Matlock Recap: Hope Sinks

"Debra Palmer does finally materialize this week, thank goodness, embodied by the ever-delightful Melanie Lynskey, who has always seemed like an inevitable Matlock guest star. Lynskey is a hoot as Debra, a freelance makeup artist who lives and works in Hell's Kitchen, gussying up both the living and the dead. (She uses the same "magic foundation" for both! Eternal Glamour, it's called. It's medical grade.)"

"When Matty books an appointment, posing as Cindy Shapiro, she very quickly gets Debra talking about drinking watermelon martinis and singing karaoke at the Camelot Club in Sydney, way back when. But it's also quickly clear that Debra's a dead end. Every time the conversation turns to her sexy Sydney adventure, she shuts down. By the end of the episode, she's blocking Matty's texts."

Debra Palmer appears as a potential witness in Matlock, tied to a 15-year-old company retreat in Australia where Julian was pressured to bury Wellbrexa's internal opioid study. Olympia and Matty hope Debra can identify attendees and expose those who leaned on Julian. Debra, played by Melanie Lynskey, is a freelance makeup artist in Hell's Kitchen who gussies up the living and the dead with a medical-grade "Eternal Glamour." Matty poses as Cindy Shapiro and prompts memories of watermelon martinis and Sydney karaoke, but Debra shuts down and blocks Matty's texts. The encounter triggers Matty's painful recollections of a sober day with Ellie, increasing emotional strain and stalling the investigation.

Read at Vulture