Monk (2002)

Mr. Monk Goes Back to School

When English teacher Beth Landow falls from the clock tower at Trudy's former high school, the assistant principal doubts the police department's conclusion that the death was a suicide and invites Monk to investigate. Monk quickly concludes that the suicide note is a forgery: a highly respected English teacher wouldn't confuse "its" with "it's." A few words with the teachers in the lounge lead him to suspect that the murderer is a science teacher, Derek Philby. Unfortunately for Monk, Philby was proctoring an exam when Ms. Landow's body landed on Philby's car, setting off his car alarm and alerting the entire school to her death. Armed with a strong suspicion but no evidence, Monk becomes a substitute teacher in hopes of finding the information that will incriminate Philby, who arrogantly informs him that he's "failing the class"--he has no evidence to support his thesis. Faced with students who throw erasers at him, an irate father who is also the school's gym teacher threatening to beat him up, and a criminal he fears is even smarter than he is, Monk is about to succumb to despair just as a second violent death of a school employee leads Stottlemeyer to reopen the investigation of Ms. Landow's death. A new clue from Disher, a motive uncovered by Sharona, and the unwitting help of the bullying father enable Monk to figure out how the murder could have been commited while the murderer was someplace else.

Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico

When a friend's college-age son dies mysteriously in Mexico, the mayor sends Monk to investigate. Doubting the coroner's report that the young man "drowned" in mid-air, Monk nevertheless has difficulty concentrating on the case. His eighteen suitcases carrying not only his clothes and "back-up pillowcases" but a year's supply of food and his favorite brand of bottled water are stolen, leaving him with nothing he considers safe to eat or drink. Even worse, someone is trying to kill him, first by running him down with a pick-up truck and then by planting an explosive device behind a picture that he compulsively straightens every time he enters his room. Neither the witnesses nor the police, a south-of-the-border caricature of Stottlemeyer and Disher, offer any helpful leads--except for the mention of another unsolved murder, this one a mauling by a "wild lion," the previous year. The fact that both victims were from San Francisco offers Monk the clue that he needs to solve the case and escape to familiar surroundings--and 5,400 bottles of Sierra Springs water.

Mr. Monk Goes to the Ballgame

When tyrannical CEO Lawrence Hammond and his pretty young wife are murdered at night in a deserted parking lot, Stottlemeyer suspects the CEO's many enemies, but Monk notes that the wife was shot four times and the husband only once, meaning that she was the primary target and the husband "an afterthought." The only clues are the CEO's last words, obsessively repeated: "Girls can't eat fifteen pizzas"--and a computerized navigation system that apparently malfunctioned. A talk with the housekeeper and an examination of the wife's separate bedroom lead Monk to an art studio, where he reluctantly interviews a nude male art instructor and discovers that the wife was having an affair with Major League superstar Scott Gregorio, who was attending the same classes. Gregorio, whose on-field performance has deteriorated since an earlier attack by an assailant with a baseball bat, is clearly devastated by Mrs. Hammond's death and is more a victim himself than a suspect. Seeing his own loss of Trudy reflected in Gregorio's loss, Monk befriends the superstar. Along the way to solving the murder, he umpires a Little League game in which Benjy and Stottlemeyer's son, Jared, are on opposing teams. Gregorio's advice to Benjy, HELP, provides Monk with the clue he needs to decipher Hammond's last words. Meanwhile, Stottlemeyer, taking a delightful turn as a baseball dad, sends Disher in search of clues. Disher proudly exhibits the CD for the car's GPS system and a grainy photograph of the perpetrator from the parking lot's security system, and Monk searches his brain to determine where he's seen that face before. During a visit to the lawyer of a rival baseball player who may be connected with the murder, Monk finds the clue he needs to put all the pieces together.

Mr. Monk Goes to the Circus

When a sarcastic and unpopular ringmaster is murdered by an acrobat wearing a face mask and a Ninja-like costume, Stottlemeyer suspects an animal trainer who not only has a motive (he's the former lover of the ringmaster's dinner date) but also owns the murder weapon. Monk, however, suspects the ringmaster's ex-wife, a trapeze artist billed as "the Queen of the Sky" who is also a sharpshooter. Unfortunately for Monk's theory, the trapeze artist, Natasia Lovara, has a broken foot, confirmed by X-rays. The mystery, as in "Billionaire Mugger" and "Dale the Whale," is not who did it but how it was done. Meanwhile, the everythingaphobic Monk alienates Sharona by telling her that her fear of elephants is irrational and advising her to "suck it up." Only when the elephant actually crushes its trainer's head in front of both Monk and Sharona does he begin to empathize with her and attempt to offer her the sort of comfort and understanding that she routinely offers him. Having been informed by a reliable authority that the chances of the elephant turning on its trainer are a thousand to one, Monk realizes that the trainer's death is not an accident but murder and that solving the second case will solve the first as well.

Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man

In an attempt to stabilize his shaky marriage, Captain Stottlemeyer redecorates his office with the New Age artifacts that his "hippie wife," Karen, has given him, but he can't bring himself to watch the documentary that she spent forty-five thousand dollars to film. When Karen thinks that her documentary subject--the world's oldest man--was murdered, the captain rejects the suggestion as absurd but calls in Monk to pacify her. Unfortunately for the captain, Monk agrees with Karen, and Stottlemeyer finds himself on Monk's front porch with two packed suitcases. Monk, glad for a chance to repay the captain for helping him through his three-and-a-half year "slump," invites him to stay as long as he needs to. Predictably, they both end up with frazzled nerves and very little sleep. Depressed over his own "slump" and his inability to solve a five-year-old case involving the death of a seventeen-year-old boy, the captain becomes even more despondent when Monk finds a clue that he missed involving a security guard's signature--but is nevertheless perfectly capable of kicking down a door, saving Monk from a snake, and discovering the body of the murdered guard. Their on-the-job teamwork doesn't extend to their odd couple living arrangements, however, and both of them reach the point where they've had enough. But when Stottlemeyer loses his temper and decides to beg Karen to let him come back home, Monk reminds him that he still hasn't seen Karen's documentary and they watch it together. As Monk struggles to stay awake during the long and treacly film, the captain discovers the clue he needs to solve the case, or rather, cases. With Monk's help, he confronts the perpetrator, only to find himself face to face with his camera-wielding wife, still pursuing the story of the oldest man in the world. A white lie and a letter in a time capsule help bring them back together.

Mr. Monk Goes to the Theater

Sharona's actress sister, Gail, is suspected of murdering Hal Duncan, a fellow actor who dies onstage after Gail stabs him with what she insists is a retractable knife. When Sharona's mother (who thinks that Sharona is Monk's partner, not his assistant) arrives for a visit and Sharona tells her the bad news, Monk and Sharona promise to "do whatever it takes" to discover what really happened. "Whatever it takes" turns out to be a bit more than Monk bargained for, however. After talking with the props manager, he begins to suspect that Jenna Ryan, Gail's understudy, somehow killed Duncan and framed Gail, even though she was at a party on the other side of town when Duncan died. In order to talk with and observe Jenna, he endures a painful half hour at a speed dating service and even agrees to take the dead man's part in the play for two days until a new actor arrives. While Monk is on stage battling stage fright and fully aware that one of the knives on the stage is real, Sharona searches Jenna's dressing room to discover the clue they need to solve the case and set Gail free.

Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect

In a new twist on the "how could he (or she) possibly have done it" theme that we saw first in "Dale the Whale," Monk suspects that the man responsible for the mail bombing murder of rich and beautiful Amanda Babbage is the victim's brother, Brian--who has been in a coma for four months after attempting to lure Stottlemeyer and Disher into a car chase and crashing into two cars. Since the package was postmarked three days before the bombing, Stottlemeyer is naturally skeptical, but he prefers siding with Monk to tagging along behind Agent Grooms of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, who suspects the victim's other brother, Ricky. Monk, meanwhile, has other problems. Dr. Kroger is leaving for a three-week vacation, Sharona's ex-husband wants her to come back to him and leave her job, and he temporarily loses most of his hearing after being caught in the explosion of another bomb. Depressed and lonely, Monk confides his woes to the comatose suspect--and makes a near-fatal blunder which, ironically, leads to the solution of the case.

Mr. Monk Meets the Playboy

Suspecting that her boss, Elliott D'Souza, has been murdered by playboy/publisher Dexter Larsen after withdrawing his financial backing for Larsen's Sapphire magazine, D'Souza's secretary hires Monk to investigate. After enlisting the help of the initially reluctant Stottlemeyer and Disher and convincing them that D'Souza's death was no accident despite his being alone in a room locked from the inside, Monk suddenly tries to withdraw from the case. The reason? Larsen has obtained and is threatening to publish nude photographs of Sharona, relics of her past as a struggling single mother in Atlantic City. When Sharona discovers the reason for Monk's strange behavior, her first reaction is shame and fear, but Benjy's response to her partial confession arms her with fierce determination to retrieve the photos and "nail" the murderer. Through the common bond of motherhood, she persuades the Sapphire Girl who had provided Dexter's alibi to confess the truth. Meanwhile, Monk puts together Dexter's background in electronics and a piece of music played by the Ghost of Sapphire Girls Past to figure out how Dexter did it.

Mr. Monk and the 12th Man

Faced with a string of nine brutal murders, all with different MOs and no apparent similarities among the victims, Captain Stottlemeyer calls in Monk to help him investigate. Suspicion falls at first on Henry Smalls, an insurance agent whose calendars appear in three of the victims' photographs. But as Monk, accompanied by Sharona and her new boyfriend, Deputy Mayor Kenny Shale, waits in the dark for Smalls to return home, he helplessly witnesses a fatal stabbing in which the suspect becomes the victim. Rushing after the murderer, who is wearing a ski mask, Monk tries futilely to subdue him, but all he's able to discover is that the murderer bites his fingernails. As the number of victims rises to eleven, the diversity of the victims, combined with the fact that they all live in Marin County, suddenly causes both Monk and Stottlemeyer to realize that they're all members of a jury. The ensuing investigation leads them to a six-year-old personal injury case, won by the plaintiff, who is clearly too brain-damaged to be the perpetrator. Suspicion falls on the twelfth man, who happens to have a human finger in his freezer. But Monk points out that none of the victims has a missing finger. Wanting to find out more about the personal injury case rather than rushing to judgment, he decides to interview the defendants, Stewart and Lisa Babcock. With the inadvertent help of his dry cleaner, Mrs. Ling, Monk puts the last piece of evidence into place and solves the case.

Mr. Monk and the Paperboy

When his paperboy, Nestor Alverez, is murdered on his front doorstep by a newspaper thief, Monk searches the newspaper for clues, all the while assuming that the murderer is really after him. Meanwhile, he has to put up with policemen examining every inch of his apartment, which is now a crime scene, and wiping their feet on his clean doormat. Worse, his nerdy upstairs neighbor, Kevin, can't stop talking about his affair with a pretty woman who suddenly finds him irresistible. The search through the newspaper leads Monk to solve two unrelated crimes, including one in France, but takes him no nearer to solving Nestor's murder until a second murder is committed near his home. This time it's a convenience store clerk killed with a broken soft drink bottle near an ATM. A sharp-eyed Sharona spots a smudge of lipstick on the bottle, leading them to suspect that this time the killer is a woman. As Monk, returning to the paper one last time, tosses it in the trash in frustration, he sees the clue that leads him to put the two murders together and solve the case--the winning lottery numbers. But his work isn't over and neither is Sharona's: They still have to prevent a third murder.

Mr. Monk and the Three Pies

When Monk's older brother Ambrose calls him about a "life-or-death matter," Monk accepts the call grudgingly and agrees to meet the brother from whom he's been estranged since Ambrose refused to attend Trudy's funeral seven years before. In fact, Ambrose, an agoraphobic packrat whose house is full of bundled up newspapers, has not left the home he and Adrian grew up in for thirty-two years. Believing Ambrose's claim that his next-door neighbor, Pat Van Ranken, has murdered his wife after a loud argument, Monk and Sharona visit Van Ranken and decide to follow him. Van Ranken, meanwhile, is behaving very strangely, entering a potato sack race and a bingo tournament in which the prizes include a cherry pie. It's not hard for the Monk brothers to tie Van Ranken to another murder involving a cherry pie--the challenge is finding a motive for Van Ranken and proving that he did it. The episode provides a glimpse of Monk's family background and the reasons for his estrangement from his brother, whose unwillingness to let go of his clutter conflicts with Adrian's obsessive neatness. The climax tests the courage of the newly reconciled brothers and cements the bond between them.

Mr. Monk and the T.V. Star

After visiting the set of the hit TV series Crime Lab S.F. during a celebration of its one hundredth episode, Monk suspects the show's star, Brad Terry, of murdering his ex-wife so he won't have to share his huge new paychecks with her. But the actor's alibi seems solid--he was with photographers when the victim's screams were heard. To complicate matters, a fan confesses to the crime and Terry passes a lie detector test. After Terry invites the captain, Disher, and Sharona--but not Monk--to a party, Monk realizes that Terry reminds him of a popular boy who treated him the same way in sixth grade and begins to doubt his own instincts. But when Stottlemeyer invites Monk to hear Marci's confession, Monk's doubts shift to Marci's story. When she tells him that Terry's ex-wife was once an actress who made a single B movie, Monk has the clue he needs to solve the crime.

