User:DReifGalaxyM31/Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert

"Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert" is the eighth episode of the fifth season of Monk, and the 69th episode overall.

Plot summary
Monk and Natalie accompany Stottlemeyer to the biggest rock concert of the year to search for his runaway son. While they are searching the grounds, Monk and Natalie discover a dead roadie in one of the port-a-potties. The police believe that the victim died of an apparent drug overdose, but the dead man's girlfriend refuses to believe that this could happen and ropes Monk and Natalie into investigating. They soon have to race against the clock to find the evidence that puts the real killer away before it is destroyed.

Plot
The night before the San Francisco Band Jam rock concert, Trafalgar roadie Greg "Stork" Murray (Terry Fradet) makes his way across the grounds to singer Kris Kedder's (Brad Hunt) motorcoach. Stork pounds incessantly on the door, and then turns when he sees Kedder approaching. Stork promptly produces an advance copy of Trafalgar's latest CD he admits to receiving from a friend. Kedder claims that the cover art was his idea, and Stork quickly accuses him of ripping him off and stealing the copyright to his song "Peggy's Gone to Memphis". Kedder tries to bribe Stork $5,000 to drop the matter, but Stork is not a corruptible guy. As Kedder leads him to a secluded area out of sight from the public, Stork warns him that he won't be getting away this time - he's written copies of the sheet music for his song and sent them to himself by registered mail. Kedder thinks Stork is bluffing, but realizes he isn't when Stork pulls out a cell phone and starts to dial a copyright lawyer. Kedder promptly grabs a beer bottle and smashes it over Stork's head. As Stork lies on the ground dying, Kedder takes a shot from his asthma inhaler, and nervously looks around to make sure nobody has seen him doing the deed.

The next morning, Adrian Monk and Natalie Teeger arrive at the police station, looking for Captain Stottlemeyer. Natalie shows him a $34 drycleaning bill for the shirt and jacket Monk ruined during his previous case. Stottlemeyer gives Natalie the brush-off, but she insists that as the bill is a work-related expense, she and Monk are entitled to reimbursement. He tells them that while he agrees that they deserve every penny possible, he is not the person to talk to, as Lieutenant Disher is the disbursement coordinator. Unfortunately, Randy hasn't showed up at work today, as he called in sick with the flu. Stottlemeyer refers Natalie to the assistant disbursement coordinator, but when she asks who that person would be, he merely points out that they don't have anyone in that position.

Just then, Stottlemeyer gets a call from his ex-wife. When he hangs up, he mentions to Monk and Natalie that his son Jared has skipped school and might be at a rock show that is in town this week. He prepares to head up to the grounds to go look for Jared. Natalie offers to help out, and Stottlemeyer accepts. Monk also offers to help, having mistaken the phrase "rock show" to mean "geology exhibit", which he doesn't realize until they've arrived at the concert parking lot. Stottlemeyer is incensed that he'll have to miss an entire day of work trying to locate Jared. Monk immediately wants to head back to civilization, but with them having come in the captain's car, he is forced to wait in the parking lot.

Natalie and Stottlemeyer enter the grounds, and provide a very old photo of Jared to the bouncer at the main entrance. The official provides them backstage passes to allow them to search the entire grounds. They make their way through the crowd. Stottlemeyer imagines that he is having a conversation with Natalie, even asking her if she thinks he's avoiding Jared on purpose because he feels guilty about the divorce and the fact that he's dating Linda Fusco, but Natalie doesn't give a reply, and they split up.

In the parking lot, Monk attempts to control a couple of rowdy tailgate parties that have sprung up around him with no success, and he realizes that his attempts are hopeless. When a couple starts making out on the hood of Stottlemeyer's car, Monk is disgusted and decides to head home. A bouncer directs him towards the payphones. As Monk makes his way through the crowd, constantly unsure if he's going the right way, he gets hit in the face by a blue beach-ball. He swats it to over to another girl, and continues through the crowd, only to get hit by the boomerang ball for a second time. Monk loses his temper, lashing out at the crowd in general. He is caught up in his tirade enough that he accidentally walks into a port-a-potty a few feet to the left of the payphones and shuts the door behind him.

A couple minutes later, Monk steps out of the port-a-potty. Natalie, now wearing sunglasses to blend in, spots him and rushes over, exasperated. She is somewhat amused to find that Monk thinks he was in a phone booth, and starts to lead him away as Monk realizes with shock and horror what he actually was in. Monk and Natalie are walking by the last port-a-potty when a maintenance worker breaks open the door and Stork's dead body falls out right at their feet, startling Natalie and snapping Monk out of his daze. Another woman screams and a crowd begins to gather as other people take notice.

