe Olympia is right not to trust Julian. It never occurred to me that she would genuinely be clueless about their finances, and that maybe she was being too trusting in the divorce.

My mind was boggled by that conversation about "our" finances.  It seems she allowed more to be joint than any legal professional, never mind anyone with a lick of sense, would, but the discrepancy might go on to believably open a plot door rather than just being sloppy.

Edited February 15 by Bastet

[ItCouldBeWorse]

1 hour ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

Just off her application alone, she'd have to say where and when she graduated college and law school, and where she passed the bar. Alfie can put up all the fake profiles and articles he wants. But if she said she joined the Florida Bar in 1990, there are both hard copy and electronic records I don't think she would be able to mess with. Shae or Sarah could just hop onto https://www.gabar.org/ and find there's nobody matching her name. (There are, however, three real-life attorneys who had been registered with the state of Georgia with the last name "Matlock" and 26 with the first name "Madeline." It would be pretty easy to call up her purported alma mater and confirm that no one with that name had graduated from that institution in the late 80s (or whenever she claims to have graduated). Again, if we are going to have Shae being willing to spend the time and cash to check into her background, looking at old legal newspapers or cases she supposedly worked on would raise more red flags. And I question whether/how Edwin would go from being superbad at lying that he couldn't even carry on a superficially fake conversation with an electronics employee a few episodes back got good enough that he could fool Shae. Putting aside the body language and all that jazz, I just don't think he could talk about Matty's supposed legal work with enough detail to fool anyone even if they had no training in deception. I just think it implausible to come up with a script to answer questions that Shae might ask about Matty's work. 

Yes, I can't think of any law firm that would an employee to try cases in NY without confirming that said employee was a member of the NY Bar, complete with registration #.  At the very least, their legal malpractice carrier would require that information.

1 hour ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

1. They are 11 months into a trade secret litigation and they have no clue as to what the purported similarities might be between their company's tech and the competition's? Or theories on how the other company might have procured that tech?

2. The figure about parts of silver dioxide per whatever does not in and of itself say anything about how Company A achieved that goal and therefore nothing about whether it stole technology from Company B. Company A could have improved on Company B's process, or deliberately watered it down. Hell, even if Company A and Company B had the same levels and the same method to get that level, they could have come by the method organically.

Yes and yes.

Augie from Covert Affairs (the plaintiff) said something early on about wanting to be "open source" but couldn't if the defendant had a patent?  Does the defendant have a patent on the technology?  If so, the technology would be published and wouldn't be a secret at all. That's very different from trade secret misappropriation.  Also "open source" refers to software. This wasn't asoftware invention. The whole case was a mess.

1 hour ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

It looks like setting up Shae may not have been the best long-term move since it put her on Senior's radar.

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

Senior was scary as hell when he "came down to check on" Maddy.

Let's just hope that Shae isn't Senior's secret daughter (yuck.)

 

[nilyank]

1 hour ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

Let's just hope that Shae isn't Senior's secret daughter (yuck.)

 

Well lets hope not since Shae and Julian had slept together. It is more likely that Senior and Shae slept together and this probably ties back into the fact that Senior used her to hide the evidence that Maddy is looking for that proves the firm is guilty.

[AnimeMania]

I think Senior helped Meerkat leave Wellbrexa and start her own business because she didn't like all of Wellbrexa's lies. In exchange, Meerkat gives priority to the Jacobson Moore cases, when requested.

[Gregg247]

I really want to like Sarah but the show is doing its best to stop me.  The actress is pretty good but the writers are using her as a prop instead of a character. 

Each episode, she veers from competent-but-insecure to daffy-and-forgetful to romantic lead to distrustful competitor to loyal friend to work villain.  Who is she?!?  They need to stop defining her based on the needs of whatever plot they have going on for the week; that's what guest-stars are for!

[babyrambo]

The writing isn’t always perfect but I I really like that Sarah gets to be so hardheaded and socially awkward. Her Victorian moment was just the right amount of cute and weird. Leah Lewis is doing a great job because I completely buy Sarah as someone who cloaks herself in selfish bravado to hide that she’s deeply insecure, and that’s less because of the writing and more because of how she’s played.

