Monk “Mr. Monk and the Genius”
Original Air Date: July 25, 2008
Jeff P. – Two Cents Reviewer
jeffp@thetwocentscorp.com
The Murder –
This week offers us a threatened murder. A woman named Linda comes in and asks Monk for help. Her husband is a chess champion and genius named Patrick. Apparently Patrick has told Linda that he has a foolproof murder planned…. HERS.
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[Photo: USA Network Photo: Isabella Vosmikova]
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Monk
ReplyDelete“Mr. Monk and the Genius”
Original Air Date: July 25, 2008
Jeff P. – Two Cents Reviewer
jeffp@thetwocentscorp.com
The Murder –
This week offers us a threatened murder. A woman named Linda comes in and asks Monk for help. Her husband is a chess champion and genius named Patrick. Apparently Patrick has told Linda that he has a foolproof murder planned…. HERS.
After discussing the situation with Monk and Natalie, she offers up $5000. This is after she tells them that she feels nobody can help her because Patrick is too smart. Monk asks her why she pays him, and she tells him that she wants him to figure out how Patrick does it AFTER he actually does it.
Monk doesn’t have to wait long. While preparing at her house for anything, Linda is later found dead in her bed. Monk rushes down to the scene of the crime. She’s died of an apparent heart attack and it appears to be natural causes.
They gang meets Patrick at the airport to have a sit down to discuss the death of Linda. Patrick is as evasive as you’d expect. On the way out of the meeting he asks Monk if he plays Chess, and suggests they should play someday. Monk tells him “We already are”.
Later, Adrian and Natalie meet up with a chess player that almost beat Patrick and wanted to know how he plays. The guy tells them that Patrick is a behaviorist, studying the player more than the game. He also tells them about the “Poison Pawn” concept. This concept has a chess player using a pawn as bait for a larger piece, only to be attacked by surprise. After hearing this, Monk thinks he’s solved the case.
Natalie and Monk confront Patrick later with Monk’s theory on Linda’s death. He tells Patrick that he noticed some mints and eye drops which lead Monk to believe she was drinking again. He believes that Patrick had poisoned the hidden bottle of booze. Linda had taken a drink of it and hid it again so nobody would find it. The bottle is the “poison pawn”. Linda dies and the bottle is in a hiding place that only she and Patrick knew about. Patrick ha plenty of time to come and dispose of the bottle. Monk tells Patrick that they will run every toxicology test to discover the poison, but unfortunately Patrick had Linda’s body cremated. On the way out the door, Patrick says, “It’s your move Mr. Monk”.
After surveying Patrick’s house, Monk comes up with an idea. He thinks Patrick may have used grounded oleander for the poison. He is so obviously obsessed; Captain Stottlemeyer takes Monk out to an interrogation room. He thinks that Monk is planning to plant false evidence to incriminate Patrick. He warns Monk about getting too crazy over one case, and he should let it go. Monk says he can’t let it go, especially after losing Trudy the way he did.
That evening, Monk finds himself breaking into Patrick’s house. He plants some poison in the bookcase! But then, reason takes over and he puts the poison back in his pocket. Before he can leave, the light goes on! And there at a table is Patrick, and he criticizes Monk’s tactics, that he describes as only being used by lesser skilled “players”. Adrian sees a serving platter that has the name “Tatiana,” which was in one of Patrick’s chess books. She was one of Patrick’s ex wives, who had also dies by a heart attack. They have Tatiana’s body exhumed, but there was no poison! Patrick thanks Monk for playing the game.
Later Monk goes to a charity chess match and they see one of the challengers is the kid from the park earlier. The kid gives Monk his entry to the match as a proxy. During the match, Monk notices that Patrick participates in the castling maneuver, where the King & Rook switch places. They switch places to get themselves out of trouble, Monk comes up what may have happened after hearing that. He figures out that Patrick switched headstones so the police would do a toxicology report on the wrong body! Monk faces down Patrick and questions why he always has to use Chess metaphors in life. Monk then follows up with “Well, if you insist …. Checkmate.”
This was another great episode. I enjoy when they try to come up with a good challenge for our invincible detective. It is an excellent idea to have him go up against a chess master. It’s symbolic and entertaining all at once.
What did YOU think? Let me know in the comment box. It’s your move! (And your Two Cents).