MonkMr. Monk Fights City Hall
Original Air Date: Feb 20, 2009
Jeff P. - Sr. Staff Writer
jeffp@thetwocentscorp.com
The prologue of the 7th season finale of Monk has a televised celebration of the destruction of an old parking garage. A new park for children is planned to replace the garage, but a surprise stay of execution happens when someone chains himself to a column inside the garage. That someone is Monk! And this happens to be the garage that Trudy was killed in.
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[photo: USA]
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Monk
ReplyDeleteMr. Monk Fights City Hall
Original Air Date: Feb 20, 2009
Jeff P. - Sr Staff Writer
jeffp@thetwocentscorp.com
The prologue of the 7th season finale of Monk has a televised celebration of the destruction of an old parking garage. A new park for children is planned to replace the garage, but a surprise stay of execution happens when someone chains himself to a column inside the garage. That someone is Monk! And this happens to be the garage that Trudy was killed in.
Amongst a ruckus with the construction crew, a negotiator in the form of city councilwoman Eileen Hill talks to Adrian to get his story. Monk thinks that if there are any clues left in this “crime scene,” they will be gone forever if the garage is torn down. Eileen calls off the demolition and tells Adrian that they will do a re-vote but she can’t make any promises.
Four days later Stottlemeyer has Monk & Natalie at a murder scene. A married couple from Germany was stabbed to death but Monk has his mind on the vote of the council. The woman has part of a strap on her wrist and Monk thinks it was a camera bag. Perhaps she took a picture of something that she wasn’t supposed to see? Monk heads to the council meeting and runs into his arch-nemesis Harold who is on the council. Harold tells Adrian that if he gives him the name of his therapist, his vote might be swayed to his side. Adrian doesn’t need it because Eileen is on his side… that is until Disher tells them that she is now missing.
The gang meets up with Paul Crawford, a reporter who supports Monk’s quest to keep the garage (because of how tough it is to park in that neighborhood). He also is the last person that Eileen had an appointment with before she went missing. Paul tells them he didn’t know where she was. She met with him because of a story he did on hot dog vendors, and she has the desire to close them down due to their many health code violations. Paul sends them to George Gianopolous who is the “hot dog czar” of San Francisco. He claims that he never saw her even though he acknowledged their appointment. He denies any wrongdoing.
Monk is sitting with Dr. Bell and admits that he doesn’t believe that there is any evidence left in the garage. Dr. Bell thinks he needs to let go. He also tells him that Eileen may have needed to get away from city council business, as he had done in his past. He would have his secretary be his proxy at the meetings so he wouldn’t have to attend. This was legal in Tulsa. Monk hopes that this is legal in San Francisco too so he can try to convince Eileen’s receptionist Maria (whom he insulted earlier) to be her proxy in the vote. She doesn’t want to vote in her place not knowing what her vote would have been. She asked if he found her journal because that may give him a clue to what happened to her or give her an idea how to vote. She also reveals that Eileen had a second apartment! Natalie and Monk check out the other apartment and it turns out that it was a love nest. They find a pregnancy test that reveals that she was pregnant! Just then, people fishing at the pier catch a big one… Eileen Hill.
Eileen was strangled with an expensive necktie. According to the coroner, she was not pregnant! Monk discovers that her journal was intact and runs down to the council meeting with it. Maria votes down the park (and in Monk’s favor) along with the wishes of Eileen from her journal. To celebrate, Monk offers to take out the council members for a drink across the street, but Maria can’t drink because she’s pregnant. Monk freezes and walks over to Paul to tell him that he’s the guy! Eileen found Maria using a flyer at a Lamaze class and hired her as her receptionist. Her true goal was to use her urine to make Paul (her lover) believe she was pregnant. While he was dumping Eileen’s body at the pier he saw the German tourists who may have seen the crime, killing them as well. As they take Paul away, Maria tells Monk she’s changing her vote due to Monk’s insulting her intelligence a second time.
The last scene of the episode has Monk saying farewell to Trudy’s last sight… the parking space number on the wall near the explosion. As Adrian and Natalie walk out, we see that the new park will be named the “Trudy Monk Memorial Playground”.
This show has the tendency to be able to sew in these touching moments in what basically is a lighthearted show. Even the murders don’t seem as gruesome as it would on a Law and Order or CSI episode. Trudy’s murder and memory has haunted Monk since the very beginning of the series. Watching the show knowing how much it vexes Adrian truly puts a sensitive touch to it. It just shows me again the brilliance of this show. And if I wasn’t sad enough at the end of this season ending episode, I find out that next season will be the show’s last season. I won’t start my mourning yet, though. I’ll see you next season for that.
Meanwhile, what did you think of the finale? And what did you think of the 7th season?
I don't understand "what Monk found"? In the commercials this past week the last thing the narrator says is "and you'll never believe what he finds" hinting he might find key evidence relating to Trudy's death. It just didn't seem to have the bang that the previous seasons ended with.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand when Natalie opened up the drawers and said "Whatever you do, never, ever look in those drawers"
ReplyDeleteDid we find out what was in it?
Hello Anonymous!
ReplyDeleteOn the first point... I didn't have the opportunity to see the commercial for this week. If it referred to something towards Trudy's death, I didn't see anything either. As a matter of fact, even Monk admitted that there would be no evidence left in the garage.
The drawer... I think that they were pulling a Pulp Fiction or North by Northwest move on us. Sometimes the writer wants us to use our imagination, assuming that what we imagine may be more interesting than the actual exposition. At least, that's what I think.
Thank you for the comments!
all I have to say is that this episode is one of the funniest. I loved the whole gonna-throw-up-watching-randy-eating a-hotdog scene.
ReplyDeleteBut I have to agree about what was in the drawer??? What was in it? I think the whole bit was...anybody else would have ended up peeking in the drawer and satisfying their curiosity, But not Monk, he just blew it off.