- Title: Monk – Mr. Monk Goes to the Carnival
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Monk Monday takes us back to San Francisco and the toils of the defective detective Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub). “Mr. Monk Goes to the Carnival” offers another unusual murder for Monk to solve. While working through his reinstatement hearing, Monk agrees to help Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) with a death at the local carnival involving a cop (Stephen McHattie) known to shade outside the lines. The pro quo assumes Stottlemeyer will recommend Adrian for reinstatement, something he struggles with in front of the committee and eventually balks under the justification Monk isn’t ready to carry a gun (this will be an argument suggested against Monk’s reinstatement over the series, although the possibility of reinstatement and giving him desk duty, effectively solving the problem, is never discussed).
While the pieces to the murder are discovered prior to Stottlemeyer’s betrayal, Monk doesn’t put them together until afterwards eventually tying the victim causing his own bruising, a murderer awaiting trial based on Kirk‘s (McGattie) testimony, and the ferris wheel operator (Elisa Moolecherry) who all had a hand in the series of events designed to disgrace the Lieutenant and get Stokes (Alan Van Sprang) released. The conclusion of the episode sees Monk face one of fears (heights) to save Sharona (Bitty Schram) from the killer and preventing his escape which add another notch into the overlooked column in favor of Monk’s reinstatement. Despite the disappointment of not getting his job back, the episode still ends on a positive note with Monk and Stottlemeyer on a better footing to close things off.
