Editor’s Note: This story contains spoilers for the first episode of CBS’s “Matlock.”

“That’s the problem with older women – nobody sees us coming.”

That’s Madeline Matlock (Kathy Bates) in the first episode of the CBS reboot “Matlock,” which was of course inspired by the legendary legal drama. But this is a new take on the character – Bates’ Matlock is not the long-lost daughter of the fictional icon. No, she’s just a lawyer who suddenly has to raise a grandson and therefore needs a new job at a fancy law firm to pay the bills.

Orrr at least that’s what viewers thought for most of the first episode, which aired on September 22. But 10 minutes before the credits, after the week’s stirring case is solved, TV viewers learn that Matlock is actually a fake last name for Madeline. In reality, she is undercover at the Jacobson Moore law firm investigating her daughter, who died of an opioid overdose. Matty learned that one of the firm’s three lawyers had hidden documents that could have taken opioids off the market 10 years early and saved her daughter. So she’s going to find out who hid the documents, she explains in a voiceover in the final seconds, and she’s going to make them pay.

Not exactly your parents’ Matlock.

“I read an article about a law firm that was fined for not turning over evidence in the opioid case. They get fined $200,000 or something like that. It’s so destructive what it does when you don’t turn over (evidence),” founder Jennie Snyder Urman explained to IndieWire. “And I started thinking, ‘Where is that moral line where you obviously have an obligation to serve your client but you feel like you’re being criminal?’ It feels criminal to just pile up papers when there’s a public health crisis and we need the information to deal with it and move beyond it.

“So that’s been on my mind for a while,” she continued, “and I wanted to talk about that, about addiction and loss. Then when I was thinking about Matty and how I wanted to use the character, I thought, ‘What would be big enough to bring this woman back into the law firm, what would also give the whole company this deep emotional foundation so that we could go and be on her side’ … and we know there’s something so deep that she’s trying to heal through this.”

This season will have plenty of twists and turns, but don’t worry that it will turn into a years-long, never-ending mystery with no end in sight, Urman promises. “By the end of the episode (in this season’s finale), you’ll definitely know who did what, when and how. So we’ll resolve that, and then new storylines will kind of open up,” she said.

A reboot of “Matlock” wasn’t the original goal of the “Jane the Virgin” creator. But her production company inquired about the rights to “Matlock,” and then she learned that Eric Christian Olsen’s production company (Cloud Nine) actually owned the rights to the title. He asked her if she wanted to write the title. “I wasn’t originally looking for a legal show at that point, I thought I was just in a different situation. But I always say, ‘Let me think about it.’ I never turn anything down because you never know where the inspiration will come from, and then I took a long, long walk because that’s how I think about all my ideas and projects. And I just ended up having this mindset and it felt like something I suddenly had to do.”

The stars aligned when Urman learned that this was a story that Kathy Bates (!) wanted to tell. “I was shocked that she had read the script, she read it so quickly, and that she wanted to meet,” Urman said. “And then she gave me such a gift when we met, because of course I was very nervous. And everyone was like, ‘Convince her of it.’ And I came in and she said, ‘I wouldn’t change a word. Let’s talk about the character.’ So we were able to get right to work and talk and get to know each other. … And we were able to start talking creatively right away, which are both of our passions. … And so I went and called everybody and said, ‘Well, she said she’s doing it.'”

After a special preview on September 22, “Matlock” will premiere on October 17 on CBS.