Monk“Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever”
Original Air Date: August 1, 2008
Jeff P. – Two Cents Reviewer
jeffp@thetwocentscorp.com
The Murder –
This week’s episode opens up with a lottery drawing and a host named Marisa. Soon after the drawing she is running from a man that we can’t see. She ran as far as she could, but her pursuer catches up to her and kills her, right behind a “Lucky Lottery” sign.
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Monk
ReplyDelete“Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever”
Original Air Date: August 1, 2008
Jeff P. – Two Cents Reviewer
jeffp@thetwocentscorp.com
The Murder –
This week’s episode opens up with a lottery drawing and a host named Marisa. Soon after the drawing she is running from a man that we can’t see. She ran as far as she could, but her pursuer catches up to her and kills her, right behind a “Lucky Lottery” sign.
Adrian Monk is surveying the murder scene. He figures out that this was not a mugging, and that she was chased. He determines that she was stabbed with a pair of scissors. She also has metallic paint on her hand.
The station manager Stan Lawrence comes out to meet Natalie, and asks her if she’d be interested to be the lottery girl for a night. Monk doesn’t like the idea but finally concedes. She doesn’t do a great job, seeming very uncomfortable on camera. However, Mr Lawrence was very impressed with her, telling her that phone callers loved her shtick. He offers her the job permanently, which doesn’t sit well with Monk.
The next day Natalie shows that she’s happy with her new found fame as the lottery girl. Monk isn’t very pleased about this. They have work to do, including talking to a fan of the deceased. His name is O’Dwyer and is obsessed with the lottery. He has many lottery tickets and photos all over his walls relating to the lottery. He swears that he had nothing to do with the lottery girl’s murder.
That night it appears that Natalie’s fame is going to her head. She starts acting like a prima donna on the set. She gets in a fight with Billy, one of the stagehands. When Mr Lawrence comes out he fires Billy immediately. Natalie quickly comes to her senses and tells Stan that she didn’t want him to be fired. Stan tells her that Billy has been warned before for this type of behavior to the hosts.
The following day Monk is sitting in Dr Bell’s office. Neven thinks that Monk should be happy for Natalie. He thinks that he may be afraid to lose her. At the same time, Billy shows up at O’Dwyer’s house. O’Dwyer is very excited to see Billy from the show coming to visit him. Billy notices that there are pictures of him on O’Dwyer’s wall. When O’Dwyer turns around, Billy hits him with a baseball bat and says “It’s not your lucky day”.
Stottlemeyer and Monk end up at the crime scene and find a note that O’Dwyer had apparently been unhappy and jumped out of the window. Monk isn’t buying it. Why would a lottery nut kill himself the night before a lottery jackpot that will be a record breaker? Monk goes to the sidewalk to inspect the body. Natalie is too busy signing autographs. Monk is annoyed by this. Monk and Natalie then get in a fight and Adrian gives her an ultimatum: Work for him or the Lottery. She tells Monk she quits… him.
Captain Stottlemeyer is on the phone at his gym trying to calm Monk down since Natalie has left him. Soon after the call, Billy shows up at the gym! He takes a lottery ticket out of his pocket, and switches it with a ticket that is in Stottlemeyer’s locker.
Monk is sitting in Stottlemeyer’s office with Randy and the Captain. Natalie is on TV drawing the numbers for the $212 million jackpot. And to his utter joy and surprise, one of Stottlemeyer’s tickets is the winner! He tells Randy he’ll pay off his student loans and now he can buy the boat he wants. Monk isn’t happy because he feels that everyone is leaving him.
Adrian is sitting eating lunch the next day when Natalie surprises him with a visit. She had been crying. They turn on the news to reveal that there were two winners in the lottery, Leland and a truck driver. Even though they normally would split the winnings there was a problem. It was revealed that the numbers were rigged, and since Natalie was tied in with the captain, they are accused of cheating. Natalie then apologizes to Monk and tells him she wishes she didn’t quit. She asks for his help.
Monk, Natalie & Stottlemeyer confront Stan and the Lottery commissioner to plead their innocence. Stan demonstrates how the cheating had happened. He turns the machine on and the same winning numbers come up again & again. Monk notices that the winning numbered balls have metallic paint on them. And soon discovers that there is a powerful magnet in the microphone that will suck up only those numbers. Monk asks the commissioner what happened to the other winner, the truck driver. She says that they’ve spoken to his attorneys and they have settled on a payout for his inconvenience. Monk, now looking like he’s solved the crime says, “I’m sure he did”.
Billy is shown with the truck driver at a poolside table. And the gang strolls around them and tells them they’ve been figured out. Monk recants the crime as it was planned. Billy & the truck driver were long time friends. The plan was for Billy to rig the machine to pull out the winning number for his friend. The night he was rigging it, the lottery girl picks up a bell he’d dropped and gets the metal paint on her hand. Then she sees Billy rigging the machine. He chases her after this to kill her. But their plan was jeopardized when he was fired. He wouldn’t be able to turn the magnet off in the microphone. With this, the same numbers would come out night after night and someone would have noticed. Since he would be the obvious suspect, he decided to frame Stottlemeyer and Natalie instead. Monk also notes that Billy killed O’Dwyer because he had a picture of him and the truck driver together. This would have incriminated him for sure.
The episode ends with Natalie and Monk back together. She is happy that she’s working for him again.
Ok, so it was another solid episode. Just when you think that you can solve any TV murder mystery, this series seems to always have new twists that are tougher to figure out. Did you pick up on this one? Or did you miss it completely like yours truly? I’ve given my two cents… I’d like to get yours.
Does the captain get his lottery winning?
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