User:Kevinbrogers/Sandbox/Monk articles/Mr. Monk Joins a Cult

"Mr. Monk Joins a Cult" is the 11th epside of the sixth season of Monk, and the 88th episode overall.

Plot summary
Monk infiltrates a cult to solve a ritual-style murder at a highway rest stop, but soon falls under the spell of the cult's charismatic leader.

Plot synopsis
While Adrian Monk and Natalie Teeger are out shopping, Monk decides to purchase a beeper, although Natalie is less then thrilled when she finds out he wants her to pay for it, and finds that it’s for her. Natalie stops, and she notices the parents of Amanda Clark, a woman who was brutally stabbed to death earlier that week, and Monk begrudgingly takes the case – before the Clarks even ask.

Sometime later, Monk and Natalie meet Captain Stottlemeyer at the highway rest stop where Amanda Clark was killed. Lieutenant Disher arrives carrying Tom Donovan (John Ross Bowie), the man who witnessed the whole thing. It seems that Donovan and his wife own a restaurant supply chain. Despite being interrupted a few times by Randy, Donovan explains what happened - he was driving back from Sacramento and had stopped here to use the restrooms. The headlights of his car picked up a group of people holding down and stabbing Amanda Clark on the table. When the killers spotted Donovan they took off in their silver van, leaving Amanda with ten stab wounds and the symbol of a sun carved into her chest. Donovan put Amanda into his car and tried to drive her to the hospital, but she died before he made it. Her last words were, "He found me. Father found me."

Stottlemeyer says that Donovan's story checks out: Amanda had left a cult called the Siblings of the Sun over a year before she was killed. She had apparently been so terrified that Father (the leader of the cult) would find her that she changed her name and went into hiding, working off the books as a prostitute with an alias name. As for who "Father" is, he used to be a used car salesman named Ralph Roberts before he went into the "Son of God" business. Donovan picked Father out of a lineup, but Stottlemeyer reveals that they can't arrest Father yet because they don't have any proof. The problem is, Father has 100 alibis. Every one of his so-called "Children" claim he never left the compound on Wednesday night, the night Amanda was killed. The SFPD doesn't want to send anyone into the cult, because as Stottlemeyer points out, the Siblings of the Sun have a lot of lawyers and they love suing cops. Monk offers to go undercover, an idea Stottlemeyer swiftly rejects, pointing out that Monk would not last five minutes. It's agreed instead that Natalie, who won't pose such as easy target for the cult, will be the one to infiltrate it.

In theory, their idea works. However, when Monk and Natalie go to one of the Siblings of the Sun recruiting stations in the city, the two Siblings who approach Natalie, Brother Ted and Sister Sally, quickly reject her. They quickly lose interest in her when they find out she has a daughter. Before Natalie can do anything about it, Monk steps in and the cult leaders whisk him off to their private ranch.

Once they arrive at the ranch, Monk gets a tour of the grounds, which are filled with serene cult members, and speaks with Brother Zach, who had been stationed in front of Father's cabin the night of the murder on security detail. Brother Zach tells Monk that he is sure Father never left his cabin that night – he claims he heard Father talking to God all night, and even heard his microwave beeping. Monk wonders if Father snuck away but quickly tries to pretend he’s unconcerned. He then looks around the place and finds scratch marks in the dirt behind Father’s cabin. Father (Howie Mandel) finds him. He says he offers answers when he finds Monk has lost his wife, and offers his book. He instructs Monk to read it, because "the more you read, the more you know. The more you know, the less you don't know."

Randy tries to interrogate Brother Ted, without much luck, while Natalie tells Stottlemeyer that Monk is in the cult. Stottlemeyer has good reason to be concerned about Monk, as he's like Play-Doh to the Siblings.

Back at Father's ranch, Father holds a rally and reminds all of his "Children" about the fact that he’s never been sick a day in his life, and all he takes to obtain his good health is a daily 4 mg dose of the Light. He tries to get through to Monk, forcing him to confront his fear of charcoal. He gets Monk to give up his wipes… eventually.

Later, Stottlemeyer checks in to report he found Monk at the airport, wearing one of the cult's yellow shirts, selling flowers and smiling. Stottlemeyer tells Natalie and Randy that when he asked Monk about the murder, Monk said "Leland, I've learned everything." It seems he's fallen under Father's spell.

Monk, now using the alias "Brother Adrian," is busy organizing flower bouquets at the ranch when Brother Ted and Sister Sally come to inform Monk that Father asks to see him. Monk enters Father's cabin, where Father is preparing a cup of tea, but he realizes that his hot plate is unplugged. Father is reluctant to bend over and plug in his hot plate, Monk helps and spots something like a pen cap, but on closer examination looks like a syringe. Father confronts Monk about being a police-planted mole and admits he wasn’t happy when Amanda Clark left, but he didn’t kill her. All Monk can focus on is being allowed to stay at the ranch. He begs Father to let him stay at the ranch, where he doesn't have to think, and professed his loyalty and gratitude.

