Main Characters | Supporting Characters | Minor Characters
open/close all folders
Monk's Psychiatrists
Dr. Kroger
Doctor Charles Kroger
Played by: Stanley Kamel
Monk's first psychiatrist until Season 7.
- Beware the Nice Ones: While very forgiving, even Kroger gets fed up with Monk from time to time, most heavily demonstrated in one episode ("Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect") where Kroger came back from vacation and saw Monk standing outside his home. Another major instance is in Mr Monk Goes To Germany, wherein Monk follows him to a psychiatric conference in Germany, though in this case, it's Natalie who takes the brunt of his anger at Monk's intrusion, because he knows Monk could never have made the trip without help.
- The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Dr. Kroger may be good at giving Monk psychiatric advice, but he's at a total loss when it comes to dealing with his own teenage son, Troy. In "Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink", it's revealed that Charles has taken three paternity tests at the "request" of his son. Troy also calls his parents by their first names, and it appears that Randy once arrested him for something (as Troy responds "no" when Randy asks him if he's stayed out of trouble). It isn't until Monk spends time getting to know Troy in "Mr. Monk and the Buried Treasure" that Troy's relation with his father is rebuilt.
- The Comically Serious: Dr. Kroger does have genuinely funny moments, like his singing "John Henry" in "Mr. Monk and the Really, Really Dead Guy" that was so funny that Tony Shalhoub had to bite his lip to keep from laughing.
- Critical Psychoanalysis Failure: Monk mentions in "Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink" that every time he had to find a new therapist he ended up driving several to early retirement before he found one who could tolerate him. Meanwhile, Dr. Kroger frequently looks like he is one OCD tick away from losing it.
- Doctor Jerk: Somewhat. While he genuinely tries to help his patients, he makes no secret to them that if he could afford to do so, he would buy a private island and spend the rest of his life there as a hermit to get away from the likes of Monk and Krenshaw.
- Informed Judaism: It's mentioned that Kroger is Jewish, though his wife is an Irish Catholic.
- Killed Offscreen: In the Season 7 premiere episode "Mr. Monk Buys a House", it was revealed that Dr. Kroger has died of a heart attack, five weeks before the episode took place. (This was because
his actor Stanley Kamel died of a heart attack.) - Loved by All: It isn't just Monk and Harold that are fixated on Dr. Kroger. Every patient of his we meet absolutely adores him. In fact, in "Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink," the Monk and the police track down an unstable patient of his they suspect may have killed a woman in his office. But when questioned, it turns out that the guy - who actually threatened him in the past - has nothing but wonderful things to say about Kroger and even has a breakdown over the thought of him retiring.
- Love Triangle: A non-romantic/platonic example. Kroger is the subject of an ongoing feud between Monk and Harold Krenshaw, another patient with similar problems.
Dr. Bell
Doctor Neven Bell
Played by: Héctor Elizondo
Monk's new psychiatrist beginning in Season 7. This role was cast as a result of Stanley Kamel's death in 2008.
- Cool Old Guy: If he's the same age as Hector Elizondo, Dr. Bell's in his early 70s.
- Fun with Palindromes:Natalie Teeger: Oh, look! His first name is Neven: N-E-V-E-N! It's a palindrome! That's a good sign!Adrian Monk: It's not a perfect palindrome. The first N is capitalized.Natalie Teeger: Dr. Kroger's name was Charles. That wasn't a palindrome.Adrian Monk: It was to me!
Monk Family
Trudy Monk
Trudy Anne Ellison-Monk
Melora Hardin as Trudy
Adrian Monk's beloved late wife, whom he met in college. She was killed by an explosive device planted under her car. Trudy's unsolved murder is one of the main sources of Monk's constant neurosis.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The bomb didn't kill her right away. As a result, she spent the last few hours of her life alone and in serious agony.
- External Combustion: Her cause of death was a car bomb.
- My Secret Pregnancy: In the finale, it is revealed, through a videotape recorded by Trudy herself, that in the past Trudy had a child with her professor, Ethan Rickover, who is now a judge. Rickover hid the baby from Trudy by claiming that she died nine minutes after birth (then, Monk learns that Rickover had saved the baby girl who is now a 26-year-old movie critic named Molly).
- Morality Chain Beyond the Grave: Not that Monk was ever particularly prone to immorality, but his memories of Trudy often keep him from indulging his darker impulses, as seen when he confronts Warrick Tennyson, the hitman who killed her:Monk: This is me turning off your morphine. (waits a few seconds while Tennyson winces in pain) And this is Trudy, the woman you killed, turning it back on.
- Nice Girl: From Monk's memories of her, she seems to have been a very pleasant woman.
- Posthumous Character: The story all happens after her death.
- She Knows Too Much: In the videotape she reveals a posthumous conviction that in order to keep their affair and consequential baby secret, she believes Rickover killed Wendy Stroud, the midwife who delivered their baby and she maybe is the next. Unfortunately it was true.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: She's been shown to be nothing less than caring and compassionate, serving as Adrian's moral center even long after her death.
Ambrose Monk
Ambrose Monk
Played by: John Turturro
Adrian's older brother. He suffers from agoraphobia (a fear of open spaces) and hasn't left his house in 32 years as of his first appearance in the series. He appears in three episodes - "Mr. Monk and the Three Pies", "Mr. Monk Goes Home Again", and "Mr. Monk's 100th Case".
- All There in the Manual: It is revealed in the novel Mr. Monk on the Road that Ambrose's agoraphobia was the result of catching Hong Kong flu as a child.
- Adaptation Expansion: In the novel Mr. Monk in Outer Space, Ambrose is shown to have written several different detailed books about the TV series Beyond Earth. He hence proves useful for Adrian in solving the shootings of show creator Conrad Stipe and new producer Kingston Mills.
- Department of Redundancy Department: He comes up with a classic example when talking about the police: "They no longer respond to my complaints because I call them more often than I should. I'd like to complain to them about it, but they no longer respond to my complaints."
- Expy: Of Mycroft Holmes. He's as good as Adrian when it comes to analyzing minute details, but can't bring himself to expend the effort to confirm or deny his conclusions (since he'd have to leave the house to do so).
- Fan Community Nickname: In-Universe. In the novel Mr. Monk in Outer Space, Ambrose is a big consulting writer of viewing guides and insight on the Star Trek-parody Beyond Earth.
- It's All My Fault: The reason it took so long for the Adrian and Ambrose to see each other again after Trudy's death was because Ambrose blamed himself for her death - she was picking up medicine for him the fateful day the car bomb took her life, and he believed that if she hadn't been out that day doing so then she would still be alive.
- Omniglot: He can read and write seven languages and is teaching himself Mandarin Chinese; he writes operator manuals for a living and does every language for each. He also speaks at least one Conlang and has written manuals on it (Dratch, a parody of Klingon) and has been implied to understand Sanskrit. All very impressive for a man who's never left his house in 32 years.
- Shared Family Quirks: Adrian and Ambrose are both Insufferable Geniuses, and both are crippled with psychological diseases (Adrian has OCD, Ambrose has agoraphobia). Ambrose, however, can compensate for some of the things Adrian lacks - he's fully capable of living by himself while Adrian has to have Natalie and a shrink. But Adrian is able to go out in the world, and Ambrose has sheltered himself inside his house.
