"Mr. Monk Meets Dale The Whale" is the third episode of the first season of Monk.
We open on a 911 dispatch unit, where a frantic woman desperately makes a call from her home. She tells the operator that a man named Dale Biederbeck has broken in and is attacking her. The operator tries to calm her down, but she says that it's too late—Biederbeck is in her room at that moment. An exterior shot of the woman's home shows a massive shadow looming in the window as one final scream rings out...and the line goes dead. Cue the opening credits.
It's a Sunday morning at Sharona Fleming's, and she has Monk over for brunch as a continuation of his therapy. Her plans for a friendly game of Cluedo are foiled when Monk figures out the case before they begin thanks to his photographic memory perfectly recalling how the cards were put away the last time they played. Benji is amazed ("Can I take him to school for Show and Tell?") and Sharona frustrated, but a phone call from Captain Stottlemeyer interrupts the argument. Monk and Sharona head to the crime scene, where the latter butts heads with both Lieutenant Disher and her boss over the paperwork required for Monk to officially serve as a consultant. After tempers cool, the group starts exploring the house, with Stottlemeyer seeming oddly reticent. Monk is saddened to learn that the victim is Justice Catherine Lavinio of California's State Superior Court, and wonders who would have wanted her dead. There's a vast amount of clues left behind: a set of enormous footprints, a disabled smoke alarm, burned food on the stove, an overturned chair in the living room, and a baseball bat emblazoned with the initials "D.B."—the murder weapon—lying in the bedroom where the body was found. Monk starts to notice a few problems, though: if Justice Lavinio was attacked in her kitchen, why didn't she grab a knife? If she made the 911 call from her bedroom, why is the phone's antenna, which needs to be up to get a signal, pushed down? Stottlemeyer reveals that the cops already know exactly what happened, as they have both an eyewitness in the form of a passing little girl in the neighborhood and Lavinio's naming her attacker as Dale Biederbeck. So why is Monk even there? Stottlemeyer answers in the form of the mystery's central problem: "Because the guy who did it couldn't have done it."
A jump cut shows a gorgeously decorated bedroom in a penthouse suite, and the camera slowly pans up to reveal Dale "The Whale" J. Biederbeck III: multibillionaire financier, Diabolical Mastermind...and incredibly fat (as in 800 pounds) man. As Biederbeck feasts on corn dogs provided by his long-suffering personal physician Christiaan Vezza, he eagerly observes Stottlemeyer, Sharona, Monk, and Disher making their way up his elevator "right on schedule." In the elevator, Stottlemeyer warns the group that Dale is incredibly intelligent and will be trying to get a rise out of them with accusations. They enter Dale's bedroom, and he greets them in an ingratiatingly charming manner while barking orders at his frightened housekeeper. Stottlemeyer asks if Biederbeck knew the victim, and he cheerfully describes her as "a political slug—and I wasn't shy about saying so...whoever killed her did the world a favor." It seems that Justice Lavinio ruled against Dale in a costly antitrust lawsuit to the tune of over $200 million, and though Dale is one of the richest men in the world, he admits that it was a loss. Biederbeck then turns his attention to Monk, and Sharona is shocked to see that the two know each other due to an unspecified incident in their past. The detective tries to change the subject by asking where Dale was the previous night, and he cackles: "I was here! I haven't left this BED in ELEVEN YEARS!...I'm five and a half feet wide, if you haven't NOTICED!" Biederbeck then twists the knife further by bringing up Trudy's last words, which only further convinces Monk that the financier is behind Justice Lavinio's murder, despite his huge body leaving him immobile. Dale has only two words in response: "Prove it."