And silly as it was, I also liked Sarah teaming up with Shae to dig into Matty’s background; they have similarly intense personalities & great chemistry so their back-and-forth was fun to watch. Even if things didn’t really go anywhere but to Georgia and back. Felt like a waste of time to go all the way there on such little evidence—the lie Shae caught Matty in about Alfie’s grandfather/the stalking of her linkedin page and Sarah’s own professional jealousy/suspicions?). Very much an only on TV thing. 

Kind of like Shae herself. I’ve been waiting on her human lie detector skills to reveal something damning about Matty, but so far all she’s done is catch Matty in a few easily explained away lies. That and shameless staring. Her one eyebrow was putting in overtime on this episode. Could’ve been a paid actor all on its own. 

Not sure what’s going on with Senior & Shae though. In a different show there’d be a paternity or romantic reveal but thankfully this show isn’t that. There’s definitely more to his creepy check-in than just his being ’fond of the kid (Shae) because they go way back ’ though. I think that like Sarah, Senior’s never bought into Matty’s act. Their interactions always feel so fake, and weirdly layered. Tense. Like he doesn’t know what the con is but knows there’s a con. 

It’s like everyone’s had an iffy moment with Matty but Olympia, who seems to trust her (at work at least) implicitly. Between Julian, Elijah, and the eventual Matty reveal, I can see Olympia wanting to leave the firm on her own for a fresh start. Because this divorce is already getting messy—I was surprised that Olympia let Julian take over the finances. Not wanting to be branded a gold digger at the beginning of her relationship is one thing I guess, but to give up total control? She isn’t one to let go like that, especially once she started making good money herself. She seems to be all for clarity now but I don’t think she’s going to like any of answers she gets.

& I don’t like that it’s already gotten so bitter because I ended up really liking Julian and Olympia together and wish this plot had come up next season. But maybe that would’ve been worse, since they’d have properly been back together. Just seems like a lot with everything else going on. Plus I hate that Matty’s so callously messing with Olympian’s life. Work is one thing but even knowing her reasoning, this maneuvering seems unnecessarily cruel. 

[shapeshifter]

14 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

I didn't trust Shae from the beginning but also she slept with Julian while she was some what friends with Olympia. That's terrible. I'm sure Shae's done more terrible things. But at the same time Matty's screwing over Olympia and Julian to blow up their divorce so she can get information for her vendetta

The character of Shae seems to have been created in order to make Matty look more altruistic in comparison.

 

 

12 hours ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

Let's just hope that Shae isn't Senior's secret daughter (yuck.)

10 hours ago, nilyank said:

It is more likely that Senior and Shae slept together and this probably ties back into the fact that Senior used her to hide the evidence that Maddy is looking for that proves the firm is guilty.

Yes. That's how I interpreted it. 

8 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

I think Senior helped Meerkat leave Wellbrexa and start her own business because she didn't like all of Wellbrexa's lies. In exchange, Meerkat gives priority to the Jacobson Moore cases, when requested.

Maybe this👆 too.

 

 

[buckboard]

People are taking the stories in this show way too realistically.  That's why we need to use our "willing suspension of disbelief" and just enjoy the show.

Of course, it's been obvious from the first episode that Matty couldn't survive a serious check of her employment background.  I'm surprised it's taken this long for anyone to look into it.  Looking for newspapers articles for employment proof?  Really?  No record of her in bar associations or law school?  Falsified required Continuing Education classes?  You can't take this seriously.  

Same with the trials. Don't look at them with a critical eye and just enjoy the fiction.  The show is much more enjoyable if you have never worked in a law firm or watched Law & Order.

[TeapotDiva]

3 minutes ago, buckboard said:

People are taking the stories in this show way too realistically.  That's why we need to use our "willing suspension of disbelief" and just enjoy the show.

Of course, it's been obvious from the first episode that Matty couldn't survive a serious check of her employment background.  I'm surprised it's taken this long for anyone to look into it.  Looking for newspapers articles for employment proof?  Really?  No record of her in bar associations or law school?  Falsified required Continuing Education classes?  You can't take this seriously.  

Same with the trials. Don't look at them with a critical eye and just enjoy the fiction.  The show is much more enjoyable if you have never worked in a law firm or watched Law & Order.

Amen!  Jacobson & Moore is so loosey-goosey, I was amazed to learn that it actually had an HR office!