- Trash of the Titans: An extremely neat and orderly example. Ambrose has saved and organized every newspaper and piece of mail delivered to the house since 1972, expecting that his father will want to go through the lot when he returns. There are filing cabinets and huge stacks of papers everywhere.
Fleming/Howe Family
Benjy Fleming
Benjamin "Benjy" Fleming
Played by: Max Morrow, Kane Ritchotte
Benjy is Sharona's middle-school-aged son.
- A Day in the Limelight: There are a number of episodes where Benjy ends up being part of the case Monk is investigating. In "Mr. Monk Takes a Vacation," he spots a murder being committed while looking through binoculars at a hotel room.
- Bully Hunter: In "Mr Monk and the Panic Room", the episode open with him getting into a fight at school, where he says he was defending a smaller kid from being bullied, much to Sharona's disappointment.
- Flat Character: He is just a generic young boy with little personality.
Teeger/Davenport Family
Julie Teeger
Juliette "Julie" Teeger
Played by: Emmy Clarke
Natalie's teenage daughter. Introduced alongside Natalie in "Mr. Monk and the Red Herring".
- A Day In The Lime Light: Julie has a lot more episodes fitting this trope than Benjy.
- In "Mr. Monk and the Big Game," her basketball team coach is electrocuted in the shower, so she has Monk come in to investigate.
- In "Mr. Monk and the Birds and the Bees," Julie's love life is explored. She is currently seeing Tim Sussman, her school's swim team star. However, when she starts seeing a star quarterback named Clay Bridges and breaks up with Tim, Natalie has to bring Monk in to give Julie The Talk. Then it turns out that Julie's being manipulated by Rob Sherman, a sports agent who shot and killed his wife as well as a burglar named Dewey Jordan to make it look like his wife was killed in a burglary gone wrong. It turns out that Julie and Tim were at a local amusement park the same day that Sherman visited that park with Jordan to discuss the details of the planned "insurance scam" Sherman was going to execute. They ended up in the background of a photo of Julie and Tim, so when Sherman sees Julie after the murders, he remembers her and realizes Monk will notice Sherman and Jordan talking in the background, so he's trying to stop her from wearing the shirt too prominently.
- In "Mr. Monk and the Three Julies," Julie takes her driver's license test, but it is in danger of postponement since someone is out there killing women named 'Julie Teeger'.
- In "Mr. Monk and the Critic," Julie is starring in a community theater play, and gets a solo part. She turns out to be crucial to helping Monk prove that theater critic John Hannigan killed his girlfriend Callie Esterhaus.
- In the novel Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu, Julie proves important to helping Monk get a clue about the Golden Gate Strangler serial killer.
- In the novel Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants, Julie breaks her wrist and an advertisement placed on her cast is crucial to cracking the case.
- Little Miss Snarker: Frequently in her intearctions with Monk.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted; in the episode "Mr. Monk and the Three Julies", the two murder victims of the week turn out to be a couple of women who just also happen to be named Julie Teeger. Naturally, this scary coincidence disturbs Natalie Teeger.
- She Is All Grown Up: Whenever someone comments on Julie's beauty. Although in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Fashion Show," Natalie wishes she had a big, fat, hairy wart on her forehead.
- Weirdness Magnet: Before Julie even gets her driver's license, she is involved one way or another in at least six homicide investigations and one museum heist.
- What the Hell, Hero?: In Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop, she tearfully berates her mother for confronting an armed criminal in the middle of the night and almost getting killed.
Mr. and Mrs. Davenport
Bobby and Peggy Davenport
Played by: Michael Cavanaugh and Holland Taylor
Natalie's wealthy parents. They appear twice, in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Wedding" and "Mr. Monk Is At Your Service".
- Mean Boss: Though never mentioned in "Mr. Monk Is At Your Service", the USA Network character tie-in blog
implies that Natalie's parents are this, since Natalie notes "As a child I witnessed more than one household employee leave my own parents' house in tears. Probably for making an unforgivable mistake like putting too much ice in my mom's cocktail." - Royalties Heir: Because Natalie's entrepreneur grandfather Neville Davenport, a former assistant pharmacist, invented a new toothpaste formula (which, for a while, was laced with sugar, which hastens tooth decay) and went on to found Davenport Toothpaste, which became the thirdlargest toothpaste business, after Colgate and Crest.
- Social Climber: Of the snob variety. They grew rich on the toothpaste business and snub on "common" people (like Natalie's deceased husband Mitch), wishing Natalie to marry men from "good families", like her high-school Stalker with a Crush and murderer of his parents next-door neighbour Paul Buchanan.
Stottlemeyer Family
Karen Stottlemeyer
Karen Stottlemeyer
Played by: Glenne Headly
Stottlemeyer's first wife up through Season 4.
- Comically Missing the Point: She claims Leland doesn't carry a gun on duty (he just hides it from her) and seems to believe police officers shouldn't have guns, apparently not realizing how dangerous an officer's job is.
- Does Not Like Guns: Karen hates guns. Monk recalls her once staying home and organized a gun control rally while Leland was away on a hunting trip. Whenever Karen does show up at her husband's office, Leland has to hide his duty pistol in a desk drawer, and he even concealed a stuffed duck trophy.
- Hidden Depths: "Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man" reveals that she's a natural detective, or has at least picked up on a few of her husband's skills over the years. When Miles Hollings, the oldest man in the world, is found dead in his room at a retirement home, everyone assumes that he passed away from natural causes. But when Karen shows up to visit (Miles was the subject of one of her documentaries and became a friend), she does a Sherlock Scan worthy of Monk himself to spot problems with the situation, realizes he was murdered, and demands that the staff declare the room a crime scene. She turns out to be right, and her insights help bring the murderer to justice.
- It's All About Me: At her worst, Karen can end up like this. She completely disregards the importance of her husband's job and instead harps on him for not watching her (terrible and boring) documentaries. However, she does slip out of it often enough; in one episode, while doing a documentary on the police department, she ends up filming the commissioner's wig coming off and revealing himself to be bald, which she lets Captain Stottlemeyer use as leverage to get Monk rehired (he was fired by the commissioner earlier for accidentally deleting files).
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She can be pushy and irritating, but sometimes shows a caring side toward Leland and other characters.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Other times, she's a through-and-through jerkass for the reasons under Straw Character below. It really depends on the episode.
- Straw Character: Karen is one of the worst variety of the type of liberal thinker who is almost a caricature of the majority of this set of people. She is constantly harping on Leland that he needs to be more open-minded and tolerant of other things while never budging one bit from her own position and showing almost zero respect for Leland and simply assuming that her way is the right way. One wonders if that's what caused the marriage to fall apart: her views clashed with the views Leland had to take to be a cop.
- Stylistic Suck: Karen makes hilariously terrible documentaries. Her documentary on Miles Holling in "Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man" is so bad that we see Monk and Leland struggling to stay awake to watch it to the end and get an important clue.
- TV Documentary: Karen specializes in these types of documentaries.
Trudy Stottlemeyer
Trudy K. "T.K." Jensen-Stottlemeyer
Played by: Virginia Madsen
Stottlemeyer's love interest in the second half of Season 8, and eventually his second wife.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted; the fact that she shares the same first name with Trudy Monk does not go unmentioned.