In the lobby of the apartment, the group has a chance to interview Dr. Vezza in private; the good doctor seems quite taken with Sharona, and the two bond by sharing memories of a hospital where they both worked, with Vezza doing a particularly accurate impression of the head nurse there. The flirting stops when Stottlemeyer asks how Dale even managed to get into the bedroom in the first place—he's fatter than the doorframe, and the elevator is even smaller. Vezza explains that Dale originally purchased the apartment when he was a comparatively-thin 400 pounds and still able to walk ("on a good day he could see his toes"). But when his mother died, Dale fell into an uncontrollable depression and began binge-eating nonstop, which ballooned his weight to 920 pounds—he hasn't left the bedroom since. Vezza crossed paths with Dale when he began doing research on the extremely overweight as part of a planned diet clinic; Biederbeck offered full funding in exchange for Vezza being his 24-7 personal physician. The mystery is no closer to being solved, with Stottlemeyer sighing that despite all of the evidence against Dale, he couldn't have left his apartment, let alone killed the judge: "It's just not possible."
Things only get worse when another judge—and personal friend of Lavinio's who dined with her on the night of the murder—denies the group a search warrant, explaining that the existing clues don't reconcile with Dale's immobility. Stottlemeyer comes up with a new idea: Dale mentioned that his night nurse recently quit, and since Sharona still has a license to practice, she'll go undercover to hunt for evidence herself. Sharona is eager—so long as it doesn't clash with her date with Dr. Vezza, who's told her that he was named after Christiaan Barnard, the surgeon who performed the world's first heart transplant—but Monk strictly forbids it, which only pushes her to take up the job further. That night, she tries to covertly explore, only for Dale to call her in to serve dinner with a quip: "So did you find what you were looking for?" As Sharona reluctantly spoon-feeds Dale, the financier taunts her about her past ("I know how you paid your rent back in Miami") and decides to tell the story of why Monk hates him so much. Trudy, in her career as a reporter, wrote an article criticizing Biederbeck and his cruel ways, dubbing him "the Genghis Khan of world finance." Dale decided to sue her and the newspaper she worked for into oblivion, knowing full well that he didn't have any kind of case. His only goal was to cause enough legal trouble to force Adrian and Trudy to sell everything they owned—including their own home—to cover the astronomical court costs. Then, to add insult to injury, he bought said house and used it to store his pornography collection. A disgusted Sharona remembers the task at hand and tries to feel Dale's stomach to see if he is truly immobile or just faking, as Monk theorizes. Dale realizes what she's doing and lifts his pajamas to show off his mammoth body...
The next morning, Monk heads to Sharona's apartment, where Benji informs him she's been throwing up all night: "He really is that fat! He's ORCA!" She was, however, able to identify one crucial clue: Biederbeck owns dozens of videotapes of Justice Lavinio, mostly interviews and TV appearances. Monk then heads to an emergency lunch session with Dr. Kroger, explaining that he fears his personal vendetta against Dale for his abuse of Trudy is clouding his judgment. The psychiatrist assures him that it's only natural to hate Biederbeck. Monk then notices that Dr. Kroger's lunch consists of leftovers from a restaurant—and has a "Eureka!" Moment about something at the crime scene: namely, leftovers from Lavinio's own dinner with her friend that night. He and Sharona head back to the judge's home and continue investigating. Monk realizes that the entire scenario was staged—Justice Lavinio wouldn't have been cooking a full meal if she couldn't finish her original dinner in the first place. Whoever did it wanted the smoke alarm to go off. Sharona next notices a photo of Lavinio and a middle-aged woman on the fridge; the other woman is Dale's current housekeeper. They interview her and she reveals that she used to work for the judge, only for Biederbeck to poach her away with more than twice her original salary. She also comments that Biederbeck asked her constant questions about Lavinio's habits and even the location of an extra key she kept in the garden. Their final visit is to Sue Ellen, the eyewitness to the crime. She's currently running a lemonade stand and extorts Monk into buying three glasses just to answer his questions, but she eventually remarks that she was out walking her dog and, after hearing a smoke alarm, saw a "very, VERY fat man" standing on a chair to disconnect it.
Monk and Sharona next drop by Dr. Vezza's weight loss clinic for a few more questions (and for Sharona to prepare for her date that night). While there, he showcases one of his proudest achievements: the "empathy suit," a Fat Suit designed to allow his staff to experience what it is like to be enormous. Monk also notices some balloons, and Vezza cheerfully remarks that he just celebrated his 37th birthday. That proves to be the final clue Monk needs, and he rushes off to tell Stottlemeyer about his theory.
