Subscribe
Previous Post
Original Air Date: February 22, 2008
Let’s get it over with — Monk is alive! (Of course!)
As CAPTAIN STOTTLEMEYER stands on the beach alone, looking out at the ocean, dirty ADRIAN MONK comes over some rocks, carrying a bulletproof vest. The captain tells Monk that law enforcement is searching for his body down the beach. He has clean clothes and water for Monk, who must completely disappear now that he’s presumed dead.
This means the detective can’t call Natalie or Dr. Kroger or anyone else because there’s already enough evidence to convict him of murdering the six-fingered man. After the fake shooting they just pulled off, the captain could go to jail, too. The only solution is for the captain to complete the investigation while Monk is away.
RANDY arrives at NATALIE‘s house one morning while she’s preparing for Monk’s funeral, and he brings in some flowers sent by SHARONA, who intends to come for the service with her son BENJY. Natalie is very angry at the captain for killing her boss rather than simply firing a warning or nonlethal shot. When Randy tells her Stottlemeyer is outside and would like to come in, Natalie is initially opposed.
Stottlemeyer enters through the open door anyway, and after Natalie gets over her immediate irritation, she acknowledges the situation must be harder on him than anyone else … until he tries to dissuade her from going into debt for Monk’s funeral. She’s already taken out a loan to pay for the formal affair.
Yet, Stottlemeyer’s apparent cheapness infuriates Natalie again, and she kicks the captain out of her house. Outside the door, the captain pulls a postcard from Monk out of his pocket. It says “I wish I wasn’t here” and reveals the detective is in Sparks, Nevada.
Monk is working at Waterwheel Car Wash under the fake name LELAND RODRIGUEZ [sure — a name like that won't attract attention] and living in a local motel. The housecleaner, the young daughter of the owner, brings her puppy EUREKA along one day when she arrives to clean Monk’s room. The detective is bothered that the dog isn’t on a leash.
But, the girl explains that’s not necessary. The dog has a special collar that her father hooked up to receive a small shock if the dog goes too far and approaches an invisible electrical shield around the property. We just know that distinctive and detailed information will play a significant part in the plot later, so don’t forget it.
The girl also assures Monk he can relocate to Room 10 on Sunday, although it’s just like odd-numbered Room 7, the one he’s in at the moment. Before the girl arrived, Monk had been reviewing recent news reports related to his case in San Francisco. When the girl spots the papers on the table and asks what Monk is doing with them, he lies and tells her he’s a writer.
Assuming he must write mysteries, the girl tries to tell Monk about one that’s in progress nearby: the cops are looking for a silver SUV in the case of a murdered highway worker. Monk is too preoccupied with the loose dog, now scratching itself on the floor near him, to pay attention.
SHERIFF ROLLINS arrives at the hospital morgue next, where an attendant thinks they may have Monk’s body. The corpse has a tattoo, however, which immediately proves it can’t be the detective. Exasperated, the sheriff makes a call in the hallway. The mysterious voice on the other end states it knew Monk wasn’t dead and then orders the sheriff to find him.
Rollins heads to the police station afterwards to see Stottlemeyer. A determined search is still on for Monk’s body when the captain arrives later, and after Randy gives him two black armbands that all the officers are wearing in honor of Monk (two to make them even), he goes to his office to handle Rollins.
The sheriff wants to know why Stottlemeyer wasn’t at the morgue considering that a bulletin was issued when the body of a redheaded, tattooed man was found. His absence has made Rollins suspicious, and Randy becomes doubtful, as well, when the sheriff brings the issue up. After Rollins leaves, Stottlemeyer deflects Randy’s curiosity by telling him that the sheriff has to be dirty. He just bought a new house, in addition to his BMW and two offshore accounts, all on a sheriff’s salary.
Meanwhile, at the Waterwheel, Monk notices that the red SUV he and his partner are working on was just painted that color recently; the detective determines it used to be silver after scraping away some of the paint. Monk then asks his partner to inspect the bottom of the vehicle, and the younger man finds a piece of torn orange cloth, just like the material in the uniforms that highway workers wear.
At Monk’s apartment, a mover helps Natalie pack up the detective’s possessions. Natalie mentions that the owner of the unit was an extremely talented detective, which causes the mover to mention a guy in Nevada who just solved a big case single-handedly. Oddly, the man works at a car wash, and his boss complained that he never uses the same rag twice. When the mover shows Natalie the story in his copy of the newspaper, which identifies the man as Leland Rodriguez, she instantaneously realizes the car wash employee must be Monk.
Stottlemeyer is questioning a perp when Natalie bursts into the interrogation room, demanding that he confirm the man in Nevada is her boss. The newspaper calls him the Car Wash Columbo, which the captain can’t deny. He tells Natalie that not even Randy knows Monk is actually alive, adding that Natalie must not go to see him. Her boss must remain hidden from Rollins, who framed the detective for murder and is working for someone else, possibly an individual as high up as in the governor’s office.