Acquaintances of Monk
Garrett Price
Garrett Price
Played by: Larry Miller
A fast-talking lawyer Monk meets during a traffic pile-up in Mr Monk Gets Stuck in Traffic. He becomes Monk's attorney in Mr Monk and the Man Who Shot Santa Claus.
- Amoral Attorney: Played for Laughs while representing Monk in his questioning as he tries to get Monk to claim Santa was carrying a bomb.
- I Coulda Been a Contender!: When we first meet him, Price's career is sinking and he laments to Monk about his brother being a doctor and how he should have been one. He gets his inspiration back after meeting Monk and seeing him work.
- Sincerity Mode: He genuinely thinks the world of Monk and his detective skills and even respects his no touching rule.
Harold Krenshaw
Harold J. Krenshaw
Played by: Tim Bagley
A fellow patient of Dr. Kroger's and later Dr. Bell's who spars with Monk on several occasions. He has similar obsessive-compulsive tendencies like Monk, but they quickly become unfriendly rivals.
- Always Someone Better: In addition to his alleged superior relationship to Monk's therapists, Harold seems to be several leagues ahead of Monk in terms of mental health as while he has very similar hang-ups, he's actually capable of doing such things as speaking publicly in a confident (if clipped) manner and sexually procreating to start a family with his wife (who is, unlike Trudy, alive).
- Ascended Extra: He become a semi-recurring character as sitcom-rival to Monk.
- Claustrophobia: One of his phobias. In season 8, he and Monk gets over the fear when are trapped in a car trunk. And become friends!
- A Day In The Lime Light: His is in "Mr. Monk and the Daredevil".
- Boring, but Practical: In spite of his complete lack of charisma, he manages to best Natalie in "Mr. Monk and the Election" due to how pragmatic his campaign goals were.
- Fire-Forged Friends: When Monk and Krenshaw are both kidnapped and stuffed into a car trunk, they help each other escape, and finally let go of all that animosity.
- Foil: He represents a different route Monk could have taken, foregoing using his condition in an extraordinary way in favour of trying to suppress it to live an ordinary life.
- Jerkass: While he mainly clashes with Monk simply because they have the same disorders but like things to be in different ways, he also deliberately antagonizes him a fair amount, such as in "Mr. Monk and the Election" where - directly after Stottlemeyer reminds them that a man was killed and they're trying to figure out what happened - he riles Monk up again with claims of how close Harold is to Dr. Kroger to make Monk jealous.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite his annoyingly abrasive personality, Harold occasionally shows his softer side and eventually befriends Monk.
- Sibling Rivalry: Not literally, since they're not related, but their general dynamic tends to play as two feuding siblings squabbling over which one is their psychiatrist's "favorite".
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: For Monk, up until they bury the hatchet.
- Taking the Bullet: In "Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink," when Monk and Dr. Kroger are being held captive by drug dealer Francis Merrigan, Merrigan is cornered. With Stottlemeyer and Disher closing in from one side, Merrigan turns, aims his pistol at Dr. Kroger, and fires, only for Harold to jump into the line of fire and take the bullet.
- Took a Level in Badass: In "Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink," Harold's concern for Dr. Kroger leads him to be the one who locates where Monk and Dr. Kroger are being held hostage by Francis Merrigan, and willingly takes a bullet in the chest to keep Dr. Kroger from getting shot.
- Took a Level in Kindness: In "Mr. Monk Goes to Group Therapy" the two men finally reconciled their differences when Monk's HMO forced him to attend group therapy sessions with Dr. Bell, which included Harold. Both men were kidnapped by a killer and thrown into a car trunk together, where they both broke down with claustrophobia. Harold admitted that he has greatly exaggerated his own progress overcoming his phobias to goad Adrian, while Adrian admitted that he envied Harold's relative success in going on with his life despite his many fears. The two men realized that they shared many of the same problems, and even overcame their claustrophobia together, before joining forces to escape the trunk and rescue Dr. Bell from the killer. Afterwards, in an extraordinary gesture, Harold voluntarily transferred to another psychiatrist, to let Monk's "group sessions" with Dr. Bell be individual sessions after all.
- "Well Done, Dad!" Guy: In "Mr. Monk and the Daredevil," Harold is framed as being the masked daredevil The Frisco Fly as part of a failed plan to kill him and Make It Look Like an Accident. Harold doesn't set the record straight, mainly because he doesn't want to lose the new sense of respect his son is showing him after years of being embarrassed by Harold's OCD.
Kevin Dorfman
Kevin Dorfman
Played by: Jarrad Paul
Kevin Dorfman is one of Monk's neighbors.
- A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted: In "Mr. Monk and the Paperboy", Kevin won $43 million in the lottery and had to be saved from a Gold Digger trying to kill him for it. By the time of "Mr. Monk and the Game Show," he's lost it all due to bad investments, a dishonest accountant and two more gold digging wives.
- Back for the Dead: After a notable absence since his previous appearance, he returns in one of the later episodes and winds up being the murder victim.
- The Bore: People dread having to talk to Kevin because of his tendency to drone on and on about the most trivial, boring topics.
- Character Death: Is strangled to death by Karl Torini in "Mr. Monk and the Magician."
- Day in the Limelight: "Mr. Monk and the Game Show" had Kevin play the part of Monk's sidekick. Meta-wise, this was because the supporting cast members were in contract disputes at the time, so none of the other cast appears apart from Tony Shalhoub.
- Foil: Like Monk, Kevin has an incredible memory but lacks the wisdom to actually do anything useful with it.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Kevin was killed by Karl Torini because he stumbled upon discrepancies in Torini's books that would have been evidence pointing to drug trafficking - his equipment weighed more when returning to the United States.
- Motor Mouth: In "Mr. Monk and the Magician," Monk recalls a time when Kevin had a sore throat and "talked for two and a half hours about how much it hurt him to talk". And at Kevin's funeral, Natalie has a picture of Kevin on display, and though she tells Monk it took her a while to make the photo because she wanted an image where he wasn't talking, she then admits she Photoshopped the picture.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: He comes to the conclusion that airlines are scamming Torini due to his equipment being recorded as weighing more on return trips, and warns him about it. This leads to Torini killing him, as Dorfman would risk exposing his drug trafficking.
- Photographic Memory: Kevin can recall every single time he ate an egg-salad sandwich. And every single subject must be talked about in full detail.
- Shared Family Quirks: The Motor Mouth trait is actually genetic. Natalie is visibly disturbed when she meets Kevin's family and finds they all exhibit the same trait.
- Temporary Substitute: Serves in the assistant role Sharona and later Natalie usually serves in for "Mr. Monk and the Game Show." Meta-wise, this was because the episode was filmed as a filler episode, made after Bitty Schram had departed (the episodes were not filmed in chronological order, so "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine" was filmed before "Game Show"), and Traylor Howard had not yet been cast as Natalie.
Marci Maven
Marci Maven
Clue hug?
Played by: Sarah Silverman
Monk's obsessed fan. First shows up in "Mr. Monk and the TV Star", where she is an obsessed fan of the Crime Lab: SF lead Brad Terry, to the point that she takes the rap for him for his killing of his ex-wife. But Monk eventually figures it out, and her obsession of interest changes to Monk.
