History Recap / MonkS3E1MrMonkTakesManhattan

* DisappointedByTheMotive: When Warrick Tennyson reveals he was paid to make the car bomb, Stottlemeyer struggles to speak when he hears how little he was paid to do it.

* RevealingCoverup: Steven Leight decided to kill Mrs. Leight because he was having an affair and make it look like a mugging gone wrong. While he was getting some alcohol to calm his nerves, his coat (which contained the necklace that the "mugger" took) got mixed up with the ambassador's. In a panic, Leight discarded the possible solution of simply asking for his coat back and opened fire, killing the ambassador and his bodyguards. Of course, the government wanted to know why the ambassador was killed. Due to Monk's investigation of the case, everything comes out, and now he's going to face punishment for four additional high-priority murders too.

* ShoutOut: The episode's title is a reference to ''Film/TheMuppetsTakeManhattan''. Or possibly ''Film/FridayThe13thPartVIIIJasonTakesManhattan''.

* BerserkButton: The normally-calm Stottlemeyer absolutely ''loses it'' when he discovers that Captain Cage lied to him about Warrick Tennyson's condition, especially because Tennyson is the only lead they've ever had about Trudy's murder.

* WhatMightHaveBeen: This episode was originally meant to be a {{Crossover}} with ''Series/LawAndOrder.

* ExpospeakGag: When he partners up with a street preacher, Monk angrily calls Sharona a "[[PrecisionFStrike fornicator]]."

* LameLastWords: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. Dimitry Kreslov's final words are apparently "She's now gone meatless," and Monk thinks it's either nonsense or some kind of idiom from his home country. Another Latvian man helpfully offers a translation: Kreslov was actually saying "''Sis nav mans metelis''," or "This is not my coat." The coat--and the fact that the ambassador was wearing the wrong one--proves the key to the whole case, and it's only because he said so out load that Monk is able to solve the murder.

Monk, Sharona, Stottlemeyer, and Disher arrive in New York City to meet with a witness who has important information on the death of Trudy Monk, when the four suddenly find themselves thrown into a major incident when the Latvian ambassador and his two bodyguards are shot dead in their hotel room. Monk thus finds himself both having to investigate the case, and dealing with a city he's distinctly unsuited to.

Monk, Sharona, Stottlemeyer, and Disher arrive in New York City to meet with a witness who has important information on the death of Trudy Monk, when the four suddenly find themselves thrown into a major incident when the Latvian ambassador and his two bodyguards are shot dead in the lobby of their hotel. Monk thus finds himself both having to investigate the case, and deal with a city where he's distinctly unsuited to operate.

* MurderIsTheBestSolution: As with seemingly all adulterers in the ''Monk'' universe, Leight decided that it'd be easier to just kill his wife than either admit his infidelity, or have it exposed. He then jumps straight to murdering the ambassador instead of just asking for his coat back, although this at least can be explained away as panic combined with the influence of alcohol.

* SkewedPriorities: An incensed Monk really wants to arrest the "urinator" for peeing in public. It takes Sharona to remind him that the urinator's "crime" is nothing when compared to Leight, who murdered four people in cold blood.

* SpotTheThread:

* SpotTheThread: When they confront Leight, Monk points out an unusual purchase that casts doubt on Leight's "grief": he bought anti-snoring medication, which he would not need were he sleeping alone. In the same scene, Leight sarcastically shoves a handful of change in Monk's face, only for Adrian to notice that the mint from Leight's pocket is identical to the one from the bar where the ambassador went before being killed, proving that they were in the same place.
** Earlier, Monk notices that the ambassador's coat--and ''only'' the ambassador's coat--is soaking wet in the elevator, which proves to be crucial to understanding the crime (the murderer accidentally swapped coats and had to rush over to the hotel in the rain).

* DaChief: Played with by Captain Cage, who is initially pretty dismissive towards Monk, and hides the fact that Warrick Tennyson is being held by the FBI and on the verge of death from cancer. When Stottlemeyer finds out he gives Cage a WhatTheHellHero speech and lets him know exactly why Monk needs to speak to Tennyson. This brings Cage around, and he calls in some favors to help get Monk access to Tennyson.

* SpotTheThread: When they confront Leight, Monk points out an unusual purchase that casts doubt on Leight's "grief": he bought anti-snoring medication, which he would not need were he sleeping alone.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: While Mrs. Leight would have ended up dying either way, the coat girl's mixing up Leight's and the ambassador's coats ends up setting off a sequence of events that leads to the death of the Latvian ambassador and his two bodyguards.

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: As Monk points out during his summing-up of the case, the Latvian ambassador had actually realized that he was wearing the wrong coat, meaning that Leight could have just asked to swap them and he would probably have done it. Unfortunately, because the ambassador voiced his realization of the switch in his native Latvian instead of English, Leight wasn't aware of this, and jumped straight to murdering him and his bodyguards. On top of that, whereas Mrs. Leight's death was just treated as a mugging and not looked into too closely, the death of an ambassador is naturally treated as a major political incident, [[RevealingCoverup which brings the full force of the law down on the case.]]

* {{Squick}}: InUniverse. Monk is disgusted by the man who urinated in the subway and points out the further disturbing factor that the guy works in food service (specifically, in a bar).

* VacationEpisode: While not the first example of such, it's the first time an episode's action has taken place in a major U.S. city other than San Francisco. Technically it's also not an actual vacation per se, but Monk and company are hopeful of at least getting to take in a few sights either side of speaking to Tennyson, before the ambassador's murder derails any such plans.

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: As Monk points out during his summing-up of the case, the Latvian ambassador had actually realized that he was wearing the wrong coat, meaning that Leight could have just asked to swap them and he would probably have done it. Unfortunately, because the ambassador voiced his realization of the switch in his native Latvian instead of English, Leight wasn't aware of this, and jumped straight to murdering him and his bodyguards. On top of that, whereas Mrs. Leight's death was just treated as a mugging and not looked into too closely, the death of an ambassador is naturally treated as a major political incident, which brings the full force of the law down on the case.

* SkewedPriorities: An incensed Monk really wants to put the "urinator" for urinating in public. It takes Sharona to remind him that the urinator's "crime" is nothing when compared to Leight, who murdered five people in cold blood.

* SkeweredPriorities: An incensed Monk really wants to put the "urinator" for urinating in public. It takes Sharona to remind him that the urinator's "crime" is nothing when compared to Leight, who murdered five people in cold blood.

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* RedHerring: The ambassador's murder wasn't a politically-motivated crime, as everyone initially suspected, but rather the result of a mix-up involving a coat.

* MurderIsTheBestSolution: As with seemingly all adulterers in the ''Monk'' universe, Leight decided that it'd be easier to just kill his wife than either admit his infidelity, or have it exposed.