Mr. Monk and the Missing Granny

Unable to pay for Monk's services as a private detective, middle-aged law student Julie Parlo offers him a trade--she'll help Monk become reinstated as a policeman with the SFPD if he'll help her find her missing grandmother. The only clue to the identity of the kidnappers is a roughly drawn lightning bolt on a note left at the grandmother's house, leading Stottlemeyer and Disher to suspect the former leader of an anti-Vietnam War group from the Seventies. But when the captain, anticipating Monk's reinstatement, invites Monk to help him with interrogation, Monk accidentally discovers that the suspect's tattoo doesn't match the symbol on the note--it has three humps instead of two. Meanwhile, the kidnappers order Julie to provide turkey dinners to the homeless in exchange for the return of the grandmother. Julie complies and her grandmother is returned safely, leading Stottlemeyer to put the case "on the back burner." True to her promise, Julie informs Monk of a loophole that will allow him to get back on the force. All he has to do is to claim a disability and take a fifty-question multiple-choice test. Grateful for the information, Monk continues to investigate the case by asking the grandmother to relive her ride in the van. Her memories--the smell of a bakery, a four-minute stop during which no one got out, and the feel of rain drops as she was carried out of the van--lead Monk to the home of a pair of antique dealers, Harold and Carol Maloney. Sharona sets off the kidnappers' car alarm and Monk photographs them as they come out to investigate the noise. But why would a pair of antique dealers want to kidnap a seventy-six-year-old grandmother? Before he can investigate further, Monk has to take his test, which he's sure will be a piece of cake. And it would be, if it weren't for erasers that smudge and tear holes in the paper. A humiliated Monk locks himself in the captain's office--and discovers the clue he needs to wrap up the case.

Mr. Monk and the Captain's Wife

On her way to film a documentary (apparently about a union dispute), Captain Stottlemeyer's wife, Karen, is badly injured when her car is struck by a tow truck whose non-union driver has been killed by a sniper. Distraught and furious, the captain blames a sleazy union official and his thug, a theory that seems to be confirmed when a second tow truck driver is murdered. But Lieutenant Disher, in charge of the crime scene investigation, discovers an odd detail that doesn't fit well with this scenario--both the assailant and the murdered truck driver were barefoot. Empathizing with the captain's anguish, Monk offers to do whatever he can to help and of course ends up investigating the case. A small dog that follows Sharona from the crime scene leads her to the home of a handsome man who seems attracted to her, but Monk is more interested in the next-door neighbor's off-kilter sundial. Meanwhile, the captain, fearing that his wife will die, becomes increasingly violent, taking out his anger on everything from candy machines to suspects, and Disher worries that he'll lose his badge. Fortunately for the captain's career and sanity, Karen begins to recover, and Monk finds himself taking Stottlemeyer's sons to lunch at her request. A jostled table at the restaurant reminds him of the misadjusted sundial and he solves the case just in time to prevent a full-scale assault on the union leader by the captain and his men.

Mr. Monk Gets Married

After a phone call from Lt. Disher, Monk and Sharona find him in Captain Stottlemeyer's office, drinking Scotch to console himself because his 58-year-old mother has married a 37-year-old antique dealer he's sure is up to no good. The con man, Dalton Padron, has taken his aging bride to a marriage counseling clinic for their honeymoon, and Sharona persuades Monk that the best way to catch him is to pose as husband and wife and join him at the clinic. In a group therapy session, Sharona accuses Padron of winking at her and, in the scuffle that follows, snatches an old letter from his jacket pocket. The letter confirms their suspicions: Padron is after the gold that was stashed away 150 years earlier by the crazy old prospector who once owned the house. Padron later grabs the letter and burns it, but not before Monk and Sharona discover that the secret is somewhere in the hundreds of journals that the old man wrote before he died. Early the next morning, Sharona follows Padron into an old gold mine on the property, and Monk, given a choice between keeping company with a coyote or entering the mine, reluctantly joins her. Padron overhears them and sneaks outside, loosening a beam to start a cave-in and trap them in the mine. Meanwhile, Disher discovers the body of Padron's business partner hidden in an armoire. As Disher alerts the local sheriff and rushes to rescue his mother, Monk figures out where the gold is hidden and confronts the culprit, only to be herded into a closet with Sharona, Disher's mother, the counselor, the sheriff, and a genuine married couple. This claustrophobic experience caps a lousy weekend for "Mr. and Mrs. Monk," who emerge from the clinic convinced that they'll never really be married.

Mr. Monk Goes to Jail

Who would murder a death-row inmate forty-five minutes before his execution--and why? That's the question Captain Stottlemeyer asks Monk--but Monk's response is to ask why it matters. As Monk is hurrying to leave the prison, however, he gets a phone call from his old nemesis, Dale "the Whale" Biederbeck, that changes his plans. The police consider Dale a suspect in the inmate's murder (the young man owed him twelve hundred dollars) and refuse to give him a window in his cell until his name is cleared, so Dale strikes a bargain with Monk--solve the case and he'll provide information about Trudy's murder. After interviewing the cook who prepared the dead inmate's last meal, Monk notices that another cook never clocked out the evening before. The missing cook is found dead in a freezer with a wad of bills in his apron pocket--clearly the person who bribed him to poison the inmate was afraid he would talk and killed him, too. On his way out of the prison, he receives another phone call, this one from the prison librarian, who says that she overheard another prisoner, Spyder Rudner, threatening the dead inmate. Determined to solve the case for Trudy's sake, Monk becomes Rudner's cellmate even though Rudner is a four-time murderer. After persuading the violent Rudner that he's an embezzler with several years in prison behind him, Monk strikes another bargain--if he finds Rudner's stolen watch, Rudner will tell him all he knows about the dead inmate, Ray Kaspo. While Monk is having run-ins with the neo-Nazis who stole the watch, Sharona discovers that the dead inmate shares a rare blood type with a newly dead millionaire who would have received Kaspo's kidneys if they had not been destroyed by the poison. While Rudner rescues Monk from the Nazis and is returned to his cell, Sharona solves the case. Dale the Whale gets his window and rewards Monk with a name, Warrick Tennyson, and a place, New York City, and the season ends with a cliffhanger.

Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan

Monk and his friends go to New York City to discover the connection between Trudy's murder and Warrick Tennyson, whose name was given to Monk by Dale the Whale in last season's cliffhanger, "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail." As they're checking into their hotel, mayhem breaks out in the lobby and three people are killed, including the Latvian ambassador to the United Nations. Monk quickly discovers that the ambassador's coat is wet--an odd detail because minutes earlier he was standing near Monk in a dry coat. Monk provides a police sketch artist with minute details about the perpetrator's left ear--the only part of his face that wasn't covered--and Stottlemeyer pressures the New York police captain to allow them access to Tennyson in exchange for their help in the new case. However, the DA, for reasons of her own, is blocking their access to Tennyson, and only after Stottlemeyer "borrows" the keys to the captain's office and pulls out the file that he saw Captain Cage hurriedly stuff into the back of a drawer does he discover why: Warrick Tennyson is dying. Monk, meanwhile, has managed to get himself lost in downtown Manhattan. Several hours later, Stottlemeyer, Sharona, and Disher discover Monk spouting brimstone in Times Square after being mesmerized by a street preacher. As he returns to his senses, he spots the left ear he has memorized attached to the head of a man being interviewed on a huge TV screen high above their heads. After Monk wraps up the case (despite being distracted by the sight of a man he saw urinating in the subway station), he and the others are granted an interview with the dying Warrick Tennyson. Tennyson admits to making, planting, and detonating the car bomb that killed Trudy, but he can't identify the man who hired him to do it because he hasn't seen his face. Nevertheless, he provides Monk with an important clue that we can expect to see followed up in a future episode.

