Things are looking up for Monk — he's planning his first weekend vacation since Trudy's death, an impressive piece of progress, and a producer wants to make a film based on one of his past "impossible" cases. However, the situation unravels as Monk tries to solve his latest case, a double murder, while being shadowed by his screen self, too-methodical actor David Ruskin, the whole way.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Accidental Murder: What Jack Leverett's killings are. He knocks Michelle Cullman into her stairs while wrestling for her camera, and shoots Lexus Orlov when they wrestle for Orlov's gun.
- Actor/Role Confusion: Ruskin immerses himself so much in the role of Monk that he has a nervous breakdown and takes a car dealership owner hostage, thinking the guy is Trudy's killer. Natalie mentions that this is not the first time Ruskin has had this problem; he once played an alcoholic and ended up checking himself into rehab because he got too immersed in the role.
- Artistic License: Applied in universe to "The Killer Astronaut" to the events of "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut":
- Natalie and the victim are stated to be 5'7", where in the episode they were 5'5".
- "Monk" states he believes Steve Wagner is the killer after seeing the body. In the episode he never thought Steve Wagner was the killer until he met him at his home.
- The biggest being Randy being made into a woman and having a romantic subplot with Stottlemeyer, much to the two's dismay.Disher (watching the characters kiss): That never happened.
Stottlemeyer: Not even once.
- Becoming the Mask: Method actor David Ruskin is hired to portray Monk in a movie. In the course of developing the Monk "character" he acquires many of Monk's various psychoses, eventually suffering a breakdown of his own and halting production of the movie. Though this time it wasn't Monk's fault, and earlier in the episode, Natalie attempts to warn Monk about the danger Ruskin poses to him. At one point, Ruskin drops by Monk's apartment asking for more advice as to what his emotions need to feel like. This results in a scene cut to Monk pounding on Natalie's door in the middle of the night after Ruskin got him to leave his own apartment.
- Blackmail Backfire: Michelle plans to record her and Jack having sex, likely so she can threaten to reveal the footage to his wife if he doesn't do what she says. She ends up dying in the struggle for the camera with the proof.
- Book Ends: The episode begins and ends in Dr. Kroger's office with a conversation about Monk's mental state.
- Call-Back: An adaptation of "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut" initiates the plot.
- Cassandra Truth: Natalie does her own research and warns Monk that Ruskin is dangerous as he tends to become his character a bit too much, although Monk doesn't heed it until near the end.
- Character Tics: Lampshaded, where Ruskin asks Stottlemeyer and Randy about practicing Monk's unique Finger Framing gesture.
- Crime After Crime: Jack Leverett tries to take Michelle's camera, so she won't have evidence of his unfaithfulness to his wife. When he accidentally kills her, he gets worried that he'll be caught due to a restaurant they had been at together painting pictures of the customers on the walls. He breaks down the incriminating section of wall, and follows with a Smokescreen Crime of robbing the store on the other side, a pawn shop. Trying to exit the store, he gets stopped by the owner - and ends up killing him, too.
- Death by Falling Over: While Jack and Michelle are struggling for her camera, he shoves her. This causes her to violently knock her head into her stairs and kills her.
- Downer Ending: The trauma of having to relive Trudy's murder leaves Monk absolutely shattered. Instead of cutting his sessions with Dr. Kroger back to two a week as originally planned, he ends up scheduling them daily (at least for the immediate future).
- "Eureka!" Moment: Monk realizes how the two murders are connected when he finds a torn-up note Julie got from a boy and Natalie says her daughter destroyed it so she couldn't read it.
- Exasperated Perp: For once, it's not Monk's doing. Ruskin gets a little too Method about the part, and due to a misunderstanding believes that the suspect in Monk's current case killed Monk's wife, Trudy. When the police come to apprehend the murderer, they find the actor advancing on the terrified man with a gun and demanding to know why he did it. The unfortunate hostage protests that he doesn't even know a Trudy.
- Gender Flip: Parodied when Stottlemeyer and Disher stop by during a rehearsal of The Killer Astronaut, the TV movie adaptation of "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut". They are on the set of the crime scene investigation at Joanne Raphelson's house. Randy is really embarrassed to find that he's portrayed by a woman and that a romantic subplot has been put in between "her" and "Stottlemeyer" in the film. This leads to a very uncomfortable moment for the real Stottlemeyer and Disher when their actors lean in for a kiss.
- Gone Horribly Right: Ruskin is good at this. He takes his roles very seriously and studies the inspirations in detail. Unfortunately, this means that he eventually believes that he is Monk.