Father lets him stay, with one little proof of gratitude: Monk's savings. To prove his allegiance to the Siblings of the Sun, Monk visits the bank with several of the other cult members. Just as he is handing over a check, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher pull up and abduct Monk. They take him back to Natalie's house, where one room is cleared out. With Dr. Kroger's assistance, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher try to deprogram Monk with no success (in this order):


 * Natalie tries to feed Monk some chicken pot pie, but he acts like she's trying to poison him. She starts to feel like the mother in the movie The Exorcist. However, she is impressed when Monk reveals that he doesn't need a wipe
 * Stottlemeyer tries to get through to Monk showing him the Amanda Clark case file, but has no luck.
 * Randy attempts to inform Monk that Father is a joke. However, suddenly, from outside, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Dr. Kroger all hear another voice singing a chant alongside Monk. Dr. Kroger enters to find Randy shirtless, clutching Father's book, and singing with Monk. Dr. Kroger snaps Randy out and sends him away, asking Natalie and Stottlemeyer to keep an eye on him.
 * Dr. Kroger uses Father's book, and mentions to Monk that he's had some dealings with the Siblings of the Sun. He mentions that Harold Krenshaw narrowly avoided being inducted into the cult. Monk mentions Father's belief that psychiatry was invented by the Devil, and Dr. Kroger claims that he never knew that, and it's like another fact in the book - "Money is envy and envy is the root of all evil," which Father apparently does not believe. He's worth $20 million, he has seven houses all around the world, and he owns a newsstation, parking lots, and karate schools. When Dr. Kroger begins to crumple up an old photo of Trudy, Monk finally snaps out. Suddenly, Dr. Kroger's beeper goes off, and Monk solves the case.

Here's What Happened
Later that night, Monk, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher go back to Tom Donovan's office. Monk reveals that Donovan is hiding the fact that he killed Amanda Clark. Monk reveals that he has confirmed that Father never left the compound on the night of the murder, and there is a legitimate witness who can confirm this. He also reveals that Father apparently has a bad back, but he has to keep it secret because he is the Eternal One who isn't supposed to get sick. Father even built a secret door into the side of his cabin to let doctors in and out without any Siblings seeing them, explaining the ridge in the dirt that was behind Father's cabin. The police have found the doctor, an osteopathic surgeon who makes weekly house-calls to Father's cabin to give him a cortisone shot. This explains the plastic syringe cap Monk found on the cabin floor. The beeping noise Brother Zach claimed to have heard was not a microwave, but the doctor's beeper.

Donovan's wife Susan refuses to believe that her husband is guilty of murder, but Stottlemeyer points out that Donovan claimed to have seen Father at the rest stop that night and even picked Father out of a line-up, twice. He must by lying to protect himself. Susan hands Stottlemeyer a traffic ticket that Tom has just received in the mail, which includes photos of Donovan with Amanda sitting in the passenger seat with her seatbelt on, after having run a red light. Monk asks to see the car.

Monk, Natalie, Stottlemeyer, Disher, Tom, and Susan head down to the car. Monk explains what he thinks happened - Amanda Clark was a sex prostitute. Donovan was with her that night. He accidentally ran a red light, and the red light camera snapped photos of him and Amanda, plus the car's license plates as he passed through. Donovan saw the flash of the camera, and realized that the red light ticket would be sent to his office, as the car was a company car. He knew that his wife wouldn't be happy if she saw Tom with Amanda in that car, so Donovan realized he'd have to explain the photograph.

Amanda probably told Donovan about her life in the Siblings of the Sun. He parked at the rest stop, walked her to the picnic bench, and stabbed her repeatedly, carving a sun into her chest, to frame Father, and then he pretended to drive her to the hospital.

Donovan says there's no proof, but Monk points out that Amanda was wearing her seatbelt when the photo was taken. He also mentions that Amanda was stabbed ten times and she was bleeding all over her seat (there is still a lot of dried blood on the seat), so the seatbelt should be covered with blood. Donovan says that he ran the red light while rushing Amanda to the hospital, but Monk reminds him that if that were true, and the photo was taken after Amanda was attacked, then her seatbelt should have blood on it - which it doesn't. Unable to provide an explanation, Donovan is arrested.

Later, Monk and Natalie are out buying groceries when Father and some of his Siblings pull up in their van to thank him for clearing his name. He asks Monk to come back to the ranch. Monk declines, but asks Father to tie his shoe. Father can't bend down due to his bad back, and Monk and Natalie hence expose to the Siblings the back problem that has plagued Father. Monk gives Father a nice tip: "The more you know, the less you don't know," is a really powerful statement. As Monk and Natalie leave, Father's followers are forced to question how immortal the Eternal One actually is.