- Title: Monk – Mr. Monk and the Other Woman
- wiki: link
Monk Monday takes us back to San Francisco and the toils of the defective detective Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub). Over nearly the entire episode, Monk fights Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) over the identity of the person who broke into an office building, burned a file, and killed a lawyer. Stottlemeyer is fixated on the man (Nicholas Campbell) whose file was burned, however the facts don’t line up for Adrian (who is proven correct after he turns up dead). Suspicion then turns to the man’s neighbor, who again Stottlemeyer is 100% certain of, and that’s where things get interesting.
Throughout the series we get very few instances to view Monk as a romantic being, except in his longing for his departed wife Trudy (Stellina Rusich). However, from first sight, Monk is immediately attracted to Monica Waters (Maria del Mar) whose husband struggled with some of the same issues Monk does and isn’t put off by him at all. We get two dates between the two, the first in a restaurant where Monk regularly dined with Trudy and later in Monica’s home (which ends in Monk accusing her of murder, although based entirely on Stottlemeyer’s theory rather than anything he himself observed).
The truth about the crime, and the villain who framed two other people for murder to get the family estate completely disconnected from Waters and her neighbor, is wrapped up quickly by Monk returning to the scene of the original crime and discovering the evidence and motive for the crime. As for Monica, her time with Monk revived feelings for her husband leading to a farewell and a return to the status quo for Monk. The episode is also notable for confirming Stottlemeyer is the one who originally hired Sharona (Bitty Schram) for Monk (possibly included in this episode specifically to offshoot how much the two butt heads with Monk, of course, always being right).
