History Recap / MonkS2E11MrMonkAndTheThreePies

* AKA47: Ambrose identifies Van Ranken's pistol as a "Lane & Westen", a fictional version of Smith & Wesson; the pistol itself is a Beretta 92FS, which was standard issue to the U.S. Army.

* WouldHarmAChild: In order to win the second pie in a sack race, Pat Van Ranken isn't above knocking down a little girl to secure 2nd place (which wins the pie).

-->'''Ambrose''': He has you.

Monk takes on a new case; Pat van Ranken is accused of having shot his wife, Rita. However, the case is complicated by the accuser -- Monk's brother Ambrose, from whom he's been estranged since Trudy's death. As the case progresses, Monk must go deeper not just into the Rankens' life, but into his own past with his brother.

* AwesomenessByAnalysis: Ambrose not only heard the gunshots when van Ranken shot his wife, he was able to identify the ''exact make and caliber'' of the pistol by its sound.
* BadLiar: Van Ranken clearly has trouble making up an alibi on the spot when put in a position where he has to. When trying to get the flour that the missing gun shell landed in back from Ambrose, van Ranken claims that he needs the flour for a chili recipe. Ambrose immediately sees through this [[TruthInTelevision since you don't typically need flour to make chili]]. Later, when caught by Stottlemeyer and Randy behind Ambrose's now-burning house with a gas can, van Ranken [[NotWhatItLooksLike tries to claim that he had just come from across the street to try to help Ambrose after seeing the house on fire]]. Stottlemeyer and Randy don't buy it for a moment and arrest him on the spot.

* BigBrotherInstinct: Adrian saves Ambrose when realizing that Pat van Ranken intends to murder Ambrose for the evidence.

* ChekhovsGun: As an excuse to meet him, Monk and Sharona go to get back a bag of flour from Pat van Ranken that he borrowed from Ambrose. Later, both Adrian and van Ranken realize the missing bullet casing was in that bag all along.

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Adrian gets a JerkassRealization when Ambrose says the reason he didn't contact Adrian for seven years is that he blamed himself for Trudy's death. Ambrose believed that if he hadn't asked Trudy to pick up cough medicine for him, she wouldn't have been in that garage where the car bomb blew her up. Adrian goes EveryoneHasStandards and gives Ambrose a hug, reassuring him that Trudy's death wasn't his fault.

* DysfunctionJunction: It was heavily implied in the series starting with this episode that Monk's family was dysfunctional, and contributed to most of Monk's quirks. In just this episode alone, Ambrose is agoraphobic, their mother numbered their mugs so they would always put them back in the right order, and their father disappeared many years ago. After learning about his family, Sharona gives Adrian a hug, as thanks for helping her put into perspective how relatively normal her own family is.

* {{Forgiveness}}: Adrian finally forgives Ambrose for shutting him out for seven years and tells him that Trudy's death wasn't his fault.

* GPSEvidence: Ambrose points out that of course Pat van Ranken's rusted-old pickup truck runs, and that it had been to a certain section of the park, because it had yellow acorns in the truckbed that only grow in one spot in the park. That's impressive knowledge of the local ecology, for a guy who never leaves his house.
* HeroicFireRescue: After failing to get Ambrose to give him the flour bag containing the shell casing, Pat van Ranken sets his house on fire. Monk runs in to rescue his brother, knowing that the agoraphobic Ambrose wouldn't be able to leave the house by himself.

* ItsAllMyFault: After Monk snaps and chews him out, Ambrose finally confesses to why he didn't call for seven years. On the day Trudy died, she was getting cough medicine for him, and when she was killed by the car bomb, he blamed himself.

* ItWasWithYouAllAlong: The fourth and last shell casing that van Ranken has been trying so hard to find was actually in Ambrose's can of flour, which he had loaned to van Ranken's wife and was still in van Ranken's kitchen right up until he gave it back to Adrian and Sharona.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: Randy comments that the plot of the episode should have usually ended with Monk's TheSummation. It did not.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Ambrose identifies Van Ranken's pistol as a "Lane & Westen", a fictional version of Smith & Wesson; the pistol itself is a Beretta 92, which was standard issue to the U.S. Army.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Monk tells Sharona to speed up in traffic to get to Ambrose when he realizes the shell casing implicating Pat van Ranken in his wife's murder is in Ambrose's house. Sharona lampshades this by saying that he must really be worried about his brother.

-->'''Stottlemeyer''': Mr. van Ranken, we would like permission to search your pie.\\
'''van Ranken''': What?\\

* RashomonStyle: In the black-and-white flashback shown by Monk's summation, van Ranken shoots his wife four times and the last shell casing lands in one of her freshly-baked cherry pies. But when the pie is searched, there's nothing there, and Monk and van Ranken both separately deduce that it landed in the can of flour.
* RedHerring: Both Adrian and van Ranken believe that one of the three pies that the latter's wife donated to the fair contains the missing bullet casing.
* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: Ambrose identifies van Ranken's pistol as a 9mm "Lane & Westen". Adrian says Lane & Westen doesn't manufacture a 9mm pistol, but Ambrose counters that they did until 2002 - he wrote the manual for it.
* SecondPlaceIsForWinners: Pat van Ranken intentionally wins second place in a potato sack race to win a cherry pie as part of an attempt to retrieve an incriminating shell casing.

* SharedFamilyQuirks: The Monk brothers. Adrian and Ambrose are both {{Insufferable Genius}}es, and both are psychologically crippled (Adrian has OCD, Ambrose has agoraphobia).

** The episode takes elements from the ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' stories ''The Adventure of the Six Napoleons'' and ''The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle''--Pat van Ranken is tracking down cherry pies that may or may not have an incriminating shell casing in them ejected when he shot his wife. Turns out to be a RedHerring: the shell casing in question is in a bag of flour at Ambrose's house.

* TwoScenesOneDialogue: Towards the end, the episode cuts between Adrian and Pat van Ranken each reenacting the shooting of van Ranken's wife in their respective kitchens, with the dialogue and positions of the two aligned.
* WouldHarmAChild: In order to win the second pie in a sack race, Pat van Ranken isn't above knocking down a little girl to secure 2nd place (which wins the pie).
* VillainBall: While van Ranken killed his wife, he only did it out of self-defense due to her coming at him with a knife. If he simply reported the truth to the authorities, he would have gotten off with minimal charges, if any. However, to hide the killing entirely, he went on to murder an old woman and later try to kill Ambrose, resulting in him getting caught and guaranteeing that he gets locked away for a long time.
* WorkingTheSameCase: Adrian and Sharona drop by as Stottlemeyer and Disher are investigating the scene of a routine carjacking, but leave midway through. Ambrose later connects his suspicions that Pat van Ranken killed his wife with the carjacking, the link being that the old woman was carrying a cherry pie.

'''Ambrose''': He has you.

* ShoutOut: The episode takes elements from the ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' stories ''The Adventure of the Six Napoleons'' and ''The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle''—Pat van Ranken is tracking down cherry pies that may or may not have an incriminating shell casing in them ejected when he shot his wife. Turns out to be a RedHerring: the shell casing in question is in a bag of flour at Ambrose's house.

* IHaveNoSon: Monk's attitude towards Ambrose; he always told Sharona he was an only child and tries to deny Ambrose's existence when he calls.