Author: Laura Hurley / Source: CINEMABLEND
Warning: spoilers ahead for the Season 3 premiere of Lethal Weapon on Fox, called “In the Same Boat.”
Lethal Weapon has officially returned to the airwaves for the third season that once seemed like it would never happen. The show was built on the dynamic (and chemistry) of Clayne Crawford and Damon Wayans as the legendary Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh, so the news back in May that Crawford had been ousted from the show due to alleged misconduct on set seemed like it could have been the end of Lethal Weapon. Instead, the show scored a renewal for Season 3 with a new co-leading man to partner Murtaugh, and it found an appropriate way to say goodbye to Riggs without actually featuring Clayne Crawford.
The Season 2 finale actually ended with Garrett shooting Riggs, and the big cliffhanger was whether Riggs would survive. The stage was pretty perfectly set to just kill Riggs off without giving some explanation of an off-screen case gone wrong or Clayne Crawford needing to return, which was almost certainly out of the question. The recap before the episode reminded viewers what happened with Riggs, and the premiere picked up with Murtaugh rushing into the hospital with Riggs on a stretcher, with doctors clearly not optimistic about his chances.
Riggs was visibly in the first hospital scene, but his face was never shown, so Lethal Weapon was able to simply use a body double for Clayne Crawford in Riggs’ final scene alive. Murtaugh was devastated by news of his partner’s death, and then the episode skipped forward six months.All things considered, the reveal that Riggs died was not a surprise, and many fans probably knew that was coming. What we didn’t know for sure was how Lethal Weapon would handle the aftermath of Riggs’ death. The trailer for Season 3 was full of action, adventure, and banter between Murtaugh and his new partner, played by Seann William Scott. Based on that footage alone, it was possible that Lethal Weapon would spend a few minutes killing off Riggs and then move into a lighthearted first case for the new partners, putting the ugly situation with Clayne Crawford out of sight and out of mind. It would have been a bummer for fans of Riggs and the dynamic between Riggs and Murtaugh, however, so it was a relief to see that the ugliness didn’t result in Lethal…
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