It’s appreciated to see Lethal Weapon attempt to intertwine its personal drama with its case-of-the-week action, especially when Riggs’ dad has been given such a prominent focus. What appears to be a run of the mill kidnapping actually turns into a complicated crime web that has Riggs’ father and the Aryan Fellowship of Texas at the core of it all. Naturally Murtaugh wants to knock his first assignment out of the park, but he gets thrown a particularly unusual curve ball. Is this the end of Avery though? It feels a little unceremonious to have some new character just explain him away through clunky exposition.
If Murtaugh was suddenly interim captain out of the blue it might come across as contrived, but because of the convenient work that the show has done previously this season, this instead feels like a motivated conclusion for his character’s professional arc. These have largely been played for laughs as Murtaugh has had issues to deal with like secret pseudo-crushes, but they’ve still spoken to the journey that his character is on. There have been a few episodes this season that have focused on Roger’s efforts to better his position at the LAPD.
Whether this development was always in the cards for this episode or some scheduling around Kevin Rahm’s availability had to be considered, this actually works out quite well for both the series and Murtaugh. On that note, Avery is suspiciously absent in this episode, but Lethal Weapon makes the most out of this and plays into Avery’s absence rather than try to cover it up. “Family Ties” kicks off as Murtaugh gets a heavy dose of responsibility and moves on up into Avery’s shoes as he tries his hand at interim captain for this installment. The penultimate episode from Lethal Weapon’s second season throws a lot of changes at its various characters, but at the same time it also reiterates that if a season three does happen then this is still going to be the same thrilling, quirky Lethal Weapon that fans know and love.
Perspective can go a long way in the end, both in terms of what’s changed and how capable you are to handle said change.