User:DReifGalaxyM31/Mr. Monk and the Bully

"Mr. Monk and the Bully" is the fourteenth episode of the seventh season of the television series Monk, and the 107th episode overall.

Plot summary
What goes around does come around when Monk and Natalie are hired by the bully who tormented Monk during his childhood to follow his wife, whom he suspects of infidelity.

Plot synopsis
As Adrian Monk is cooking in the kitchen, Natalie Teeger converses on the phone with someone. When she hangs up, she mentions to Monk that they've received their first client in weeks. He wouldn't mention what the job was, but he did say his name was Roderick Brody and he wants to meet Monk the next day. Monk remembers Roderick Brody very well as the bully who tortured him every day in middle school. He has a flashback to a memory of Roderick torturing him with a "swirly" (a bathroom prank where you stick someone's head into a toilet bowl and then flush it), and as a result, burns his hand on a hot oven tray.

Monk is nervous with meeting Roderick. The next day, he moves up his appointment with Dr. Bell to ask for some words of advice. Dr. Bell notes to Monk that he had a bully in school and stood up to him in order to make him back down, but Monk complains that that advice is useless - Natalie refuses to let him back out, primarily because Roderick turns out to be their first paying client in weeks. Dr. Bell suggests to Monk that he look at the meeting with Roderick as an opportunity to confront his most troubling fears.

Later that day, Monk and Natalie show up at the Brody house. Monk is still nervous, but Natalie assures him that there is no harm in hearing Roderick out. They are greeted at the door by Marilyn Brody, Roderick's young 35 year old wife. As she shows them into the foyer (and Natalie comments about the decor), she mentions that she and her husband are currently renovating the house for a party, being held in three weeks time. Marilyn also exchanges some small-talk with Natalie, noting that their wedding was small, since she didn't have much family, as she was adopted, apart from an aunt in Texas who didn't make it.

After Marilyn goes upstairs to fetch her husband, Natalie notes just by looking around the foyer that Roderick's checks must never bounce. Roderick comes back downstairs, angrily talking on his cell phone to someone about a money dispute, but he hangs up when he sees Monk. He invites Monk and Natalie into his study, and after catching up with Monk's life since middle school, he explains to them his case. He thinks Marilyn is cheating on him. Two days ago, he claims, he was in a cab stopped at a red light and by chance, saw her crossing the street. Roderick believes she was meeting someone, judging from the way she walked and dressed. Roderick wants to know where she was going, and who she was meeting. Natalie starts to give Roderick the brush-off, pointing out that she and Monk don't deal in matrimonial cases (and offers to refer him to someone else who practices these types of cases), but Monk takes the job, intending to give Roderick the benefit of the doubt. As they leave the house, it becomes clear that Monk is all too happy to have revenge on Roderick.

The next day, Monk and Natalie are seen piecing together the route Marilyn might have taken. They have reached the point where Roderick said he lost track of her. Natalie suggests that Marilyn turned right, but Monk points out that that street heads uphill and she was wearing high-heels; she then suggests that Marilyn crossed the road, but Monk notes that there's nothing in that direction. Acting on a hunch, Monk and Natalie continue up the road. After Monk tries unsuccessfully to get information from a doorman, Natalie pulls Monk aside to warn him that if he's right, Roderick's marriage could be destroyed, but Monk doesn't show any signs of remorse. Monk notices a bar across the street and thinks it looks promising.

Monk and Natalie walk into an upscale bar, and after taking stools at the counter, Monk tries to ask the shady bartender if he has seen Marilyn. When the bartender claims that he hasn't, Monk makes a pathetic attempt at bribing him with "two General Washingtons", or one dollar bill and a quarter. The bartender walks away and Monk puts his money back into his wallet. A businessman sitting a few stools over motions them over to Marilyn, who is kissing a young, good-looking, virile man in the back, across the room. Monk pulls out his old camera (with expired film to match), attaches a flash cube to it, and at first attempts to take a picture of the lovers in the act by using the reflection of a spoon. Since Monk and Natalie wince when the flash goes off, it becomes clear that the photo is wasted. But noticing the businessman eyeing them, Natalie gets an idea: she tricks the businessman into taking a photo of the target by making him think that he's taking a picture of Monk and Natalie (who both promptly duck out of the camera's view when the flash fires).