[shapeshifter]

2 minutes ago, buckboard said:

People are taking the stories in this show way too realistically.  That's why we need to use our "willing suspension of disbelief" and just enjoy the show.

Of course, it's been obvious from the first episode that Matty couldn't survive a serious check of her employment background.  I'm surprised it's taken this long for anyone to look into it.  Looking for newspapers articles for employment proof?  Really?  No record of her in bar associations or law school?  Falsified required Continuing Education classes?  You can't take this seriously.  

Same with the trials. Don't look at them with a critical eye and just enjoy the fiction.  The show is much more enjoyable if you have never worked in a law firm or watched Law & Order.

If the show was more of a dramedy, the willing suspension of disbelief would be an easier lift. But with the basic premise focused on the death toll due to fentanyl propagated by greedy corporate executives, I have a greater tendency to complain about the plot holes than I would if it was just a show about a smart, still-highly effective female attorney going back to work in her mid-70s to make ends meet.🤷‍♀️

[preeya]

The email is signed "Joey."  Who is Joey? Why did hubby lie to Maddie?

 

[Bastet]

3 hours ago, preeya said:

Who is Joey?

They think he could be a lead on Alfie's father -- it could be him, he could know who she was with at the time, etc.

3 hours ago, preeya said:

Why did hubby lie to Maddie?

It was potentially a dick move where he's going to do what he made her reassure him she wouldn't, which is look into it alone -- it might be that he thinks Matty already has enough on her plate, so he'll tell her the email is gone, and then he'll talk with Joey and suss things out before looping her in.

Edited February 15 by Bastet

[possibilities]

7 hours ago, babyrambo said:

Felt like a waste of time to go all the way there on such little evidence

True. But also true about Maddy and her family concocting this entire operation over a reddit post.

[GHScorpiosRule]

On 2/14/2025 at 8:15 PM, buckboard said:

The show is much more enjoyable if you have never worked in a law firm or watched Law & Order.

I do work in a law firm AND watched original recipe Law & Order during the first 20 years.

And I am enjoying the show.  BUT. There should be some realism. Again, this week. That’s NOT  how depositions work. It’s one witness for the day, or if they HAVE to depose multiple people, split them among the team to do it. See? I’m hand waving that there was no notice of depositions exchanged or agreement when they would take place! That’s me suspending my disbelief.

I was clapping and cheering when Shae got put in her place! Can’t STAND her.

I am sad that Julian and Olympia are imploding to ugliness.

Senior is up to something.

Edited February 16 by GHScorpiosRule

[andromeda331]

21 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

I don't think Olympia ever liked Shae on any level. She nicknamed her "the Meerkat," which is doesn't sound friendly thing. I think she expressly disbelieves in her skills and she helped badmouth her so she wasn't hired back in the day.  It may also have been that on some level she suspected the affair, but that would be pretty good instincts since we're given to believe it was a one-time thing.

It looks like setting up Shae may not have been the best long-term move since it put her on Senior's radar. But I can't get over how to fall into this trap, Shae had to be willing even after an HR complaint to fly 2-3 hours to Georgia, get a hotel, agree to meet a stranger on her own dime (presumably) for the chance that this person would reveal something about Matty. We once again run into the issue that a thorough background check of "Madeline Matlock" would presumably have major gaps unless Matty did a lot more to cover her tracks than Alfie could manage on his own. 

Just off her application alone, she'd have to say where and when she graduated college and law school, and where she passed the bar. Alfie can put up all the fake profiles and articles he wants. But if she said she joined the Florida Bar in 1990, there are both hard copy and electronic records I don't think she would be able to mess with. Shae or Sarah could just hop onto https://www.gabar.org/ and find there's nobody matching her name. (There are, however, three real-life attorneys who had been registered with the state of Georgia with the last name "Matlock" and 26 with the first name "Madeline." It would be pretty easy to call up her purported alma mater and confirm that no one with that name had graduated from that institution in the late 80s (or whenever she claims to have graduated). Again, if we are going to have Shae being willing to spend the time and cash to check into her background, looking at old legal newspapers or cases she supposedly worked on would raise more red flags. And I question whether/how Edwin would go from being superbad at lying that he couldn't even carry on a superficially fake conversation with an electronics employee a few episodes back got good enough that he could fool Shae. Putting aside the body language and all that jazz, I just don't think he could talk about Matty's supposed legal work with enough detail to fool anyone even if they had no training in deception. I just think it implausible to come up with a script to answer questions that Shae might ask about Matty's work. 

