Lethal Weapon Season 2 Episode 3: Born to Run Review

Keith NoakesOctober 10, 201763110 min

If you would like to read my review of last week’s episode, click here.

Synopsis: Riggs and Murtaugh investigate the death of a famous singer’s bodyguard. (IMDB)

Writer: Stacy A. Littlejohn

Director: Nathan Hope

Rating: TV-14

Running Time: 44mins

It’s just one step forward, two steps back with Riggs. The episode starts off with a famous singer named Shaye (Joanna ‘JoJo’ Levesque) leaving after a performance and someone is watching her from another car. She then leaves with her bodyguard and they later start to makeout until they are interrupted by a a car running into them and pushing them off of a cliff. Shaye survives and stumbles onto a fan who happens to be watching one of her performances.

Trish and Murtaugh and Riggs and Palmer get ready for a brunch together. Murtaugh was currently obsessed with frittatas and Riggs doesn’t know what a frittata is. Palmer shared about their relationship and Riggs subtly asked her to move in with him. The brunch ended early once they were both called to the case. Of course Riggs doesn’t know who Shaye was but Murtaugh kind of knew since Riana was a fan. Soon after, they were greeted by a young, good-looking new detective named Bowman who brought soup to impress everyone on his first day. Murtaugh, however, was not as easily impressed.

Murtaugh and Riggs talked to Shaye who seemed more annoyed than anything else. They gathered that she and her bodyguard were sleeping together. She told him about her photographer boyfriend Ray (Isiah Adams). Meanwhile, the earlier brunch continued between Palmer and Trish and Trish informed Palmer to give Riggs a chance because he may surprise her. Murtaugh taught Riggs about the importance of checking in but he didn’t think it was a big deal. When they run into Ray, they find him naked with a bridesmaid. An angry Shaye catches up with them, forcing Murtaugh and Riggs to keep them off of each other until she kicks him off a ledge and he lands on top of a wedding cake.

With Avery gone to a leadership conference, Santos is in charge and she obviously wasn’t happy with what happened. Her leadership style was much different than Avery’s. Murtaugh though he recognized Bowman from somewhere and it was from a recruitment poster. At home, Murtaugh told Riana that he was working the Shay case and she was jealous. She told him about her massive following and also about an altercation she had at a restaurant who happens to be owned by Trish’s boss.

Riggs checked in with Palmer and got chastised for it. He then noticed some bruises on Shay’s shoulder and suspected that she may have been abused. Shaye claimed that they were from her accident but they looked older. She wouldn’t reveal who hurt her, however, she conceded that the person who hurt her was someone who she depended on for her career which led Riggs to suspect her manager. Murtaugh confronted the manager about the restaurant incident until Riggs came out with a more direct approach, hitting him when he didn’t answer Riggs’ question.

Santos didn’t like that either so she gave Riggs the rest of the day off and warned him about his dangerous behavior. Bowman got stonewalled when trying to get the security video from the restaurant so Murtaugh took it upon himself to show him how it was done. They went to the restaurant where Murtaugh interrupted Trish’s meeting to ask for the video. She refused without a subpoena but Bowman got it anyway from the bartender who thought he was good-looking.

Back at Palmer’s hotel, Riggs shared about his day but Palmer believed that he was holding out on her. He got uncomfortable and hid in the bathroom to ask Murtaugh for help, but not sexual help. Their conversation shifted to the restaurant altercation. Shay’s manager appeared to steer her away from a man that she appeared to know, however, she claimed that she didn’t know him.

While watching the restaurant video, Trish surprised them and yelled at Murtaugh for going around her to get it. Riggs took the picture of the man and asked Palmer to run it through their facial recognition database and got a name. They confronted Shaye with the name and she admitted that he was her ex-boyfriend and that she was responsible for what he had been sent to prison for which was vehicular manslaughter.

Shaye’s ex-boyfriend Bobby, took her hostage and taped her hands to a steering wheel while forcing her to drive and broadcasted it on Periscope, recreating the incident from their past. Murtaugh and Riggs caught up to them and stopped them from going off a cliff. While their car dangled on the edge, they subdued Bobby, saved Shaye, and Riggs saved the manager who was in the trunk after he admitted on video that he had hurt Shaye.

Because of their heroism, Bailey recreated the recruitment poster by putting Murtaugh’s head on Bowman’s body. Santos wasn’t thrilled with what they did though was pleased with the result. Riggs saw Shaye before she went to prison. Riana wasn’t happy with Murtaugh for killing Shaye’s career but Trish thought he was heroic and they celebrated accordingly. Riggs wanted to see Palmer off but she had left without him.

Overall, this was a solid episode that tried to do a lot without ever fully committing to anything with the abused popstar, contrasting relationships, and the new recruit. The episode did not flow as well as it could have but was still fun to watch and even if the story isn’t always there, it can survive on the chemistry of Murtaugh and Riggs alone and this was the case here.

Score: 7.5/10

If you liked this, please read my other reviews here and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter, follow me on Instagram, and also like me on Facebook.

 

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