Sometime later, Monk and Natalie are conversing. Natalie is trying to help Monk calm down after his ordeal in the port-a-potty, which Monk (busy wiping himself down) likens to a torture device. Natalie sympathizes with him, mentioning that she once read about how the Spanish Inquisition locked people in port-a-johns as a form of torture (iron maiden). Monk is hit by the same blue beachball and expresses that he is ready to go, but Natalie stops him, reminding him that they haven't yet found Jared.

At that point, they are interrupted when they are approached by an attractive young woman named Kendra Frank (Tamara Feldman), Stork's girlfriend and sponsor at Narcotics Anonymous. It turns out that Stork's death has been ruled an accidental overdose. But Kendra refuses to believe the story: she knows that Stork had been off drugs for 17 months and she doesn't believe he could have relapsed. Natalie reminds Kendra that Stork had a needle and a syringe sticking out of his right arm when they found his body, but Kendra insists that this is impossible: according to her, Stork also was pathologically afraid of needles. He was also the only roadie she has ever met who didn't have a single tattoo on him, and she remembers that he missed a South America tour a year ago simply because he refused to get a vaccination shot. In an attempt to provide a reasonable explanation, Natalie suggests to her that Stork may have overcome his fear, but Kendra angrily refuses to accept that her boyfriend could overcome such a strong fear overnight. On the verge of pleading, she hands them Stork’s tour jacket. Monk thumbs through the jacket pockets and finds some random knick-knacks, including a backstage pass and a map of the grounds. Kendra is further angered when Monk finds a time written on the map indicating that Stork visited an acupuncturist that morning at 7:30 AM.

In the meanwhile, Stottlemeyer's search for Jared hasn't been lucky. However, he does find Randy. He makes a call from a few feet away on his cell phone to surprise Randy, who pretends to cough to pass himself off as sick. Stottlemeyer pretends to be ashamed to have woken Randy up, and shows himself to be unconvinced by Randy's attempt to pass off the performance on-stage as a broken stereo, then sneaks up to him and surprises him.

Monk, Natalie and Kendra are at the acupuncture tent, interviewing Annie (Benita Marti), the girl who handled "Stork"'s appointment that morning, as she is tending to another patient. During the interview, Monk tries to straighten the needles on Annie's current patient, only to cause the patient to have a pained reaction (and earning a stern glare from Natalie). They learn that "Stork" was Annie's first customer that day. She postively identifies Stork when Kendra supplies a photo of herself posing with him. Annie produces a custom-made earring that he dropped and forgot to pick up. Kendra immediately recognizes it as a gift she made for him. Annie claims that "Stork" apparently didn’t say much apart from a story about how he met Eric Clapton. He also talked about how he was giving up and wanted to get high and had gotten over his fear of needles, and lastly asked where he could find some heroin. He paid her and left, but not before Annie recalls seeing him help a girl who was having trouble blowing up her blue beach-ball. Monk figures that the beachball in question is the one that has been hitting him ever since he entered the grounds. It now seems like the overdose story is true. As Monk, Natalie and Kendra trudge off, disappointed, Monk compulsively touches a 400 watt heat lamp and burns the tips of both of his pointer fingers, even as Natalie tries to restrain him.

Monk and Natalie go to the first-aid tent, where a medic (Jeff Bell) prescribes Natalie an ointment for Monk's fingertips (we also notice that Monk is wearing band-aids on his pointer fingers). Something about Stork's death is bothering Monk, and he begins to suspect that Kendra may have been right and was onto something. Monk and Natalie reexamine the body, lying on a stretcher and screened off from the public, and Monk immediately notices a few more holes in the overdose story: for one thing, the outhouse the body was found in was erected on a very muddy patch of ground, so how come there is no dried mud on the soles of Stork's shoes? This clearly suggests that someone carried his body in. Monk notices a lack of other track marks, and takes interest in the rubber strap that was found on Stork's arm. The medic confirms that he does work with a lot of drug addicts, as they come and go in this particular territory. Monk decides to try something out, so he puts the strap in question around Natalie's right arm. With some difficulty, she is able to form an improvised knot using her left thumb. The medic then confirms that to tighten the knot in the strap, the user then pulls on one of the loose ends with their teeth. Natalie refuses to do this to her own arm, but this gives Monk another crucial clue: if this is the only way a person can tie off their own arm, how did Stork tie off his own arm without leaving any teeth marks?