Of course, Natalie pretends to agree she’ll stay away but then heads home, leaves Julie with a neighbor, and then begins a road trip to find Monk in Nevada. And of course, Rollins is right behind her, tagging along to see if she’ll lead him to the man he and his mysterious boss seek.
Natalie does, too, when she arrives at Waterwheel after everyone has left for the night and Monk is alone cleaning up. She runs over to kiss her boss, not realizing that Rollins is right behind her, gun drawn. Monk and his assistant manage to escape, however, when Monk flicks the lights off before they run through the car wash area. Natalie stuns the sheriff with water or steam from a hose, and she and Monk escape in Rollins’ car.
Back in San Francisco, Stottlemeyer reveals to Randy that Monk is still alive when the lieutenant tortures him with the fourteen-stanza song he composed and wrote to perform at Monk’s funeral. On the road, Monk and Natalie find Rollins’ briefcase in his car, which contains a $10,000 check made out to an Angel County Children’s Center. A computer search reveals there’s no such organization with that name, indicating the check must be dirty.
Monk and Natalie then provide the name Xanadu Corporation, which yields one match showing it’s a division of the Orpheum Investment Group, which is in turn controlled by the Blue Danube Foundation, which is owned by DALE “THE WHALE” BIEDERBECK, a morbidly obese and filthy rich murder conspirator who lives a lavish lifestyle in the prison cell that Monk helped confine him to for two life sentences in the Season One episode “Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale.” [The Whale is played by guest star Ray Porter in this episode, who follows in the fat-suit footsteps of Season One's Adam Arkin and Season Two's Tim Curry.]
Natalie pays a surprise visit to The Whale’s jail cell (all kinds of unintentional rhyming going on there — apologies) at San Quentin. The crook is as intuitive as he is offensive, however, and he quickly guesses that Natalie has a camcorder in her handbag. She turns it off at his insistence as he talks about how glad he is Monk isn’t dead — he always knew the detective’s oldest friend, Stottlemeyer, wouldn’t shoot him — and how eager he is to trade places with Monk, although the governor recently refused to commute his sentence. Incidentally, Natalie reveals during the meeting that The Whale met Rollins at the prison when the sheriff was a guard.
Watching the prison video in the parking lot after the meeting, Monk notices a laptop in the background with a Web browser open on the weather report for Riverton, California. Monk remembers then that when he encountered the six-fingered man at the fountain business, the criminal said had just returned from Riverton. A quick glimpse at the newspaper reveals GOVERNOR WECHSLER will be in town there for a centennial parade, leading Monk to an obvious conclusion: someone is going to try to kill the governor during the event.
As Natalie and Monk explain later, Rollins works for The Whale, who has the lieutenant governor in his pocket. If the convict can manage to kill the governor to get him out of the way, the second in command will commute his sentence and help him go free. The six-fingered man was in Riverton to plant a bomb in the car the governor will ride during the parade. Since he then became a loose end, The Whale ingeniously schemed to frame Monk for his murder, thereby setting the detective up to take his place in prison.
Fortunately, Monk notices a dog in pain near the centennial banner at the parade, and — Eureka! — he realizes that the method of detonating the bomb is an electrical current running through the pole that will set off a device attached to the governor’s car. Following a dramatic race to arrest Rollins, who’s in the crowd for the final big bang, while also getting the governor’s car to stop, Monk, Stottlemeyer, and Natalie succeed in saving the day.
After Monk is cleared, he visits The Whale, whose jail cell is now completely bare and devoid of amenities. The Whale tries to taunt Monk with claims that the detective is still more trapped than he is because of his continuing personal demons regarding Trudy’s murder.
Monk disagrees, even when The Whale refuses to help with a clue found in FRANK NUNN‘s apartment in Dourados, Brazil — letters revealing he was hired to kill Trudy by someone called simply The Judge. The Whale laughs at the new small clue. But, his pleasure doesn’t last long when Monk says Rollins and possibly the lieutenant governor will be joining him after the sheriff finishes telling everything he knows.
MY TAKE: Stupid me — I should have known The Whale was back for yet more fun and games, and he’ll probably return again in the future. The sixth-season finale of Monk was sensational, despite occasional spots where it was also predictable.
Traylor Howard‘s Natalie Teeger deserves special mention for showing just how devoted she is to her boss now. It’s clear she truly loves Adrian Monk like a close relative, enough to even put her own life on the line for him, which is saying quite a lot for a war widow and single parent of a beautiful teenage daughter. I’m looking forward to Season Seven.
RESOURCES
That was actress Jessica Steinbaum Lopez playing the role of Kathy.
does anyone know the name of the girl who played the part as the dogs owner? She was cleaning monk’s room at the hotel and informed him about the construction worker being killed.