- Hypocritical Humor:
- Monk goes to Natalie's house in the middle of the night. He claims David was very rude and came into his house in the middle of the night. Natalie snarks by stating she has no idea how that feels.
- When Monk is in Dr. Kroger's office, talking about David Ruskin after Ruskin had a mental breakdown during production of a movie adaptation of "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut" (leading to him taking a double murderer/car dealership owner named Jack Leverett hostage in his own showroom), Monk notes that the movie was canceled as Ruskin "said he wanted to play a character who wasn’t so dark and depressing. [beat] He's in England playing Hamlet."
- I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: A reunion for Tony Shalhoub and Stanley Tucci, who had previously played brothers in Big Night.
- Lack of Empathy: Jack actually rather averts this for Monk killers. He calls Michelle's name out of concern when she dies and looks outright horrified to have killed the pawn shop owner.
- Method Acting: David Ruskin In-Universe. So much so, in fact, that he gradually gains Monk's various quirks and phobias without actually having OCD. Once, according to Natalie, he gained symptoms of alcoholism even though he doesn't drink.
- Mistaken for Evidence: Monk finds a piece of a broken watch crystal at the scene of Michelle's murder, then learns that a single watch was stolen from the pawnshop. The police theorize that the killer took it to replace the broken one, but it turns out to be just a coincidence.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Jack Leverett looks shaken after killing his mistress in the heat of a fight, even calling her name before immediately running out. When he shoots the pawn shop owner, he looks at the revolver he used in the shooting, horrified, after the owner is killed.
- Never One Murder: Outright lampshaded when David Ruskin inquires if the person who killed Michelle Cullman will strike again. Stottlemeyer replies that the murder was a crime of passion, and that the killer will probably never put another toe out of line again. Cuts to Jack Leverett breaking into a pawn shop and accidentally shooting the owner with his own revolver while attempting to destroy evidence linking him to the first murder.
- Oblivious to His Own Description: Monk complains about how much Ruskin has imitated him, not knowing that some of those complaints are currently bothering Natalie.
- Poor Communication Kills: A guard at the parking lot where Trudy was murdered passes along information to David Ruskin (who is dressed like Monk, so the guard thinks he is Monk), that they have identified the killer. Unfortunately, David has gone full method at this point, and believes the info is of who killed Trudy, not the person who killed Michelle Cullman and Lexus Orlov. Therefore, he steals Monk's gun and takes the killer hostage.
- Right Behind Me: Stottlemeyer is alarmed at the throng of police cars outside the culprit's company, learns there's a hostage situation, and upon a closer look he saw what he believes was Monk inside. Stottlemeyer orders his men to stand down...just as Natalie arrives with the real Monk.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The movie ends up never being made because Ruskin has a breakdown and believes that he is Monk. To add insult to injury, he undid all of Monk's progress in therapy.
- Skewed Priorities: When Monk initially tries to talk David down from shooting Jack, he distracts him with a car's sales sticker being uneven. David starts adjusting it, and sooner or later Monk joins in, with them even using the butt of the gun to help smooth out the little air bubbles. It takes them both a minute to realize what they're doing and struggle for the gun.
- Smokescreen Crime: Jack tears down a wall of a restaurant which has pictures of its customers on the wall, in order to not be identified as a killer of the woman he had been there with. In order to hide this reason, he steals from the pawn shop on the other side of the wall. Unfortunately, the owner comes out with a gun, and Jack accidentally shoots him with it in the struggle, making his already terrible week even worse.
- Status Quo Is God: Deconstructed. Monk begins the episode believing he's mentally recovering at last. But after his traumatic experience with David Ruskin, the episode ends with Monk soberly telling Dr. Kroger he's back at "square zero".
- Stealth Insult: In the end, Monk morosely tells Dr. Kroger how Ruskin told him he decided to take a less dark and depressing role. If Hamlet is Ruskin's idea of "less dark and depressing", that says volumes of how he feels about playing Monk himself.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The man who gives Ruskin the phone message tells him that the police have cornered the perp of the week, but he's vague enough (and Ruskin unbalanced enough) that the actor mistakes this for news about Trudy's murder. Ruskin beats the others to the scene and attacks the man.
- Woken Up at an Ungodly Hour: Ruskin shows up at Monk's house in the middle of the night, waking him, in order to get a better idea of Monk. In the end, he kicks Monk out of his own house, forcing him to go to Natalie's house and wake her
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Randy's priceless look of disbelief when he finds out the hard way that he is portrayed as a woman in the film of the Steve Wagner case. Stottlemeyer and Disher's faces begin to show this trope as they realize that their characters now have a romantic subplot attached to them.