In "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan," Marci's obsession for Monk has reached an extreme: she has plastered his image all over her walls, she's furnished her house with furniture he throws out, she wears his recycled clothing, she appears to be responsible for naming the episode titles. It goes well until her neighbor across the street, Debbie Ringel, is apparently mauled to death by a dog. The police suspect Marci's pet dog Otto, but Otto turns out to have been deceased for three days. Desperate, she turns to Monk for help, willingly breaking a restraining order imposed against her by "buying" Monk at a police bachelor auction. Monk eventually proves that John Ringel was responsible for framing Otto, but after Ringel takes Monk and Marci hostage, in a situation that leads to Marci getting a bullet in her left shoulder, she loses interest in Monk and takes up a new interest in the form of F. Murray Abraham ("May God have mercy on his soul").
- Alliterative Name: The name Marci Maven. She's also played by Sarah Silverman.
- Bachelor Auction: Resorts to "buying" Monk at one in "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan"
- Continuity Nod: "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan" suggests that Marci is responsible for writing episode titles.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Marci's obsession with Monk is almost like the obsessions of some Justin Bieber fans.
- Fangirl: Of the most obsessive variety. She stalks male celebrities, collects memorabilia about them, and even writes fan fiction about them.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In "Mr. Monk and the TV Star," after being exonerated, Marci becomes a fan of Monk's work. At the end of the episode, she says something about how he's such a great detective "one day you'll get your own TV show." And then she ask him "if you ever do get your own TV show, don't change the opening song." When the credits roll, rather than the second season song, they're playing the first season theme.
- Marci also recounts Monk's cases by their real-life episode titles.
- Oh, Crap, There Are Fanfics of Us!: Lampshaded. In "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan," when Monk and Marci are being held at gunpoint by John Ringel, Marci tells Monk to draw a weapon but Monk protests, "I don't have a gun." She replies, "You did in 'Mr. Monk and the Dragon's Lair!'" Then she remembers that she made that story up.
- Overly Long Gag: That guitar song Marci does in "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan", which involves her holding one incredibly long A note. Apparently Sarah Silverman tried to take it as far as she could possibly go, and there were reportedly several takes with Tony Shalhoub and Traylor Howard struggling not to corpse.
- Perky Goth: Marci counts by personality in "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan," even though she wears a white coat that makes her look like an inspector in some scenes and she's wearing Monk's recycled clothing in others
- Stalker with a Crush: Monk and Natalie are somewhat disturbed when they actually get to see just how far Marci's obsession with Monk goes. She's wearing Monk's old pants, she has furnished her house with much of the stuff he throws out, and she has plastered the wall with pictures of him, also even making a bobblehead of him. Also, she has an inaccurate diorama of "Mr. Monk and the Three Pies," and is starting a song about the detective.
- Who Would Want to Watch Us?: After Brad Terry is arrested in "Mr. Monk and the TV Star":Marci Maven: You are the greatest detective in the world! You are the greatest detective in the universe! You should have your own show!
- This is made even greater by the fact that she immediately announces he should "never change his theme song" (a complaint she used against the previous actor she was obsessed with). Monk had just changed its theme song to one that fans didn't quite like as much and they played the old theme song over the end credits as a Take That Us, or self-deprecation.
Law Enforcement
Agent Grooms
Agent Joshua Grooms
Played by: Josh Stamberg
A federal agent of the ATF and FBI, that Stottlemeyer clashes with. Appears in two episodes, "Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect" and "Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever," and is mentioned in several others.
- Hypocritical Humor: In "Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever," when Grooms is the agent in charge of Monk's witness protection, there is a scene where they stop at a convenience store for supplies. Grooms tells the others to not draw too much attention to themselves....while wearing a very attention-grabbing three piece suit.
- Jurisdiction Friction: Grooms clashes with Stottlemeyer in both episodes where he is on screen. Though it's implied they may actually be on friendlier terms on many offscreen. For instance, in "Mr. Monk and the Election," when Monk finds shell casings with Russian markings at the scene of a shooting attempt on Natalie's life, Stottlemeyer tells Randy to call Grooms and pass the casings over to him. And when the police are arresting Jack Whitman, Stottlemeyer discovers Whitman was trying to recover a sheet containing a list of customers he was trafficking arms to and quips that he has a friend in the Bureau waiting for the document, which could be implying that Grooms is going to be relieved.
Lt. Devlin
Lieutenant Amy Devlin
The officer who took over for Randy in the novels after he moved to New Jersey. A former undercover cop, Devlin is no-nonsense, independent, and not easily impressed. However, she does become a helpful ally.
- Action Girl: As one would expect given that she used to work as an undercover officer, frequently alone, she can take care of herself in a fight. In one scene, she goes from pretending to sleep to reacting to and clobbering one of the perps of the week in a matter of seconds.
- Boyish Short Hair: She keeps her hair cropped short and is no-nonsense and somewhat aggressive.
- Cowboy Cop: In Mr. Monk On the Couch, she enlists Natalie's help in a risky operation to trap the perps, and in a later book, she compliments her for a sting she and Monk pulled which caused a lot of property damage.
- The Lad-ette: Natalie describes her in Mr. Monk on the Couch as having no femininity in her demeanor.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She can get violently aggressive over fairly small things and she doesn't appreciate Monk and Natalie's "interference". However, she has an unwavering sense of justice, unhesitatingly putting herself on the line to make sure a perp doesn't get away, and even though she doesn't like Monk, when she thinks he's suicidal in Mr Monk Is A Mess, she immediately acts to save him.
Capt. Rudner
Captain Lisa Rudner
Stottlemeyer's replacement as captain of the SFPD homicide division in Mr. Monk's Last Case.
- Black Boss Lady: She's the new captain of the SFPD homicide division and was apparently handpicked by Stottlemeyer as his successor, indicating that she's tough, competent, and professional enough to impress him.
- Contrasting Replacement Character: Aside from being a Black woman, she lacks the occasionally adversarial edge that Stottlemeyer had with Monk in their professional relationship. She even dangles the department's 22 unsolved cases in front of Monk to try and tempt him into coming out of retirement, where Stottlemeyer was often reluctant to call Monk in unless something truly bizarre had happened.
- Friend on the Force: Stottlemeyer has kept in touch with her since his retirement from the department, and she's still happy to help him out.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: She's happy to help Stottlemeyer and Monk when they ask for info on Rick Eden.
Recurring Antagonists
Dale the Whale
Dale "the Whale" J. Biederbeck III
Monk's Arch-Enemy, Dale is an immensely fat (he's around eight hundred pounds for most of the series) financier and Diabolical Mastermind. Despite being so huge that he is unable to walk, Dale is both a genius and extremely wealthy; episodes imply that he "owns half of San Francisco." As detailed below, Monk has particular hatred for Dale, as the villain caused Trudy a huge amount of grief.
- Arch-Enemy: He's one of the most personally despised criminals that Monk has met.
- Army of Lawyers: In his debut, Dale smugly warns the cops investigating him that the first 20 numbers on his speed dial are all lawyers.
