‘Lethal Weapon’ Season 3 Premiere Recap: Riggs Dies, Murtaugh’s New Partner’s Introduced

The Season 3 premiere of Fox’s “Lethal Weapon” picks up right where the Season 2 finale left off, while also wasting no time introducing fans to new lead character. Wesley Cole (Seann William Scott) is the replacement for Clayne Crawford’s Martin Riggs after the actor was fired.

Episode 1 of the new season starts off with CIA agent Cole working on a mission when it goes sideways and his source, a child, is shot.

Meanwhile, Martin Riggs is rushed to the hospital after being shot himself in the last season finale. Roger Murtaugh’s (Damon Wayans) right there at the hospital, waiting for news. Unfortunately, when it comes, it’s not good. “I’m sorry,” the doctor tells him.

The “Lethal Weapon” episode cuts to six months later.

Murtaugh’s been grieving for the last few months and hasn’t returned to work yet. He can’t help but think there’s more to Riggs’ murder than just the late detective’s brother, Garrett (Peter Coventry Smith), being the one who shot him.

The mourning cop’s turned the cabin of a boat in his driveway into his own personal murder board, hoping to find whatever it is he’s looking for. Bailey (Michelle Mitchenor) calls him to say she has a lead on the car that was at the scene of the crime, which springs him to immediate action.

Wesley’s now working as a parking cop, and while he’s stopping someone for going over his time limit and stopping someone else for not picking up her dog’s poop, he sees a couple guys driving along with a gun. Naturally, he follows them into a parking garage.

Wesley and Murtaugh’s worlds collide when the car the detective is looking for happens to be one Wesley just helped drive off a parking garage roof. The two meet as they both commandeer a truck to go after the perp that’s getting away.

Riggs might no longer be there, but the chase still ends in chaos when Cole and Murtaugh crash the truck, lose the perp and fall into a fruit stand. When Scott’s character gets suspended because of the mishap, he goes to see his daughter, Maya (Shay Rudolph), at her piano audition, where he also runs into his ex, Dr. Natalie Flynn (Maggie Lawson).

Roger later meets up with Wesley because he wants to work together to find the bad guy he believes is part of the Riggs case, but Cole says he can’t help.

Following the lead on his own, Murtaugh’s captured and tortured. Luckily, Wesley changed his mind about helping and shows up just in time to save Murtaugh. When he sees the detective, Cole says, “Hey Rog,” in the same manner Riggs used to.

Later, while Murtaugh’s getting stitched up back at the precinct, Bailey shows him a video from Garrett’s cell phone where he addresses the detective to confess he killed Riggs. This is the final straw that Murtaugh needs to let the Riggs case go and to really try to start moving on from his death. When he’s back at home and burning everything from his murder board, Wesley comes by because he wants to continue looking into the bomb-making material they’d found while chasing down the lead.

Instead of agreeing to it, Murtaugh throws his badge into the fire to show he’s done with it all. When his wife, Trish (Keesha Sharp), sees this, she gets it and gives it back to him the next morning, saying he should either hand it in or continue doing what he was born to do.

Not one to truly give up, he decides to take Wesley up on his offer and the two discover where the bomb’s hiding. Unable to diffuse it, they leave it on an empty train before jumping out. Done with the case, Wesley heads off to see his family, while Murtaugh goes to the station to clean out Rigg’s stuff, which is just booze and spray cheese.

Later, Wesley stops by to see him at his house to share he’s being transferred to the robbery-homicide division. Referring to Murtaugh, he continues, “Just some cranky old-timer putting a call to the captain, I guess he wants to be my partner.”

“Now, one thing you should know if we’re going to be working together is, I take this partnership thing very seriously,” Murtaugh tells him in the following scene.

“Yeah, I heard I have some pretty big shoes to fill,” Wesley says, referring to Riggs.

He continues: “I can’t ever replace him, so I won’t even try, but I wanna make this work.”

See what’s next for these new partners when “Lethal Weapon” Season 3 continues to air on Fox on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EDT