Stottlemeyer, Monk, and Sharona return to Dale's apartment for The Summation, with the extremely pleased captain carrying a warrant for Biederbeck's arrest—they've called a construction company to bring a crane to haul him down to street level. Dale rolls his eyes and tells Vezza to get one of his many lawyers on the phone, but Monk interrupts with the facts of how Biederbeck pulled off the murder—or rather, got someone else to pull off the murder. The culprit killed Justice Lavinio immediately, and then staged the crime scene, deliberately setting off the smoke alarm to ensure that the passing Sue Ellen would see an enormously large man standing on a chair. Monk brings said chair into the apartment and has a muscular officer stand on it—his foot goes through right away, meaning that whoever disabled the alarm was "big, but not heavy." Cue Disher entering in one of Vezza's empathy suits; he easily stands on the chair (and then comically falls over and can't get up). Stottlemeyer announces that they've brought a warrant for Vezza, too—or, to use his real name, Glenn Q. Sindell, a disgraced surgeon who killed a child by operating while high on drugs and jumped bail. Dale learned Sindell's secret and blackmailed him into doing whatever he commanded, including killing Lavinio. Monk explains that two clues revealed Sindell's involvement: his claiming to be named for Christiaan Barnard, which isn't possible because Barnard didn't achieve fame until 1967—that is, two years after the doctor was born—and his skill at imitiating other people's voices. Sindell used the videotapes that Dale recorded to perfect an impression of Justice Lavinio, then called 911 after killing her and ransacking the house.
Biederbeck claims that he had no idea about Sindell's past and points out that the group hasn't truly tied him to the crime scene yet. Stottlemeyer then remarks that Sindell can change that if he cooperates: "Would you like to talk to us?" Sindell wholeheartedly agrees, eager to atone for his own criminal past by putting Dale behind bars for good. Furious at his plans unraveling before his eyes, an irate Biederbeck turns toward Monk and tries to reach up and strangle him...but he's too large and weak to get his arms more than a few inches above his head. Monk finally gets the last laugh on his Arch-Enemy by deliberately leaning in closer to taunt him.
The episode ends with Sharona and Monk enjoying the sunshine, with the former pointing out that there's one mystery left unsolved: what, exactly, Trudy's last words mean. Monk decides to share the truth as a sign of friendship. When he and Trudy would go for walks together, they always held hands, and whenever they had to briefly split up to pass something in their way, Trudy would say "bread and butter" as a promise that it was only a temporary separation. He explains that he was holding Trudy's hand as she died, so her final words were a message to him: "I have to let go now for a little while, but it won't be forever." Touched, Sharona takes Monk's arm, and the two head home, satisfied that justice has been done for both Lavinio and Trudy.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Accidental Child-Killer Backstory: Sindell is a disgraced former surgeon who inadvertently killed a child by operating while high out of his mind on drugs. He jumped bail and tried to start a new life for himself, only for Dale to learn the secret and use it to blackmail him into following his every order, including committing a murder. At the end of the episode, Sindell decides to turn states' evidence against Dale to atone for his crimes.
- Actually Pretty Funny: Beiderbeck is amused that Stottlemeyer plans to have a construction crew lower him down to street level with a crane as if he were a grand piano.
- Batter Up!: Judge Lavinio is murdered with a baseball bat.
- Brain Bleach
- When Dale briefly exposes his body to show to Sharona, she winds up throwing up in disgust throughout the whole night.
- Randy suggesting that Dale had reverse liposuction. Stottlemeyer tells him to keep that theory between the two of them.
- Character Development: It's clear from the beginning of the episode that Monk and Sharona are still adjusting to their professional relationship, with Monk claiming that he's Sharona's boss first and foremost and that she must do whatever he says, and Sharona naturally chafing under that restriction. By the end of the episode, though, they've grown closer and are becoming equal partners rather than employer and employee, as seen when Monk tells Sharona the meaning behind Trudy's last words and Sharona gently takes his arm in thanks.
- Characterisation Click Moment: This episode introduces Randy's habit of outlandish theories.