Elsewhere, Stottlemeyer and Disher find Jared (John Kyle Hansen) in the crowd. As they are leaving the grounds, Stottlemeyer informs Jared that he's been grounded for the next two weeks. Monk, Natalie, and Kendra catch up to them, and Monk informs Stottlemeyer of his suspicions that Stork was murdered.

Because of his problems with crowds, Monk surveys the crime scene from the nearby hillside and talks to Stottlemeyer over a walkie-talkie. Down by the metal barriers erected around the port-a-potty, Natalie reassures Kendra that Monk doesn't always view crime scenes the way he is doing it currently. Stottlemeyer talks to a repairman who confirms that the port-a-potty door was locked from the inside (since they had to jimmy open the lock), meaning it was not him or one of the other roadies who put up the handwritten "Out of Order" notice attached to the door. Monk theorizes that the lock must have been rigged. Stottlemeyer confirms this when he finds fresh scratch marks on the locking mechanism. He also finds a piece of a guitar string on the floor, which Jared identifies as a high D string from a 12 string guitar. Jared and Randy recognize the guitar as a very rare type, used by a number of singers, like Kris Kedder. Monk theorizes that Stork was killed elsewhere, then the killer (Kedder) put the body inside, tied the string around the deadbolt on the lock, and ran the string through an air vent on the right hand side of the port-a-john to lock the door from the outside.

At the first aid tent, Stottlemeyer and Disher speak with the medical examiner, who tells them that a preliminary analysis shows that Stork suffered internal hemhorraging, though whether he was hit or he fell will be unclear until they have completed an autopsy. Stottlemeyer, meanwhile, thanks Jared for identifying the guitar string. Jared, however, is not entirely reconciled with his father, especially after finding a "Runaway Child" poster with the old photo of him on it.

Backstage, Kris Kedder is strumming "Peggy's Gone to Memphis" (which, unbeknownst to anyone, is actually Stork's song) on his guitar for a small group of women when Monk, Natalie, and Kendra show up, having been led to him by the guitar string. Kedder pretends ignorance as Monk questions him. Kendra is disgusted with Kedder's attitude towards Stork's death. During questioning, Monk catches Kedder in several lies, and notices that Kedder is out of tune. He begins to suspect that Kedder is "the guy" - the guitar string used to rig the deadbolt on the lock came from a 12 string guitar, and not only are they very rare, but it turns out that Kedder is the only person on the grounds to own such a guitar. Furthermore, Monk points out to Kedder that he's got mud on his boots, like he's been around the port-a-potty the body was found in. Kedder counterreplies that he sees some on Monk's shoes. Rather than be humiliated, Monk quickly reminds Kendra that she was going to take him and Natalie to the camper trailer Stork lived out of. Kedder tells them that the door is locked, but Kendra reveals that she has a spare key. Kedder asks if he can tag along, claiming that he's curious. What Monk, Natalie, and Kendra do not know is that Kedder's real intention is to search for an envelope with the incriminating sheet music copies that Stork told him about right before he was killed.

Monk, Natalie and Kendra go to Stork's trailer. As they enter, Kedder takes another shot from his asthma inhaler. Natalie comments that it smells mint-flavored, and Kedder mentions that his inhaler is a Danish import. Monk is astonished that Stork would live in such a trailer, but Kendra, smiling as she muses, admits that Stork actually loved camping out in the trailer in between shows, and she sometimes went out on dates with him on these trips. Monk finds an A to Z rhyming dictionary on a table, and Kendra confirms that Stork's biggest dream was song writing, but he was also shy and wouldn't play her any of the stuff he was writing.

Kedder notices the incriminating envelope he is looking for on a shelf over one of the windows, but since Monk is looking over this section of the trailer, he can't snatch it without being noticed. Luck is on his side here, for at that point, Natalie spots a photo of a little girl, which draws Monk's and Kendra's attention away from that part of the trailer. Kendra identifies the girl in the photo as Margaret, Stork's little daughter, who currently lives in Memphis, Tennesee with her mother, who divorced him.

As Monk, Natalie and Kendra are looking at the photo, Kedder quietly grabs the envelope with the incriminating sheet music copies, and tucks the envelope under his shirt. He then slaps himself over the head when he realizes he's late and needs to go perform, and promises to "catch" them later. Monk stops him and questions his use of the phrase, but Kedder then runs off.

