How the Lethal Weapon Season 3 Premiere Wrote Off Clayne Crawford

This post contains spoilers for the Lethal Weapon Season 3 premiere.

During Lethal Weapons Season 3 premiere on Fox, all eyes were on one thing: how the series would say goodbye to Clayne Crawfords character, Martin Riggs, after the actors widely talked-about departure, the result of alleged acrimony on set. Well, wonder no more: as hinted in the shows Season 2 finale, Crawfords character, Riggs, is, indeed, dead as a doornail. And the new guy whos stepped in to take his place, played by Seann William Scott? He seems all right!

In last seasons finale, Riggs got shot, and in the premiere, his fate plays out in a matter of minutes: theres a frantic hospital scene and then, alas, Damon Wayanss Roger Murtaugh finds out that his partner has died. We get a six-month flash-forward, finding out that rather than return to work, Murtaugh has been overcome by depression, wandering around his house in grubby clothes. The L.A.P.D. (correctly) believes that it was Riggss half brother who shot him before later committing suicide—but Murtaugh becomes obsessed with the idea theres something bigger happening, trying to work out a conspiracy theory on Riggss old boat. By the end of the episode, though, Murtaugh gets his head on straight—at least in part thanks to his new partner, Wesley Cole (Scott).

The season premiere unsurprisingly felt like a refresh of sorts, opening not on Riggs, but on Scotts new character, a C.I.A. agent working on a covert op in Syria. Soon enough, that mission goes south, sending Cole packing for the L.A.P.D. as he tries to forge a bond with his estranged daughter. Sure, L.A.P.D. life is not glamorous—when we find Cole, hes mostly writing parking tickets—but as we know, he wont be stuck in mundanity for long. Soon enough, Cole and Murtaugh end up in a car chase pursuing the same perp. The rest, as they say, is history.

Ahead of the premiere, Scott guessed that a lot of fans would be sad to say goodbye to Riggs. Still, he said, “I really believe theyre going to watch this and feel like we handled it in a way that is really respectful to the character and what he meant to the show.”

Crawfords break from Lethal Weapon went down smoothly on-screen, but in the real world it was far messier. He was fired from the show after bad behavior on set; the actor admitted that he had been reprimanded twice during the shows second season. Following his first reprimand, Crawford said he met with human resources, apologized, and completed studio-mandated therapy before sharing “a sizable portion of my paycheck with one of the parties involved per the instruction of the studio.”

“I take great pride in treating everyone in life with dignity and kindness,” Crawford wrote on Instagram in April. “I am very grateful for my job, and I work extremely hard at it. I feel a responsibility to do good work for my co-workers, for my family, for my home state, and most especially for the fans. I hope they will stick with me, and stick with the show.”

But after his dismissal, things escalated as Wayans alleged that Crawford had been abusive and violent on set. (Crawfords representatives did not respond to V.F.s request for comment at the time.) In a podcast interview this August, Crawford revealed that he never thought he would actually be fired—and that claimed he never got a phone call from Fox telling him hed been let go. As for the outbursts on set? “Hollywood is very sensitive, so I should not have screamed and yelled, right,” Crawford said on the podcast, Drinkin Bros, “because its a bunch of very delicate flowers out there.”

As Murtaugh and Cole ride off into the sunset and prepare to solve a slew of new cases together, it looks like Lethal Weapon is ready to move on.

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