In this episode of Lethal Weapon learn more about Riggs and Dr. Cahill. In fact, “Can I Get a Witness” shows us why Martin Riggs is so endearing. The cheese puffs, which he very seriously uses to crack the star witness, Ethan, reveal a childlike side to the detective.
It is this side, which allows Dr. Cahill to be the adult in this small screen scenario. In the films, Cahill was the immature and easily fooled child to Rigg’s “adult.” The change in the relationship status allows for a more fulfilling dynamic between the two and allows Cahill to be Rigg’s equal, and in some cases, superior.
For this week’s crime to be solved, Riggs and Murtaugh spend less time together. Apart from the beginning of the case when Roger stops Martin from betting the check from his house sale on roulette. Yet another revealing and amusing interaction between the two men.
Murtaugh teams up with Bailey to investigate the motorcycle cover, the one that Ethan noticed. Martin teams up with the cocktail waitresses son. The interaction between Riggs and Ethan is spot on. The youngster tired of being lied to by adults and the cop able to regress himself enough to bridge that particular gap easily.
Both Riggs and Murtaugh have the ability to “lose their adult side” and channel their inner youngster. The scenes with Roger panting over the motorcycle, which leads him to a new lead on the man who shot Sarah McFadden, are all about the older cop embracing his youthful side.
His near brush with death has Murtaugh fighting against his own mortality. The running gag in this episode of Lethal Weapon, “You don’t look like a motorcycle guy,” is another facet of his denial to getting older and his open heart surgery.
The scenes with Cahill and Riggs, after she learns that Ethan stayed with detective and never went to foster care, reinforces that she is the real adult while Martin is still playing on both sides of the maturity fence.
Ethan, who bonds so quickly with Riggs, does so because he shares the same ability as the adult cop. The boy has been wearing two hats for most of his young life; grownup and child.
Show creator Matthew Miller has managed to pull of the near impossible. Giving us action in the form of a one-sided shootout between Riggs and Gottlieb’s motorcycle gang. (It is all too easy to bliss out with this scene. Riggs decimating the bad guys to Creedence Clearwater’s “Running Through the Jungle” as the boy Ethan hides in the refrigerator and Roger showing up to save them from Gottlieb.
The payoff of the above scene is the reinforced running gag throughout the episode. After Murtaugh dispatches the villain with two well aimed bullets, Riggs looks at his partner and recites the punchline about Roger not looking like a “motorcycle guy.”
Of course the real magic of this episode, above and beyond Rigg’s giving nearly $150 thousand cashier check to the single mother, is the effortless switch between emotions that Lethal Weapon manages to deliver more often than not.
There are not many shows that will allow you to groove to action with Creedence Clearwater and then suddenly, and successfully, get the old tear ducts filling up.
Miller and his cast seem to pull this off on a regular basis. Lethal Weapon airs Wednesdays on FOX. Tune in and get caught up in this brilliant series.
Cast:
- Clayne Crawford – Martin Riggs
- Damon Wayans – Roger Murtaugh
- Jordana Brewster – Maureen Cahill
- Keisha Sharp – Trish Murtaugh
- Floriana Lima – Miranda Riggs
- Dante Brown – Roger Murtaugh Jr.
- Kevin Rahm – Brooks Avery
- Chandler Kinney – Riana Murtaugh
- Michael Raymond-James – Chad Jackson
- Richard Cabral – Cruz
- Michelle Mitchenor – Sonya Bailey
- Johnathan Fernandez – Scorsese
Guest starring Lindsey Kraft as Sarah McFadden, Teo Briones as Ethan McFadden, Dasha Flynn as Kristi James, Kurt Yaeger as Billy Gottlieb and Catherine Kamei as Madeline Tate.
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