But as soon as Kedder is gone, Natalie notices Monk looks unsettled. He asks Natalie and Kendra if either of them touched anything. Both women shake their heads, but Monk points to the spot where the envelope Kedder just took had been. Though it's gone, Natalie finds a blue-colored registered mail receipt, and she notes that Stork apparently sent something to himself. This jolts Kendra's memory: she remembers accompanying Stork to the post office six months ago, when he was mailing sheet music to himself, as part of what he called an "insurance policy". She doesn't know what song he was protecting, but Monk says he knows what it was: "Peggy's Gone to Memphis," the song that Kedder was singing when they started to question him. Kedder hadn't written the song, but Stork had written it about his daughter: Peggy is a nickname for "Margaret" and Stork's daughter lives in Memphis, Tennessee. Kendra realizes with horror that Kedder has snatched the envelope, and Monk realizes Kedder is about to destroy the one piece of evidence that could be used to arrest him.

Monk, Natalie and Kendra race out of the trailer and make their way through the crowd, trying to get to the stage and retrieve the envelope as Kedder performs the stolen song. However, they are too late - in front of their own eyes, Kedder puts the envelope on a flamethrower and torches it, which burns the paper beyond usability. Monk and Natalie look at each other in disbelief.

As Monk, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher rendezvous, Monk explains what happened (a process made harder by the fact that Novillero is up and playing their song "The Laissez-Faire System").

Here's What Happened
Stork wrote "Peggy's Gone to Memphis," which Kris Kedder stole from him. Stork confronted Kedder that night, and Kedder killed him in a panic. Then he put Stork's body into the port-a-potty, and attempted to make it look like Stork had overdosed, tying off Stork's right arm and injecting a hypodermic needle and syringe into it, and placing a handwritten "Out of Order" sign on the door to delay the discovery of the body. However, midway through staging the crime scene, he discovered Stork's straight and sober pin, and realized that he had made a colossal blunder. Like Monk remembers, Kendra said that Stork had been off drugs for almost a year and a half, and he was pathologically afraid of needles.

Kedder was aware that nobody would easily believe that Stork overdosed, unless he made it look like Stork had relapsed back into drug use and had gotten over his fear of needles. That morning, Kedder disguised himself as Stork by donning Stork's bandanna, sunglasses and jacket, to avoid being recognized, and he went to the acupuncturist's tent. To support his cover story, Kedder asked Annie about where he could find heroin.

After the appointment, Kedder returned to the port-a-potty, and put the map into Stork's jacket pocket to lead anyone who did find it the acupuncture tent. Then he rigged the lock on the port-a-john: he tied a string from his guitar around the dead bolt, ran the wire through the air vent, and then closed the door, pulling on the wire from outside the vent to lock the door from the outside.

Stottlemeyer mentions to Monk that there's no way they can prove it: the guitar string could easily have been taken by someone else, and Kedder has burned the incriminating sheet music. But then Monk sees a blue beachball being tossed through the air over the crowd - the very one that had been hitting him earlier, and he suddenly remembers what Annie had told him when he, Natalie, and Kendra had questioned her: after the appointment, and while still disguised as Stork, Kedder blew up a girl's blue beachball. Randy points out that there will be millions of fingerprints on the beach ball, but Monk reveals that the proof is inside the beachball - he points out that Kedder has asthma and uses a distinct inhaler. Natalie points out that the inhaler is mint-flavored and is very unique (she remembers that when they were searching the trailer, Kedder said that it was imported from Denmark). Monk points out that when the guitar string, the fact that Annie can confirm to seeing Kedder blowing up the ball while he was impersonating the victim, and the fact that the air inside the ball could be traced to Kedder's inhaler, are all added up, they decide they have enough evidence to arrest Kedder.

Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher immediately take off, chasing the ball through the crowd, but every time one of them gets close to the ball, the person holding the ball immediately throws it to someone else, extending the chase. While they do that, Monk attempts to make an announcement from the stage, only to get booed off by the crowd. While on the stage, he fails to notice Kedder grab a screwdriver from a utility worker's toolbelt, now aware that Monk is on to him. After a harrowing chase, the ball lands at the top of the scaffolding for one of the loudspeakers, and Jared climbs up a ladder to grab the ball. Just then, Kedder climbs onto a ladder a few feet away from Jared. He intends to use the screwdriver to deflate the ball and destroy the last piece of evidence that could tie him to Stork's murder. Leland arrives at practically the same time, and he tries reasoning with Jared to throw the ball to him, even as Kedder tries to dissuade Jared at the same time. Jared is visibly torn. Kedder smugly asks Jared if he doesn't trust cops, but Jared, after a tense moment, says that he trusts his father, and throws the ball to Leland. Kedder scoffs "Punk!" at Jared as Randy handcuffs him and takes him away.

