The first episode of Lethal Weapon’s second season reunites the crime-fighting duo. Last season, Riggs (played by Crawford) got a tip about his wife’s killer and the season ended with Riggs disappearing to Mexico to track down the killer, Tito Flores (Danny Mora), and avenge his wife. Murtaugh (played by Wayans), in turn, took leave to track down Riggs. With that in mind, season two begins with Murtaugh interfering with Riggs plans to kill Tito Flores and convincing him to arrest Tito instead. Things go south when the duo arrives at their precinct and discovers that Tito was killed in the trunk of Murtaugh’s car, leaving Riggs and Murtaugh to deal with career-threatening accusations.
Riggs feels gipped of vengeance and tries to sit out the under-the-radar investigation Murtaugh takes up to clear their names. But it doesn’t last long. Riggs saves Murtaugh from an interview gone violent and joins him for the next part of the investigation.
In the background, Murtaugh works on his relationship with his family after ditching them for two weeks to follow Riggs around in Mexico and then flying off the handle once he sees his family continuing life without him. While Murtaugh tries to get on Trish’s good side (played by Keesha Sharp), the police psychologist, Dr. Cahill (Jordana Brewster) appears to coach Riggs into maintaining his friendship with his partner while hinting at residual feelings from last season.
Everything climaxes when Murtaugh and Riggs are lead back to Mexico to hunt down Tito’s killer, Raul Mendez (played by Manuel Uriza). The episode concludes with Riggs joining the Murtaugh family for dinner.
Usually, a show baits viewers along for seasons with clues to who killed the spouse of one of the protagonists. It seems “Lethal Weapon” may be heading in a different direction by revealing the killer in the first season to build other storylines and develop characters beyond their blockbuster namesakes. The first episode reveals Murtaugh taking on more action scenes while Riggs reigns in his crazy cop routine as he becomes more introspective about his grief.
“Lethal Weapon” airs Tuesday nights on Fox.
