If you would like to read my review of last week’s episode, click here.
Synopsis: Riggs and Murtaugh uncover a drug ring at a wellness clinic while investigating a plastic surgeon’s death. (IMDB)
Writer: Alex Taub
Director: Rob Bailey
Rating: TV-14
Running Time: 44mins
With part of his past now behind him, he feels like he’s normal, or at least that’s what he keeps telling himself. He believed he should start dating again but he didn’t know where to start so in the meantime, he decides to try and fill that void with work and by that, he jumps right in, taking his work a lot more seriously than we are used to seeing from him. This was quite the departure for Riggs and he was definitely fun to watch here with the other characters, however, this new Riggs will probably not last very long.
This brings us to the case of the week where the gang tries to solve the murder of a plastic surgeon although it became much more than this as it often does. This wasn’t just any normal episode, as the previews hinted, their unit escaped criminal charges in the last episode but now they faced an internal review by Deputy Chief Santos (Michelle Hurd) who just happened to have a past history with Murtaugh, or at least a one-sided one as he described it (more on that later).
Back to the case, they later learned that it actually involved drug smugglers and the Russian mob. Naturally, Riggs thought of Agent Palmer but not for reasons not pertaining to the case. Once he caught up with her, we learned that she had been benched for showing Riggs the file about Miranda’s murder last season. Riggs believed that this case was a way to get her back in the good graces of the DEA. She thought it was nothing, however, she showed up just in time to stop a suspect from fleeing.
Avery was a little more involved in this episode with Santos taking up his office so he joined Riggs and Murtaugh on the case and the three were very fun to watch together. Palmer may have inadvertently saved them but they were not on the same side, at least not yet, so solving the case became a competition between both groups. Their investigation led her to a woman named Sara (Brooke Nevin) who was on the run from the Russian mob. She had enlisted the murdered plastic surgeon to help change her appearance, however, the mob were getting close to finding her.
Sara was an accountant for the mob who took some of their money and fled once she learned their true dealings. In order to implicate the mob, Palmer posed as Sara and wore a wire to meet the mob. She got them to admit to drug trafficking but they suspected her of wearing a wire and attempted to kill her. Luckily, Riggs, Murtaugh and Avery following on an inadequate fishing boat were there to save her even though she didn’t believe she needed saving. In what shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, Riggs and Palmer ended up together after playfully robbing a liquor store at gunpoint.
There were other things that happened in the episode too. RJ was about to leave for college but in a touching moment, Murtaugh and Trish took turns at not being ready to see him go . While Murtaugh helped RJ move boxes, he hurt his back which became a running theme for the episode. Now speaking of Murtaugh, he believed that he and Santos had feelings for him and that she held a grudge because he did not reciprocate them. She denied this but near the end of the episode, in a fun twist, she let him know that she had feelings for him.
Santos’ review deemed that their unit had a leadership problem so she won’t appear to be leaving anytime soon.
Overall, this was a great episode with a compelling case that managed to connect to the characters’ own subplots. It was fun to see Murtaugh, Riggs, and Avery together and it was also nice to see Riggs and Palmer together since they share similar personalities. They could have gone further with Santos and Murtaugh but the story isn’t over just yet.
Score: 8.5/10
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.