- Chekhov's Gun: The leftovers briefly seen in the fridge, the intact chair in Justice Lavinio's living room (which Monk tries to put back into place), Sharona bragging about Christiaan Vezza being named for Christiaan Barnard (the surgeon who performed the first human heart transplant), and the tapes of the judge Biederbeck keeps in his luxury suite all prove to be important clues to explaining the murder.
- Chekhov's Skill: Dr. Vezza shows off his mimicry skills for Sharona during the investigation, including his ability to do a falsetto "feminine" voice, which eventually leads Monk to the solution.
- Crazy-Prepared: Stottlemeyer warns everyone that Dale is the (very large) embodiment of this trope: he videotapes everything in his apartment, has a platoon of lawyers on speed dial ready to sue the city at a moment's notice, and can find or buy information on anyone at a terrifying speed.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: While Randy's nutty theories about "reverse-liposuction" prove fruitless, he does inadvertently stumble upon a good idea: namely, that the 911 call placed by Justice Lavinio is suspicious. It turns out that Sindell actually made the call by impersonating the judge's voice after he murdered her.
- Dating Catwoman: This episode is one of the first of many examples of this for Sharona (it eventually becomes a Running Gag)—she's interested in Dr. Vezza, who turns out to be the murderer in the crime (though as the trope name suggests, Vezza is something of a tragic villain, as his murder of Judge Lavinio was done at Dale's command, and he agrees to turn states' evidence to try to atone for his crimes).
- "Eureka!" Moment: Monk noticing Dr. Kroger having food on his face and hearing the doctor is eating leftovers from the night before gets him to realize the scenario of Judge Lavinio being surprised while cooking was faked, and that the police have the timeline of Lavinio's murder all wrong.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Dale is an incredibly selfish and sociopathic person, but he did genuinely care about his mother, who seems to be the only person he ever loved besides himself. Dr. Vezza mentions that her death sent Dale spiraling into a depression that led to him binge-eating nonstop to cope with the pain, which eventually turned him from fat but mobile to so big that he can no longer walk.
- Foreshadowing: When Stottlemeyer and Disher are theorizing different solutions to the crime, the latter suggests that Dale actually murdered Lavinio at his apartment, then moved the body. Stottlemeyer points out that this isn't possible, as the 911 call came from the judge's house. Disher then discards the idea, but he turns out to be somewhat correct—Judge Lavinio didn't make the call (rather, the killer impersonated her voice after killing her), and deducing when 911 was dialed is a key to the case.
- For the Evulz: Dale loves to make people's lives worse and commit all manner of crimes just because he can. For example, why settle for simply murdering Judge Lavinio by hiring a thug when he can have his personal physician—who's already virtually a slave because of Dale's blackmail—do it for him and taunt the cops while he's at it? Why ignore a small, critical news article that Trudy wrote when he can sue both her and the paper she works for into oblivion, knowing full well that he won't win? Because he thinks it's fun.
- Framing the Guilty Party: A "framing yourself" variant is key to the plot. Dale does not simply have Vezza/Sindell kill Judge Lavinio—he insists that he don a fat suit and deliberately leave behind clues that suggest Biederbeck himself was the murderer. This is completely impossible, because not only is Dale too fat to move, he couldn't even fit through the victim's door (or his own) if he could; he's basically like a ship in a bottle.
- Frivolous Lawsuit: Dale tells Sharona that when Trudy published an article criticizing him as "the Genghis Khan of world finance," he hit her and the paper that ran the piece with a libel lawsuit. While Dale lost the lawsuit in the end—and knew full well that he was never going to win—the Monks were so tied up in legal fees and such that they had to sell everything they owned, including their first house... which he then bought and used it to store his pornography collection just to rub salt in their wounds. It's clear what Dale was actually hoping to accomplish with the suit was to watch Trudy squirm.
- Gasshole: Sharona implies this when Monk has her pose as Dale's nurse. She sarcastically asks Monk, "What is he going to do, break wind on me?"