I am disappointed that Sarah went from Elizabethan (not Victorian, I believe) Supervillain back to Golden Retriever puppy desperate for approval already. I was hoping that she would pose a real obstacle for Matty. Alas, she's already back on leash and asking for belly scritches. Her staring her down at the bus stop will have to do.

She could have also been better at supervillainy. The way you prove yourself is not by just making backbiting comments and being late for work appointments with Billy. You prove yourself by showing you deserve it more. I think I would have liked her as the Cutthroat Bitch (tm House) of the office if she were actually good at her job. But it seems like she's pulling all the shit she does out of a profound sense of insecurity. Which is really quite sad. 

I think I would too. That would be more interesting if she was a cuthroat bitch who was good at her job.  And after being screwed over by Matty instead of threatening her decided to start looking into her. It would make more sense for a cuthroat to do that. Especially someone who just walked in off the street, got a job and now was close with Olympia. 

[Irlandesa]

3 hours ago, buckboard said:

People are taking the stories in this show way too realistically.  That's why we need to use our "willing suspension of disbelief" and just enjoy the show.
 

I guess I find some things easier to suspend my disbelief over than others.  For instance, because this is an hour-long procedural-ish show, I don't think too much about the fact that they could get the activists to sue, have a court date, and have more depositions all within about a week.

I don't love that they don't try to come up with better explanations for some other things they do, like name the main character Matty Matlock.  It just feels like, in conceiving of the show, they could have put more effort into her backstory and why she could pass a background check.

I still suspend disblelief because I think they do other things quite well but it still irks. 

[Bastet]

21 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

I don't think Olympia ever liked Shae on any level. She nicknamed her "the Meerkat," which is doesn't sound friendly thing. I think she expressly disbelieves in her skills and she helped badmouth her so she wasn't hired back in the day.

I think it's interesting that, already knowing Olympia came away from Shae's interview dinner with the firm thinking she shouldn't be hired, we now hear Matty say Shae wasn't qualified enough to be poached, so there has to be some other reason Senior hired her when he did.  I like that Olympia's reason was professional, not some stereotypical sexist bullshit about "catty" women.

Something I forgot to mention in my complaining about Shae, her stated reason for wanting Matty gone - "dishonest people are dangerous" - does not make sense as the motivation for how very hard she's going against Matty, so that's another thing that is either sloppy writing or we're going to find out that's a cover for the real reason.  I'm always hoping for the latter, but this show makes me do that a lot.

Also, given how useless HR is to so many employees suffering mistreatment (it's about protecting the company from liability, not helping the employee), I loved how the interview room had a glass door and, especially, that the HR guy was reading directly from the handbook in saying the firm does not condone or tolerate discrimination, harassment, or abuse.

Edited February 15 by Bastet

[Dowel Jones]

22 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

She nicknamed her "the Meerkat," which is doesn't sound friendly thing.

I have the impression that one night Olympia was watching a Meerkat Manor episode on Nat Geo Wild and noticed the way they stood ramrod straight and were constantly shifting their gaze around, watching for predators, and said "They look just like Shae!"  And so was born the sobriquet.

22 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

. I don't know the nitty-gritty about how the cloud seeding was supposed to work, but it seems to me unlikely that one had to steal massive amounts of data to steal a trade secret.

The short answer is that particles of silver iodide or other molecules are spread into clouds, hoping to create water droplets through chemistry, and if they become heavy enough, to generate rain.  I know this because I remember reading that, back in the 70s droughts that were plaguing the West, Idaho tried to sue Washington in federal court, alleging that by seeding the clouds as they made their way across the state, Washington was 'stealing' Idaho's rainfall.

And you thought that the legalese in this show was unrealistic...

[leighdear]

I did love that Matty has her own at-home Polygraph system.  Good to keep your actions & reactions to questioning in good shape, even if YOU are the lawyer! 

Shae just needs to be gone, and that gloppy mess of a red mouth with her.  Who even thinks that's attractive?  Horrible character and horrible actress. 