- Bad Boss: He frequently insults, manipulates and abuses his staff - even sexually, in his female employee’s case. In his first appearance, this leads to his undoing.
- Berserk Button: He has a few: don't deny him food, don't tell him he can't have something, and do not—do not—get in the way of his window.
- Big Eater: This is partly the reason he became so morbidly obese; at his heaviest, he would have restaurants deliver him every single item on their menus. His binge-eating worsened after his mother's death.
- Blatant Lies: Whenever Dale is found guilty of something, he immediately claims that he had no idea about it and is therefore totally innocent. The hollow, sarcastic tone he uses when he does this indicates that he doesn't really care about being found out, as he's convinced that he won't get in trouble anyway...and oh, how wrong he is.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: Dale's a genius, but his massive ego - particularly his need to make coy boasts and sly references when he thinks he's untouchable - is always instrumental in Monk deducing how to bring him down. Likewise, tacking an elaborate revenge scheme against Monk onto his plan to get pardoned only resulted in ensuring Monk got involved and figured out what was going on.
- It's particularly apparent in "Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale," his first episode. Dale orders Dr. Christaan Vezza, his personal physician, to murder Justice Catherine Lavinio. It turns out that "Vezza" is a disgraced former surgeon named Glen Sindell who operated on a child while under the influence of drugs and jumped bail; Biederbeck learned the truth and essentially enslaved Sindell for years. However, when Monk solves Lavinio's murder and the cops uncover Sindell's real identity, Dale never stops to consider that the doctor might turn against him and provide evidence to put the financier away...which is exactly what happens. Heck, the main reason the police are onto him at all is because he forced Vezza to make it look like he himself was the actual culprit when due to his size he never could be, purely to show off how smart and untouchable he is— had he killed her more discreetly, he might have barely been a suspect.
- Break Them by Talking: Dale's preferred method of mental torture is to research secrets on people, then deliver nasty speeches to hit them where it hurts most; over the course of the series, he does this to his personal physician, Sharona, and especially Monk (who he mocks by bringing up Trudy's last words). At the end of "Mr. Monk is On the Run", Monk finally discovers how to deal with this: walk away.
- Brought Down to Normal: His ultimate fate in the TV series—he loses all of his special prison privileges when he's found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, and ends up as just another inmate in the system.
- Brutal Honesty: Another one of his favorite tactics to threaten people. In his debut episode, a State Superior Court Judge is murdered in her home, with Dale as the only suspect. The first thing he says about her when he's questioned? "Whoever killed her did the world a favor." It ties into his god complex: he's so convinced that his wealth, smarts, and connections can get him out of any possible trouble that he feels no need to censor what he says or does.
- Complexity Addiction: Dale's key flaw. His two main criminal schemes fail due to the fact that his need to make them overly complicated causes them to fall apart. Especially by drawing in Monk.
- In his first scheme, Dale could have had the judge killed in any manner. But by having it staged to look like he was the one who committed it when that was an impossibility, it caused the police to call in Monk who was able to piece together the clues that ultimately ended with his arrest.
- In his second scheme, Dale could have just settled on killing the Governor, a crime that none of the heroes were aware of. However, by trying to "Switch places" with Monk and trying to frame him, he ultimately brought about his own undoing, resulting in a far harsher- and longer- jail sentence, without any of the amenities he had become used to.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: He's an obscenely wealthy business tycoon, and is certainly very lacking in any moral scruples, up to and including arranging for his enemies to be murdered. It's not for nothing that Trudy labelled him as "the Genghis Khan of world finance".
- Crazy-Prepared: Dale is extremely good at covering his tracks, concealing his involvement in possible crimes, and correctly predicting what law enforcement is up to (to the point of bragging "I never guess" to Stottlemeyer). He can also find or buy information on anyone in the world in a matter of hours, and seems to have it all memorized rather than use written records (which could implicate him further). In "Mr. Monk is On the Run," it's revealed that he uses this tactic in his business dealings as well. He has countless shell corporations that he uses to create multiple layers of protection against people who come nosing around—a single check goes back through four different companies before actually being connected to him.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: At the end of "Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale," Monk, Sharona, and the cops are able to prove that Biederbeck is guilty of organizing the murder of the Victim of the Week, and they're even able to get his personal physician (who actually committed the crime) to agree to turn states' evidence and put him away. A furious Dale, knowing that Monk cracked the case, tries to strangle the detective...and is able to reach about four inches above his head for ten seconds before falling back exhausted. He's an 800-plus-pound man who hasn't left his bed in eleven years—any possible muscle strength and endurance vanished a long time ago.
- Deadpan Snarker: Dale is sarcastic and rude; if he isn't insulting you outright, he's probably making a nasty comment.
- Deal with the Devil:
- In a sense, this occurs in "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail." Dale is accused of murdering a death row inmate, and because of his status as a suspect, he's denied a window being installed in his jail cell. He decides to have Monk solve the case by offering him the one thing he can't resist: information on Trudy's death.
- Dr. Christiaan Vezza jokes that he did this in "Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale"—he was doing research on the morbidly obese, and Dale offered to fund the project in exchange for Vezza being his personal physician. It takes on an ever greater meaning when the cops discover that "Vezza" is Glenn Q. Sindell, a former surgeon who jumped bail after being arrested for operating while intoxicated. Dale learned the secret and forced Sindell to not only become his physician, but commit a murder.
- Escape Artist: In "Mr. Monk is On the Run" and Mr. Monk Gets Even, Dale attempts different schemes to get out of jail. In the former, it involves framing Monk for murder, then arranging to have Governor Rick Weschler assassinated by car bomb so that the lieutenant governor will become governor and commute Dale's sentence. In the latter, he agrees to undergo gastric bypass surgery, and concocts an elaborate scheme that involves his girlfriend Stella Chaze staging a truck accident that overwhelms SF General Hospital with emergency room patients, then making everyone think that she has slipped Dale out in a stolen hearse, though in reality she has taken the body of another bypass patient named Jason McCabe, and put Dale in McCabe's place.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He loved his mother, who's just about the only person whom he ever seemed to care about. After her death, he went on an eating binge that caused him to balloon to his current size. Though seeing that the information came from his compromised doctor, it's a little suspect.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Parodied in "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail". After inmate Ray Kaspo is murdered, Dale becomes a suspect because of a debt the man owed him — $1,200. And while Dale may be a conniving, disgusting, manipulative, murderous, and downright awful person, he would never kill someone over such a trifling amount of money ("I wouldn't bend down to pick up twelve hundred dollars — even if I could"). Stottlemeyer retorts that Dale might have arranged the murder as a warning to other prisoners who might cross him, but Biederbeck laughs this off — he's Dale the Whale; no one needs to be reminded of his power.
- "Mr. Monk is On the Run" implies a subversion of this trope. When Natalie first arrives to speak to Dale, he immediately brings up her deceased husband and emphasizes that, as an associate of Monk, her and her entire family are "his business." The way he stresses "family" indicates that he's perfectly willing to go after Natalie's loved ones, including her teenage daughter Julie. It's an indication that he's getting worse—while Dale openly mistreated Sharona and mocked her for her past as a sex worker, he never even mentioned her son.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: One of the possible explanations for the situation described in Bond Villain Stupidity in "Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale." Biederbeck is, by his own admission, a horrible, evil human being—so he can't imagine that Glenn Sindell, his personal physician, might want to atone for his crimes by helping to put Dale in prison.
