The longtime Employee of the Month at a local department store dies on the loading dock after a forklift drops a TV set on her head. The store's head of security - who used to be Monk's partner before he was fired in disgrace - hires Monk to go undercover and figure out whether and why any of the other employees might have wanted to kill her.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Randy starts to chuckle when describing how Edna Carruthers died, then pastes a serious expression on his face to finish: a 42-inch flat-screen TV fell on her. If it wasn't real life, it'd make a great cartoon.
- Artistic License – Gun Safety: Monk throws a loaded rifle to Joe Christie so he can shoot out a fleeing suspect's tires.
- Attack Animal: The culprit tries to get rid of Monk by letting the store's guard dog out of the warehouse, in the hope he will be mauled to death.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Both Monk and Stottlemeyer get sidelined by bubblewrap.
- Big Damn Heroes: Christie saving Monk from the store's guard dog in the nick of time.
- Brandishment Bluff: In the climax, Monk is in a hurry to obtain a gun from the store before the perpetrator drives off, but Ronnie and Morris are manning the station and taking their time even when they're told it's an emergency. Upset, Monk just grabs the gun from their hands, points it at them, and orders them to just give him the bullets for it; when he rushes off, one points out to the other that they just surrendered to an unloaded gun.
- Casting Gag: Joe Christie is portrayed by Enrico Colantoni, who previously appeared as Mathesar in Galaxy Quest alongside Tony Shalhoub. Here, though, he's playing the relaxed, down-to-earth character, while Shalhoub is the high-strung oddball.
- The Convenient Store Next Door: The Mega-Mart is a few doors down from a bank, which the culprit's two accomplices are planning to rob. They're digging their way toward its vault, starting from a manhole set into the Employee of the Month parking space near the store's front entrance.
- Dirty Cop: Joe Christie got kicked off the SFPD for stealing drugs from the evidence room, an act that ultimately allowed a dealer to go free at trial and kill two cops. He turns out to be innocent; the dealer bribed the evidence clerk to hide the drugs in a bicycle that she later bought at a police auction.
- Easily Forgiven: Joe Christie accepts Stottlemeyer's apology gracefully and is quickly reinstated to the department, despite all of them ostracizing him for a crime he didn't commit and for which he was never convicted.
- Employee of the Month: The episode begins with the Employee of the Month dying after a TV is dropped on her head. The perpetrator's plan hinges on being made Employee of the Month so she can get the privilege of a specific parking spot above a manhole leading to the sewer below the store.
- Expansion Pack Past:
- Joe Christie's recollection of Monk as a police officer before Trudy's death makes him out to be more "normal" e.g. he wasn't averse to shaking hands. Later episodes, such as Mr. Monk and the Three Pies, show his OCD was always there. Even later episodes imply that Monk's OCD was still present, but much better managed during his marriage to Trudy, though it's very much a case of Depending on the Writer.
- Joe's recounting of the day Trudy died in which he says he was there when Monk got the call. The flashback in Mr. Monk and the End shows that Stottlemeyer is the one who got the call and Joe does not appear in the scene. Could be handwaved by saying he was there but just off-screen.
- Give Me a Sword: Since Joe doesn't carry a gun while on duty, Monk gets a rifle from the sporting goods department, loads it, and throws it to him so he can shoot out the culprit's tires and thwart their escape.
- Incredibly Lame Fun: When Monk hears an announcement requesting cleanup on aisle four, he lights up and races for the aisle, calling to the other workers that he has dibs.
- I Think You Broke Him: Benjy and his friend test to see if Monk is capable of solving three separate jigsaw puzzles at once. When Monk freezes as he has an epiphany, they think they "broke" him.
- Line-of-Sight Name: Seems to be the case when Randy claims his made-up "girlfriend" is named Crystal. Sharona sarcastically asks if her last name is "Glassware". Averted, as the girlfriend is real.
- Not So Above It All: Randy explains to Monk and Sharona that the victim was killed by a flatscreen TV falling on her. Sharona promptly asks if the TV still works.Stottlemeyer: Sharona, the TV just killed a woman.
Sharona: Well, what are you gonna do, lock it up? - The Perfectionist: The victim came in early, left late, and determinedly kept her department pristine, which irritated some of her fellow workers. One of the workers calls her a "regular profectionist", and when Monk points out that it's "perfectionist", she says that she's not one, so she can say it however she wants.
- Pop the Tires: How Joe stops the murder/bank robbery culprits from getting away, with the help of a rifle thrown to him by Monk.
- Power of Trust: Monk sees Dr. Kroger apparently stealing a granola bar. When asked about it, Dr. Kroger says he keeps them in his pocket and the one he ate belonged to him. He admits that trust might seem difficult to a cop, but urges Monk to work on it. It ultimately pays off, as when Christie saves Monk from the guard dog, Monk decides to give him the benefit of the doubt and look for evidence exonerating Christie in the case that got him kicked off the force.
- Resigned in Disgrace: Christie's departure from the force. He arrested a drug dealer with a large quantity of cocaine. But then the drugs disappeared from the evidence room, the dealer walked, and a month later, the dealer killed two police officers who pulled him over for a traffic violation.
- Running Gag: Stottlemeyer and Sharona thinking Randy has an imaginary girlfriend.
- Shut Up, Kirk!: Jennie points out to Monk that his curiosity isn't "a gift AND a curse", it's just a curse.
- Spanner in the Works: Benjy showing off Monk's skill to a friend may seem a small thing, but it give Adrian his epiphany about the complaint letters coming from the same source, so he then takes on the case regardless of his distaste for Joe. Not only that, it came in time for Monk to thwart the robbery.
- Those Two Guys: Ronnie and Morris, the two employees who aren't exactly the most diligent.
- Tuckerization: The evidence clerk who really stole the drugs that got Joe kicked off the force is Clara Toplyn, named after series writer Joe Toplyn.