Mr. Monk and the Panic Room

In yet another case of murder in a room locked from the inside, a music producer is found dead with bullets in his back, head. and chest, clearly neither an accident nor a suicide. But this time there's a further twist: the dead man's pet chimpanzee, Darwin, is caught with the murder weapon in his hand. Not wanting to make a monkey of himself by falsely accusing a chimpanzee of murder, Stottlemeyer takes the chimp into the interrogation room, tempting the animal to fire what he thinks is an empty gun. Meanwhile, Disher realizes that he's inadvertently given the captain a loaded gun and panic ensues. When the gun goes off, endangering not only Stottlemeyer but Disher, Monk, and Sharona as well, Stottlemeyer is persuaded that the chimp is guilty and is ready to allow animal control to put him to sleep. Sharona, however, is convinced that Darwin is innocent. In desperation, Sharona resorts to breaking and entering to rescue Darwin, persuading the most unlikely person imaginable to take him in. A reluctant Stottlemeyer is forced to arrest Sharona, and a severely distressed Monk has a "monkey" on his hands. Fortunately for everyone, Darwin himself provides the clue that solves the case and the real murderer is trapped into revealing his identity.

Mr. Monk and the Blackout

A city-wide blackout resulting in three deaths results in a joint investigation by Stottlemeyer, Monk, Sharona, and Disher, with the unprecedented cooperation of the FBI and the help of power company spokeswoman Michelle Rivas, an attractive brunette who is inexplicably attracted to Monk. While Sharona and Dr. Kroger pressure Monk to call Michelle, Disher follows up on Monk's suggestion that the power outage is connected to a '90s radical named Winston Brenner. Everything fits--the handwriting in the note, the phrasing, even a pair of photographs. Everything except one small detail at the end of the report--Brenner died in 1995. When the FBI acknowledges the possibility that Brenner may have faked his own death to avoid a trial, Captain Stottlemeyer presents a tree-hugging former friend of Brenner's with the evidence that Brenner is still alive and reminds him that this particular power outage is also a homicide. When the tree-hugger is murdered, it becomes clear that the killer is indeed Brenner. The only difficulty is finding him. Meanwhile a second power outage occurs during Monk's miserable date with Michelle, trapping him in an elevator and preventing Sharona for the second time from seeing a Willie Nelson special. Realizing that the seemingly random timing of the outages does indeed relate to the TV show, Monk obtains a videotape containing the clue he needs--only to discover, as the lights go out on his block but not the rest of the city, that the killer has also put two and two together. In a dark-comic tribute to Silence of the Lambs, Monk dons night-vision goggles to confront a knife-wielding villain. Fortunately for him, Sharona has already called Captain Stottlemeyer, and Monk survives to give Michelle a dozen red roses.

Mr. Monk Gets Fired

Karen Stottlemeyer has decided to film a "cinema verite" documentary about her husband's work, but her timing could not be worse. The police commissioner, angry that Captain Stottlemeyer is focusing on an arson fire in a wig factory rather than a grisly and difficult case involving a female victim whose body was cut up with a chainsaw, shouts at him (on camera) for relying on Monk instead of solving the chainsaw murder himself. Monk is in even worse trouble. After presenting some useful leads involving the victim's age and nationality, Monk accidentally erases several years' worth of crucial computer files, and the outraged commissioner revokes Monk's private practice license despite Stottlemeyer's protests that it will destroy him. Sharona is forced to return to her old job as a nurse, and the devastated Monk sits around in the hospital hallway all day waiting for her until, at her exasperrated insistence, he finds a job with a magazine as a fact checker. Meanwhile, based on Monk's information, the captain and Disher identify the victim and zero in on a suspect but are stymied by the absence of matching DNA and somewhat sidetracked by a more amusing case--someone keeps stealing the commissioner's hat. When Monk, whose mind is still on the murder case, figures out that the murderer, the arsonist, and the hat snatcher are all the same person, it's confrontation time. Stottlemeyer risks his job by bringing Monk back in to prove that the victim's hair was used to make the commissioner's toupee. When the commissioner denies that his hair is not his own, Stottlemeyer dares the unthinkable and attempts to pull it off as his wife's camera rolls--but the hair remains attached. After the commissioner tells Stottlemeyer he's "finished, in every sense of the word," Sharona takes things into her own hands, jumping on him from behind and literally snatching him bald. When the commissioner asks if there's anything he can do to get that scene edited out, Stottlemeyer triumphantly puts his arm around Monk and presents him to the commissioner with a significant smile. Monk gets his license back, the perpetrator is arrested, and the documentary has a happy ending.

Mr. Monk Meets the Godfather

When five members of the West Coast Mafia are shot down in a barbershop, Monk is pressured by mob godfather Salvatore Lucarelli and his nephew "Fat Tony" to solve the case. But the FBI in the person of Agent Colmes is pressuring him, too. Despite Captain Stottlemeyer's insistence that Colmes is not to be trusted, Monk accepts his offer of reinstatement on the police force if he can bring down the whole gang. The only clues are a partially completed crossword puzzle and a gumball machine that was apparently used to break a back window so the killer could escape. With a Mafia bodyguard named Vince as their "babysitter," Monk and Sharona interview the sole witness, Phil Bedard, a young U.S. mint employee who tells them that he saw three men running from the scene, one of them wearing a jacket with a strange-looking number 15 on the back. Bedard also explains the heightened security at the mint: someone has stolen five double-headed pennies. Associating the numbers on the jackets with a Chinese gang, Monk interrogates gang leader Jimmy Lu, who appears to have nothing to do with the killing, then reluctantly agrees to wear a "bug" in his tie to attend a funeral for the dead Mafia members, with not only Colmes but Stottlemeyer and Lt. Disher listening in. But before Monk ties together the crossword puzzle, the gum machine, and the perpetrator to solve the case, he spills sauce on his tie and ruins the bug by washing and ironing the tie. Fortunately the mob comes to the rescue and the terrified perp turns himself in. Unfortunately, Colmes retracts the offer to get Monk reinstated since he solved the case but did not bring down the gang.

Mr. Monk and the Girl Who Cried Wolf

It's Sharona's turn to be terrified. After several frightening and mysterious encounters with a blood-soaked man that no one else can see, she begins to doubt her own sanity, and Stottlemeyer advises Monk to give her time off to restore her nerves. Monk is left with an irritating substitute nurse whose philosophy is the opposite of Sharona's: everything from Monk's requests for wipes to the obsessively systematic organization of his refrigerator has to go. Wanting Sharona back again, Monk goes to the garage where Sharona first saw the blood-soaked man and finds a clue--the silver tip from the toe of a cowboy boot. Meanwhile Sharona, who is attending a night class in creative writing, apparently forgets to turn in an assignment and seems to be misplacing objects. But when her writing instructor's husband dies of a heart attack after eating tomato soup, Sharona recognizes the plot of her missing story and realizes that she's not crazy. All she and Monk have to do now is tie together the boot tip and the tomato soup to prove that the death is murder and solve the mystery of the bloody man.

Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month

When Edna Coruthers, a model employee at a giant chain store called Mega-Mart, is killed by a falling television set, Monk is called in to investigate by the store's security chief--who turns out to be his disgraced ex-partner, Joe Christie. Neither Monk nor Stottlemeyer wants to work with Christie, whom they hold responsible for some missing cocaine and the death of two police officers, and both of them disregard the evidence that Edna might have been murdered--a broken shoe heel (suggesting that the victim ran from someone or something), her dust allergy (which normally kept her from entering the loading dock where the death occurred), and the three letters (in different handwriting but with similar stamps) complaining about the victim. Twenty-seven days later, realizing that the stamps were all from the same roll and therefore from the same person, Monk reluctantly agrees to help Christie discover a suspect and a motive by working undercover as a store clerk. But he still doesn't trust Christie--until he's trapped in a storeroom with a vicious security dog and Christie saves his life. Before solving the case, Monk finds a way to clear Christie of stealing the cocaine. Then, working together, he and his former partner figure out the identity and motive of the murderer, and Christie demonstrates to Stottlemeyer's satisfaction that he belongs back on the police force.

Mr. Monk and the Game Show

With Sharona in New Jersey to visit her ailing mother, Monk is left in the very incompetent hands of his annoying upstairs neighbor, Kevin Dorfman, but the prospect of a week with Kevin is eased somewhat by a visit from Trudy's father, Dwight Ellison. Dwight invites Monk (and Kevin) to spend the week with him and his wife, Marcia--and at the same time investigate gameshow host Roddy Lankman, who appears to be involved in a conspiracy to allow one of his contestants, Val Birch, to win every game. Despite the memories of Trudy aroused by spending time with her parents in her former home and the questionable help of Kevin, Monk discovers evidence that Lankman visited Birch's house--and that Birch visited the site of the accident that killed Lankman's assistant, Lizzie Talvo. To discover exactly how Lankman and his crooked contestant are communicating--and possibly prove that they're involved in something much worse than cheating--Monk becomes a contestant on the game show. His knowledge of trivia is not much help, though, since Birch keeps shouting out the answers (A, B, C, or D) before Lankman has finished asking the questions. With a little help from Dwight, Monk discovers a novel way to expose the guilty parties--an onscreen phone call to Birch.

Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine

After Captain Stottlemeyer is shot in the shoulder by an unknown assailant, a somewhat rattled and very angry Disher is left in charge of the investigation. Although Monk is almost as distressed as Disher, he provides very little help with the investigation, even allowing a suspect to get away. Feeling depressed and helpless, Monk decides to try a new medication that controls his OCD and eliminates his phobias but also makes him insufferably egotistical, unempathetic, and oblivious to the details that are so vivid to the "normal" Monk. Meanwhile, the suspect Disher has been pursuing is proven innocent, and the bullet taken from the captain's shoulder is traced to a gun belonging to a dead woman. Stottlemeyer impatiently checks himself out of the hospital with his arm in a sling and arranges to interview the new suspect with the help of Monk, Sharona, and Disher. Monk arrives late, dressed in a loud Hawaiian shirt and talking like a "cool cat" from the 1950s. "The Monk," as he calls himself, contributes nothing useful to the interview and discovers nothing when he does his Zen routine in the dead woman's apartment. Undeterred by Sharona's insistence that the medication is making him sicker, he drives off in his new red Mustang. Only when he's made a fool of by some college kids does he realize that "the Monk" is no more normal--and a lot less competent and compassionate--than his usual self. Returning to the dead woman's apartment, he figures out what was wrong and how to prove the suspect guilty of more than one crime, and Sharona triumphantly throws the pills in the dumpster.

Mr. Monk and the Red Herring

With Sharona in New Jersey remarried to her ex-husband, Monk has been without an assistant for three months and it's time to find a new one--if only he could find a suitable applicant. When Natalie Teeger, a thirty-something widow with an eleven-year-old daughter, arrives at his house, he thinks she's applying for the job, but she's really been sent by Captain Stottlemeyer to get Monk's help--two men have broken into her apartment in the last few days and she had to kill the second one with scissors in self-defense. Examining Natalie's apartment, Monk finds a single clue, an unused fish net caught between the sofa cushions, suggesting that the intruders were trying to steal Mr. Henry, Julie's pet fish. But why would anyone want to steal a ninety-nine-cent red herring, er, crimson marblefish? A second clue surfaces when Lieutenant Disher finds a note in the dead perp's pocket reading "2:30 Sea of Tranquility" and Natalie identifies the Sea of Tranquility as an exhibit at the science museum, which she and her daughter recently visited. At the museum, Natalie recognizes the first intruder and Monk finds the clues he needs to figure out what the man is really after. After a minor complication requiring Monk to pose as an ichthyologist to persuade Julie's biology teacher that a common marblefish can live for six years, Mr. Henry and his aquarium become an exhibit at a school science fair. Meanwhile, Monk persuades Stottlemeyer to attend the science fair, where the perp is sure to make a move. The case is resolved and Natalie accepts Monk's offer to hire her as his new assistant, a promising new beginning for them both.

Mr. Monk vs. the Cobra

When John Ricca, author of a controversial and unfavorable biography of martial artist Sonny ("the Cobra") Chow, is found dead in his home, all the evidence points to Chow as the murderer. Unfortunately for Captain Stottlemeyer, his chief suspect has been dead for six years. While Monk and Natalie (who's more interested in being reimbursed for her business expenses than in solving the case) visit Chow's former teacher, Master Zee, who claims that Chow died in his arms, Stottlemeyer resorts to having the corpse dug up to prove that, despite rumors to the contrary, Chow is indeed dead. A dental X-ray proving that the corpse is Chow leaves Monk to figure out who tried to frame the dead man for murder. On an inadvertent tip from Disher, an avid Cobra fan, Monk and Natalie visit the Sonny Chow museum, where Monk finds two important clues--a hairbrush that has been stolen from its case and replaced with a lookalike and the stamp that the museum proprietor placed on Natalie's hand so that she can return to the museum. Remembering a third clue, a "death pillow" from Chow's coffin that felt harder than it should have when the frustrated Natalie hit him with it, Monk drags her back to the cemetery, but she leaves before he can present his solution to the case. Unfortunately for Monk, the perpetrator overhears himself named as the suspect and knocks Monk unconscious. Relenting, Natalie returns to the cemetery, discovers that Monk is missing, and calls Captain Stottlemeyer, who knows the "lowlife" perpetrator all too well and rightly deduces what he's done to Monk. What looks like the entire SFPD arrives in time to catch the perp, whose fate adds another bizarre twist to the plot, but the real challenge is to find and rescue Monk while he's still alive. Monk, meanwhile, is a lot calmer than the captain: he's spending quality time with his dead wife, Trudy.

Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever

After witnessing a murder, Monk has to stay in an FBI safe house--a cabin in the woods--with Stottlemeyer and Natalie. Meanwhile, Disher, who's not with them, gets a new love interest. (Complete synopsis to be submitted by site editor.)

Mr. Monk Gets Stuck in Traffic

Monk and Natalie get stuck in a traffic jam caused by a collision that wasn't an accident. (Complete synopsis to be contributed by site editor.)

Mr. Monk Goes to Vegas

In Las Vegas with Monk for a fellow officer's bachelor party, Stottlemeyer solves a murder but gets drunk and forgets the solution. (Complete synopsis to be contributed by site editor.)

Mr. Monk and the Election

(To be contributed by site editor.)