That night, Monk and Natalie have a secret rendezvous with Roderick in a remote corner of a deserted parking lot. Monk explains to him that the man they saw was a guy named Douglas J. Fendle. Roderick claims never to have heard of Fendle. Monk notes that they have managed to track down Fendle to a nearby hotel. Unfortunately, Roderick is having second thoughts, and mentions that he thinks the woman he saw was not Marilyn - he admits that his eyesight isn't perfect, and the photos are too grainy for him to make a positive facial identification. For Monk's and Natalie's troubles, he gives them their paycheck, although Monk offers to dig a little deeper and get a digital camera to find more proof. As Roderick pulls the money out of his car’s glove compartment, Monk momentarily becomes unnerved upon seeing a revolver in the compartment, but Roderick reassures him that the weapon is registered and he is licensed.

Natalie shows up at Monk's apartment the next morning with a new digital camera. When Monk brings up the case again, Natalie reluctantly admits that she no longer wishes to continue helping Monk in following Marilyn, believing that Monk's obsession with the case is bordering onto the lines of stalking. Monk insists on continuing on, citing his own reasons. This makes Natalie furious, and she angrily insists that he quit, but their argument is cut off when she receives a very disturbing call on her cell phone.

We next cut to Monk and Natalie looking at Fendle, who has been found stabbed and killed in his hotel room. Lieutenant Disher notes that the victim was 37 years old, and was a Midwestern attorney who worked at a small law firm that handled family issues (primarily wills and adoptions). Randy mentions that Fendle was apparently on vacation, and checked in about three days ago. The medical examiner has pinpointed the approximate time of death to between 8:00 and 9:00 PM the night before. They believe the murder weapon was a steak knife - this is based on the fact that such a knife is missing from the room service tray. Randy notes that nothing has been taken or searched, and notes from a lack of forced entry that the victim had to have let the killer in.

Natalie quickly becomes frustrated with Monk's inattentiveness, and quickly pulls him aside. She asks him if he thinks Roderick Brody might be involved, and he seems to believe so. Before Natalie can berate Monk any further, Captain Stottlemeyer comes in, having just gone dumpster diving for the knife. When Stottlemeyer finds out that Monk and Natalie (sort of) know Fendle, Monk eagerly gives him Roderick's name and address, although Natalie tries to withold this (claiming client confidentiality).

Roderick is brought to the police station to be questioned, though he is unhappy with having been dragged out of his office. Asked for an alibi, Roderick claims that he was at home with Marilyn. He still swears that the woman that Monk and Natalie saw in the bar wasn't his wife. Just then, Marilyn walks in, the police having notified her about the situation. She gives a very shocking story: she says she admitted to Roderick that she was having an affair with Fendle. She says he got furious, said he was going to kill Fendle, and he stormed out of the house. When he came back a few hours later, she says, he was carrying a bloody steak knife in his hands. She presents said knife, wrapped in a piece of cloth. As she is giving her story, Roderick tries to insist that Marilyn is lying, and Stottlemeyer has to restrain him.

Monk excuses himself and leaves the police station. Natalie catches up to him later in the park. His revenge fulfilled, Monk plans on doing a cartwheel, but he can't bring himself to do it as he starts feeling remorse for Roderick. He eventually tries to have Natalie do the cartwheel. She refuses... and then Monk notices a nearby police officer's holstered gun. Natalie asks Monk what is wrong, and Monk mentions that Roderick had a gun.

