Monk “Mr. Monk Takes a Punch”
Original Air Date: August 8, 2008
Jeff P. – Two Cents Reviewer
jeffp@thetwocentscorp.com
The Murder –
The episode starts with a guy breaking into a gym and rigging up a boxing bag. He cuts a hole in the side and puts some C4 into it. The next day a trainer and a boxer come in to train. The boxer is about to hit the bag, but is stopped by a vagrant who was sleeping in the gym. The boxer gives him 10 dollars out of kindness, and before the vagrant leaves he punches the bag and it explodes.
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[Photo: USA Network Photo: Isabella Vosmikova]
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Monk
ReplyDelete“Mr. Monk Takes a Punch”
Original Air Date: August 8, 2008
Jeff P. – Two Cents Reviewer
jeffp@thetwocentscorp.com
The Murder –
The episode starts with a guy breaking into a gym and rigging up a boxing bag. He cuts a hole in the side and puts some C4 into it. The next day a trainer and a boxer come in to train. The boxer is about to hit the bag, but is stopped by a vagrant who was sleeping in the gym. The boxer gives him 10 dollars out of kindness, and before the vagrant leaves he punches the bag and it explodes.
Monk is in Stottlemeyer’s office. He’s just learned that all consultants have to pass a physical exam to work for the police department moving forward. This means that Monk needs to get in shape and fast! He starts by trying to run some track but has some troubles early. Then Natalie gets a call and hears about the bombing. He meets the boxer, Ray and the manager Mr Flynn at the gym.
Later Leland tells Mr Flynn that they’d discovered DNA evidence of a guy known as the Iceman. He is a hitman wanted by the FBI. He tells Flynn that the Iceman must have a contract out on Ray and he should consider canceling a big rematch fight that’s coming up. Flynn doesn’t want anything to do with that. He wants them to work on stopping the hitman.
Monk faces Ray with a hard truth later, when he tells him he’d figured out that he threw the first title fight. Ray denies it, but Monk proves it by showing him the clues he’d found. Ray’s daughter was critically ill and needed special care, so he threw the fight to pay for her medical bills. Monk tells him he’ll keep this a secret. Ray asks Adrian if there’s anything he can do for him, and Monk tells him there is something.
The next day Ray shows up at Monk’s house very early in the morning. Now we find out how Ray is going to help Monk.. by helping him get in shape for his exam. Right after, we see a medley of Monk training with Ray. To no surprise he isn’t keeping up.
Stottlemeyer visits a local mob boss to try to find out more about the hit on Ray. He tells them that he’s heard of the hit, and it’s supposed to be carried out before the end of the month. This is peculiar, because the fight is only a few days away. Why would someone put a hit on Ray after the big fight?
The next scene shows the Iceman hiding a rifle in a food cart that will be at the fight.
It’s now the big fight night, and Stottlemeyer has a large part of the force with him. He thinks that the Iceman could strike tonight. Ray calls Monk and asks him if he’d stand in his corner for the fight. When the fight begins, we see that the Iceman is putting together his rifle. And Ray is trying to keep up with the champion. The Iceman now has his rifle set up and is looking for a shot. When Monk hears a person in the stands say that she hasn’t gotten food yet, Monk looks up and sees the sniper. His training starts to pay off, as he runs from the ring all the way up to the Iceman up in the rafters! During this time, Ray is doing well in the ring against the champ. Monk gets there in time to stop the sniper, and Stottlemeyer and Disher break through and shoot the killer. Meanwhile, Ray knocks out his opponent to become the new heavyweight champion.
Stottlemeyer is happy that they stopped the Iceman, but wishes they knew who hired him. That is, until Monk figures it out. Some expensive art had been stolen and he remembered seeing the art in a commercial that Ray was filming. He figured out that the person who stole the art wanted Ray dead, with the hope that the commercial would be cancelled. They immediately go to the man’s house and arrest him. The episode ends with Monk telling Ray that he’s passed his test. (And Ray accidentally punching Monk out).
Well, here was another solid episode of one of the most underrated shows on television. I loved the medley scene with Monk training. And being in Ray’s conrner had it’s moments. What did you think? Let me know in the box below. You can be my champ.