Mr. Monk and the Kid

Monk temporarily "adopts" a two-year-old boy who finds a bit of evidence related to the kidnapping of a grown man. (Complete synopsis to be provided by site editor.)

Mr. Monk and the Other Detective

While Monk is immobilized by the presence of dog poo at a crime scene, slovenly private eye Marty Eels steps in, using the dog poo (and the dog) as clues in the murder of a security guard, the robbery of a jewelry store, and the disappearance of the store owner, Harold Gumbal. With Monk tailing helplessly behind, muttering "He's cheating" and "That's impossible," Eels locates robbers' ski masks, Gumbal's car, and Gumbal's body. Using the dead man's watch as a clue, he determines the identity of one of the killers, who is then arrested and interrogated. Just as Eels is becoming a local celebrity, with Monk as "yesterday's news," Monk figures out Eels' secret and confronts him. Eels challenges him to prove it, but moments later, he runs after Monk begging for his help: the killer who's still at large wants the jewels back and is holding Eels' mother hostage. The shoe is on the other foot, and Monk must figure out where Mrs. Eels is and why she must be rescued before 8:20.

Mr. Monk Goes Home Again

On Halloween, an armored car driver is shot several times with his own gun. Monk is called from the crime scene by Ambrose, who says that their father is coming to visit, but not before Captain Stottlemeyer shoos away a pigeon and Monk finds a clove cigarette on the ground. While the captain interviews a witness and discovers that the killer was not after money, the Monk brothers wait for their father and Ambrose hands out carefully counted treats. Meanwhile, a man dressed as Frankenstein's monster snatches candy from some of the children trick-or-treating with Julie. Leaving Ambrose alone with Natalie, whom he seems to be developing a crush on, Adrian investigates the candy theft and discovers that all of the victims received candy from "the special man" (Ambrose). He also finds a clove cigarette linking the two crimes. When Julie convinces Monk to take her out trick-or-treating again because she hardly got any candy, he comes across another clue: a dead pigeon he believes is the same one the captain shooed away. He convinces a reluctant and skeptical Stottlemeyer to have the pigeon autopsied and the pieces of the puzzle fall together.

Mr. Monk Stays in Bed

When a pizza delivery man accidentally gives her a fifty-dollar bill as change, Natalie follows him to return the money, only to discover that he's been murdered. Or has he? The photo of the victim in the case folder doesn't match the man who delivered the pizza. But with Stottlemeyer and Disher concentrating on a high-profile case involving the murder of a judge and Monk suffering from the flu (and, worse, from an annoying get-well card that incessantly plays "Polly Wolly Doodle"), Natalie can't get anyone to investigate the delivery man's murder. Leaving Julie the unenviable task of watching Monk, she decides to solve the case herself--even if it means entering the murderer's house. Meanwhile, between nose-blowings and annoying demands, Monk deduces from the evidence the captain presents him that the man the judge was seeing is not married, an important step toward solving her murder.

Mr. Monk Goes to the Office

A parking garage attendant is murdered by an unknown assailant who then seizes his real victim, financial analyst Warren Kemp, and slams his right hand in his car door, making sure that Kemp doesn't see his face. Because the perpetrator, whose voice Kemp didn't recognize, addressed him by name, Kemp suspects that the man is one of his own employees and asks Monk to go undercover as an office worker to investigate. Happy for the chance to be like everybody else and do the same job every day, Monk contentedly cleans up his co-workers' cubicles and retypes their reports, earning himself a place in what he calls the office "gang" as he searches for clues to the identity of Kemp's assailant. His suspicions fall on the unpleasant and unpopular Chilton Handy, who, like the perpetrator (and Captain Stottlemeyer), chews toothpicks, and whose obsession with winning the office bowling tournament could provide a motive for injuring Kemp's right hand. Meanwhile, Natalie's suspicions fall on Kemp himself when a secret she had confided in him appears in an e-mail sent to all the office employees. Just as Monk discovers an alibi for Chilton and needs a new lead, he manages to alienate his co-workers by causing them to forfeit a bowling tournament. Worse still, the case takes a grim turn as the interior decorator Kemp has hired is murdered. The evidence points to the same man, but Monk must find out who and why without the cooperation of the office staff.

Mr. Monk Gets Drunk

Returning to the wine-country inn where he and Trudy spent their honeymoon, Monk tries to relive their time together, but his reminiscences are interrupted by a stranger who sits down at his table and introduces himself as Larry Zwibell. The stranger then invites himself to join the other guests in a poker game, flashing a stack of large bills to sweeten the pot. Feeling unwell after one sip of wine, Monk leaves the room. In the morning, Zwibell is gone and no one seems to remember him. His name is missing from the hotel registry and someone else is in his assigned room. Only a reminder of their promise to trust each other no matter what persuades Natalie, who was upstairs when Monk met Zwibell, to believe Monk and help him figure out what is happening. Meanwhile, another man arrives at the inn claiming that he's looking for his brother, who is in trouble after stealing over three million dollars. The photo he shows Monk is that of the missing Zwibell, but Monk soon figures out that the two men can't be brothers. Drinking what he thinks is nonalcoholic wine and becoming increasingly intoxicated, Monk works through the clues aloud, his danger increasing with every word he speaks, while Natalie searches the stranger's car to discover his real identity.

Mr. Monk and Mrs. Monk

Just as Monk thinks he's getting better and Captain Stottlemeyer is ready to let him back on the force on a trial basis, Natalie overhears a conversation between an elderly man named Zach Ellinghouse and a woman named Trudy, who looks exactly like Monk's late wife. Natalie follows the pair to photograph them, only to be confronted by Trudy, who rips the film out of Natalie's camera and tells her that she faked her own death. Natalie confides in Stottlemeyer, who tries to keep Monk from following when he's called to investigate the death of Zach Ellinghouse. They determine that the murder was unpremeditated, but the clues--a cinnamon stick used to stir coffee, a woman's small footprints, the scent of Shalimar--remind Monk of Trudy. When Disher blurts out that a neighbor heard Ellerbach address the woman as "Trudy," Monk is devastated. Could his beloved wife be alive and guilty of second-degree murder? A visit to her grave reassures him that Trudy is really dead and innocent of the crime, but the only evidence he has is the impression of a storage shed key in the pages of a magazine in the old man's house.

Mr. Monk Goes to a Wedding

Needing a date for her brother's rehearsal dinner, Natalie resorts to asking Lt. Disher. Soon after their arrival at the hotel, Disher is run down and seriously injured by a car belonging to one of Natalie's relatives, saved from death only by the suitcases he had been hauling. The only clues to the driver's identity are the red baseball cap Disher saw as the car came toward him and a bit of greenish mud on the car floor. The wedding photographer, meanwhile, has disappeared, and Captain Stottlemeyer goes undercover as his replacement, ordering Monk to come with him. Concerned that someone in her family may have attempted murder, Natalie convinces him to be her new date. When a man's body is discovered in one of the hotel's mud baths, Monk identifies the man as the photographer based on his stained fingers, and Stottlemeyer joins forces with the local police chief to obtain a search warrant and search the victim's home for clues. Meanwhile, Monk catches the bride-to-be in a lie about her parents' death in a plane crash in 1995. Could she be "the guy," or is the falsehood unconnected to the crimes? And what can be the link between the dead photographer and Disher?