- Heel–Face Turn: "Dr. Vezza" is actually a disgraced former surgeon named Glenn Q. Sindell, who jumped bail after killing a child while operating under the influence of drugs. Dale learned Sindell's secret and used it to blackmail him, eventually forcing him to kill Judge Lavinio. At the end of the episode, Stottlemeyer reveals that the FBI told the cops all about it, and offers Sindell the chance at a reduced sentence in exchange for his testimony against Dale; Sindell wholeheartedly agrees, remarking that he hopes he can undo some of the damage he's done by helping put Biederbeck in prison.
- I Do Not Speak Nonverbal: Dr. Kroger treats Monk during his lunch break, with tomato sauce on his chin. He doesn't pick up on any of Monk's gestures, so Monk has to write him a note.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: It's implied that Judge Catherine Lavinio fell into this trope. Dale has no problem bribing and buying his way out of trouble, but Lavinio didn't let him intimidate her and ruled against him in an expensive lawsuit, much to Biederbeck's fury. It overlaps with Too Good for This Sinful Earth, as refusing to cave to Biederbeck's demands ends up getting her killed.
- Insult Backfire: Dale is a master of this trope. When Monk tells him to "go to Hell," he cheerfully replies "No doubt I will. I just hope it's handicap accessible!" Later, Dr. Vezza/Glenn Sindell delivers a speech about just how much he despises Dale, capping his rant by calling him a "putrid freak of nature." Dale's response? "Wow, it's been a long time since anyone called me that."
- In-Universe Nickname: "The Whale" is a nickname Dale has in the show itself. His housekeeper—and later Monk himself—call Dale "the fat man."
- I Shall Taunt You: Dale is an absolute master of this trope. In addition to setting up the Orgy of Evidence described below to mock the police about their inability to touch him despite his obviously illegal activities, he also deliberately baits visitors with coy remarks and half-truths just to make them lose their tempers or say something in a rush of emotion—which would in turn allow him to sue for harassment. Stottlemeyer preps the group ahead of time by warning them to stay quiet and not respond to Dale's taunts, but it proves easier said than done.
- It's Personal:
- Monk loathes Dale and even admits that his hatred is clouding his judgment. Dale himself later tells Sharona why: Trudy, who worked as a newspaper reporter, once wrote a piece criticizing Biederbeck and dubbing him "the Genghis Khan of world finance." The villain decided to take out a libel suit against both her and the paper, even though he knew he couldn't possibly win—he just wanted to see Adrian and Trudy squirm. The Monks were forced to sell everything they owned to pay for the court costs, including their first house (which Dale then bought and used it to store his pornography collection just to spite them one last time) and Monk admits that during the whole incident, he would see Trudy outside sobbing with grief.
- The judge who initially refuses to let Stottlemeyer arrest Dale mentions that he and Judge Lavinio were close friends, and offers to personally serve the warrant if they can provide conclusive proof.
- It's also implied that this is why Dale killed Judge Lavinio in the first place: she ruled against him in an antitrust lawsuit to the tune of $210 million, something even the super-wealthy Biederbeck admits is a big loss. He also likely didn't enjoy the idea of someone actually beating him at something, especially legally (Dale loves to brag about just how many lawyers he has waiting to sue anyone who crosses his path).
- I Was Young and Needed the Money: One of the first episodes to imply this about Sharona: Dale comments that he knows "how she paid her rent back in Miami." He doesn't specify exactly what she did, but considering that he was previously talking about his extensive pornography collection, it's easy to connect the dots.
- Just One Little Mistake: Two of them, actually. The first is the judge's leftovers; Monk notes that someone with fresh leftovers wouldn't be cooking dinner. The second is that Dale supposedly stood on a chair. As the cops demonstrate, a two-hundred-pound man would have broken the chair if he had stood on it. They get a warrant on Vezza, who is revealed to be a disgraced surgeon that ran after being investigated for killing a child. Vezza agrees to testify against Dale.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Dale suffers this, the first of many Houdini warranties, in this episode. Monk hates him because of how he nearly bankrupted them over a petty grudge and hurt Trudy's feelings. He's more confident when investigating the man and determining the "how" for the murder. When Monk realizes that Dale was guilty, he's able to prove it, and more so to convince Vezza to turn over all the information he knows. Dale tries to claim they can't pin it on him, but Vezza agrees to testify against him. Stottlemeyer says they have a crane ready to move Dale and book him.