As Kedder is led away in handcuffs to a police car, Stottlemeyer instructs a uniformed cop to make sure the beachball doesn't accidentally get deflated before it gets to the crime lab. Randy has gotten his hands on a Kris Kedder t-shirt, which Natalie comments will be worth a fortune after Kedder is convicted. As Monk and Natalie walk back to the car, Stottlemeyer stops with Jared at a photo booth to get a few photos of him for the next time he takes off. The episode ends with them taking three photos: one of Jared and Stottlemeyer with straight-faces, one of them with Randy in the middle with a goofy expression, and one of just Jared and Stottlemeyer sitting together, happy smiles on their faces.

Trivia

 * Three real life bands make cameo appearances in the episode - Munkafust, Novillero, and Trusty.
 * The song that plays as Monk, Natalie and Stottlemeyer arrive at the Band Jam and are walking through the parking lot is a song that previously was used in "Mr. Monk Gets Stuck in Traffic".
 * Terry Fradet had previously appeared on Monk as an inmate in the prison library in "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail". James Logan, who plays a roadie, previously appeared in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Office."
 * This is one of several episodes that show how murders happen wherever Monk goes with unusual frequency. However, compared to previous cases like "Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever" where this frequency happens, Natalie immediately is more than willing to assist Monk on the homicide investigation at hand and ignore the search for Jared, based on her body language and her attitude throughout all of the investigation scenes. This, however, is probably because they had come in Stottlemeyer's car, and Natalie had little other choice.
 * When Monk, Natalie and Kendra are talking to Annie about Stork, she says, "Well I guess he's with Kurt, Jimi and Janis now." She refers to Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin, three renowned singers who all died at the age of 27, and who all had drug addictions, and all of them died from drug overdose.
 * Side-by-side, Natalie and Kendra almost appear to be close in age - Kendra's appearance puts her somewhere in her mid- to late twenties, while Natalie's could be anywhere from early to mid-thirties, which would make her no less than five years older. The age difference is much larger in real-life: Traylor Howard (Natalie) is 14 years older than Tamara Feldman (Kendra), who was 26 at the time of filming.
 * Kendra's colors are the exact opposite of Natalie's in the episode - Natalie has blonde hair and wears a white t-shirt and brown shorts, while Kendra has black hair, and wears a black t-shirt and black pants.
 * When Monk notices that Kedder is out of tune, Kedder asks Monk if he plays an instrument, and Monk matter-of-factly admits that he plays a little clarinet. This alludes back to both the pilot episode "Mr. Monk and the Candidate", where Monk played clarinet over Trudy's grave, and the episode "Mr. Monk and the Red-Headed Stranger", where Monk played clarinet with Willie Nelson (including the songs "Georgia On My Mind" and "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain").