Mr. Monk and Little Monk

When the wealthy and attractive Sherry Judd comes to him for help, Monk flashes back to April 12, 1972, when they were both in eighth grade and Sherry was framed by a bullying classmate. This time Sherry's house has been broken into, a painting of her great-grandmother defaced, and her housekeeper murdered. A handprint on the wall and the trail of blood show that the perps were bungling amateurs who had allowed the housekeeper to set off the burglar alarm during the struggle. The bloody footprints also show that at least one of them had risked arrest by remaining in the house long enough to mutilate a painting with no monetary value. As Monk tries to figure out who did it and why, he remembers the first case he ever solved: the mystery of how a lunchbox that had contained the profits from a bakesale got into Sherry's locker.

Mr. Monk and the Secret Santa

When an officer dies after drinking poisoned wine sent to Captain Stottlemeyer as a Christmas gift, the captain suspects Frank Prager, who tried to shoot him outside a bar several months earlier. Searching the crime scene for clues, Monk notes that the bullet holes seem to form a pattern, but neither he nor Stottlemeyer can figure out the message they're intended to convey. After trying unsuccessfully to talk with Prager's young daughter, Monk goes under cover as Santa Claus. This time he learns that Prager is hiding in a church with "three ladies" in front of it. But when Prager is caught and interrogated, it's clear that he had nothing to do with the poisoned wine. With the other suspects on Disher's list also eliminated, Monk and the captain are back to square one. But when Monk opens the card accompanying his gift from the Christmas party, he finds the clue that solves the case.

Mr. Monk Goes to a Fashion Show

Monk is facing a crisis: he's down to five shirts. But Inspector No. 8, the only shirt inspector who can meet Monk's criteria for perfection, is not up to her usual standards. Sensing that something is wrong, Monk visits No. 8 on the job. The inspector, Maria Ortiz, informs him that her son, Pablo, has been imprisoned for murdering a fashion model, but she's certain that he's innnocent. Monk is chiefly concerned about his shirts, but Natalie persuades him to talk to Pablo because "it's the right thing to do." The conversation uncovers just one clue: Pablo can't read English. When Monk realizes that the killer must have been able to read an emergency exit sign, he's convinced that Pablo is innocent despite the DNA evidence used to convict him. With Stottlemeyer and Disher in tow, Monk and Natalie attempt to talk to the model's former roommate and the fashion designer she worked for, Julian Hodge. But now there's a new problem: Hodge wants thirteen-year-old Julie to model for him. Watching the rehearsal for a fashion show in which Julie will make her debut, Monk discovers a clue that points him to the real killer. When another supermodel is found dead, it's imperative that Monk find new evidence to prove his suspect guilty of both murders and set Pablo free--and for Natalie to get Julie away from the person committing the murders.

Mr. Monk Bumps His Head

After being hit on the head with a pipe and thrown onto the back of a flatbed truck, Monk wakes up in a small town in Wyoming, suffering from amnesia. An eccentric resident named Cora persuades him that he's her new husband Jerry, a roofer. Even without knowing who he is, Monk is still Monk. When he returns to a diner to repay Debbie, a young waitress who paid part of his bill the previous day, and is told that she's missing, he suspects that she's been murdered. The note she left for her fellow waitress was written by a left-handed person and Monk remembers Debbie as right-handed. His curiosity is also aroused when a local man apparently drives his car into a bee farm, and he thinks that the two incidents may be related. Meanwhile, after tracing the serial numbers on the bills taken from Monk's wallet, the San Francisco police arrest his assailant, and Captain Stottlemeyer distributes posters with Monk's photograph to post offices, truckstops, and drug stores (so he'll see his own photo when he needs to buy wipes). As the police wait for calls to come in revealing his whereabouts, Monk begins to learn about himself, to see himself as others see him.

Mr. Monk and the Captain's Marriage

During the investigation of a murder in a junkyard, Captain Stottlemeyer punches a cop named Ryan Sharkey, who claims to be having an affair with the captain's wife, Karen. The only witness to the murder, a homeless man named Gerald or Jerry, has disappeared, but Stottlemeyer suspects businessman Michael Karpov, who is facing charges for money laundering and had a motive for killing the victim, who was scheduled to testify against him. Removed from the case and ordered to take anger management classes, Stottlemeyer asks Monk and Natalie to follow his wife, whom he suspects of lying about her whereabouts. They discover Karen having lunch with a man but are only able to photograph him from the back before being interrupted. Meanwhile, the homeless witness has been stunned and thrown from the third floor of a building but survives the fall, thanks to a corrugated refrigerator carton. Disher places Karpov in a line-up otherwise composed of police officers, including Sharkey, but Stottlemeyer, still enraged at Sharkey, disrupts the line-up before the procedure has been completed. An apple provides the clue that Monk needs to solve the murder case, and Karen reveals the identity of the mystery man she had lunch with. Unfortunately for the captain, it isn't Sharkey.

Mr. Monk and the Big Reward

Low on cash because they haven't had a homicide to investigate in three weeks, Monk and Natalie search for the stolen Alexander Diamond, hoping to win the million-dollar reward. Unfortunately, they have competition in the form of a retired Scotland Yard investigator, a bounty hunter, and a gadget-loving private detective, all of whom want the reward money for themselves. Monk quickly figures out that the heist was an inside job and that one of the robbers was under five feet tall, short enough to hide inside a roll-top desk. He also discovers a clue linking a perpetrator to a transcendental meditation retreat. With their competitors close behind them, Monk and Natalie head for the retreat, where they find the thief, who is unfortunately dead. Meanwhile, Disher is having to interrogate a strange young woman who keeps turning herself in for such "crimes" as stealing pens or murdering a hamster. Monk tells Natalie that he's solved the case and they race to the police station with the other detectives following. The only thing left is to find the diamond before their competitors do.

Mr. Monk and the Astronaut

Monk must solve an impossible murder when the author of an upcoming tell-all autobiography about a famous astronaut is found dead. The astronaut is the prime suspect...but he was in orbit above the Earth at the time of the murder.

Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist

Randy Disher goes to the dentist and witnesses a crime while under anesthesia. When Stottlemeyer won't believe him, a furious Disher resigns and hires Monk to solve the mystery.

Mr. Monk Gets Jury Duty

Monk is summoned to jury duty against his wishes and must solve two crimes: he has to convince the jury the defendent is not guilty, and solve the mystery of a corpse outside the jury room's window.

Mr. Monk and the Actor

While working on a double murder, Monk finds that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery when he finds that an obsessive method actor has been cast to play...Adrian Monk in a new movie.

Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike

Monk finds himself adrift in an ocean of filth when a garbage strike brings San Francisco to a halt...and Adrian to near-paralysis.

Mr. Monk and the Big Game

Julie and her basketball teammates hire Monk to investigate the death of their coach.

Mr. Monk Can't See A Thing

While visiting a firehouse, Monk is blinded by the killer of an elderly fireman.

