‘Lethal Weapon’ Season Finale Postmortem: Matt Miller On That Big Death
A classic rule of thumb for TV deaths is that if you don’t see a body, a fatality isn’t permanent. But Lethal Weapon showrunner Matt Miller says that rule doesn’t apply in the case of Gideon Lyon (Matt Passmore), the cartel operative who confessed to killing Martin Riggs’s beloved wife, Miranda, in the show’s first season finale. “Gideon got squished,” he confirms to Yahoo TV, referring to the scene at the end of the episode where Riggs (Clayne Crawford) holds his his nemesis down in the path of an oncoming subway train. (Fortunately, Riggs himself escapes in the nick of time.) “He may appear somehow in a flashback, but currently we don’t have any plans for him [to return] going forward.”
Lyon actually died twice in tonight’s episode; the first death came when he escaped the cabin where Riggs had been holding him prisoner, and was shot in mid-leap by the grief-stricken cop’s level-headed partner, Roger Murtaugh (Damon Wayans). In that case, the lack of a body meant that he was still a threat to both men, and, sure enough, Gideon soon struck back with nearly-lethal force in the form of electroshock torture. (That scene, by the way, is a direct homage to Richard Donner’s inaugural Lethal Weapon film, in which Mel Gibson’s Riggs experienced some high-voltage pain. In this case, Murtaugh’s body took the volts instead.) But Miller promises that he’s not getting back up again after being turned into subway pizza, corpse or no corpse. “We just didn’t want to show the splattered body,” he says, laughing. “It’s a violent enough show.”
Besides, the more important question inspired by Gideon’s death is this: What does this mean for Riggs and Murtaugh? Even prior to the episode’s gruesome climax, Roger found himself deeply concerned with his partner’s willingness to flout the boundaries of the law, abducting Lyon from prison transport and then torturing him multiple times. In fact, Murtaugh even went as far to request a new partner, rather than continue to work with a man he’s come to care for. “We talked a lot about where the lines were,” Miller says. “I was determined to have Riggs kidnap Gideon and do some degree of torture to him. We wanted it to be something credible, but also a case where you can still be on Team Riggs afterwards.”
Despite his freshly-revitalized doubts, Murtaugh is still on Team Riggs… for now. In the wake of Gideon’s death, Martin heads to Mexico to pursue the cartel and its leader, Tito Flores, on his own terms, and Roger makes the difficult choice to leave his family behind and follow him south of the border. Don’t look for the duo to make up anytime soon, though. “There’s always going to be a rift between the guys and things are going to happen in Mexico that will be very difficult for them to talk about,” Miller teases about what’s to come in Season 2.
Not that Lethal Weapon is suddenly turning into Narcos; Miller says that the cartel storyline will wrap up early on next season, allowing Riggs and Murtaugh to return to their familiar L.A. stomping grounds. “The idea is to reboot the series in Season 2 by giving some resolution to what went down in Mexico in a way that feels satisfying, without necessarily having to do a serialized couple of episodes,” says Miller. “We have a new mythology that we’re going to be introducing; the cartel will still be alive in Season 2, but they’re not going to be a focal point. We’re using them as a layer and building on top of it.”
One other new layer to Season 2 is that Murtaugh will suddenly find himself turning to Riggs, of all people, for comfort after some serious stuff goes down. “There’s always this push and pull between the two guys; we’re approaching it in the spirit of a great bromance. Season 1 was boy meets boy, and it ends with them slightly separated and adrift. For Season 2, we’re going to mess some stuff up in Murtaugh’s life and have Riggs be there for him.” So the patient becomes the therapist, huh? “Except Riggs is not a very good therapist,” Miller jokes.
Lethal Weapon airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on Fox. Watch clips and full episodes of Lethal Weapon for free on Yahoo View.
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