Goofs

 * Based on the fact that Stork calls a copyright lawyer late at night before he is killed, San Francisco's yellow pages must contain a 24 hour copyright lawyer of some sort.
 * There are some continuity errors with the songs that are played on stage during the episode. The one that is being performed when Monk, Natalie and Stottlemeyer are walking through the parking lot is being performed again when we see the medical examiner looking at the body. A song that plays when Monk is in the parking lot amongst the tailgate parties is later heard again in the scene where Monk and Natalie first meet Kendra, despite the fact that one other song has been performed. It seems very unlikely that any rock concert would do the same song twice in one event. This could be attributed to the need to avoid needing to constantly putting the bands on-stage to perform during scenes where they aren't going to be seen.
 * Not only would Kris Kedder be possible to indict based on the air inside the ball, but they would also have his DNA on the cap that prevents air from leaking out, assuming that it hadn't been transferred to people who had touched the ball by that part.
 * The medical examiner could have determined the time of Stork's death as being sometime the night before, which would call Annie's story about Stork seeing her that morning into question and make the police suspect that she was in fact seeing his killer. Also, Stork and Kedder sound completely different, with Stork having a slightly deeper voice than Kedder. Assuming that Annie has even met Kris Kedder, wouldn't she be suspicious if "Stork" had a voice that sounded like Kedder's?
 * After Kedder bludgeons Stork with the beer bottle, he takes a shot from his asthma inhaler. It should be noted that moments earlier, we saw two people walk by them. Even though this area probably doesn't receive a lot of foot traffic, Kedder is taking a lot of risk by taking a shot from his inhaler before doing anything about the body.
 * Watch Natalie closely after she runs up to Monk. When Monk tells her that he was just calling for a taxi, the camera is facing Monk, and Natalie's thumb is extended. The angle changes, and when Natalie says "But, Mr. Monk, that wasn't a phone booth!" her thumb is no longer extended. Also, notice that Natalie's purse is on her right shoulder until she grabs Monk's arm to lead him away, but in a wide shot of the port-a-potties, it has suddenly moved to her elbow. Then, as the maintenance man jimmies the lock and Stork's body falls out, Natalie's purse instantly jumps from her elbow back to her shoulder.
 * Various extras in this episode are seen multiple times throughout the episode. Though their run-ins again could be possible, there is one extra, a large black woman with a blue dress, who first appears at Monk's arrival, hanging out with several others in the parking lot, and then shortly after we see Monk at the port-a-potty for the first time.
 * When Natalie is trying to find out who is in charge of disbursement, there is one point where she is facing towards Stottlemeyer, but when the camera switches to Stottlemeyer, she is looking over her shoulder at Monk and turning back to face Stottlemeyer. When Stottlemeyer's phone rings, the position of the detective seen at the desk directly behind Monk and Natalie instantly changes between shots.
 * As soon as Jared has grabbed the ball, Stottlemeyer is at the bottom of the ladder, and Kedder climbs up the other ladder. While the moment where Jared is forced to choose between throwing the ball to Kedder or to Stottlemeyer is an important part of character development, it would be unlikely in real life: keep in mind that Monk has already convinced Stottlemeyer that Kris Kedder is a murderer. Even though the ball was the only evidence available to use against Kedder, the proper thing to do would be to first arrest Kedder and then deal with getting the ball.
 * It seems very unlikely that Monk would only wear one entry bracelet, given his obsession for symmetry. Also, it seems unlikely that he would handle a bracelet that has been touched by other people.
 * When Monk, Natalie, and Kendra first question Kedder, Kendra introduces Monk and Natalie by their full names. However, not once in the episode have either of them told Kendra their full names, although just because events aren't shown on screen doesn't mean they didn't happen.
 * When Kedder is placing Stork's body inside the port-a-potty, Stork opens his eyes briefly. This is probably unintentional unless it is suggesting that the blow Stork took to the head was only enough to knock him out.
 * The police never run the needle found in Stork's arm for fingerprints, which should have been done as protocol. Since Kedder is clearly not wearing gloves in the flashback, his fingerprints would be found on the syringe.

Production
"Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert" was produced as another episode along the lines of how to put Monk in discomforting situations. According to production designer Chuck Parker, the environment seen in the episode was based on a number of music festivals he had seen, heard, or watched film footage of, including Woodstock, Ozzfest, Heritage Jazz and Blues Fest, Wango Tango, US Festival and Bonnaroo.

The stage on which the various bands perform was erected in the course of three days, and was built to be 80 feet wide, 40 feet deep and 30 feet tall.

Art designer Bill Brownell and rigging gaffer Arnaud Peiny designed the various backdrops for the stage. The Golden Gate Bridge backdrop on the stage measured 30 feet by 40 feet in area, with two 30' x 20' banners flanking the sides.

The most difficult part of the production process involved creating a "circus-type" atmosphere like the one that typically is present at these festivals, with many craft, food and product vendors (in fact, in a scene where Monk is standing on the hill talking to Stottlemeyer over a walkie-talkie, a tent sponsored by SoBe can be seen). The production crew was able to construct "mini-environments" throughout the grounds with believable set dressing and props due to the creative ingenuity and tenacity of the set decorator and propmaster.

For further background authenticity, musical instruments, amplifiers, and speakers were placed on the stage. The benches at Annie's acupuncture tent were also designed to be as realistic as possible, as well as the first aid tent where Monk and Natalie examine Stork's body, which was also filled with actual supplies. Actual pay phones and port-a-potties were also supplied. One of the port-a-potties was designed so that the back of it could be taken off for filming scenes inside the tight space. These include a scene where Stottlemeyer looks inside the port-a-potty, and also a scene during Monk's summation with Kris Kedder placing Stork's body inside and rigging the lock.