Mr. Monk, Private Eye

Mr. Monk is on the Air

Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink

Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert

Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan

Marci Maven, an obsessed fan of Monk, asks for his help as her dog has been implicated in the murder of her neighbor, though it died several days prior.

Mr. Monk and the Rapper

Monk helps a famous rapper clear his name after the rapper is accused of murder.

Mr. Monk and the Naked Man

Monk visits a nudist beach to investigate a murder, and is forced to confront a prejudice of his own.

Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend

Monk suspects that Linda, Captain Stottlemeyer's girlfriend, is a murderer.

Mr. Monk and the Birds and the Bees

Julie receives help from Monk regarding her love life, while he investigates a homicide.

Mr. Monk and the Buried Treasure

Monk digs up trouble after following a treasure map brought to him by Dr. Kroger's son Troy.

Mr. Monk and the Daredevil

Monk has trouble coping with new information that he finds out about his arch-rival, Harold Krenshaw.

Mr. Monk and the Wrong Man

When a man he sent to prison years ago is cleared based on new evidence, a guilty Monk tries to help him adjust to life on the outside.

Mr. Monk Stays Up All Night

Mr. Monk takes a walk when he can't sleep, but ends up running into a murder.

Mr. Monk and the Man Who Shot Santa

Monk becomes a social pariah when he shoots a man dressed as Santa Claus. Then he must clear his name and foil a larger criminal plot, all in time for Christmas.

Mr. Monk Joins a Cult

Monk joins a cult to solve a murder case, but becomes entranced by the cult's charismatic leader.

Mr. Monk Goes to the Bank

One of Monk's treasured possessions is stolen from a safety deposit box, and he'll go to any length to solve the case.

Mr. Monk and the Three Julies

Monk searches for a killer who is apparently targeting women with the name Julie, a name which Natalie's daughter shares.

Mr. Monk Paints His Masterpiece

Monk decides to take up painting as a hobby, and discovers an ardent admirer willing to buy anything he produces.

Mr. Monk Is on the Run (1)

Monk is arrested for murder, and finds that he has to go on the lam to clear himself.

Mr. Monk Is on the Run (2)

Stottlemeyer must keep up the pretense that Monk is dead, while Adrian tries to determine who framed him for murder.

Mr. Monk Buys A House

Monk finds himself forced to move into what he hopes will be his dream house... which is anything but.

Mr. Monk and the Genius

Monk must match wits against a grandmaster chess player that he suspects of murder.

Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever

Natalie find fame in becoming the new lottery announcer while Monk tries to figure out who killed the last announcer.

Mr. Monk Takes a Punch

When he takes a case of who is trying to kill a professional boxer, Monk trains to pass a new physical for civilian police consultants.

Mr. Monk Is Underwater

A friend of Natalie's late husband comes to Monk asking for help when his friend supposedly commits suicide aboard a locked cabin on a submarine. Monk agrees to investigate, despite his phobia about being on--and beneath--the water.

Mr. Monk Falls In Love

Monk takes on the case of a woman who confesses to murdering the Butcher of Zemenia.

Mr. Monk's 100th Case

As Monk and his friends watch a TV newsmagazine piece on the solution of his hundredth case, he realizes that one of the victims was murdered by a different killer.

Mr. Monk Gets Hypnotized

Monk undergoes hypnotic therapy as treatment for his OCD. After a session, he adopts a more childlike personality. Meanwhile a soon-to-be divorced woman disappears and a murder occurs.

Mr. Monk and the Miracle

It's Christmas, and three homeless men ask Monk to solve the case of their dead friend. The trail leads to a monastery where a fountain has the miraculous power to cure anyone who drinks from it.

Mr. Monk's Other Brother

Monk gets an unexpected guest: his half-brother, who has broken out of prison and needs Monk to help prove him innocent of a crime he didn't commit.

Mr. Monk On Wheels

While investigating the theft of a bicycle from a biotech CEO, Monk is shot and ends up in a wheelchair... with Natalie as the person forced to wheel him around.

Mr. Monk and the Lady Next Door

Monk befriends a neighbor lady during his investigation of a museum murder, but begins to wonder why she wants to be his friend.

Mr. Monk Makes the Playoffs

When Monk receives a gift of tickets to the playoff, Stottlemeyer is eager to go with him. However, Monk is more interested in a mystery outside the stadium: who tried to kill a fan?

Mr. Monk and the Bully

Monk's childhood nemesis hires him to trail his wife, who he suspects of cheating on him.

Mr. Monk and the Magician

It's murder meets magic when Monk takes on an elusive magician who has crafted the perfect murder.

Mr. Monk Fights City Hall

Monk becomes involved in the disappearance of a city official that could have ramifications concerning Trudy's murder.

Mr. Monk's Favorite Show

Monk is thrilled to be the bodyguard of a former child star after an attempt is made on her life, until he learns how different she is from her TV alter ego

Mr. Monk and The Foreign Man

While investigating the high-profile murder of a maid, Monk finds himself increasingly drawn to a case involving a visiting African man investigating his wife's death.

Mr. Monk and the UFO

Monk must uncover the link between a missing girl and a UFO sighting after Natalie's car breaks down in a small desert town.

Mr. Monk is Someone Else

In an effort to foil an assassination plot, Monk assumes a dead hit man's identity.

Mr. Monk Takes the Stand

Monk's phobias threaten to undermine a big murder case when an aggressive defense attorney targets the detective's unconventional methods in court.

Mr. Monk Goes Camping

To woo the lone holdout on the reinstatement committee, Monk accompanies Lt. Disher on a scouting trip with the man's troublesome son--where nature isn't the only thing the troop has to fear.

Mr. Monk and the Voodoo Curse

Voodoo appears to be the only explanation when unmarked dolls sent to San Francisco residents accurately predict a series of inexplicable deaths -- including, perhaps, Natalie's.

Mr. Monk Goes to Group Therapy

A new HMO restriction on individual therapy forces Monk to join one of Dr. Bell's groups just as its members are being murdered.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Monk

Monk tries to deduce the identity of the person who killed maintenance man Bradley Foster and attorney Richard Meckler, while Natalie tries to arrange a surprise party for the World's Wariest Detective.

Mr. Monk and Sharona

When Sharona returns to San Francisco to handle legal issues related to an uncle's death, Monk suspects foul play and finds himself torn between the differing styles of Sharona and Natalie.

Mr. Monk and the Dog

Monk reluctantly adopts a dog while looking into the suspicious disappearance of its owner.

Mr. Monk Goes Camping

To woo the lone holdout on the reinstatement committee, Monk accompanies Lt. Disher on a scouting trip with the man's troublesome son--where nature isn't the only thing the troop has to fear.

Mr. Monk Is the Best Man

Monk must figure out who's making anonymous threats against Capt. Stottlemeyer and his fiancee on the eve of their wedding.

Mr. Monk and the Badge

Monk finds his return to the police force to be more challenging than he expected when he becomes involved in the case of a serial killer.

Mr. Monk and the End (Part One)

Monk is called to a crime at the location where he first heard the news of his wife's murder and begins the most important investigation of his life.

Mr. Monk and the End (Part Two)

The time has come to finally learn the truth about Trudy Monk's death. A very special surprise is in store for Monk.