They totally overplay Sarah's character too, they need to pull back.  Her over-aggressiveness and venom towards Matty is so inappropriate.  Who in the AF does she think she is? 

Billy is fine, they keep him where he belongs.  He had his little failed engagement sequence, and then won a case but they didn't drag any of it out.  Less is more with them both. 

Edited February 15 by leighdear

[shapeshifter]

11 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

It just feels like, in conceiving of the show, they could have put more effort into her backstory and why she could pass a background check.

Especially since this is a Kathy Bates project.
Maybe the show is about to have her found out to be a fraud?

[possibilities]

I'm also hung up on the insanity oif Olympia imagining that Senior will choose her over his own son for partnership. She comes off absurdly naive with that. 

[MerBearHou]

I’m curious about this Joey-person.  Joey could be a female nickname so we shall see…

[Dowel Jones]

6 hours ago, leighdear said:

I did love that Matty has her own at-home Polygraph system.

I remember reading of some police detectives setting up a "lie detector" for questioning a suspect.  They hooked a metal salad colander up with a couple of wires, which they draped behind a copier, which had a sheet saying, "He is lying".  They put the colander on the suspect's head and would push the copier button whenever he gave an answer they didn't like.  The guy actually fell for it and confessed, although the case was later dismissed.

[Driad]

This reminded me of a scene from "Barney Miller":  Dietrich takes a lie detector test.

[Chicago Redshirt]

3 hours ago, possibilities said:

I'm also hung up on the insanity oif Olympia imagining that Senior will choose her over his own son for partnership. She comes off absurdly naive with that. 

While I agree that it is unrealistic for Olympia to think that Senior would possibly choose her over Julian, there's some reasons at least for Olympia to think he might:

1. We have been told (and to a little extent shown) that Senior likes Olympia better than Julian. Indeed, Julian has enough of a bad relationship with Senior that he was willing to swipe a bunch of Senior's trophies to let Olympia smash them. So the fact that Julian is blood could actually work against him.

2. Olympia seemingly is a better/more successful lawyer than Julian. Obviously we haven't gotten to know what Julian has been doing of late, but thanks to Matty, Olympia has brought in several million in verdicts to the firm just in the last year (or whatever it's been since Matty came on board). And that's when she's been in this (from Senior's perspective) woo-woo do-gooder pro bono phase. Imagine if he can get her to be focus on moneymaking corporate clients again full-time. Olympia might reasonably think that Senior is all about the bottom line and willing to put sentiment aside.

Yes, I still think it is naive for her to think that Senior would choose her over his own flesh-and-blood. But maybe not insane.  

[GHScorpiosRule]

Is this another example of suspension of disbelief I have to utilize? I’m speaking of how polygraphs work. It’s always a “Yes”  or “No” response that determines veracity or “truth” and not stating something or explaining or whatever.

[johntfs]

8 hours ago, leighdear said:

I did love that Matty has her own at-home Polygraph system.  Good to keep your actions & reactions to questioning in good shape, even if YOU are the lawyer! 

Shae just needs to be gone, and that gloppy mess of a red mouth with her.  Who even thinks that's attractive?  Horrible character and horrible actress. 

They totally overplay Sarah's character too, they need to pull back.  Her over-aggressiveness and venom towards Matty is so inappropriate.  Who in the AF does she think she is? 

Billy is fine, they keep him where he belongs.  He had his little failed engagement sequence, and then won a case but they didn't drag any of it out.  Less is more with them both. 

Sarah reminds me a little of the Huntress from Birds of Prey.  Sarah is extremely competent at being an assassin, er, lawyer, but incredibly socially awkward at almost everything outside of that.

[Irlandesa]

21 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Is this another example of suspension of disbelief I have to utilize? I’m speaking of how polygraphs work. It’s always a “Yes”  or “No” response that determines veracity or “truth” and not stating something or explaining or whatever.

It doesn't matter what questions are being asked, polygraphs don't work.  There are too many false negatives, positives and inconclusives which is why they can't be used in court. 

But even if Matty and Erwin were using the machine in the way it was intended to be used, they were angling for Matty to be able to respond to questions without seeming nervous and being perceived as lying.  Even an imperfect use of the machine would likely get them what they needed out of the machine. She wouldn't want to trigger it telling a lie or a truth.