- Evil Cripple: Dale's weight makes him virtually immobile at the start of the series, and by his final appearance, he has at least lost enough weight to be able to move around in a wheelchair. Either way, he still has just as pitch black a soul to go with it.
- Evil Genius: Dale's intelligence is about the only thing that equals his weight, to the point where Stottlemeyer (who isn't rattled by anything) feels the need to warn people about just how smart he is. Biederbeck's ability to find secrets and cook up complex plots has put politicians, baseball team owners, and entire city blocks (just to name a few) in his pocket, and he's able to devise extremely complicated plans that can take years to implicate from inside a prison cell.
- Evil Gloating: In "Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale," Superior Court Judge Catherine Lavinio is murdered in her home. She identifies Biederbeck as her attacker during a 911 call; Dale freely admits to having a motive (Lavinio ruled against him in an expensive antitrust lawsuit); clues at the crime scene indicate that he was there; and an eyewitness even observes a "big, fat man" in Lavinio's house that night. But Dale is the only person who couldn't have killed her, as he's completely immobile. Monk realizes that Dale is behind the crime, and is using the evidence to mock the police and brag about his inability to be arrested.
- Evil Is Petty: It's not enough for Dale to have billions of dollars and control people's lives with a single phone call—he goes out of his way to be as mean-spirited and nasty as possible just because he can. His suing Trudy and the newspaper she worked for when he fully knew he would never win is a prime example (the whole point was to tie the case up in courts to force the Monks to bankruptcy); his murder of a Superior Court Judge who committed the "heinous" crime of ruling against him is another.
- Expy: He resembles the character Charles Augustus Milverton from Sherlock Holmes, being a very intelligent and successful criminal who operates as a blackmailer that the main detective finds absolutely repulsive but too devious for even them to normally put away, and who visibly enjoys rubbing his villainy in the nose of said detective as well as his other victims since he knows he usually gets away with it.
- Fat Bastard: Exaggerated. Dale is extremely obese, weighing at around 800 pounds (and this is after he's been on a diet that's taken off an additional hundred), and is physically immobile due to his massive size (he's 5 ½ feet, or 66 inches, wide by his own admission); and he's also an all-around mean-spirited, horrible excuse for a human being.
- Fatal Flaw:
- His ego. Dale's usually smart enough to keep a low profile and commit crimes without anyone knowing, but if someone crosses paths with him and comes out the victor, he loses his sense of rationality and becomes obsessed with avenging the perceived slight. Justice Catherine Lavinio of the California State Superior Court learns this the hard way when she proves immune to Biederbeck's trickery and bribes by ruling against him in a costly antitrust lawsuit; even though he could have taken the financial loss, he goes out of his way to have her murdered in the showiest way possible just to ensure that the police know they can't arrest him.
- Dale also has a tendency to be a massive jerk to his underlings, to the point of outright treating them like slaves. Not surprisingly, when the tides turn against him, said underlings are more than happy to tell the cops everything they know, undoing Dale's claims of plausible deniability.
- Faux Affably Evil: He acts like an overly polite, cheerful man, cracking jokes and being self-deprecating about his weight. This is all for show—he's really a petty, cruel tyrant.
- Fiction 500: Dale is one of the richest men in the world; in his premiere episode, he jokes that $210 million is a petty sum for him.
- Foil: To Monk. Both are exceptionally intelligent; both suffer from compulsive behavior (Monk's rituals, Dale's eating); both had a complete breakdown after the death of a female loved one (Trudy for Monk, his own mother for Dale); and both are forced to live apart from the world (Monk because of his neuroses, Dale because of his immobility). But while Monk recovers and uses his intellect as a positive force, Dale remains a villain.
- Formerly Fat: When the state of California decides to stop paying for Dale's treatment in Mr. Monk Gets Even as part of a rash of budget cuts, Dale agrees to undergo gastric bypass surgery. It turns out to be an attempt to escape jail.
- He also loses weight during his time in prison, as he's at least able to move around in a wheelchair by "Mr. Monk is On the Run."
- For the Evulz: The whole reason Monk hates him. During her time as a newspaper reporter, Trudy wrote a critical piece on Dale, calling him "the Genghis Khan of world finance". Dale decided to sue both her and the paper for libel, knowing full well that he couldn't win the case; instead, he simply dragged out the issue long enough to force Adrian and Trudy to sell everything they owned, including their house, to cover court costs. To add insult to injury, he bought said house and used it to store his pornography collection.
- Frivolous Lawsuit: Dale launched a lawsuit he knew fully well he couldn't win against Trudy and the newspaper she worked for after she wrote a critical piece where she called him "the Genghis Khan of world finance". The real purpose of the case was to tie it up in the courts in order to force the Monks to declare bankruptcy and, eventually, sell everything they owned, including their house.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: In "Mr. Monk is On the Run," it's clear that spending a few years in prison has taken a toll on Dale's mind. In "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail," he was at least able to keep up his Faux Affably Evil act and speak to Monk and Sharona politely and rationally. But when Natalie visits Dale in the later episode, he outright declares an utter hatred of Adrian and endlessly repeats phrases ("I want Monk HERE. Want. Monk. HERE!"), suggesting that he's slipping mentally.
- Gonk: By his second episode, Dale is firmly in this territory. In "Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale," he's enormous, but he also has a whole staff of cosmetologists to keep him well-groomed and dressed. By "Mr. Monk Goes to Prison" and even more so in "Mr. Monk is On the Run," his time in prison has taken a toll on his physical appearance, leaving him truly repulsive.
- Hate Sink: One of the most despicable characters on the show. His only interests in life seem to be making money and ruining lives, and he frequently gets people to work for him or otherwise serve his ends through blackmail or deception. He's also extremely rude and condescending to practically everyone he meets, regarding the vast majority of the human race as idiots beneath his notice, and he's quick to tell people to their face how stupid he thinks they are, with the mild exception of women he finds physically attractive who he merely acts lecherous around.
- Hidden Villain: While Dale isn't a complete unknown — he's a difficult man to forget, certainly not able to conceal himself in the physical sense, and has built quite a nasty private reputation among those he's wronged, if the nickname "Dale the Whale" is any indication — he started as an even more mysterious figure. Both before and after Trudy's death, Dale made information services a crucial part of his holdings, meaning that he was able to mandate his name be kept out of the press entirely until she exposed him, and the lawsuit likely didn't attract much news attention for the same reason. Being bedridden, Dale also does all of his dealings through associates, intermediaries and phone calls, with the occasional video chat or personal appointment, and has people in his pocket enact his will through legal channels; additionally, as a blackmailer, his victims feel uncomfortable stepping forward, making the full extent of his many crimes unknown. This gradually declines throughout the series: as Dale's crimes, including an attempted assassination of a governor, are exposed, his fame grows as his power and world both shrink underneath him.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: When we first meet Dale, he's one of the most powerful men in the world, living in all the luxury his immense wealth and power can grant him. When we see him last, he's been reduced to yelling impotent threats in a bare, dingy prison cell.