Monk and Natalie return to Marilyn's house to question her. Marilyn tries to convince them that she is busy, but they manage to bluff their way in. Curiously, Marilyn seems to have forgotten Natalie's name. As they wait in the foyer, a banker finishes up some work setting up a new bank account, and then leaves the house.

After the banker leaves, Monk explains to Marilyn that there were several holes in her story - for one thing, she told the police that the night before, Roderick was upset and that he stormed out of the house, and he took his own car. Monk notes that doesn't make any sense at all, since he remembers that Roderick keeps a handgun in his car's glovebox: if Roderick had a gun, why didn't he use it? And how did he know that there would be a conveniently available steak knife if he hadn't been there before? Marilyn suggests that perhaps Roderick took the gun and realized at the last minute that the gunshot would be too loud. She admits that she can't be more helpful. Natalie asks Marilyn if she'll be fine, and Marilyn assures her that she's okay, as her aunt will be flying in the next day.

Monk and Natalie leave, and Marilyn closes the door behind them. As soon as they are gone, she goes into the living room, picks up an envelope, and then goes downstairs to the basement. She clicks on the lights, revealing to us that Monk and Natalie were actually talking to Marilyn's identical twin sister, and the real Marilyn is being held hostage in the basement. The sister regretfully informs Marilyn that, with Monk catching on to her, she will have to accelerate the schedule of her plan.

Back at the police station, Monk enters the interrogation room where Roderick is being held. He confesses to having pretended to help Roderick and admits to having felt glad when Roderick was arrested (figuring it was payback for Roderick's swirlies), and mentions that he's decided to clear Roderick's name. Monk agrees with Roderick that Marilyn is lying about the events of the previous night. Roderick insists that he didn't kill Fendle, and points out that Marilyn couldn't have been responsible either because she never left the house during the night. This leaves Monk another puzzling detail: if neither Roderick nor Marilyn left the house at all during the night, then how did Marilyn come into posession of the murder weapon? Monk then sees a reflection of himself in the interrogation room's two-way mirror, and deduces that it was Marilyn who killed Fendle. Roderick is confused, reminding Monk that Marilyn was with him, but Monk reveals that Marilyn was in both places - she was with Roderick, and she was also at the hotel at that same time: Marilyn has a twin sister. Roderick looks at Monk, surprised.

Here's What Happened
We cut back to the Brody house, where the identical twin has finished filling the bathtub with water. Marilyn is lying on the floor, her hands bound with duct tape. The sister admits that she didn’t even know about Marilyn until Fendle showed up, because it turns out that the firm he worked for before he was killed also represented their adoptions 35 years ago. She pulls out a knife and cuts open a bag of sea salt, which she dumps into the tub. She is planning to kill Marilyn by drowning her and then dumping her in the bay, intending to pass her death off as a suicide.

Meanwhile, Stottlemeyer and Disher pull up to the house and meet Monk and Natalie at the door. They’ve confirmed that Marilyn has a twin sister, a Patrice Gesner from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Randy notes that they were adopted by different families 35 years ago and never knew each other because the papers were confidential. Monk figures that both sisters are inside, but they have to go by the standard protocol and wait for the police to arrive with a search warrant. While they’re waiting, Stottlemeyer asks Monk to explain how he figured everything out.

Monk remembers that when he and Natalie first met Marilyn, she mentioned her aunt in Texas, and pronounced the word with an American dialect. However, two days later, she pronounced it with a British accent. Additionally, Monk remembers that in their first meeting, Marilyn biting her fingernails. Yet, two days later, her nails were suddenly perfectly manicured.

He and Natalie explain that Marilyn was never cheating on Roderick at all. The woman Roderick had seen in the square, and whom Monk and Natalie were following, was his sister-in-law. Monk believes that Patrice had planned to kill Roderick to get to his money, but when the police arrested him, her work got cut out for her. That morning, as Roderick was being questioned at the police station, Patrice showed up at Roderick's house. When Marilyn opened the door, Patrice drugged her. She was the one who got the call that Roderick had been arrested, and she was the one who produced the knife to frame Roderick for the murder, since she had not gotten rid of it.