- Line-of-Sight Name: Sharona does a variant at the beginning of the episode. When Stottlemeyer calls and asks Monk to come to the crime scene, she claims that they've just finished up a big murder case of their own, then looks at the game of Clue on the table and says that someone was strangled with a Rope in the Library.
- Locked Room Mystery: An inversion: the question isn't "how did the murderer get into the room," it's "how did the murderer get out of his own room?" Every single clue points toward Dale the Whale as the guilty party, but he is completely immobile and unable to leave his bedroom (the door alone is too small for him).
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Vezza already has contempt for Biederbeck, but what finally convinces him to cooperate with the police is when his boss tries to deny he killed the judge under his orders.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Biederbeck's housekeeper, whom he poached from Lavinio, is beside herself with grief when Monk insinuates that answering her boss' insistent questions, specifically the house key hidden in a rock, is what got the Justice killed.
- Not Afraid of Hell: Dale is no fool; he knows he's a vile specimen of a human being without a shred of anything redeemable in his clogged veins. As he states in Insult Backfire, he's well aware that if there's an afterlife, he's going to roast.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- Monk normally comes off as socially awkward, anxious and timid, but in the presence of Dale Beiderbeck, he's strangely calm, collected, and stoic.
- Stottlemeyer gets in on this trope as well: he's normally a calm presence to offset Monk's nervousness, and rarely seems afraid of anything. But when he realizes that Biederbeck is involved, he makes it very clear that the financier is dangerously intelligent, warning Monk, Sharona, and Disher to be extremely careful about what they say while in Dale's presence.
- Orgy of Evidence: Invoked; Dale "the Whale" Biederbeck has his physician Dr. Christiaan Vezza kill judge Catherine Lavinio and stage the scene to make it look like Dale himself did it...because bedridden Dale is the only suspect who could not have possibly done it. To do this, Dr. Vezza wears oversized boots to leave big footprints behind. He kills the judge with a baseball bat with the engraved initials "DB". He also deliberately sets off a smoke alarm and dons his own empathy suit (a giant fat suit) so that a passing neighborhood girl sees a "very, VERY fat man" disabling the alarm. Lastly, he fakes a 911 call, using his skills of mimicry to imitate the judge's voice and deliver the ace in the hole.
- Overly Long Gag: Randy has to put on a fatsuit to help Monk demonstrate a point during The Summation. Eventually he falls over and can't get up, and no one bothers to help him back up until The Summation is even finished.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Dale blatantly leers at the attractive Sharona and sexually harasses her for his own amusement. He also taunts her for her implied past as a stripper by bringing up the way she made money in Miami.
- Porn Stash: On top of suing the Monks to such an extent that they were forced to sell their first house to stay above water, Dale bought said house and turned in into this just as an extra "fuck you".
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The judge who is in charge of the warrant is this. Judge Lavinio was his friend, but he has a reasonable response to finding out that Dale the Whale is a suspect. He says if Monk provides the proof, he'll provide the warrant.
- Revenge Before Reason: Dale is so furious at the judge for showing him up that he not only has her brutally murdered, but goes out of his way to stage an elaborate crime scene for the cops just to watch them try to arrest him and fail. The desire for revenge proves to be his undoing, as the police call in Monk, who is the only person who can match Dale's intellect and solve the case.
- Rewatch Bonus: At the beginning of the episode, Dr. Vezza tries to take a plate of corn dogs away from Dale, saying "This stuff will kill you." Dale's response: "I'm not gonna die. You won't let me, will you...doctor?" At first it just seems like a taunt—but the denouement of the case reveals that "Vezza" is a disgraced former surgeon who jumped bail. He thus isn't a doctor any longer, and Dale knows it, so the line comes across as the villain deliberately reminding Vezza that he's being blackmailed.
- Sherlock Scan: In addition to Monk's usual performance of this at the crime scene, it's also Played for Laughs when Sharona tries to set up a game of Clue for her, Monk, and Benji—he's able to figure out the correct combination of cards before the game starts by looking at them, noticing which ones are bent, and perfectly recalling how they were put away the last time Sharona and Benji played.