- I Gave My Word: In "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail," Dale and Monk strike a bargain: if Monk can solve a murder which Dale has been accused of, then the financier will share everything he knows about Trudy's death. When Monk cracks the case, Dale remarks that "a deal's a deal" and provides Monk with some genuine leads—Trudy, not Monk, was the target of the car bomb that killed her, and a man named Warwick Tennyson, who lives in New York City, was involved.
- Insult Backfire: Dale knows full well that he's a revolting, obese jerk, and any attempts to call him on it result in a snarky comment.
- It's Personal: In addition to Monk's focused hatred of Dale for the way he abused Trudy, Biederbeck himself develops a personal grudge against Adrian after the detective gets him arrested for murder. By "Mr. Monk Is On the Run," that grudge has deepened to a point where Dale needs to frame Adrian for a crime, even though his plan to assassinate the governor of California and thus escape jail actually works better without Monk's presence.
- Kavorka Man: Dale has several beautiful young women on his speed-dial, and they all seemed perfectly willing to date/flirt with him. It's probably more about his limitless cash flow than his looks.
- Kick the Dog:
- Dale deliberately brings up the last words Trudy said prior to when she died in front of Monk to taunt him over his inability to save her. This causes a very furious Monk to quietly tell him to go to Hell.
- During Sharona's attempts to gain intel working for Dale as a maid, Dale reveals he knows how she paid for her rent as a nude model and sexually harasses her for his own amusement.
- Logical Weakness: Dale may be a genius and ruthless financier with a bottomless bank account, but his enormous body has rendered him virtually immobile. As such, physical activity—even so much as feeding himself or extending his arms—is nearly impossible for him, which makes total sense: he's been bedridden for eleven years and thus lacks any muscular strength or endurance.
- Luxury Prison Suite: Though Dale does end up in prison, he's able to use his cash and connections to spend his time there like a hotel trip: he has a comfortable bed, laptop, books, big-screen TV, access to manicure appointments and a Chinese restaurant that delivers, and even a personal servant in the form of another inmate. Of course, he loses it all when he's implicated in trying to frame Monk for murder, and ends up living alone in a dingy, bare cell.
- Nausea Fuel: An in-universe example. Though we never see Dale's body, he remarks that his stomach is sixty-six inches wide; when he lifts his covers to show it to Sharona, she spends at least twelve hours vomiting repeatedly ("HE'S ORCA!").
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Dale's final appearance on the show, in "Mr. Monk is On The Run," opens the final season. It's revealed that his "helping" Monk back in "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail" was all part of an elaborate scheme to have Monk learn some information about Trudy's death—specifically, that a six-fingered man built the bomb that killed her—which would later implicate Monk himself in the murder of the Governor of California; the Lieutenant Governor was in on the plot and agreed to commute Dale's sentence in exchange for Biederbeck's help in gaining the office. Not only does Monk determine the truth—which results in Dale being found guilty, stripped of his prison privileges, and left to rot alone in a bare cell with no hope for release—he also reviews the notes the six-fingered man left behind and discovers that someone called "the Judge" arranged for Trudy's murder, which proves to be the clue he needs to finally solve the greatest mystery of his life.
- Not Afraid of Hell: Dale's self-aware enough to know that he's a horrific human being with virtually no redeeming qualities. As such, he's accepted the fact that if there's an afterlife, he's going to roast.Monk: Go to Hell.
Dale: (With a laugh) Oh, I've no doubt I will. I just hope it's HANDICAP ACCESSIBLE! - Not Me This Time: In "Mr Monk Goes To Jail," a death row inmate named Ray Kaspo at the same prison as Dale is murdered forty-five minutes before his execution. Suspicion falls on Dale, as Kaspo owed him twelve hundred dollars. Dale is completely innocent (for his own part, he claims that he "wouldn't bend down to pick up twelve hundred dollars—even if [he] could"), but his status as a suspect means that he can't get a window in his jail cell, which infuriates him enough to ask Monk to solve the case for him.
- Pet the Dog: In "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail," although Dale could have easily gone back on his word just to spite Monk, he gives Monk some genuine leads on Trudy's murder and the location of one of the men involved in the car bombing as he promised he would.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Dale is an open misogynist, blatantly ogling attractive women and sexually harassing them for his own amusement. He also insults Randy by calling him Stottlemeyer's "cabana boy," hinting at a homophobic side as well.
- Porn Stash: According to Dale, after he sued the Monks to the extent they had to sell their first house to cover their court expenses, he bought said house and used it to store his porn as an extra bit of petty knife-twisting.
- Post-Stress Overeating: According to Dale's physician Dr. Christiaan Vezza in "Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale," Dale was originally "only" 400 pounds and still mobile; when his mother died, though, he went into an uncontrollable depression that he dealt with by binge eating.
- Progressively Prettier: Inverted. Dale appears three times, and his appearance deteriorates with each new episode. This isn't a commentary on the three actors who played him; rather, it's justified by his circumstances in those episodes. In the first, "Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale," he's living in his luxurious penthouse suite with access to beauticians, a personal physician, and whatever food he wants; in "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail," he's been in prison for some time without access to his staff or sunlight, making him look paler and more haggard; and by "Mr. Monk is On the Run," he's lost some of his weight, which results in a lot of loosely-hanging skin all over his body, especially in the neck.
- Revenge Before Reason: In "Mr. Monk is On the Run," Dale plots to assassinate the Governor of California with a car bomb so the Lieutenant Governor can assume the office and commute the financier's sentence. The plan is completely concealed from law enforcement, perfectly timed, and comes dangerously close to succeeding—but Biederbeck can't resist fulfilling his grudge against Monk as part of the scheme by having the detective framed for murder. This proves his undoing, as it only ensures that Stottlemeyer, Natalie, and Adrian himself get involved in the case, which both saves the Governor and ends up with Dale's accomplices implicating him, leaving him far worse off than before.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Occurs in all three episodes with Dale:
- In "Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale," his role in the murder of a State Superior Court judge is exposed, and he begins to rant about how his lawyers will save him, as "there isn't a prison in this country that can hold me!" Monk interrupts with an insult ("There are few shopping malls that can hold you") and a promise to see him put away regardless.
- In "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail," Monk snarks at Dale's "poetic" comments about his obese body serving as a personal prison, prompting Biederbeck to being accusing Monk of building a mental cell for himself due to Trudy's death; Monk immediately cuts him off.
- In "Mr. Monk is On the Run," Dale tries to same speech as the one above, boasting that his time in a real prison doesn't compare to Monk's being trapped by his own neuroses; in this case, Monk simply leaves him, prompting Dale to throw a temper tantrum:Dale: I wouldn't trade places with you for a BILLION dollars! I mean, another billion dollars! You hear me? COME BACK HERE! I'M NOT DONE!Monk: Oh yes, you are.
- Smug Snake: As brilliant and as ruthless as he is, he's not nearly as smart as he wants to be. While he's used to civil litigation, which allows him to bury his opponents under frivolous lawsuits and bring about judgements that he can easily afford to pay, criminal law is another matter. In addition, his overly complex schemes tend to bring about the attention of those- namely Monk and his friends- who are able to undo them.
- The Sociopath: Dale only cares about Dale, period. Everyone else is just a pawn to be used and thrown away.
