(Warning: The following contains spoilers for the series premiere of Matlock on CBS. Read at your own risk!)

Until the last minutes of the Matlock season premiere, I have no doubt that the majority of viewers were thinking something like, “Well, that was fun, but also, why?” I’m sure the line “Kathy Bates is very good, but do we really have a Matlock remake?” came from the mouths of more than one person. Yes, there is a certain pleasure in seeing Bates Matlock — the original Andy Griffith-starring legal drama premiered in 1986 and ran for nine seasons — and turned it into a story about the folly of overlooking and underestimating women of a certain age. How could anyone not be entertained by Bates using her Southern charm to disarm suspects, witnesses, and colleagues to get what she wants? And who doesn’t love a big reveal in the courtroom? But in a landscape filled with more legal and crime dramas than you could ever really need, it’s just a matter of gender-flipping Matlock formula feels a bit disappointing.

And then comes the plot.

Most of the pilot episode plays out much as you might expect. We watch Bates con and sneak some key details into a high-stakes negotiation, then bypass security to get a spot in a partners’ meeting at Jacobson Moore, a major law firm run by “Senior” (Beau Bridges); his son, Julian (Jason Ritter); and Julian’s soon-to-be ex-wife, Olympia (Skye P. Marshall). She interrupts the meeting to introduce herself: She’s Madeline “Matty” Matlock; yes, she’s a lawyer, and yes, her name is Matlock, like that famous TV lawyer; and she wants a job at their firm. She’s broke, she’s raising a grandson, and she’s spent most of her life as a lawyer trying to do the right thing — now she wants the money. Or rather, she wants to “make it rain,” as she tells the audience. She uses the aforementioned key details about a major negotiation to secure a two-week trial for a more permanent position at the company, and is then placed on the Olympia team.

Olympia is an excellent lawyer, so it’s not precisely the team that does the rejections, but Matty is definitely being pushed aside at this point. Olympia is tired of big pharma and corporate law and wants to prove to Senior that they can actually take on cases that help people in need and still make money. She, too, is being underestimated. So they work the case (the season premiere case involves a wrongfully imprisoned man suing the police), Matty uses her “innocent old lady” act to get some leads, and they win the case for their client. It’s good old-fashioned, harmless fun. Bates and Marshall are a super-convincing on-screen duo, and even within their first few minutes of interaction, you know there’s a lot to be gained from their characters’ relationship. The other junior employees on the team — Billy (David Del Rio), the empathetic and patient one; and Sarah (Leah Lewis), who is neither — are also great additions to the mix. The first episode sets up the workplace dynamic with ease, and yes, Matlock could certainly pass for a harmless legal drama with a likable cast of characters in the near future.

But the final few minutes change everything. Surprise: Matty bids farewell to her new coworkers after a job well done and hops on the bus, and one stop later she’s off the bus and into a limo. Matty has been lying to everyone from the beginning, including us. She’s not Madeline Matlock — she’s Madeline Kingston. She’s definitely not broke — she lives in a mansion with her very lively and sweet husband (Sam Anderson) and, yes, her grandson, Alfie (Aaron D. Harris). She didn’t sneak into the Jacobson Moore conference room because she needs a job; no, she has a much more interesting motive.

Matty’s daughter died of an opioid overdose and they know that not only was Jacobson Moore representing the drug company, but that someone at the company had hidden documents that would have implicated the drug company, which could have taken the drug off the market – potentially saving not only Matty’s daughter, but countless others who have become addicted. Matty – with the help of her husband and Alfie, both of whom are deeply invested in her scheme – wants to find out who threw out the documents, get the truth out there and send whoever it was to prison. The three suspects she has on her handy crime squad? Senior, Julian and Olympia. Matty is willing to do anything to get justice for her daughter.

Let’s be realistic: Matlock is still a legal drama on TV, and it’s not reinventing anything here, but this twist certainly gives the show a little bit of bite. It definitely gives Kathy Bates a lot more to play. Suddenly, there are layers to the tricks Matty is pulling off: She’s not just playing the “innocent old lady” role to solve cases — her entire persona in the office is a performance. And now this seemingly innocent woman is living in a moral gray area. We root for her to find justice for her daughter, but we also see her literally lying to every other character around her.

That compelling back-and-forth between Matty and Olympia that I mentioned earlier? It just gets more interesting. It’s clear that these two women, both of whom have put their guard up (for very different reasons, of course), are on their way to finding common ground and perhaps even a real friendship. What happens if Olympia is the culprit? How will Olympia react when she finds out she’s been lied to so profoundly? From this point on, we get to view every relationship, every budding friendship that Matty builds, through a very different lens than we would have. We’ll also undoubtedly see the toll this lie and this personal mission take on Matty — not only will it be exhausting to keep up the ruse, but there will certainly be an emotional toll as these faces on her wall become real, living people that she interacts with every day and gets to know better. With this one twist, Matty becomes an exponentially more interesting character.

READ ALSO: MatlockKathy Bates Reveals the Biggest Flaw in Matty’s Master Plan

While some may feel cheated, it’s smart to put this twist at the very end of the premiere. As if you’d expect anything other than a twist played to its full potential from a show with Jane the VirginWith Jennie Snyder Urman at the helm — taking notes from the telenovelas it both celebrated and satirized, Urman’s CW series was nothing if not a twist-a-palooza. It’s smart to note the Matlock twist plays out this way for two main reasons. First, this is a huge undertaking for Matty to take on — but we already know she’s pretty good at it. Why? Because she’s fooled us all. When Matty tells the roomful of lawyers that she got past security because “this funny thing happens as women get older: We become invisible. No one sees us coming,” she’s also talking to the audience. Second, wrapping up this twist at the end of the episode means that for the next 43 minutes, we’re (mostly) invested in this group of people we now know are villains in Matty’s eyes. This setup makes things far more complicated than they would be if we’d seen them as the bad guys from the start, which means we’re setting up a whole slew of moral dilemmas and menacing confrontations for later in the series. The best TV twists aren’t just fun or surprising — they up the stakes. This one does just that.

Of course, there are some major pitfalls to such a premise-altering twist. Let’s face it: How long will we be cool with Matty lying to everyone, or even interested in it? That scenario has both an emotional and practical shelf life. While Matty certainly seems capable of pulling off the ruse, it’s unlikely she’d ever fail. The point at which the audience starts rolling their eyes and suspending disbelief will come sooner rather than later. Knowing my Jennie Snyder Urman, there will undoubtedly be a few more twists and turns along the path to Matty’s justice, but her secret can’t possibly remain believably secret for too long. And what happens once Matty’s truth is out? Will we be turned into another typical legal procedural drama? Matlock risks a lot with a twist that is, by its very nature, unsustainable, and yet if anyone has a chance of making this work long-term, it’s probably Urman and Bates. It’ll be fun to watch them try, at the very least.

Matlock moves to its regular time slot with a repeat of the series premiere on Thursday, October 10 at 9 p.m. ET on CBS. Episode 2 airs on Thursday, October 17 at 9 p.m. ET, with new episodes available to stream the following day on Paramount+. For more information on Matlockwatch our interview with Kathy Bates.