When Disher asks why Douglas Fendle was killed, Monk explains that he was Patrice’s partner in all of this, but she didn’t want to cut him a share of the money. Plus, Natalie notes that when she and Monk came by the house earlier and spoke to "Marilyn", there was a banker in the house. She reveals that the banker was moving Roderick’s money to offshore bank accounts in the Grand Cayman Islands. They figure that Patrice will kill Marilyn and then disappear completely.

Inside the house, Patrice shoves Marilyn into the bathtub and starts to drown her while holding her by the legs, but Marilyn is able to fight back against her twin to the point that Patrice slips on the tile. As the twin tries to regain her footing, Marilyn yells for help. Monk, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher hear her. The door is locked, however, and Stottlemeyer has to break the glass to reach in and open the door. In the bathroom, the twin has managed to climb back up and regain control on Marilyn, and just as she is about to finish Marilyn off, Monk, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher burst in and arrest her. While Monk and Natalie provide aid to Marilyn, Randy suggests that they try to tell the sisters apart by having Marilyn (who is coughing up salt water) say “aunt,” but Stottlemeyer suggests that the simpler way to tell them apart would be to just arrest the twin that was not drowning.

Roderick is exonerated, and comes home later that day, where he and Marilyn embrace. It becomes apparent to Monk that although his pro bono comeuppance didn't last, he has gotten the satisfaction of putting a murderer behind bars. Monk and Roderick exchange parting words. As Roderick and Marilyn head back into the house, Roderick explains to Marilyn what "swirlies" are. Monk and Natalie head back to the car, and Monk asks to have his shower cap back.

Additional facts

 * While debating whether to do a cartwheel or not, it is established that neither Monk nor Natalie know what a ghoul is. A ghoul is a folklore monster that is considered undead and consumes human flesh.
 * Monk makes a name-drop reference to the song "Heartbreak Hotel" during the rendezvous in Roderick's car.
 * The episode demonstrates how Monk is most utterly pathetic at bribing people. This might be a nod back to "Mr. Monk Goes to the Theater," where he attempts to bribe a doorman to Jenna Ryan's wherabouts with $4, which is hardly sufficient until Sharona gives the man $40.
 * Stottlemeyer is never referred to by name during the episode. Randy is only referred to by name twice, both times by Stottlemeyer, during the attempted murder at Marilyn's house.

Goofs

 * As Monk is getting out of the car when they arrive at Roderick's house, despite the car looking like it was just rained on, the surroundings are dry.
 * During the secret meeting that Monk and Natalie have with Roderick, notice that there are water drops on the hood of the car, like it recently rained, yet it doesn't appear to have rained at all that day.
 * Natalie's right hand changes position as the bartender walks away following Monk's unsuccessful attempt at bribing him.
 * Just before Monk pulls out his old camera, there are two men that are walking towards the back of the bar that don't appear in any other angles.
 * During the scene where Monk and Natalie are arguing in Monk's apartment, notice that Natalie is wearing a ponytail. In the very next scene (conversing with Randy at the crime scene) and in all later scenes, her ponytail is gone, but it is obviously the same day - given that her attire (black trench coat, long black pants and a black collared shirt) is unchanged. However, it could easily be suggested that Natalie may have adjusted her hair off-camera.
 * If you pay very close attention, in Fendle's room, the flower Natalie grabs from Monk's lapel momentarily jumps from Natalie's hand to Monk's hand between angle changes just before Stottlemeyer enters the room.
 * Monk constantly refers to his previous encounters with Roderick as happening "40 years ago". But during the scene where Monk talks to Roderick in the interrogation room, Roderick says "What am I gonna do? Hold a grudge for 30 years?" This appears to be either an error in the script or Noah Emmerich misspeaking.