- Sympathy for the Devil: Dale is about as morally bankrupt as they come, but his desperation about getting a window in "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail" elicits a shred of pity. Consider that he was first confined to his own bedroom for eleven years and never got to go outside, meaning his window was his only connection to the outside world—he snarks to Disher that the view "is really all I have." Then, after being sent to jail, he was completely cut off from any form of sunlight or fresh air. It's telling that Dale loses all composure and tact when he first tells Monk about it—"ADRIAN MONK! I want my window. GET ME MY WINDOW!" Later, Stottlemeyer asks about that fit, Dale sounds downright vulnerable when he answers:Stottlemeyer: Is a window really that important to you?Dale: Try living without one.
- Villain Ball: Intelligent though he is, Dale’s petty egotism frequently makes him his own worst enemy. In his first appearance it’s made clear that he has many means to subtly kill or ruin enemies without implicating himself, but instead he sets up a complex scheme that leads directly him to goad the police into ruining themselves trying to solve it - only for it to fall apart simply because his patsy was willing to confess everything when thrown under the bus. Later, he needlessly takes a “frame Monk” revenge plot onto his scheme to get pardoned, leading to the discovery and foiling of a plan that had previously gone completely under the radar.
- Villain with Good Publicity: A unique example, in that he's a Villain with No Publicity. In "Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale," Stottlemeyer explains that Biederbeck would rather buy an entire newspaper publishing company rather than have them print a single piece about him. It helps to keep his dealings, illegal and otherwise, secret from the world at large.
- Wicked Cultured: Dale is evil and completely unscrupulous, but he's also fluent in several languages, reads antique books, follows the international stock markets, and has opera blaring in his massive suite, which is richly decorated in expensive marble, silk, and velvet.
- Xanatos Gambit: Dale's helping Monk in "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail" turns out to be this: he wants the detective to gather information about Trudy's death, as it will lead to him becoming a suspect in a later crime that, if successful, would ultimately free Dale from prison.
"The Realtor"
Linda S. Fusco
Played by: Sharon Lawrence
Stottlemeyer's girlfriend in season 5 and early season 6.
Linda Salvato Fusco is introduced in "Mr. Monk, Private Eye" as a realtor. She hires Monk and Natalie to investigate damage done to her Buick. During the investigation, she also runs into Stottlemeyer, and sparks fly very quickly between the two of them, her recognizing him as a divorcee like herself. She even sets up Stottlemeyer with an apartment across the street from her own.
In "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan," Linda returns, though her part is minor. Their dates are often interrupted, postponed, or canceled as a result of Stottlemeyer's police duties. This reaches a point where she resorts to "buying" him at a Bachelor Auction (this is the same one that Marci Maven "buys" Monk at). Their dinner date is interrupted by Stottlemeyer realizing the solution to the case in the middle of dessert.
In "Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend," Linda has moved to a suburban house in Richmond, and that, plus Stottlemeyer's work hours, force them to limit their dates to webcam dates every night at 6:30 PM. They are planning to go to Hawaii, but before they do, Linda's real estate partner Sean Corcoran is shot and killed while giving an open house tour in Marin County. Monk and Natalie are sent to investigate, but it is only after Monk and Natalie take a single visit to Linda's office that they realize she is the killer: she has the motive, the means, the ability, and opportunity to have committed the murder (a picture of her in her office wielding a shotgun, the very shotgun used as the murder weapon; Sean was planning on starting his own company and would have taken a lot of their clients with him; she matches the killer's description in regards to height, even wearing a certain shade of lipstick that one witness remembers; and she has a house key).
Unfortunately, no one believes Monk and Natalie because Linda was ending her webcam date with Stottlemeyer (which Monk and Natalie had eavesdropped in on at the end) twenty minutes before the shooting, and the time window is not large enough to give her ample time to go from her house to the crime scene and get into her hiding place.
Eventually, Monk finds incriminating evidence against Linda by having Natalie lure her away while he searches her house. Through a sting operation, Monk and Natalie then entrap Linda at her and Stottlemeyer's send-off party. Linda is arrested, and Stottlemeyer is left wondering whether the relationship was legitimate or not.
- Affably Evil: Aside from her attempts to get away with murder in cold blood and ruin Leland's friendship with Monk, Linda is friendly and polite to everyone else around her. However, this is deconstructed as the crux for why everyone's dismayed to learn she's the killer.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Even with the reveal she was a murderer, her arrest is treated in a tragic light. Worse is that not only is Leland's heart broken by the whole ordeal, but he was going to propose to her and throws the engagement ring in the ocean out of anger.
- Bachelor Auction: Linda and Marci Maven both go to the same one in "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan" - Linda to get Stottlemeyer (which is a no sell as it appears she is the only one who even bids for him), and Marci bids on Monk.
- Becoming the Mask: Deconstructed. She truly did seem to be falling in love with Leland, but she was more than willing to use him as a cover to kill her former real estate partner Sean Corcoran. So, while she did seemingly fall for Leland as he did for her, it didn't stop her from committing the act out of greed.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Whether or not she truly loved Leland or was just using him, Linda was a selfish woman. Her real estate partner Sean Corcoran was going solo and would have taken many of her clients with him. She killed him to prevent the blow to her career, and it is speculated she dated Leland to use his status as Police Captain to get away with it.
- Brick Joke: In "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan", Linda Fusco asks Stottlemeyer, "What does a girl have to do to get your attention, captain? Kill someone?"
Three episodes later, Monk and Natalie suspect Linda of murdering her partner and turn out to be right. - Evil All Along: Naturally, Stottlemeyer refuses to believe she's a murderer until she's proven to be one.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Once Monk exposes her crimes as the murderer, she tries to justify her actions to Leland that she "did it for us". Somehow, it eluded Linda that the Captain wouldn't have wanted her to commit murder in the first place.
- Evil Is Petty: It is implied Linda lies to Leland about Monk trying to pressure her into sex because she was offended that her attempt to seduce him into silence failed.
- Foreshadowing: In "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan" she's having lunch and drinks with Stottlemeyer, who's been swamped with work and who winds up ditching her when he gets a hunch about Monk and Marci's case. At one point Linda asks, "What's a girl have to do to get a little attention? Kill someone?" Which, of course, she does a few episodes later.
- For Want Of A Nail: As pointed out by Monk, if Linda hadn't parked on a hill, Monk would never have figured out how she killed Sean.
- Was It All a Lie?: Stottlemeyer has to ask himself this question at the end of "Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend," where the stinger is that he has taken Randy to Hawaii instead. He is left wondering whether Linda's relationship with him was 100% legitimate, or if she had always been setting him up so that he would be her alibi when she did commit the murder. Figuring he'll never be able to find out, he then throws away the engagement ring he would have given her.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Subverted in "Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend". Linda tries to discredit Monk and Natalie by claiming to Stottlemeyer that Monk threatened her that he would have her arrested if she didn't sleep with him. Stottlemeyer, who has known Monk longer than her, immediately realizes that something is up. If anything this could be a Villain Ball moment as well, since before that, Linda stated that Stottlemeyer was completely on her side and wouldn't even hear Monk out on the theory. Once Stottlemeyer heard this story, Stottlemeyer starts to get suspicious.