Edited Sunday at 05:16 PM by Irlandesa

[possibilities]

5 hours ago, Driad said:

This reminded me of a scene from "Barney Miller":  Dietrich takes a lie detector test.

I liked that episode, if I remember it correctly. Excellent use of Dietrich.

[GHScorpiosRule]

1 hour ago, Irlandesa said:

It doesn't matter what questions are being asked, polygraphs don't work.  There are too many false negatives, positives and inconclusives which is why they can't be used in court. 

I know they don’t work and that they’re not admissible in court.

Psych did a better job of showing how to “beat” the test.

[andromeda331]

22 hours ago, Bastet said:

Something I forgot to mention in my complaining about Shae, her stated reason for wanting Matty gone - "dishonest people are dangerous" - does not make sense as the motivation for how very hard she's going against Matty, so that's another thing that is either sloppy writing or we're going to find out that's a cover for the real reason.  I'm always hoping for the latter, but this show makes me do that a lot.

It's also rich coming from Shae. She slept with Olympia's husband. 

[Percysowner]

On 2/13/2025 at 11:21 PM, ItCouldBeWorse said:

I guess the grandson was left home by himself for awhile when grandpa was in Georgia.

These people have a chauffeur and with the size of the house I would guess full time maids and a cook. I'm sure there is someone that can stay with the kid for a few days.

[Yeah No]

On 2/15/2025 at 7:23 AM, leighdear said:

Shae just needs to be gone, and that gloppy mess of a red mouth with her.  Who even thinks that's attractive?  Horrible character and horrible actress. 

They totally overplay Sarah's character too, they need to pull back.  Her over-aggressiveness and venom towards Matty is so inappropriate.  Who in the AF does she think she is? 

I couldn't agree more. Both Shae and Sarah are caricatures of stereotypical sexist cartoon "villianesses" and together they're OTT. All Shae needs is a coat made of puppies. I don't think the rest of the show is all that realistic either but this is particularly hard for me to take on a few levels. I think the show should dial them both back. They flirted with this when we finally saw a more human side of Sarah, which the actress handled very well, but then they went back to portraying her as a cartoon villain, only this time on steroids. Ugh.

[Zaffy]

My main problem with this show it is the  side characters. They are not intriguing or interesting. I do not care about Sarah, or her other colleague that I can't even remember his name now, I could not care less about Julian, Senior or even Olympia. The only ones that are slightly interesting are Shae and that lady from Archives. 

Talking about Shae, could she be Senior's daughter?

As for realism, I treat 90% of recent TV shows as fantasy ones, since writers cover their constant weak writing with stupidity. 

Still, I think we deserve an episode with Matty's backstory. How she is so rich? I would not mind a flashback episode.

Edited Monday at 03:52 PM by Zaffy

[DearEvette]

First of all Chris Gorham is aging real nice.

Anyway, I can't dislike Sarah. I find the actress has been excellent in crafting the smart, but super socially awkward character with self esteem issues.  Absent Shae's influence, Sarah's animosity toward Matty has mostly been played as light comedy.  To me it is a acknowledgement that Sarah isn't in Matty's weight class in manipulation.  Using Elizabethan argot with super melodramatic emphasis and the light, quirky music in the background says it was mostly all bluster and posturing.  Even Olympia, who had noticed it, wasn't taking it too seriously until Matty complained to teacher. And then Shae comes along and seems to validate Sarah and makes it more serious than it previously was. 

I don't see Sarah as a villain, because  minus the main characteritis, Matty is the real villain.  Just because she thinks she has a righteous crusade doesn't mean she isn't doing willful harm to people, not just the work in the firm but to the actual people.  She is gaslighting Sarah to the point that she's broken down what little self confidence she had. She falsely accused Shae of age discrimination. I don't give a rat's ass about Shae and never actually liked her, but it is really icky that Matty is  weaponizing discrimination complaints in such a way since any actions against real discrimination takes a boatload of proof and usually multiple people complaining about the same person.  We have to handwave so much for this show already but each time the show clears a path for Matty to sail effortlessly by it gets harder and harder to do.

