Lethal Weapon: “Homebodies” Review
Murtaugh almost gets a new partner, as Riggs just wants to be left alone.
Warning: This review will contain spoilers.
Lethal Weapon slides its way back after a short winter break with the episode “Homebodies”, which has Riggs and Murtaugh investigating the murder of a party promoter. This week, the show played around on some more episodic turf, but we still got a highly entertaining episode after a near month wait.
“Homebodies” was very much a “case of the week” episode, which could easily be watched by any casual viewer who may have missed the previous Christmas episode “Jingle Bell Glock”. In other words, there’s no immediate connection to the two episodes, which is kind of a bummer because I was hoping the revelations on the death of Riggs’ wife would have been touched upon in this episode. However, Riggs’ current need to be alone and away from other people could be attributed to the lack of answers he received about his wife’s death in the previous episode. But then, this form of reclusive depression could happen often for the character as he continues to grieve. So you could look at his current mood as connected to the past events or not. I’d like to think they are linked.
It’s Riggs’ reclusive behavior that makes his connection with Owlsly rather interesting in this case. Although it’s rather convenient a character should come along that shares the same feelings towards interacting with other people as Riggs does at the moment, it made for an interesting turn of events. Owlsly (played by guest star Lyndon Smith) was an interesting character. She made a stimulant, using legal compounds, that gave people a good feeling and brought a sense of unity while she isolated herself from human contact because she basically thought the world sucked. Although I had that feeling she had something to do with the promoter’s death, the episode did a good job by making it seem she was less likely to have pulled the trigger. Oddly enough, even though she turned out to be a murderer, I felt bad for her once she ends up killing herself with her own drugs, feeling like that was her only way out. She seemed like a lost soul who couldn’t deal with the hurt that the guy she liked didn’t like her. Plus, there’s the whole thing about getting involved with Korean gangsters and stuff.
Murtaugh’s struggles with Riggs became more apparent, with Riggs doing everything possible to avoid conversation with his partner. This obviously upset Murtaugh. Even though it sort of felt like the development of the partnership between Riggs and Murtaugh was going backwards this week, it made sense because, again, Riggs is going to slip into a depressive state from time to time. However, it is fascinating that Murtaugh has taken such an investment on trying to connect with Riggs, when in the show’s earlier episodes, he hardly wanted anything to do with him.
Since it seems like Murtaugh wants a healthy partnership, placing Dect. Cho (guest star Chin Han) in between the spat between Riggs and Murtaugh was brilliant. Cho is obviously the ideal partner for Murtaugh, as the two seem to agree with each other on nearly everything. The episode had a lot of fun with the two, playing things out with some hilarious gay undertones. Cho simply gets Murtaugh.
This episode had a great blend of action, comedy and drama. It all seemed to come off as organic as possible. Riggs’ struggles with human contact can be relatable to just about anybody at some point. Same as Murtaugh trying to work on his friendship with Riggs. The action was exciting, and there was plenty of it. The laughs were plentiful throughout the episode as well. Scorsese had his most humorous scene yet, being doped up by Owlsly’s drugs after testing them out, talking about his lizard man screenplay. Riggs’ drug trip was hysterical, especially during a car chase.
The most awkward scene was when Trish tried to set up Riggs with a girl named Kate (House of the Devil‘s Jocelin Donahue). Not a really good idea when he’s barely coping with the loss of his wife, and is not feeling very sociable these days. However, I did like that Riggs told Trish in a later scene that eventually he’ll need that push to move on.
“Homebodies” was a terrific new episode, even if it didn’t fully connect with the past events that preceded it. It was fun catching up with the boys for some wild action and solid laughs, and I hope things continue to move this steadily during this second half of the season.