- Significant Background Event: When Monk is initially investigating Judge Lavinio's kitchen, he briefly opens the fridge, revealing a bag of leftovers from an Italian restaurant. Furthermore, the front of the fridge has a picture of Lavinio smiling with a middle-aged woman. Both prove to be important clues: the doggie bag helps Monk realize that the "cooking" which set off the smoke alarm must have been staged (Lavinio wouldn't have been preparing a meal if she couldn't finish her original dinner), while Sharona recognizes the woman in the photo as Dale the Whale's housekeeper, who turns out to have originally worked for the judge.
- Spanner in the Works: Dale planned for every eventuality to create the perfect murder...except for the fact that Judge Lavinio went out to dinner on the night he chose to have Vezza kill her. As noted below, the presence of leftovers in her fridge turn out to be the key to cracking the whole case.
- Spotting the Thread:
- Invoked by Dale in setting up the murder. He instructs Vezza/Sindell to leave various clues to implicate Dale himself, the one person who couldn't have killed Judge Lavinio. For instance, Dale supposedly attacked Lavinio in her kitchen—so why didn't she grab a knife to defend herself? The 911 call was made from an upstairs phone, which requires the antenna to be up to get a signal—but the antenna was pushed down when the cops arrived, so why would Dale take the time to fix it after the murder?
- It's played straight when Monk notices a genuine thread—the leftovers in Judge Lavinio's fridge. They prove that the entire scenario was staged, as the judge wouldn't have been cooking dinner for herself if she had both already eaten and couldn't finish her meal in the first place. This clue allows Monk to construct the actual timeline of the murder and solve the case.
- Stating the Simple Solution: Upon hearing that Catherine Lavinio was a judge, Sharona immediately suggests the most obvious answer as to who could have killed her: someone who she declared guilty in a case. Sharona turns out to be right, as Dale's chief motivation for ordering the murder was her issuing a costly antitrust ruling against him that wounded both his wallet and his ego.
- Too Clever by Half: With all the effort Dale puts into framing himself, he could have easily made the judge's murder look like a burglary or an accident. By taunting Monk, always a bad idea, he gets caught.
- Tranquil Fury: Monk has this whilst he responds to one of Dale's personal insults with a calm yet seething "Go to hell."
- After agreeing to testify against Beiderbeck, Vezza lets his boss know exactly how he feels about him before walking away with the police. Not that it really bothers him.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Dale the Whale's housekeeper worked for Judge Catherine Lavinio before Biederbeck hired her for a much higher salary. He then repeatedly pressed her for information about Lavinio, including the location of a spare key the judge kept hidden in the garden, which was crucial to pulling off the murder. Unlike most instances of this trope, the housekeeper is devastated to discover her role in the crime and begs forgiveness.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Subverted; unlike many wealthy men, Dale goes out of his way to keep a low profile - as Stottlemeyer says, "he buys newspapers for the sole purpose of keeping his name out of them", and sued Trudy Monk and her newspaper when they published an article about him.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: After Dale shows Sharona what he looks like under his coverings, the next scene has Monk and Benjy waiting outside the bathroom, where she's been throwing up.
- Wham Line: During the initial investigation of the crime scene, Monk and Sharona can tell that Stottlemeyer isn't telling them something, but the captain asks them to wait a bit before he fills them in. When they get to Justice Lavinio's bedroom, he admits that they know who's behind the murder because of a 911 call that was placed naming the perp. When Sharona asks why they're investigating the crime when the cops have a name, Stottlemeyer drops the bombshell that sets up the episode's mystery: "Because the guy who did it couldn't have done it."
- Wham Shot: The cops come to Dale to arrest him. They bring in a chair from Judge Lavinio's home—presumably the one "Dale" stood on to disconnect the smoke alarm—and have one of the officers, who weighs 265 pounds, stand on it. The chair breaks the minute he puts a single foot on the seat. Monk uses this to prove that Dale coerced his surgeon to commit the murder, as he was the only person light enough in Dale's employ to do it (a fat suit provided the illusion of him being super-sized).