I will say that Sarah's treatment of Billy is on her and I am glad he called her on it and is showing her how much harm she did to him. But that is yet again a place where a character other than Matty is getting the consequences of their shitty behavior.

I also really dislike the 'war' Julian and Olympia are waging.  It was so refreshing, briefly, how evolved and friendly their divorce was and now they are going scorched earth. I hope something happens that allows them to come to their senses.

As much as I enjoy the scenes between Olympia and Matty and love the chemistry between Skye Marshall and Kathy Bates, I can't even really enjoy it for Olympia's sake because it is all a lie. 

Edited Monday at 04:29 PM by DearEvette

[andromeda331]

1 hour ago, DearEvette said:

I also really dislike the 'war' Julian and Olympia are waging.  It was so refreshing, briefly, how evolved and friendly their divorce was and now they are going scorched earth. I hope something happens that allows them to come to their senses.

So do I. I was really surprised in the beginning when their divorce was friendly. It was refreshing instead having them at each other's throats. But nope that's where they are now. 

[Irlandesa]

1 hour ago, DearEvette said:

I also really dislike the 'war' Julian and Olympia are waging.  It was so refreshing, briefly, how evolved and friendly their divorce was and now they are going scorched earth. I hope something happens that allows them to come to their senses.

I'd kind of like Julian to discover who Matty really is.  Or at least that she's a wealthy woman and tell Olympia as she's trying to manipulate their divorce into something ugly.

It'd be especially surprising since he has been somewhat on the outskirts of the story most of the show.

But with only two episodes left, that probably won't happen.

Edited Monday at 06:03 PM by Irlandesa

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, DearEvette said:

First of all Chris Gorham is aging real nice.

I'd have been sad otherwise. I guess we still can have a few nice things.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

On 2/14/2025 at 8:38 PM, Bastet said:

It was potentially a dick move where he's going to do what he made her reassure him she wouldn't, which is look into it alone -- it might be that he thinks Matty already has enough on her plate, so he'll tell her the email is gone, and then he'll talk with Joey and suss things out before looping her in.

So why bring it up at all, and then lie and say he lost access to all his school emails, which would be an even bigger lie, if not true? He had just extracted a promise from Matty that she was going to leave it alone.  If he couldn't follow his own advice, why compound his "betrayal" by specifically lying about it?

On 2/15/2025 at 1:32 PM, MerBearHou said:

I’m curious about this Joey-person.  Joey could be a female nickname so we shall see…

That's what I think, too.

6 hours ago, Zaffy said:

Talking about Shae, could she be Senior's daughter?

I jokingly suggested that earlier.  I really don't think this show is going for an incest reveal, though.

4 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

But with only two episodes left, that probably won't happen.

What makes you say there are only 2 episodes left?

Edited Monday at 10:38 PM by ItCouldBeWorse

[Irlandesa]

1 minute ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

What makes you say there are only 2 episodes left?

Oops.  For some reason I thought it was only going to be a 13 ep run for a first season (like High Potential) since I don't recall additional episodes being ordered.

But I just looked and there are 18 so never mind.  I keep hope alive!

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

So why bring it up at all, and then lie and say he lost access to all his school emails, which would be an even bigger lie, if true? He had just extracted a promise from Matty that she was going to leave it alone.  If he couldn't follow his own advice, why compound his "betrayal" by specifically lying about it?

It seems like he is highly reluctant to go looking for Alfie's dad, fearing he's another addict and could still be a mess who'd just make Alife's life more challenging.  It also seems like he is afraid, in light of her bringing up the possibility of looking for him in case something happens to them before Alfie is an adult, Matty might pursuit it because she's feeling more conflicted about it now than she used to, and than he still does.

When he asked her this latest time if she'd thought any more about it and followed up by asking if she was going to pursue it alone, her response didn't mirror his reluctance, it was that she has no leads, he's the one who got the email.  At the end, when he told her he'd looked for the email, he paused, and I think he was gauging her reaction before deciding what to tell her, and when it was a hopeful "And?" he decided to lie rather than saying "I found it, but I still don't think we should do anything" if she'd seemed hesitant. 

Whether he's going to go on pretending the email is gone, pretend to discover it later, do some initial looking into the sender and maybe then tell her, I tend to think it will be that last one, but we'll see.

 

Edited Monday at 10:43 PM by Bastet